Sunday evening we started on our journey without too much trouble. We just had to run a little to catch the bus to take us to the train station so we could travel 2 1/2 hours south to Skavsta airport to catch our flight to Ireland. The airport is really small and basically only serves Ryanair so there was no major problems here and the guy at passport control (we were leaving the Schengen states) was really funny and good natured. Once on the other side of security Stephan gave me a beautiful necklace which you will see me wearing in just about every picture on this trip. There was a bit of confusion about the lack of a "Visa Check" stamp on my boarding pass but the guy at the gate let me on after I told him that I had my passport looked at by about 3 or 4 different people at that point and no one had given me a stamp. Little did I know that this would become a huge problem in the future because it was apparently my responsibility to ask a specific person about this specific stamp every time I want to fly and no one explained this to me...I had to find out the hard way but more on that later. We finally arrived in Dublin after taking a coach bus to Trinity College around 1 am and proceeded to try to find our hotel. We took a wrong turn around St. Stephen's Green (a really big, nice park in the middle of the city) so the way ended up being much longer than necessary. Once we arrived at the hotel we realized that our "courtyard view" meant that our room overlooked the night club attached to the hotel- the night club that was partying hard until 3:30 am. So although we were exhausted, we didn't really sleep much the first night (what a way to start a vacation!). Luckily the next morning, our included full Irish breakfast (fried eggs, beans, bacon, ham, sausage, cereal, toast, and coffee) helped us feel much better about the situation.
The first day in Dublin was a typical grey and drizzly Irish day though not too cold. We set off from the hotel and sort of wandered our way back to Trinity College, taking time to enjoy St. Stephen's Green and the bustle of Grafton Street, the pedestrian shopping district. Always the romantic, Stephan bought a huge red flower (I'm not sure what kind) from a lady selling fresh flowers on the side of the street :) Plus we looked in a couple of churches along the way. Once at Trinity College we proceeded to stand in line to see the Book of Kells which was pretty cool. Afterward we explored the College on our own and found the theatre as well as the chemistry and physics buildings. Unfortunately museums are closed in Dublin on Mondays and especially the Monday before Easter so there wasn't so much that we could do. After a refreshing nap, we journeyed towards Temple Bar in search of authentic pub grub and we were not disappointed. We went to a large pub called O'Neils and savored fish and chips and Irish stew with lamb :) Then we met up with the musical pub crawl at the Gogarty Pub for wonderful evening sampling traditional Irish music played by Trish, fiddle player, and Des, who plays guitar and bodhran [Irish drum] as well as sings. We visited 3 different pubs including the Gogarty- the other two were the Ha'Penny Bridge Inn and Brannigan's (both of which are more locals type places instead of the typical touristy "Irish" pubs in Temple Bar). At the second pub we also tasted a pint of Guinness on tap :) At the end of the night our guides/musicians wanted to hear music from our homelands in exchange for teaching us about their music. After some confusion we discovered that Des' sister-in-law is Swedish and Stephan ended up serenading us all with a traditional Swedish drinking song. I wish I had gotten a video because it was fantastic :) But I do have videos of Des performing in Gaelic, song in English in which he barely breathes, and one where he is playing the bodhran (said "baron"):
The next day was bright and sunny and the nightclub didn't keep us up all night so we were feeling really good. We walked over to St. Patrick's cathedral then made our way up to Dublin Castle (which was closed but we could still see it from the outside). We crossed the river to get some Irish souveniers and a quick bit for lunch before grabbing the luggage via another stroll through St. Stephen's Green. All was going according to plan at the airport until I got to gate to get on the plane to Oslo. Then things got ugly!
The guy at the gate refused to let me on the plane without this stupid Visa Check stamp (remember the one that I didn't even know that I had to ask for?). He said I had 15 minutes before the plane left to get back to the check-in desk (on the otherside of security) and return with the stamp. So I took off running through Dublin International Airport (which is not small). I managed to find a really sympathetic security woman who had never heard of such a crazy thing before who escorted back through security and helped me to demand this stamp from the guy who was actually at a counter on the other side of the check-in counters from where we had checked-in, as in I would have never seen this counter on my own. He argued with me and told me how I needed this stamp to get on the plane and how I had to go this desk and blah, blah, blah until both me and the security woman were like duh, that's why we are here and my plane leaves now so give me the freakin' stamp already. I managed to make it back to the gate as the plane was being undone from the blocks and our luggage was being off loaded. So Stephan and I were now stuck in Dublin!
