Yet another restless night . . . but not long now and we'll be in our own beds. Fortunately I am not feeling exhausted, I think Tracy might be.
This place doesn't have a common area or a shared kitchen or anything but it does include breakfast . . . At 8am (and we were already up - before our alarm!) a lady brought to our room a tray with toast, corn flakes and coffee ! We actually ate in our room on our beds !?!? I just had toast and coffee - not a very exciting breakfast.
Off we go to find a parking space close to where the City Tour Hop on Hop Off route is. Found an underground lot after quite a few construction detours but Maggie did us well - we wouldn't have been able to do this trip without Maggie (GPS) and Molly (BMW) just made it so much more comfortable and fun !
We actually parked in the heart of the shopping district - we shopped a bit and then got on the double decker bus. €10 for 24hrs . . . 27 stops throughout Dublin and you can get in and off at any of them over the 24 hrs - that alone is just grand but you also have an Irish guide that gives all sorts of info, insight, history and funny stories as you go. It was so amazing to see how much of Dublin we had covered by foot and public transit at the beginning of the trip !!! We heard about the famine, the wall around Dublin, the Harp as the national symbol being borrowed from Guinness if Parliament use it backwards ! And so much more but I will never remember :p
We hopped off at Grafton Street. Found one of the few remaining pubs that have a snug. We popped into it but it was a bar pub (no food) We then found a pub that was serving traditional Irish food and Tracy got her Lamb Irish Stew :s (when in Ireland . . . ) We never did find potato soup !
We hopped back on the bus, up top this time and finished the tour. At any stop you don't have to wait more than 15 minutes for a bus, that means there are quite a few buses . . . We got the same bus that we had been on a few hours earlier - go figure . . . Murphy's Law ? And the bus drivers name was Murphy. He was funny but Canadians were the butt of all his jokes and I'd had enough, plus he repeated his jokes.
We did all the stops and got off where we stared. Shopped some more but it was getting g late plus the stores were closing. So, off we go to find the car. Found the entrance which was inside a 'plaza' that is now closed !?!?!?! Omg, what do we do !?!? We wander. And wander. Finally found the entrance that we drove into and walked down the car lane. By this time it is dark, and it is raining heavily and I have to get us out of Dublin. Let's just say I did it.
Made our way to the hotel in Donabate (close to the airport that we booked in June for our last night). No address was provided on the Expedia confirmation and we couldn't find the hotel name on Maggie. We just know that it is near a golf course and is on the sea. So we wing it. And found it, in the rain, at night. And, they don't have our reservation and there are no rooms available because there is a wedding ! After about 30min of waiting, they were able to accommodate us (thank gawd I had printed the confirmation from Expedia)
This was the most expensive of all our stays and it was the most outdated and poorly kept property we had stayed on. Oh well, one night, and we just needed a space to get everything organized.
At 10, we went to the bar and had a bite to eat, I had my last Guinness and then we finished with an Irish Coffee. Back to the room, got all sorted. But neither of us could sleep and it is almost 1am.
Gonna try.
Nighty night xox
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