When we landed, I was very relieved because I had just spent the better part of an entire 24 hours on a plane. Shortly after leaving the terminal I experienced boarder patrol, which in Ireland was a piece of cake. They asked me my name, where I was from and what my pleasure was. Then, they said “sounds good, good luck, welcome to Ireland”. The agent also made a comment about me being a first time traveler since my passport didn’t have any stamps in it, but with the combination of me being tired and his strong Irish accent, I just gave him a smile and a nod before I went for my bags.
When I got my luggage I looked for our meeting spot, the Jameson Bar. (By the way I’m using Megan’s suitcase that is covered with a girly design of flowers…my suitcase was broke and Meg was happy to lend me her bag which is bigger anyways) I had a rough time finding the bar, but luckily I finally found it. It was also around 11am, about 3 hours after I was already suppose to be there. Before I had a chance to get inside, Tiffany had seen me emerging from the crowd and came up and gave me a hug. She looked very relieved to see me, as I was to find her. She then said that we should go get McKara, who we found sleeping in a booth inside the bar with their luggage.
The next task at hand was to exchange our US currency for Euros. For those of you who are new at this like us, you give them $100 US, and they give you roughly $66 Euro… Isn’t that great….
We got our money and then went to the Traveler’s Information Kiosk, which was a great resource. We found out what bus we needed and where we needed to go. We also made the decision that instead of buying a round trip ticket for 10 Euro, we would by the 13 Euro pass for 3 days. This was the best financial decision of the trip thus far. We got on the bus and headed for O’Connell Street in Dublin Central City.
When we arrived, we had a little trouble finding out which direction to go, but a nice local pointed us in the right direction and off we went to our hotel. We couldn’t check-in yet because it was too early in the day, but we left our stuff in storage at the hotel and started to walk around town. We ate lunch at a bar called Maddigan’s. There were about 50 bars on the street and we couldn’t choose, so I just suggested Maddigan’s because it stuck out to me. Maddigan is Jimmy Butler’s mom’s maiden name. Jimmy is one of my best friends, and since the name was familiar, I thought to myself that it would make for a good story… and I think it does.
There was also a spectacular experience for me at lunch when I, Gregory Morgan, had my first pint of Guinness in Ireland! Tiffany also ordered her first Irish dish; it was ‘eggs, beans and chips’. By chips I mean French fries, by beans I mean baked beans, and by eggs, I mean sunny-side up eggs… very delightful…
Speaking of Guinness, we went to the Guinness Storehouse after lunch. It is over 250 years old and pumps out something like 3 million pints a day! We toured the entire storehouse and learned all about the history and how Guinness is made. We got to pour our own ‘perfect pint’ for free and sit down and relax as we overlooked most of downtown Dublin from the 5th floor of the storehouse. It was really breathtaking. McKara is allergic to almost anything, so I got to drink her beer in addition to mine. We then proceeded to go to the top of the storehouse to the bar where it had round glass walls that gave us a 360 degree panorama of Dublin City… it was truly spectacular. I had another free beer and we proceeded to make our way back to the hotel.
We finally checked into our hotel, the Belvedere Hotel at Parnell Square. It was a nice hotel with a bar attached on the first floor. As we entered into the lift (aka elevator), I began to become more cognizant of how much Europe is different than the US. The three of us barely fit in the elevator with our luggage. When we got into our room, we started to settle in. McKara and Tiffany showed me how we had to put our room keys into a docking station in the wall in order to turn on the electricity. They also began to tell me about how they already struggled with the European to US electrical converters and that it took them 45 minutes to figure out that you had to insert your room key into the wall for the electricity would work. McKara would later blow the circuit breaker in our room in Dublin, as was reported to have happened two times during their stay in London the night before.
The room consisted of one single bed and one double bed, perfect for the three of us to sleep. I was then introduced to European bathrooms, with two faucets on the sink (hot & cold), which you could never quite get warm water. It was hot or cold, no in-between. There were some other minor details, but not that important. However, my bed was very small and I remember falling out of it at least twice.
We hung out in our room for a while, but then went back out for dinner. We ate in the Dublin Bar district at a place called Quay’s Irish Pub, which is another pub with the same name as one of my friends, Ryan Quay. I wasn’t that hungry and got a salad, but McKara got an Irish Stew. We also sat next to the American actor Ethan Suplee. He was Ashton Kutcher’s roommate in The Butterfly Effect, played one of the big linemen in Remember the Titans, and was in other movies that I can’t think of at the moment.
After that, we went to the actual Dublin Bar, which was very crowded and over priced. I ordered a whisky & coke, but didn’t specify the coke. I got Jamison whisky. I was thinking, “there is about 400 different Irish whisky’s here, and I just had to get Jameson” The drink, in total, was about 14 Euro, or about $18 US dollars. We then realized that we needed to budget a little better and left after two drinks.
While we were walking home, we got our picture taken on the streets of Ireland. The photo is hysterical and features the three of us with our heads through one of those boards that has a scene painted on it and you just stick your head through the other side in the spot where the character’s face goes. We did that and have the photo to prove it. The picture was the Irish Flag, with three leprechauns dancing, drinking and playing the fiddle. McKara and Tiffany looked good, but many were convinced that I was actually a leprechaun because I looked so realistic with my head in the cutout.
I was proud that I took Megan’s advice and stayed up the whole first day I was there and easily fell fast asleep after I talked and laughed with the girls for a while. One last thing to note, the sun went down at about 10:30 pm and came up about 3am… It was very difficult to judge the time in addition to changing time zones so much on the way over.