And I mean stuck, because it is an island and it was before Easter and very few airlines fly to Oslo from Ireland, at least not directly and definitely not cheaply. We tried to complain to Ryanair but they said it was all our fault and there was nothing they could do except rebook us for the next day at double the price. So we tried every airline we could to get to Oslo that night but finally decided to cut our losses by staying the night a nice airport hotel with complimentary shuttle service and taking an Aer Lingus flight straight to Berlin in the morning (so much nicer!). Overall this diaster cost each of us an extra 300 euro :(
The first day in Dublin was a typical grey and drizzly Irish day though not too cold. We set off from the hotel and sort of wandered our way back to Trinity College, taking time to enjoy St. Stephen's Green and the bustle of Grafton Street, the pedestrian shopping district. Always the romantic, Stephan bought a huge red flower (I'm not sure what kind) from a lady selling fresh flowers on the side of the street :) Plus we looked in a couple of churches along the way. Once at Trinity College we proceeded to stand in line to see the Book of Kells which was pretty cool. Afterward we explored the College on our own and found the theatre as well as the chemistry and physics buildings. Unfortunately museums are closed in Dublin on Mondays and especially the Monday before Easter so there wasn't so much that we could do. After a refreshing nap, we journeyed towards Temple Bar in search of authentic pub grub and we were not disappointed. We went to a large pub called O'Neils and savored fish and chips and Irish stew with lamb :) Then we met up with the musical pub crawl at the Gogarty Pub for wonderful evening sampling traditional Irish music played by Trish, fiddle player, and Des, who plays guitar and bodhran [Irish drum] as well as sings. We visited 3 different pubs including the Gogarty- the other two were the Ha'Penny Bridge Inn and Brannigan's (both of which are more locals type places instead of the typical touristy "Irish" pubs in Temple Bar). At the second pub we also tasted a pint of Guinness on tap :) At the end of the night our guides/musicians wanted to hear music from our homelands in exchange for teaching us about their music. After some confusion we discovered that Des' sister-in-law is Swedish and Stephan ended up serenading us all with a traditional Swedish drinking song. I wish I had gotten a video because it was fantastic :) But I do have videos of Des performing in Gaelic, song in English in which he barely breathes, and one where he is playing the bodhran (said "baron"):
The next day was bright and sunny and the nightclub didn't keep us up all night so we were feeling really good. We walked over to St. Patrick's cathedral then made our way up to Dublin Castle (which was closed but we could still see it from the outside). We crossed the river to get some Irish souveniers and a quick bit for lunch before grabbing the luggage via another stroll through St. Stephen's Green. All was going according to plan at the airport until I got to gate to get on the plane to Oslo. Then things got ugly!
The guy at the gate refused to let me on the plane without this stupid Visa Check stamp (remember the one that I didn't even know that I had to ask for?). He said I had 15 minutes before the plane left to get back to the check-in desk (on the otherside of security) and return with the stamp. So I took off running through Dublin International Airport (which is not small). I managed to find a really sympathetic security woman who had never heard of such a crazy thing before who escorted back through security and helped me to demand this stamp from the guy who was actually at a counter on the other side of the check-in counters from where we had checked-in, as in I would have never seen this counter on my own. He argued with me and told me how I needed this stamp to get on the plane and how I had to go this desk and blah, blah, blah until both me and the security woman were like duh, that's why we are here and my plane leaves now so give me the freakin' stamp already. I managed to make it back to the gate as the plane was being undone from the blocks and our luggage was being off loaded. So Stephan and I were now stuck in Dublin!
And I mean stuck, because it is an island and it was before Easter and very few airlines fly to Oslo from Ireland, at least not directly and definitely not cheaply. We tried to complain to Ryanair but they said it was all our fault and there was nothing they could do except rebook us for the next day at double the price. So we tried every airline we could to get to Oslo that night but finally decided to cut our losses by staying the night a nice airport hotel with complimentary shuttle service and taking an Aer Lingus flight straight to Berlin in the morning (so much nicer!). Overall this diaster cost each of us an extra 300 euro :(
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