There’s something about walking into work with a suitcase behind you. It says, yes...I have places to go! And indeed I did. I did my time at the office and then hopped on the train to Schiphol. I didn’t realize that Aer Lingus is partnered with KLM so I checked in in the business class area and managed to go through the customs line quickly. Nice. Only carry-on for me since I knew Marnie would be waiting for me and I was eager to ‘frapper la rue’ and start re-exploring Ireland.
It was a pretty detour through Wexford and up over to Portlaoise. Marn just laughed about it so that was a relief. I’d have felt awful if she’d been upset about it but hey – it was a ‘off the beaten path’ kind of weekend and we’d never seen this part of the country before! In all, I’d guess it added an extra 200km to our journey but we managed to get to the hotel before midnight. So much for some pub-grub for dinner. In order to make it to the hotel before midnight (barely!) we ended up having ‘gas station cuisine’ for dinner, read: chips, chocolate and gummies. Fortunately the pub at the hotel was still open so there were celebratory Guinesses all around!
Quote-of-the-day: "Hey, Marn...I've got a funny feeling we're heading the wrong way."
After a very civilized 1hour flight, I had landed at Dublin airport. I met Marnie at arrivals according to her instructions on my mobile phone. This was already evidence of big changes since we’d last been here. Mobile phones were barely in existence in 1996 but here we were, fifteen years later, texting to each other while I was still getting off the plane!
I don’t think we’d seen each other in about 5 years or so but she hasn’t changed a bit. After a big hug to say hello, we headed off to get the car. She’d arranged it all so she was the only driver on the contract. I didn’t mind but worried if it might be a lot for her – especially since she’d be jet-lagged. She said it was all good so I assumed the role of navigator, a job I immediately failed at. We didn’t realize we had a map in the car with us so we tried to get by on crude maps from the car rental company to get on to the M50. Once on the M50, all highways to the 12 corners (!) of the country branched off of it. Piece of cake? Not so much. Because of the heavy rain we couldn't see anything and missed the M50. After an hour of gabbing and catching up, I started to notice lots of signs for Wexford. Once I caught glimpse of the coast on our left, I knew we were heading south, not west!
It was a pretty detour through Wexford and up over to Portlaoise. Marn just laughed about it so that was a relief. I’d have felt awful if she’d been upset about it but hey – it was a ‘off the beaten path’ kind of weekend and we’d never seen this part of the country before! In all, I’d guess it added an extra 200km to our journey but we managed to get to the hotel before midnight. So much for some pub-grub for dinner. In order to make it to the hotel before midnight (barely!) we ended up having ‘gas station cuisine’ for dinner, read: chips, chocolate and gummies. Fortunately the pub at the hotel was still open so there were celebratory Guinesses all around!Quote-of-the-day: "Hey, Marn...I've got a funny feeling we're heading the wrong way."
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