Dublin

Here is the email I sent out about our trip to Dublin:

Thanks to US&S for use of the company Mavica and also to "Big Mike" Szudarek and his digital camera for the images.

We spent Easter weekend in Dublin, Ireland. Lisa, myself, and "Big Mike" Szudarek were there from Thursday, April 20 until Tuesday, April 25. I guess my biggest impression overall is how nice the Irish people are. They are very friendly and helpful people, more so than any other country I've ever been in. I've always heard how the "fightin' Irish" and how they're a tempered people, but I would say quite the opposite. Actually, they're much more polite than the other Europeans I've encountered. They actually say 'excuse me' and 'sorry' when the bump into you in the bar or on the street, and that's certainly not usually the case in Copenhagen or other cities I've been to. Of course, maybe it's because of the temper of some of the Irish that they're so quick to apologize lest they get their butt whipped. Anyway, on to the story.

Our journey began Thursday morning at the Copenhagen Airport (as most journeys do). Our flight was on Maersk Air, and we had a connecting flight to Dublin through Billund, which is on the mainland of Denmark (attached to Germany - not on an island). Well, since the flight was domestic, we went to that side of the airport for the first time. The first major obstacle was that we had to check ourselves in. There was no checkout counter, merely a machine into which you insert your flight ticket and it gives you the stickers to put on your luggage. To make a long story short, the machine didn't work properly (since we had a connecting flight), I kicked it repeatedly (not really, but I wanted to), and those luggage stickers aren't nearly as easy to put on as the ticket agents make it look. Finally with the help of an airport employee, we got our bags checked and our tickets taken care of.

When I look at my ticket, I see that there is no seat number. This flight is "open seating" which pretty much means sit wherever the damn heck you please. Ok. We quickly reach the gate (believe it or not, the domestic terminal at Kastrup Airport (Copenhagen) isn't that big), but realize that we never passed through a metal detector. So, not only did we check our own bags right onto the conveyor belt, we were not asked any security questions and were allowed to board the plane carrying whatever we please and sitting wherever we please. Then we look out and see our plane. Naturally, it's a double-prop plane, and we have to walk right out on the tarmac and up the stairs to get in. I'm telling you, I half-expected to see chicken and other livestock in there on the flight with us (there was a dog right there on the seat with one lady: that's pretty close). The flight was routine, though, and we made it to Billund and on to Dublin (after our 3 hour layover) without further problems. Heck, we even sat in the nice big leather seats of the "Tourist Class" (same size as first class) for the second leg of the journey.

Travelling to or around a major city on a holiday weekend is never easy, though, and Dublin proved to be no different. The airport was crowded, the roads were crowded (normally a 15 minute bus ride took 45 minutes), and the sidewalks were crowded. Anyway, we got to our hotel, Wynn's Hotel which is just off of O'Connell St (the main street). We took it easy on Thursday. We walked down to the shopping district, which was very crowded, so we grabbed a quick dinner and a few pints of Guinness at Planet Hollywood. After dinner we bought a few souvenirs, which we returned to the hotel room, and then we went out to a couple of different pubs for a few more pints. O'Briens, The Foggy Dew, and The Auld Dubliner were the three pubs for this evening. We had to indulge a little since tomorrow would be Good Friday, and there is no beer served anywhere (pubs are closed) on this religious day due to local customs.

Breakfast was included at the hotel, so we started Friday morning with a huge, traditional Irish breakfast. I can now say that a traditional Irish breakfast isn't all that different from a traditional American breakfast (i.e. none of that croissant crap): bacon, eggs, sausages, toast, cereal, and juice. The bacon is much different there, though, it's like a cross between bacon and ham (very tasty stuff). Also, there were two things there I'd never had: porridge (which is almost the same as oatmeal) and pudding. Pudding is not what you would imagine, though. They have light pudding and dark pudding, both of which are just biscuit shaped things (I don't know how else to describe them). The light ones (which I tried) were almost like a crab cake, but with a spicy sausage taste instead of crab. The dark ones (which I did not try) were the same thing, but the deep coloration comes from pig's blood. Yummy! Anyway, the Wynn's hotel breakfast was enjoyed throughout the week.

After breakfast on Friday, we started walking around town to check things out. When we woke up and all during breakfast the sun was shining brightly. Of course, after about 15 minutes outside, the clouds began rolling in and the rain began to fall. This was a trend throughout the weekend (it rained at least a little every day), best summed up by a joke told by our bus driver (later in the trip): "Last week in Dublin was beautiful: it only rained twice. Once for four days and Once for three days." That's Dublin (and April is usually the dryest month of the year)! The showers only last a little while (1/2 hour to hour) and then the sun comes out again. This particular shower drove us into a nearby building which contained "The Dublin Viking Adventure Museum." After taking the tour I can say this: "There's an hour and a half I'm never getting back." It was semi-interesting (they said the blonde and red hair in Ireland comes from the Vikings who came and settled there, but I'm not buying it since there are very few red-heads in Denmark), but mostly it was just cheesy. Hey, it kept us out of the rain, though, and only cost five Irish pounds (around 6 dollars U.S.).

