As many of you know, I've been wanting to do this for yonks now. Soak in Ireland, be more than a tourist, -more a traveller- but still get a bite of what the touristy stuff has to offer. So that's what we did.
Introducing the cast here; Grandma,Grandad, Georgina, Mum and Greg
Sunday 18th January: Brisbane-Singapore-Heathrow
Off to the officially longest airflight I have ever been on. It's something like 14 hours between Singapore and Heathrow alone. Luckily my genes have no problem sleeping in any condition. Planes can be so eerie in the wee hours above all civilisation. How many people look up into the dark sky and see lights gliding by far away? And o how legs dislike a 14 hour flight. I very much support the use of 'small communal stretch area' near toilets, whereyou can also see what every single other person is watching on their little nifty movie screens. Lots of choice. But o children of the 90's, look what I found to watch!
Monday 19th January: Heathrow -Dublin
Busy old Heathrow is very quiet when you see it at a ridiculous hour like 6:30 in the morning. Handy traveller tip for longflights where you are not allowed to take on deodorant onboard: Locate perfume shop (preferrably with a 'perfume buddy') and subtly spray eachother with selected fragrance til satisfied. 2 browsing people always look less suspicious than 1. Voila, freshness!
Onto the final leg of the flight and who says the sun in these parts is weak??!Before I could take any photos of the approaching mainland, we had to turn off cameras for landing, so I figured if I was to start on their good side, I'd better do as told.
The police (Gardai, as known in Ireland) in Dublin airport were both very slow and very intimidating. Because I had a 12 month working visa they wanted to know details, and I have to go in and register at the head office in the city before a month's time (it's on my current to-do list..)
Ok, so I mentioned about the road signs being confusing and you kindof have to be in the right place to see them, well imagine the airport baggage ones being ten times worse. True, we were held up at the immigrantion line, but these signs didn't even have our flight on the list of baggage pickup! After a bit of kerfuffle and having to walk very fast down the whole terminal (me tring to compromise between the speeds of Grandma and veteran athlete Grandad..) and nab our rent-a-car, I was so overheated, I emerged from the airport into the bleak freezing Irish weather with my insulating jacket pretty much hanging off me to fully expose a single tank top. No wonder I caught a few baffled looks.
As we waited for Grandad to fetch the car, I started to wake up to the cold and decided we needed some footage of what it was like.
[Me trying unsuccessfully to get smoke to show up on the camera - Grandma giving a thumbs up - ...despite being freezing cold!]
Video Footage of driving through Dublin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XztTKpY5dc4&feature=channel_page
We had agreed to meet my host family for dinner, so before then, did some running round to find where on earth we could be sleeping tonight. 3rd B&B lucky. Now time to organise this phone business. We had a lovely spunky young man called Jeff to help us, who reminded me fondly of coach Joe in Bend it like Beckham. Though I thought our dynamics were nothing to mope over, Grandma took the liberty of doing some social chatting up on my behalf. Family support, you see. "Yes, she she doesn't really know anyone in Dublin." he was told. "Oh, well we can change that", he was sworn to have said.. I wsh I knew the truth of it!
Back at the host family for dinner, I was in severe danger of falling asleep at the table. Not the best first impression to give. We had brought along some gifts for the girls (2 picture books and 2 little koala toys) and host dad read them Wombat Stew before we put them to bed. They seemed very sweet little girls. And I was to be called Janafurr. :)
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