Westward Ho – 18/12/2006

Heading west on the great big bus with the wings in the afternoon has its advantages. Sunset has been going for three hours and counting. The problem with sitting near the back of said bus puts a wing in the way. Not that I am complaining. The wing can stay there and keep doing what it’s doing.

I got up way too early this morning for a Ryanair hop to Dublin. Given the choice of 4 hours of sitting around the airport or a few hours of exploring Dublin before 2 hours of sitting around the airport, I opted for the latter. Charlie picked me up at oh dark thirty, otherwise known as 5:30am. His plan was to use the drive to the airport as an excuse to get to work early and therefore accumulate more reasons to leave early on Wednesday for holidays. I still owe him big time.

Ryanair got me to Dublin around 9am. Much faff was required to find the one functioning cash machine in Dublin airport, buy a bus ticket for city centre (don’t buy them from the airplane!) and deposit my bag in the left luggage hold. The guy at left luggage was jealous of my adventure west and asked if he could go, too.

More faff got me on the right bus headed toward an easily escapable part of Dublin. The nice driver pointed at the tall spiky thing in the middle of the promenade and said, “There’s your landmark, my dear.”

City centre is mostly shopping so I picked a direction and started walking. I am good for remembering my way from somewhere, but I am also good for almost remembering it and getting myself in trouble for it later. Like the Delaware became Pennsylvania and my evil twin was actually right. It wasn’t the day for that, so I paid careful attention to where I was going. I walked in the direction of the big spiky thing and then beyond it. When the road bent right that’s where I went. Eventually, I found Dublin Castle and wandered the grounds there. They offered tours of the innards but given my early departure, I didn’t have the attention span for an hour tour of state rooms, libraries and other things that didn’t sing, dance or juggle to keep my attention.

Still looking for Dad’s Christmas gift, I wandered a few shops but left in a state of kitsch shell shock. The shops I found were worse than the worst of Edinburgh kitsch. My last project before heading back to the airport was lunch. I expected the airplane food to be inedible. Dublin city centre was marginally better. I stocked up at a grocery and headed for the bus back to the airport. When I got back, the left luggage guy still wanted to go. More faff gave me only an hour and a half of sitting around the terminal waiting to leave. Mission accomplished.

Superman Returns and Little Miss Sunshine are both worth seeing. I would like to see them again some time when I can hear more than half of the dialogue.