The rain let up, so we ventured out again (happy to get out of there). We then walked along the River Liffey (which looks more like a canal with the cement walls surrounding it throughout the town) until we saw Christ Church Cathedral . This is a huge church that dates back to 1172. We wanted to check out the inside, but being Good Friday, services were being held and we had to come back later. The inside was nice (beautiful stained glass), but not nearly as nice as the churches in Spain. Oh, and a donation was "requested" to get in to see the church, however, they wouldn't let you in unless you gave the "requested" donation of 2 Irish pounds per person. You've gotta love the Catholic church. They can't call it an "admission" price. No, that would be very unchristian, so it's a requested donation. Whatever!

We then walked up and checked out another church (see Mom, I was at TWO churches on Good Friday: maybe I won't go to hell after all! Oops, you probably read the last paragraph, ok, I guess I'm going to hell again. Oh well). St. Patrick's Cathedral is another huge church that was built back in 1190 (but the original which stood on the site dates back to 450 AD). Good news, though: they did not have a "requested donation" here. No, they had an admission price. There goes that theory. They still got their money, though, they were just more up-front about it, which I can at least respect a little more. Anyway, it was another cool building which was neat to see, but there's not much to describe.

We were walking back to the main part of Dublin when we found this little restaurant "The Old Steakhouse" and decided to have dinner there. Our waitress asked what we would like to drink, offering Guinness or Budweiser. We ordered three pints first and made sure they were on the way before pointing out we were told (and read that) no beer could be served on Good Friday. She assured us that yes, that is a law, but that the restaurant wanted to make money, so they were would sell to nice folks like ourselves (two notes here: First, I love Capitalism! Second, she got a nice tip). The food was very good. The men had steak and Lisa had chicken. The baked potato was excellent here: they peel the potato, then bake it. Different, but tasty!

We snapped a few more photos around town and checked out a few more shops before heading back to the hotel. Our night-time activities were severely limited by the Good Friday pub closures, so Big Mike & I decided to go see a movie (Lisa was tired and stayed at the hotel: Big Mike snores. Big Mike snores A LOT, and he had kept her up so she wanted to get some rest). Movie theatres in Europe are a lot like the States, except that they have assigned seating. When you buy your ticket, it has a row and seat number just like a sporting event. They sell the middle seats in the middle row first, then the middle seats of the next row forward and back, and so forth. Neat. Anyway, we saw "Any Given Sunday" which was a good men's flick except for there being too much male nudity and not enough female nudity. They were going for that "something for everyone" thing I guess. Oh, and European popcorn just isn't as good as the States (no idea why, it's just not).

On Saturday, we took the "Southern Coast Tour" run by the Dublin Bus / Transportation company. This is a narrated bus tour (no!) that takes you along the coastal roads and beaches to check out the scenery. Our driver was named Art, and he liked to sing. Ok, I don't know if he "liked" to sing, but they paid him to do so, and he did, so we got to hear traditional Irish songs like "Molly Malone" and such while we road around the coast, which was very scenic. The Irish coast and countryside (those little white dots are really sheep) look exactly as you imagine, right down to the sheep grazing. We took lots of pictures on this tour.

Upon arriving back in Dublin, we walked around for a bit, but ended up stopping in at Harrison's pub / restaurant for a few pints and some grub. The food was good here as well. Lisa had the deep fried shrimp. I had some sort of pasta in a creme sauce: I don't remember the name: too many pints before the meal?). Big Mike had the traditional Irish Stew (lamb, potatoes, & misc stuff: very good). After dinner, we made our way through the Temple Bar region (a part of town known for the... you guessed it: many pubs). Our pub crawl this evening included Buskers, The Quay Bar, and The Norseman, and then Buskers again.

Easter Sunday began with the "Coast & Castle" Tour, which was also run by the Dublin Bus company. We're not usually 'organized tour' people, but this was really the only way were going to get to see the countryside since we had no other mode of transportation. Besides, the tour guides with this company were very entertaining. Our driver / guide today was Jimmy Doyle, who wasn't the singer Art was (which didn't keep him from doing it, though), but a good guide nonetheless. Malahide Castle was the highlight of this tour, which was very picturesque. We walked through the castle as well, but there were no real surprises there. The rest of the tour was just checking out the countryside, beaches, and cliffs along the Irish coast.

Upon completing the tour, we made our way up to The Guinness Brewery , which was founded in 1759. You can't actually tour the brewery (which is a major disappointment even though we knew that before we got there). All you can do is visit The Guinness Hopstore (visit their official site by clicking here), which is pretty much a museum to the history of Guinness. You also get to see how the most famous stout in the world is made, but you don't get to see the actual equipment (huge vats and such). There is a film about Guinness as well. Yep. I learned everything I ever needed to know about Guinness and then some!

