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“We really had a fantastic time in Ireland. It was great to be able to share the experience with my friends.” |
Day 9, our final day in Ireland started early because we had to pack our bags and the car for the trip home.
I was having such a great time in Ireland and really wasn’t ready for all the fun to end. We decided to close out Ireland by going on the Guinness Storehouse tour. It was only 3 doors down from our hostel.
On the way to the Storehouse we saw some cool advertising I couldn’t pass up taking some pictures of. Then we got to it the legendary St. James Gate, it was pretty cool and apparently quite an icon of the Guinness Brewery. On the way into the tour you can see some historic advertising Guinness has used throughout the ages.
The tour is a self-guided tour, and they issue a “key” to the sky-bar which is a glass bubble with a drop of Guinness in it. The exhibit is huge there are 6 floors of info. and displays to look at.
We really took our time walking through the tour and saw some great things! Katie even decided to sit in the model train! It was another good photo-op I couldn’t pass up!
After looking at everything we went up to the Gravity Bar to get our free pint of Guinness. A cute young guy named Dathaí was our bar-tender. He put a shamrock on the top of my pint. The view from the Gravity Bar was amazing. You could see the entire city and even parts of the county. We had a few pictures taken in front of the glass windows.
On the way out we stole some Guinness coasters from the bar and some hops from the display! We then went to the Temple Bar district to get some lunch.
I took some more pictures of the city. The sky was really pretty that day. I loved the way Christ Church Cathedral looked. We ended up eating at an Eddie Rocket’s because we were really hungry for an American type hamburger. And we weren’t disappointed!
We stopped at the Irish Celtic Craft Shop to pick up some last minute souvenirs. On the way I took some more pictures of Dublin. After everyone bought the last of their souvenirs we went back to our hostel to pick up the car. It was time to leave for the Dublin Airport.
I really didn’t want to leave. I wanted to see more of the city but I didn’t have a choice. Its a good idea to get to the airport about 1:30-2:00 hours prior to your flight time to go through security and check your bags. I actually set off the metal detector, damn plate in my arm!
I exchanged my remaining Euro for American money and got about $300 back. The exchange rate only works in your favor that way at the moment! I bought my grandfather some Irish whiskey at the duty-free store before boarding the plane. We were flying with Aer Lingus again. Katie and I sat together and Michelle and Lauren sat together. It was a booked flight and we couldn’t get four seats together. It was going to be a 6.5 hour flight home and unfortunately there were about 15 very young infants and toddlers on the plane who did nothing but scream, kick, holler, cry, yell, pout and run around the plane for 6.5 hours! No one on the plane could get any sleep. Most of the adults were complaining to the stewardesses and cursing at the kids’ parents. They were horribly behaved children, I had a 5 years old sitting behind me who kicked my seat for over an hour, I thought I was going to have kidney damage! My grandfather’s whiskey almost didn’t make it off that flight! All I can say is God Bless the Macintosh corporation and whatever genius thought of the iPod! It saved my sanity and the life of one 5 year old little boy!
To calm everyone down the attendants put on a movie for us, it was “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” which was a good movie. They put cartoons on after the movie to settle the little brats down! I didn’t get any sleep and was very happy to get off that plane!
We got through customs without any real problems, I managed the smuggle pop’s whiskey past and everyone got their luggage. My parents were picking me up and taking Michelle and Katie to Michelle’s house in Jersey. Lauren was being picked up by her boyfriend Perry.
We took one last photo of our arrival before we said our goodbyes and headed home. We really had a fantastic time in Ireland. It was great to be able to share the experience with my friends. It was the most memorable trip I have ever taken. I would recommend anyone to visit Ireland. They really are friendly people who live in a gorgeous landscape.
previous travel blog entry
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