Me, Evan, Adrienne, Matt, and Sean took the shuttle from London to London Gatwick Airport, which is more than hour away from the city. Luton and Stansted airports are even further away. We took RyanAir, which is super cheap and is totally no frills. We had no complains at all, though. We paid a total of 9 pounds for our flight from London to Dublin - not too shabby. It was a very interesting group - very much a group of people with different interests and styles who would have maybe not ended up together at all if we didn't happen to all be in London and looking to go to Dublin. Sometimes, that made it hard with six of us wanting to do different things, but sometimes it made it much more fun.
We decided to take a taxi into town, because it wasn't too far and with five of us splitting the cost, it ended up being about the same as taking a bus. Our hostel was right in the middle of town, near the Liffey. Matt's Boston friend Paige (I think it's spelled like that) was randomly in the country for a wedding, so we met up with her there. We dropped off our stuff and then decided to walk to the Guinness factory for the tour we'd already booked on the internet.
The tour wasn't bad, but of course the best part was having a pint all the way at the top floor of the building. They have this big circular bar set up with huge windows in all directions so you can see the whole of Dublin. It was great.
I'd heard people say that Guinness is better in Ireland before, but didn't really believe it too much. It's totally true, though - especially right at the source. The pint was so smooth, creamy, and sweet. That first sip is just something else.
After that we set off to find a place to eat, which turned into a grand misadventure. First, we tried to eat at Dublin's oldest pub, which was apparently originally founded in 1145 or something absurd like that at the same site. That was too full, kind of expensive, plus offered no options for Adrienne and Evan, who are vegan.
So, went right across the street to a place that looked pretty decent. We checked the menu and everyone approved, so we walked in and sat down. We look at the menu for like 5 minutes and are about to order, but the waitress came up to us and said, "Oh sorry, those are the wrong menus for this time of day. Use these." She then handed us a tiny menu with almost no options and nothing for the vegans at all. Since they wouldn't let us order off the other menu at all, we had to leave.
We then spent like 30-45 minutes walking around in the rain trying to find a place to eat. Matt and Sean really wanted to eat at a very 'Irish' place, but there was only ever meat on the menu. We finally split up into two groups.
I went with Adrienne and Evan and we went to a place that had a veggie burger that sounded really good, with a very long list of delicious-sounding toppings listed on the menu. We go in, and I order a veggie burger and some corn on the cob, which they had listed as a side. The guy stared at me while I repeated "corn on the cob" a few times slowly before he just said "What is that?" I said "umm.. corn?" Apparently, he got that, but had to go check if they had any. They did not. He wasn't a non-English speaker or anything. Just apparently didn't know what corn on the cob is. I then order a pint of Smithwicks to drink, because they had the tap right there. "Sorry, we don't have any more." So I try to get Bulmer's cider, also on tap right there. "Sorry. None on tap." I eventually got a bottle of cider and we all sit down to wait for our food. Right then, an awful bar band started to play. The singer was trying to belt out some blues tunes about living in Mississippi or something and they drummer simply could not keep time to save his life.
Eventually, after a long wait, the food came. The veggie burgers were just bad garden burger patties with a slice of cheese and some iceberg lettuce on top and a side of fries - nothing at all like what the menu listed. Adrienne and Evan just scraped the cheese off as best they could, but Evan got indigestion later because he hadn't eaten dairy in years. He also got a side of baked beans, and they gave him this tiny little plastic spoon that was literally large enough to hold a single baked bean. He ended up basically just drinking the beans out of the bowl. It was the worst experience ever at a restaurant - so bad it was actually really funny. Adrienne couldn't stop laughing the whole time, especially the band that was playing. Here is the spoon in question. It actually somehow looks bigger in the picture, but I meant it with no hyperbole. It simply couldn't hold more than one bean at a time.
After we hightailed it out of that place after dinner, we met up with the others and headed back to the hostel to get to bed early. We were exhausted and had to be up to get on a 7:00 bus to Galway the next morning. The hostel wasn't great, but was clean enough. They had computers with internet access, which sort of worked. I skipped a shower that night, but those who did said the shower was not warm and you had to hit this button every 30 seconds to keep the water running, like the faucets in airport bathrooms. The beds weren't very good and the pillows were wafer thin. I don't mean to complain - it was pretty cheap and we didn't need to spend much time there. But the place we stayed near Galway the next night was cheaper and simply put it to shame.
I'll write more about Ireland tomorrow. It's time to go to bed now. I'm doing something or other in London with Nicole and whoever else tomorrow. Not sure what yet, but we're in the middle of a huge city. We'll figure something out.
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