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Dublin Terminal 2 to 1
Interesting walkway between Terminal 2 and Terminal 1 in Dublin.Well, first of all, we made it to Edinburgh Scotland, tired, but in one piece. We left Pensacola around 11am, had a quick flight to Charlotte North Carolina, and made it to our departure gate for over 5 hours before our scheduled departure time of 6:10. Unfortunately, there was a problem with our plane that was coming from Dublin, and we didn't board until after 8pm. Somehow, the pilot made up most of the time lost and we arrived in Dublin around 7am or so, Friday (5 hour time difference and 6 hour flight). We got our passports stamped and went looking for our RyanAir departure gate for the leg to Edinburgh. Since we'd arrived at Terminal 2 on American Airlines (US Airways), we had to walk to Terminal 1 before we could get any information on our RyanAir flight, since it didn't leave until 12:35pm. In using the restrooms in Dublin, we found a rather unusual vending machine in both the men's and women's bathroom. It looked like a jawbreaker vending machine, but said "Finger Teeth Wipes"! Apparently, for 2 Euros you can buy a little plastic ball that contains two special wipes you can put on your finger to
Dublin Terminal 2
The ultra-modern Terminal 2 in Dubin Airport "clean" your teeth and also freshen your breath. Oh well, I found it interesting anyways.
After checking our bags with RyanAir, we found the departure gate for our flight to Edinburgh and settled in for the 2 1/2 hour wait. It turned out that we just happened to pick one of the very few RyanAir flights that didn't leave on time. We left about a half an hour late, and arrived in Edinburgh around 2:30pm. After a non-existent customs, we grabbed our bags, left the terminal, and easily found our Airlink 100 Express bus to Edinburgh city center where we needed to get off at the last stop, Waverly Station. I had a map showing us how to walk the short .4 miles to our hostel, Castle Rock Hostel. Unfortunately, the map didn't indicate terrain, so we ended up climbing about 150 steps to reach the main street we need to take to get to the hostel. We now know we could have walked up a main street without steps, and saved some aches in our old legs. Oh well, lesson learned. Castle Rock Hostel sits just below Edinburgh Castle, with fantastic views of the castle and other awesome
Teeth Cleaners
The Teeth Cleaner vending machine. buildings. The fancy hotels can claim these sights!
The hostel is a rather convoluted, maze of floors and rooms, but has some great features, such as 3 different lounges and a lounge balcony, two kitchens, and various other rooms we haven't looked into yet. After checking in and finding our coed room, and bunk beds, we stowed our gear and headed out to see some of the city. On leaving hostel, and after seeing two rather unusual cars parked on our street, a Lamborghini and a Ferrari (both of which attracted a lot of attention), we decided we have some cappuccinos and some sort of light snack at a quaint little outdoors cafe called The Hub, which sits right on the intersection with our street (Johnson Terrace) and the Royal Mile, which is the main tourist street in Edinburgh. After our cappuccinos, an order of hand-cut fries (called chips here of course), and an order of excellent battered onion rings, we started exploring the Royal Mile. The whole street, for most of its length, is lined with clothing stores (most with Cashmere goods), souvenir shops, and restaurants. We headed up to the castle first, but discovered they were already
View from our hostel
Edinburgh Castle from Castle Rock Hostel closing and wouldn't reopen until tomorrow at 9:30am. At least we know they are open on Sunday. Having met a literal dead end, we turned back and headed down the Royal Mile, checking out the shops and restaurants until we reached Holyrood Palace at the bottom. Pretty much every building along the way is relatively old, or at least looks that way. Frequently along the way on both sides are what are called a "Close" or "Court", which is basically a tiny alley between buildings that takes you to courtyards and other establishment behind the main buildings. Apparently, in older times, the poorer folk of Edinburgh lived in houses behind the nicer houses on the Royal Mile, and reached them by these tiny alleys. I think the reason they call it a close, is because the walls are rather close together. After reaching the palace, and taking some photos, we headed back up to the hostel.
I'd intended to stop for dinner at a recommended restaurant we'd seen along the way, but we were pretty tired and sleepy (since neither of us had gotten more than a couple of hours sleep in over 24 hours), we ended up back
The Hub
The Hub up from our hostel at the hostel to rest a bit. After a while, since Manoli wasn't hungry at all, I went out in search of fish and chips for a light dinner. I found a place the locals seemed to like, ordered a fish and chips supper for about 7 Pounds, and returned to the hostel to eat it. By this time it was almost 9pm, so I figured I'd take care of my daily blog and then hit the hay. Tomorrow we have nothing special planned and figure we'll take one of the free tours offered by the hostel and see what else comes up. By the end of the day Sunday, we have to reorganize our stuff so that everything we'll need for our 5-day Highland Fling bus tour will fit in our backpacks, leaving our luggage here at the hostel until our return Friday evening. See you tomorrow.
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