On our way home from Europe, we ended up with an overnight layover in Dublin, Ireland. Originally, we’d been planning to come straight home (with 1 hour layover), but flight times changed and we had to redo our flights with a much longer layover. However, I’d always wanted to go to Ireland, so aside from the extra expense of hotel, I was pleased. We got to Munich airport 2 hours early, which was fortunate because we ran into a snag during check-in which was that they couldn’t figure out how we’d gotten into Europe with no passport stamp – oops, I guess the missing customs agent in Iceland was not normal procedure! Fortunately, we still had our old tickets and they were able to straighten that out in about 20 minutes.
Going through security, we were told we didn’t need to take off our shoes, which was a relief, but otherwise it was pretty similar to American security. Because we were going to another European Union country, customs was simple and quick. Our flight took off late, so yay for extra time in the airplane. The captain tried to make up for lost time, but we still came in a little late, not deplaning until almost 10:30pm. We were assured we didn’t need to worry about our bags, but we decided to check baggage anyhow and found both of our bags dropped off, rather wet. We asked one of the bag people about them and he assured us they would be transferred and suggested we file a report if we were worried about water damage, but quite nicely said we probably wouldn’t have much luck.
So we headed outside and caught a taxi. It was delightful to have an English-speaking taxi driver with an Irish accident, even an overly loquacious one. I was (as usual on travelling days) exhausted and hungry, but did my best to keep up with the conversation, about the people who share my last name and Irish stuck in America, etc. Unfortunately, he got a little lost and ended up dropping us off a few blocks from our hotel, which seemed simple enough (we’d left our heavy bags at the airport), but it took us a while to find it nonetheless, wandering in circles with our overnight bags until I spotted the nightclub attached to our hotel and then we found the small hotel entrance. There was quite a long wait to get our room, so when we finally got in, it was 11:30PM.
Although we were tired, I also wanted to explore some more and Irina wanted food, so we went out looking for food places and peering in the bars as we passed (some with live Irish-style music) and finally settled on a rather fancy convenience store which had nice fresh bread and a wonderful orange juice squeezing machine, with a large tub of regular oranges on top, which it cut and squeezed for fresh juice on demand. We had a little meal of our fresh bread, hummus and juice, eventually getting to bed around 1am. I kept waking up in the night, paranoid that I’d missed the alarm and overslept, missing my chance to explore Dublin in the daytime, but fortunately I did not. I was exhausted but cheerful in the morning, ready to go have vegan Irish breakfast in a nearby place I’d found online, but Irina was cranky and did not want to come with me, choosing to eat at the hotel restaurant instead.
When I stepped outside, it was gray and raining (of course), but fortunately, I’d brought a parasol that doubled as an umbrella, so used that. The rain was gentle and didn’t bother me much, other than needing to be careful walking in sneakers. I had a little trouble finding Cornucopia Wholefoods restaurant due to the twisting streets (not unlike Boston), but eventually got there and had a nice tofu scramble and fat slice of whole wheat bread. The walls, tables and chairs were dark polished wood and the atmosphere was more formal than I’d expect for a vegetarian order-at-the-counter type place, but it was a nice cultural experience. On the way back, I peeked in a few shops to see what might be of interest and then hustled back to Irina. I ran up to the room and didn’t find her, so went back down to the restaurant and found her in a corner, seeming a little grumpy – she said she’d been waiting for me and didn’t enjoy her breakfast.
We wanted to explore some of Dublin, but by this point we had little more than an hour before we needed to check out and head for the airport, so we decided to go straight for Dublin Castle. We enjoyed checking out the chapel which was the first part we encountered. When we walked into the courtyard, we saw a tour going on and when we got to the entrance, we realized only guided tours could see the main part of the castle (unlike in Munich where we were allowed to walk through at our own pace), which was very disappointing as we hadn’t time to wait for the next tour. So we walked around and looked at shops instead until our time was up and so we checked out and caught a taxi easy-peasy and got to the airport. We were greeted by a massive line for Aer Lingus, the biggest I’ve seen since electronic checkins became so popular (we tried to do that, but were unsuccessful). It was good we were 2 hours early because the line took about 40 minutes. We finally checked in and the harried clerk mentioned our gate number and hustled us off.
Signage in the Dublin airport was sub-optimal, to put it nicely, and our tickets weren’t very clear either – they told us our gate, but we needed to go through US customs first. We got through security, then we had to ask someone who pointed us in the right direction (who explained we needed customs), but we passed the elevator we needed several times before we finally figured it out. We are hustling madly, and finally get to the customs agent, we fill out our forms and luckily the line is short ahead and we get through customs, or so I thought! That was just the first customs agent, for our persons – then we have to go to the second customs agent for our luggage, our checked luggage. They were nice and said they’d show us a picture of our bags to confirm the identity, and then — no bags! They couldn’t find a record of our bags, so we got sent back to the problem area. We’re upset now, afraid we’ll miss our flight and/or our bags may be lost.
In the US Customs problem area, we report our issue to a competent military-type customs agent who patiently explains to us that this is a problem with the airline and they’ll have to rectify it. He calls them and moments later another confused passenger comes into our area with the same problem. And then another couple. Then other passengers, until the agent tells them to stop sending people in. The room is full of extremely agitated passengers now which is not doing much to calm my nerves, but the agent is unerringly patient with the passengers, he only shows frustration with the airline representative. Luckily, we were first and eventually our bags show up and I’m able to confirm the identity of them, so we get to go through, about 20 minutes before our plane is due to take off. We have to go through American security now, which requires taking off shoes, but we don’t have to repeat the other scans, so it’s very fast and we get on the plane with some 10-15 minutes to spare. Luckily, we find room for our overnight bags, even though most other passengers are already on and SCORE, we got emergency exit row seats with extra legroom (and no extra charge). We notice the other folks from the customs problem area trickling in, until everyone is on safe and sound.
The flight home was uneventful, just long. I managed to convince Irina to split a taxi with me to my house, with the promise to drive her home a little later, after rush hour. We get to my place and marvel that we aren’t sick of each other yet – could it be true love? We take a short nap, and then I drive her home, get some takeout from my favorite vegan restaurant (Peace o’ Pie). After the travel madness, it feels really good to be home.
More pictures from Europe on flickr (Dublin starts here)
