The next part.

Wednesday
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After all the walking I’ve been doing the last few days my calves feel like lead and I have an annoying blister on my foot which has been bugging me the past few days. Today I decided to take it easy…well that was the plan…there aren’t many enjoyable things to do on holiday anywhere which involve sitting down all day.
Got up about 9am after a good nights kip. Been a little bit cooler so it’s easier to sleep but still too warm to use the duvet.

1030: After breakfast I thought I would do the City Tour, which involves plenty of sitting! Shame that this morning it had started raining lightly, which is not ideal on the upper deck of an open top tour bus, but bearable. Obviously the covered front few rows were taken when I joined at stop No.1, and sitting downstairs on a tour is not right. I would have thought that the presence of rain meant the tour would be generally quiet but no, the bus soon filled right up! Bearing in mind the tours are ever 10 minutes (for Dublin Bus’s City Tour alone, there is also a City Sightseeing one which run about every 10 minutes also!) they must have carried millions of passengers today. OK maybe I exaggerated a little, but you get the idea. Needless to say, about two-thirds of the passengers got off at Guinness, and as it was early few got on, so after that was pretty quiet.
The driver does live commentary throughout, which was very interesting and light hearted, and very well done considering he has to fight the Dublin traffic at the same time.

1115: Decided to get off the tour bus at stop No.16 (it’s a hop-on hop-off service), which is for Phoenix Park. I wanted to visit the zoo while i was in Dublin as I love animals. Again, I decided to do the zoo mid-week as sunday would have probably been packed. Probably a mistake; it was full of kids on school trips! Must have been at least half a dozen groups. You can probably picture the scene, each and every viewing area where you can see the animals, kids were there. Kids were running around everywhere in between. If one group moved on, another would move in. They sometime clash - two groups getting in the way together! They are noisy (although seemed pretty much well behaved, you know what kids are like). Shouting ‘wake up hippo’ will NOT actually wake the hippo. I should not hear kids in the birdhouse - from their footsteps in the next room.
Otherwise, it was a nice zoo. Not as big as Twycross (my ‘local’) but with a good variety. There was a free-flight aviary, this would be great with more birds! They will be putting bats in here but they aren’t there yet. If they are, they were hiding. The elephants could only be seen through holes in a fence, as they are working on creating some mega elephant enclosure. There was a ‘city farm’ but most of the animals couldn’t be stroked which was a shame as most were in full size cages (Twycross has pens you can reach into!), apart from one pony. The few others which did have reachable pens, the animals weren’t close enough (can’t blame them for keeping back with all those kids around!). Plus the zoo contains the usual; tigers, lions, penguins, sea-lions, flamingoes, mara, chimps, gorillas, reptiles, zebras, giraffes, meerkats (didn’t see any, must have been hiding) and lots of duckies, etc. But no owls. Twycross has owls…
You can probably guess, the zoo involved plenty of walking! Not just that, but half way round the spitting rain turned into a downpour. All doorways and indoor areas were…yes…full of kids! So whipped out my jumper and hat (still had shorts and sandals on, always optimistic! Well, not always…) and braved it. It wasn’t all that cold so was actually quite nice and refreshing.
Had lunch at the zoo which tasted terrible, so won’t eat there again! Back to the bus stop (not actually a bus stop, but the ‘first lamp post after the roundabout’ the driver informed us as they aren’t allowed to put a sign up in Phoenix Park). A bus came straight away which was nice, although the rain had pretty much stopped by this point. Either way, back on top deck and got a covered seat. The problem wasn’t the rain now, but who’d want to sit on an already wet seat! Most people were on lower deck. Bless. By the time we were back in O’Connell Street top deck was otherwise empty. Of course I stayed on board until it returned to stop No.1 as to complete the full tour. I’d recommend the tour to any visitor.

By now the rain had started heavily again, and it was time to walk round town. My sun hat was soaked through so just chucked it in my bag and managed without. When you’ve been walking in heavy rain so much it’s running down your face it doesn’t seem to make any difference any more! Still, it was a good excuse to hit the shops, as I hadn’t really done any yet. Is it wrong that the first bit of shopping I did in Ireland was from the um most Irish of stores…um…Gap. OK it was a branch within an actual Irish department store (Arnotts) so that makes it OK. But after that I really had no excuse to go to Debenhams did I! Except they might sell umbrellas, and I needed an umbrellas, and they had umbrellas, so again, perfectly acceptable. Then went to Topman…just for a browse really, and there were two top girls on the tills…so again all is good. I did pop into a couple of other British shops but balanced it out by visiting Irish ones too. I even refrained from going to Costa and went to a proper Irish coffee shop. No, not ‘Irish coffee’. I saved the alcohol for Temple Bar a bit afterwards. Temple Bar pubs are better visited in the afternoon, as in the evenings they get totally packed. The whole area does.

I’ll probably do most of my shopping on Friday, or even at the airport on Saturday (after the weight checks!). I also wanted to return to Bray, to finish off my sunbathing. And possibly see if Katie O’Holmes is still around (ok maybe not!). But the forecast is rain for the rest of the week. But as long as I get to the beach somewhere before I go back, even if it’s chucking it down, I’ll be happy. I don’t know what it is but there’s a certain magic of being by the sea.

