TRAVEL DAY FROM LONDON TO DUBLIN

WEATHER: Sunny, rain, cold, warm… Just like Melbourne, 4 seasons in one day

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY:  Getting a massive discount off my transfer

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Bus transfer missing my stop and walking 15 minutes with my 35 bags

BUYS OF THE DAY:  Coach transfer from Dublin to the city for 7EUR

WORD OF THE DAY: - To be sure, to be sure…..

It is amazing to travel on a 54 minute flight from London to Dublin; the process starts 5 hours prior to departure.  From getting up and finish packing, to getting collected at 8am for a 12.35pm flight, which I do believe you need the time due to traffic and also Heathrow is just, well Heathrow and finally landing in Dublin at 2pm, means 6 hours of airport fluff for the flight.  This is why I always recommend people catch the train from London to Paris for this exact reason – it just makes no sense.  Unfortunately there is no train from London to Ireland, so it is a case of sucking it up Princess.

As Murphy’s Law would predict, there was no traffic and there was no-one in the bag drop area after I self-checked in, so I got to the airport way too early – but you could guess that was going to happen.  I am a firm believer that it is better to have more time than not enough.

I booked the transfer through the Royal National.  You pay them 5EUR and then the balance of 14EUR goes to the driver.  Well I was the first drop off at terminal 1, and there was this old couple also getting the drop here.  They were seriously 150 years old and had 10 bags each (well slight exaggeration but you get my drift) so I just wanted to hightail it out of there while they fluffed about.  I felt sorry for the poor driver!  I checked myself in and then I realized I hadn’t paid him the balance of the transfer.  So I actually got a personal drop off in a transfer for the grand total of 5EUR.  I do feel bad that I hadn’t paid, but that has to be the buy of the day – unwilling though……..

So the beauty of getting there early is that there is no-one else there yet for your flight, so you get to go straight up to the counter.  These next flights are not included on my round world ticket, they have been purchased separately, so I lose my 23kg luggage limit to 20kg, and I also lose my 2 piece system, which was my back up should I exceed the 23kg.  So from all my flights I just knew I was going to be over, it was all going to come down to how nice the check-in agent was going to be.  This can be a hit and miss with check-in staff, but I am always pleasant, with a smile and nothing bothers me, because at the end of the day, they hold all the power.  From where they seat you, to weighing your hand luggage, to enforcing checked in baggage restrictions.  They could crucify the hardiest of packers.  So I whack my bag on the scales and it is 22.2kg!  How the hell is my bag getting lighter?  Hmmmmm makes me think the drunken packing has gone a little astray and I just haven’t realized what is missing yet?!  Anyway little chicky lets me through without a glance, so I high tail it out of there before she pulls me up with my little backpack, side pack and bag.  Seeeeee yaaaaaaa…….

I’ve never gone out of terminal 1 before.  It looks to me in better nick than T3.  T2 is currently undergoing building / refurbishment due to the Olympics next year, so there is a lot of work going on out there at the moment.  Once you pass through the actual terminal, the gates are all new and of course my gate was 80, which is the furthest gate you can get at T1 and they even give you approximate walk times to the gates and mine was 15 minutes – just to walk to the gate!  Well exercise never killed anyone right?  No free internet, so I did pay to get on.  It was 9.95GBP, but I got a FB album loaded and was hoping to get my blog up to date, but Blogger has been down since last night and it has wiped my last 2 entries that I loaded yesterday due to technical reasons.  Apparently the last 2 posts will be loaded back, once the ‘bug’ has been fixed, but it is driving me nuts when I actually have internet connection.  Oh well, I am sure they will get it back up as soon as they can, but it is like FB, I rely on these sites now, to let people know I am alive and well.  It is sad but a true fact of my travelling adventure.

I haven’t really organized transfers or looked at the information on how to get from airports to the hotels.  I just check all the options after I have come out of customs and then make the call.  Dublin had a coach service for 7 EUR and they drop you pretty close to your hotel as they can.  So I paid my 7EUR, put my own bag on the coach as the driver was no-where to be seen (after checking with another employee) and took my seat on the coach.  My ticket, I would like to point out said Trinity College.  So we get to Trinity College drop and I asked if this is where I get off for Jury’s Inn and he said you should have got off 2 stops ago – yeah like I should know!!!!  He said I need to hop off here and it is a 15 minute walk back up O’Connell Street to get to my hotel.  Well okay for him, he didn’t have a backpack, front pack, side pack and a handbag!!!  Well, he did suggest I cross the street to catch the airport coach in the opposite direction 2 stops, as I think he realized just how much I was carrying.  So I thanked him for his pathetic map and his sincere apology and walked the 15 minutes to my hotel.  A little more exercise never killed anyone did it?

I am meeting Jesse from my Europe Contiki tour tonight and we are heading to dinner and a bar on Temple Street.  So it should be fun to hear some live music and listen to the wonderful accents of the Irish language, which to me is the most beautiful and sexy accent in the WORLD xx.  Not sure how much Guinness I will have, as I find it really heavy to drink, but I have turned into a bit if a beer drinker since Munich, so I am sure I will find something to my liking.  I am currently sipping a Carlsberg, not Irish at all, but it is beer all the same.

My tour starts tomorrow night with dinner and a group meeting.  So round 2 of Contiki starts all over again…….  Ding ding…….