The Hopstore tour ends in the bar / restaurant where they give you a free pint (only one though). We also had lunch here because of the advertised "Guinness Stew," but they were all out. However, I had some excellent potato and leek soup (which I had never tried before) as well as a very good tuna sandwich (I'd tell you I'd never had tuna either, but you're not that gullible). After the pint and meal, we checked out the giftshop and got some stuff: Remember: if it says "Guinness DUBLIN," it's authentic and from the Hopstore. If not, well, it may or may not be.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped off and had a pint at The Brazen Head pub . This is legendarily the oldest pub in Ireland and dates back to 1661. We saw it on our way to the Brewery, and not that we needed an excuse to stop for a pint, but come on: that place is a historical landmark! You can't walk away from that. Ok, I can't walk away from that, I don't know about you. Anyway, we had our pint and then went on our way. After enjoying our beer, we made our way back to the hotel to call our families and wish them a Happy Easter. It's always more enjoyable to talk to the family after a pint or two (I'm kidding: I like my family [most of them, anyway: there are some I wouldn't trust to sit the right way on a toilet, but that's a story for another time]).

You'll be happy to note (I sure was) that unlike Good Friday, all of the pubs are open and bustling on Easter Sunday. After a quick meal at the "Bad Ass Cafe" (decent food, a little overpriced though), we decided to do something a little different and tour the city's pubs. O'Briens (again), Oliver St. John Gogarty (that's really the name), and Temple Bar (not just the name of the region of Dublin where the pubs are, but also a darn fine pub, especially after several pints). It wasn't a traditional Easter Sunday, but it sure was fun.

Monday contained the highlight of the trip. We did something Lisa and I had never done before. We went horseback riding in the fields of Ireland. Having never done it before, we spent about 45 minutes in the stable before going out to get the hang of things. It took a while, but I got the hang of it. Eventually I had May (my horses name) trotting all around the pen, and they had to let me out just so I didn't start trying to jump the obstacles in there. There was just something so right about trotting around those rolling hills atop a horse. It was exhilarating.

We got some pictures of all of us on our horses with the beautiful scenery behind us, but unfortunately, the pictures were only taken with my regular camera so they won't be on the webpage until I can get them developed and scanned in. Hey, I wasn't taking a digital camera up on top of some beast I've never ridden before. May and I got along pretty darn well trotting around the fields. When we got back to the stable, I even got her to canter (which is between a trot and a gallop), but I'm supposed to keep that a secret. You're not really allowed to do that on your first lesson: they have this silly notion that you might fall off and die or something. Please. They obviously never had such an apt pupil as myself, that's all. Not only was this an awesome experience, but I'll always be able to say that my first time horseback riding was in Ireland (I plan on continuing riding by the way. I wanted to buy a horse: Lisa and I are still fighting over that one. I'll let you know how it turns out).

Finally on our last night in Dublin, we got to hear some traditional Irish music in a pub. We went to Fitzsimon's (which is actually a chain) in Temple Bar. A band was playing there: one guy with a guitar, one guy with a fiddle/violin (not sure which term is used in Ireland), and one lady with something that looked and sounded like an accordion, but smaller. Anyway, they played some good Irish music that we thoroughly enjoyed. There were also 4 teenage girls performing on stage to the music. They were dancing like the Riverdance people do: I was actually impressed (partly because they were cute young ladies with nice bodies and partly because... damn, those girls moved their feet fast!). We decided to forego the usual pub crawl and stayed there the entire night.

That's about it. On Tuesday we returned to Copenhagen without major incident. We got to sit in the roomy, leather "Tourist Class" seats again on the first flight and spent two hours in the Billund Airport (new stamp in the passport - woohoo!). We were supposed to spend 3 & 1/2 hours there, but the people at Maersk Air managed to squeeze us onto the earlier flight. The whole open seating thing prevented us from sitting together, but that was better than sitting in that tiny airport and playing more Rummy with Big Mike (For the record, I kicked his ass the one game we did get to play). I hope you enjoyed reading the story as much as we enjoyed living it. Later.

P.S. - Does anyone know where I can get lots of hay cheap?

Here are a few more pictures:

• The Safkos behind the Easter Tulips on Good Friday at the Christ Church Cathedral
• The Irish Coast in pleasant weather
• The Irish Coast in not so pleasant weather
• Mike & Big Mike at The Guinness Hopstore
• Lisa in front of a silly display at The Guinness Hopstore
• Mike in a silly display at The Guinness Hopstore
• A cool Guinness sign for Foley's pub
• The River Liffey (west view) from the O'Connell Bridge
• The River Liffey (east view) from the O'Connell Bridge (cool Guinness ad)
• Big Mike in front of Temple Bar (check it out: there's a girl with big boobs at each side of this picture)
• Mike & Lisa in front of The Foggy Dew
• Big Mike in front of The Quay Bar
• Mike & Lisa in front of The Norseman
• Big Mike in front of O'Briens
• Mike & Lisa at St. Stephens Green (a park full of flowers and such)
• Don't you just hate when you can't get that last drop?

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