The first morning in a new time zone is always a flip of a coin with how you will feel when you wake up. Thankfully, we both slept soundly overnight and woke up to the sound of the alarm, we had skirted jetlag once again.
Thankful thought that our hotel was in the same building as the airport, we made our way down to the departures area to check in and be on our way.
We find the Brittish Airways check-in desks and are floored, the lines were huge, the self-check-in wasn’t working for us and the queue to check baggage was too depressing to even contemplate standing in.
Upon checking or ticket, we see that our flight is also with some Irish airline, we see their check-in desk with no one in it so we take a chance, believing it too good to be true.
Armed with a confused look on our faces we walk up to the desk and she checks us in.. We couldn’t believe it!
Feeling like we just won the lottery, we thought we would try our luck getting into the BA Lounge.. But no, our luck was used up for the day and we were denied entry, damn.
Lounge or no lounge, it was time for breakfast. We find a very well organised restaurant where you can order anything on the menu and it will be on the table in 10 minutes or less. This was impressive, and in about 8 minutes, our porridge and breakfast casserole was on the table.
Our flight delayed a smidge, we make our way to a quiet area where we charge our devices, do a bit of work and wait for our flight to be announced.
Half an hour later, we make our way to the gate and get ready to set off for our last flight of the holiday.
A very quick hour or so later we arrive in Dublin. Itching to get out there and start exploring, we are hit with a bloody customs line a mile long…
This was not going take forever. And forever it took. It seems the Irish customs are nosy buggers, they wanted to know EVERYTHING that you plan on doing.
How much money do you have, what hotels have you booked, what are you planning to see. The cheeky officer even flipped through our passports and made a comment on our travelling!
So you could imagine how long it would take to get through a huge line while playing 20 questions with every person. A bloody long time whats what!
Fiiiiiiiiiiiinally through after having to wait 20 minutes for an Asian lady to get through, we make our way to the bus station, simply refusing to pay the $60 odd dollars for a taxi. Two $3 tickets purchased we jump on the bus and head city bound.
We make it to our Albany House hotel and are greeted by someone that looks and sounds just like Finn Balor (WWE wrestler) and make the climb up to the top level to find our room.
Hmm, let’s just say the photos that the hotel had shown on Expedia are nothing like what we had. This room was old and very sparsely furnished.
Heading out to finally explore and properly kick off our trip, we decide to head to Stevens Green, an Irish Central Park equivalent, and go or a nice rejuvenating walk.
On our travels, we see a beautiful mallard duck and a huge majestic white swan with a rather friendly local giving it a pat on the chest.
Getting a little peckish, we duck out of the garden and find a nice little cafe down a side street called Gotham Cafe. We order up a soup and a sandwich and tuck in. Adam even found a nice little caterpillar friend in his salad.. Yum!
After lunch, we head over to Trinity Colledge which is one of the oldest and most prestigious colleges in Ireland. The buildings were what you would expect of old college, long halls, huge buildings and an expansive quad. Im sure I would never find my way around this school!
We walk around the city some more, just taking in the sights and sounds. We find pretty bridges, enticing alleyways and ornate buildings. A real mixture of old and new with pretty cobbled side streets, bluestone arches and old shops filled with today’s brands.
Feeling quite tired and hurting all over from so much travelling, we decide to catch a movie to give our heads a chance to chill out. So we head over to Cineworld and grab soe tickets to Jurassic World in 3D IMAX, which turned out to be quite the experience.
AFter the movie, we hit the streets for some more exploring. The rain starting to come down a little quicker now, we figure it was time to grab some dinner, it being 7pm and still bright out, it felt a lot earlier than it was.
Not knowing what to have, we find a nice little burrito place with a dancing and singing waiter and order up a burrito and a burrito bowl, and it turned out to be just what the dr ordered, delicious!
Time to head home now, we find our way back and say Hi to the Finn lookalike as we make our way up the 4 flights to the top level, feeling quite unfit.. Bloody stairs.
BAck in our Emirates jammies again we tucker out for the night, we have a lot on the cards for tomorrow and cant wait to explore some more!