When I got my luggage I looked for our meeting spot, the Jameson Bar. (By the way I’m using Megan’s suitcase that is covered with a girly design of flowers…my suitcase was broke and Meg was happy to lend me her bag which is bigger anyways) I had a rough time finding the bar, but luckily I finally found it. It was also around 11am, about 3 hours after I was already suppose to be there. Before I had a chance to get inside, Tiffany had seen me emerging from the crowd and came up and gave me a hug. She looked very relieved to see me, as I was to find her. She then said that we should go get McKara, who we found sleeping in a booth inside the bar with their luggage.
The next task at hand was to exchange our US currency for Euros. For those of you who are new at this like us, you give them $100 US, and they give you roughly $66 Euro… Isn’t that great….
We got our money and then went to the Traveler’s Information Kiosk, which was a great resource. We found out what bus we needed and where we needed to go. We also made the decision that instead of buying a round trip ticket for 10 Euro, we would by the 13 Euro pass for 3 days. This was the best financial decision of the trip thus far. We got on the bus and headed for O’Connell Street in Dublin Central City.
When we arrived, we had a little trouble finding out which direction to go, but a nice local pointed us in the right direction and off we went to our hotel. We couldn’t check-in yet because it was too early in the day, but we left our stuff in storage at the hotel and started to walk around town. We ate lunch at a bar called Maddigan’s. There were about 50 bars on the street and we couldn’t choose, so I just suggested Maddigan’s because it stuck out to me. Maddigan is Jimmy Butler’s mom’s maiden name. Jimmy is one of my best friends, and since the name was familiar, I thought to myself that it would make for a good story… and I think it does.
There was also a spectacular experience for me at lunch when I, Gregory Morgan, had my first pint of Guinness in Ireland! Tiffany also ordered her first Irish dish; it was ‘eggs, beans and chips’. By chips I mean French fries, by beans I mean baked beans, and by eggs, I mean sunny-side up eggs… very delightful…
Speaking of Guinness, we went to the Guinness Storehouse after lunch. It is over 250 years old and pumps out something like 3 million pints a day! We toured the entire storehouse and learned all about the history and how Guinness is made. We got to pour our own ‘perfect pint’ for free and sit down and relax as we overlooked most of downtown Dublin from the 5th floor of the storehouse. It was really breathtaking. McKara is allergic to almost anything, so I got to drink her beer in addition to mine. We then proceeded to go to the top of the storehouse to the bar where it had round glass walls that gave us a 360 degree panorama of Dublin City… it was truly spectacular. I had another free beer and we proceeded to make our way back to the hotel.
We finally checked into our hotel, the Belvedere Hotel at Parnell Square. It was a nice hotel with a bar attached on the first floor. As we entered into the lift (aka elevator), I began to become more cognizant of how much Europe is different than the US. The three of us barely fit in the elevator with our luggage. When we got into our room, we started to settle in. McKara and Tiffany showed me how we had to put our room keys into a docking station in the wall in order to turn on the electricity. They also began to tell me about how they already struggled with the European to US electrical converters and that it took them 45 minutes to figure out that you had to insert your room key into the wall for the electricity would work. McKara would later blow the circuit breaker in our room in Dublin, as was reported to have happened two times during their stay in London the night before.
The room consisted of one single bed and one double bed, perfect for the three of us to sleep. I was then introduced to European bathrooms, with two faucets on the sink (hot & cold), which you could never quite get warm water. It was hot or cold, no in-between. There were some other minor details, but not that important. However, my bed was very small and I remember falling out of it at least twice.
We hung out in our room for a while, but then went back out for dinner. We ate in the Dublin Bar district at a place called Quay’s Irish Pub, which is another pub with the same name as one of my friends, Ryan Quay. I wasn’t that hungry and got a salad, but McKara got an Irish Stew. We also sat next to the American actor Ethan Suplee. He was Ashton Kutcher’s roommate in The Butterfly Effect, played one of the big linemen in Remember the Titans, and was in other movies that I can’t think of at the moment.
After that, we went to the actual Dublin Bar, which was very crowded and over priced. I ordered a whisky & coke, but didn’t specify the coke. I got Jamison whisky. I was thinking, “there is about 400 different Irish whisky’s here, and I just had to get Jameson” The drink, in total, was about 14 Euro, or about $18 US dollars. We then realized that we needed to budget a little better and left after two drinks.
While we were walking home, we got our picture taken on the streets of Ireland. The photo is hysterical and features the three of us with our heads through one of those boards that has a scene painted on it and you just stick your head through the other side in the spot where the character’s face goes. We did that and have the photo to prove it. The picture was the Irish Flag, with three leprechauns dancing, drinking and playing the fiddle. McKara and Tiffany looked good, but many were convinced that I was actually a leprechaun because I looked so realistic with my head in the cutout.
I was proud that I took Megan’s advice and stayed up the whole first day I was there and easily fell fast asleep after I talked and laughed with the girls for a while. One last thing to note, the sun went down at about 10:30 pm and came up about 3am… It was very difficult to judge the time in addition to changing time zones so much on the way over.
So happy to hear that you're there safe and already having a blast! Looking forward to hearing more of your travel stories! Be safe. Love ya :)
ReplyDeleteHe is also the super racist fat friend in American History X
ReplyDeleteHi Greg... Great idea to record your travel adventures and experiences via a blog while in Europe. Judi and I will look forward to all of your installments. Hope you take lots of pictures. Wish you had mentioned your need of a digital camera. You could have taken mine...for only $25.00 a day. Visited Megan yesterday (Sunday) and made sure that new battery was installed in car. It starts up just fine now. Enjoy your stay...
ReplyDelete