My friend Beth finally made it to Dublin after being delayed in London over and hour. She was a real trooper, and we spent the whole day (literally all day) walking and walking and she didn't even complain. She ended up getting in around 10 am and after a quick shower we went downtown for lunch to our favorite place, Bewley's. It took FOREVER...but after lunch we went all over the place. We took the Trinity tour (which walks you all around the campus and tells you about all its history). It ends in the Book of Kells, which, by the way, is kind of a let down. You can't read any of it, and the tour guide doesn't actually take you inside so you're on your own to figure out what exactly is going on, and then of course you end up in the bookstore.
Then we walked up to St. Patrick's, and it was closed. Then we walked all the way over to the Jameson Factory, and it was closed. And by that time all my friends were coming downtown for our last dinner together, so we hiked it all the way back to O'Connell to meet them. We had a real Irish dinner down in the Temple Bar. By then Beth was getting tired, so we skipped out when everyone went to the Comet and headed back to the apartments. Everyone started drifting back home and we all sat up chatting and laughing for a while. Finally, the last goodbyes were said and we all went to bed.
Saturday started early. I was up at 5 to shower, finish packing, close up my room, and say goodbyes to my roommates before the taxi picked us up at 6:50 am (the driver was actually 15 minutes early which started the stressfulness since I had 2 months worth of crap to haul down the stairs in a hurry, along with an overflowing trash bag.) We made it to the airport and I was pretty nervous considering I'd spent the last week worrying about my luggage and now it was judgement time....
To help you understand, I will explain a little bit about RyanAir...the airline we were flying with for all of our subsequent travel locations. You are only allowed 15 kilos (33 lbs.) in your checked bag, but for a small fee (20 euros a kilo) you can check whatever you want. You are also only allowed 10 (22 lbs) kilos in your carry on (and, if you were wondering as many people apparently are since I found this information in the frequently asked questions, you are not allowed to carry on a parachute, avalanche travel kit, or your own life vest or raft. Luckily, passable items include babies and golf clubs). I crossed my fingers and just tried to casually throw my bag on the check table. It was 9 kilos over (I had Beth stand pretty far away with my carry on so they wouldn't ask any questions). The airline representative started adding up the total on her fingers so I figured it couldn't be that bad...130 EUROS. THEY WANTED ME TO PAY 130 EUROS--OR NEARLY 250 USD--- PER FLIGHT TO HAUL ALL MY STUFF AROUND WITH ME. I laughed. There was no way that was happening.
Here's where we encounter our next problem. When attempting to find a way to cram more stuff into my already packed carry on, I realized I had locked the keys to my luggage lock inside my actual luggage. Awesome. To make it worse, turns out the Irish aren't invasive and don't riffle through any checked bags, nor do they have bolt cutters to break into suspicious luggage. The one time I really wanted my civil liberties to be violated and nothing. So I'm running all around the airport until someone sends me to airport police. I make friends with the chief after he hears my sob story, and he convinces the valets to knock my lock off with a hammer. On our way back to the station I find out that I can check unwanted bags at lost luggage for the duration of my trip. So I whip out my trusty backpack and Beth and I take over the Airport Police Station lobby to repack my bag. To give you a mental picture, my stuff is spread out all over the floor and on top of my open checked bag. Beth is throwing things into my now empty carry on as I fling them out of my now disorganized check bag. We stuff a couple things in my backpack, she sits on my suitcase as I zip up the leftover contents, we drop the bag at left luggage, and off we go. The airline worker is amazed that my bag is now online 10 kilos.
You would think that this would be the end of our drama...but no. We land in Zadar, Croatia and grab some kunas (Croatian currency) and a cab to our hotel. I'm a little bit suspicious when the cabdriver doesn't know where our hotel is. But I say Falkenstiener and he hands the sheet back to me and heads out. When we go to check in the desk clerk keeps saying things like "You flew into this airport?" and "Do you have a car here?" which are never comforting signs. Finally they inform us that our hotel is a complete other part of the city and proceeds to pull out a map of the entire country. Turns out, OUR HOTEL WAS 5 HOURS AWAY. In a completely other city serviced by an entirely different airport. This could be a bit of an issue.
Luckily, the desk clerk was possibly the nicest human being on the face of the planet and found a way to transfer our entire reservation (including our reduced price) to their hotel since they were a chain. The problem? It was a family resort that especially catered to children and Beth and I spend the next couple of days looking like drunk, incompetent mothers. But our room was nice, and more importantly it wasn't 5 hours away, so we made it work.
We had drinks that afternoon, then took a long nap before dinner, and then enjoyed all inclusive drinks that evening. Sunday, the second day we were there, we got up and took the train (which was actually a tractor pulling a cart ) into town to catch the ferry to the islands. We got tickets to the closest one since that was the easiest to pronounce, and were disappointed not to find the beautiful sandy beaches we thought were awaiting, but giant concrete slabs instead. Still, we got a lot of sun, had a lot of fun, and swam in the Adriatic Sea. Monday we had to check out at 10 am, so we took the tractor back into town for a bit of shopping, then went back and laid out all day at our hotel. We hosed off in the beach shower, and changed clothes. We grabbed our last free dinner before catching a cab back to the airport.
I promise promise promise to post pictures soon....E
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