1930: With plenty of time left, and my foot and legs easing off to make the act of walking less of a chore, I went to Dun Laoghaire for a bit. Public transport in Dublin is great, reliable and frequent, so it’s possible to just go off somewhere without worrying about getting back. But I only stayed in DL for about an hour, as it was now getting nippy, especially that sea breeze, my jumper had been left in the hotel room a couple of hours ago (when it stopped raining and I’d got the brolly). So returned to Dublin, changed into jumper/trousers and went into town for dinner. I’m trying my hardest to leave my coat on it’s hanger for the whole week! I even carried my coat before leaving Birmingham Airport, carried it on the plane and not worn it at all since. I can carry it back then it’ll be good. Yes I am very odd!

I know I should have posted this ages ago… but… there you go. The next two parts I’ll write now and schedule them for other times in the week, get it finished!

Monday
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0930: Needed a lie in this morning. Finding it very difficult to sleep at night, it’s so hot and humid 24 hours a day, even the open window doesn’t help. If I knew the forecast I’d have payed extra and booked a hotel with air conditioning. Went the other way up the coastline today, to Howth (rhymes with ‘both’). Nice hillside fishing village, bustling harbour. Took a walk to the top of the hill, Howth Summit. It didn’t look far but about 4o minutes later I was there. Gorgeous views but a lot of haze again. Returned along the cliff path, a bit longer but nicer than the road. Wanted to take a boat ride out to an island just off the coast, Ireland’s Eye. But where the boat leaves from, there was nothing. Never mind.

1230: Time to move on round the coast to another harbour town. 45 minutes or so on the DART straight into Dun Laoghaire (read: Dun Leary). Most people know this town as where-the-HSS-ferry-goes-from. But there’s more to it. Lots and lots of boats, an old red lightship, very long piers giving nice views out into the bay, ships passing by. Popular with fishermen sitting on the rocks. Quite a surprisingly large shopping area too considering how small the town is. Scampi and chips while sitting in the middle of the harbour watching people learning to sail (must be, a bunch of little yachts going round in circles) was lovely.

1615: Back into Dublin pausing for a break at the hotel, the had a wander round the Docklands which is being heavily regenerated. Walked through to the East bridge then back on the north side of the Liffey, past Trinity College to Pearse station.

2000: Back to the room early tonight as I’m up early tomorrow, nice to just relax for a couple of hours.

Tuesday
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0600: Up early as my mum is coming over for the day, as she’s never been to Ireland before and fancied a day out. She arrived about 0700 so took her for a quick walk around while everywhere was still shut. Then for breakky at my favourite Lemon seeing as I’d miss the hotel’s.

0900: A quick tram ride over to the Guinness Storehouse exhibition. I’ve been there a few years ago so knew what to expect. Still a great place. Worth it for the complimentary pint in the Gravity Bar alone! Spent about 3 hours in there I reckon then straight back into Connolley then onto Sandycove which lies on the southern coast of Dublin Bay. That’s the location of the James Joyce museum, housed in an old circular Martello tower. Only a little place but quite charming.

1530: Returned to central Dublin for lunch, then a couple of pints in Temple Bar. Well as it was my mum’s first time in Ireland I had to show her a traditional Irish pub, with live music. The pubs over here are great, so friendly and interesting with plenty of character and charm. Unlike the majority of English ones which are basically just places which sell booze, seen one seen them all. Then a short time shopping before seeing her off at Busaras at 8pm.

2000: Back to the room as I was kerrrnackered. Put the telly on, lay on bed, started falling asleep. Thought ’sod it’, turn telly off and actually go to sleep. was so tired I didn’t even get chance to offload the days photos from my camera and do the journal entry (I’m writing this bit at 11pm on Wednesday).

Sorry it’s late…! Posting my journal from my holiday bit by bit.

Saturday
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Nice flight across, Aer Lingus are very good. Sat right at the back of the plane, by the window, accompanied by Nerina Pallot (playing on my iPod). Leather seats too! And the coffee on board was a fair price. Friendly staff, Irish of course. Captain was really good, had a relaxing Irish accent, much nicer to listen to than the English ones. Plus a near perfect landing it seemed. It was quite nice sitting at the very back row, some strange motions obviously and also interesting watching the flaps and actually seeing how they affect the ‘crafts movement.
Some nice views over Staffordshire, looking over at Runcorn, Liverpool then the Isle of Man on the right (I couldn’t what was on the left although obviously it was Cheshire and North Wales, plus some stunning views over Ireland as we approached, I need to find out where it was. Came into the far end of Dublin Airport so there was lots of fun heavy banking as it curved round. Must be something to do with wind direction and all that stuff.
Landed about 1530, my bag was on the carousel fairly quickly (every time I’m at that carousel I always think “will it arrive?!” Does everyone think that?). Quickly out of the airport, via the loo, and at the bus stop by 1600.

1615: Local bus from airport to Busaras was very quick, it only makes two stops in town so no messing about. Even better, where the bus stopped at the bus station, my hotel was almost immediately over the road! And I have a tram stop round the corner. The railway bridge runs behind, and Connolley station is a few minutes away. Nice!
Hotel Isaacs is very nice, room on 2nd floor with no view apart from a little courtyard thing and the backs of other building but that doesn’t bother me. I’m only a few minutes away from the Liffey. Checked in about 1630 I think, not too sure as I wasn’t paying that much attention. Staff seem friendly. Room has a keycard which is great. I much prefer the card locks as that fits nicely into my wallet. No physical keys that have to be lugged around or given to the desk each time, with the fear of losing it.

1700: It is hot and sunny in Dublin today. So after checking out the room, it was a quick change into t-shirt, shorts and sandals. If it’s nice weather I’m making the most! So off out again. First stop (after the information office, for some…umm…information) was a delicious crepe from Lemon, I love that little place. Then it was time for a nice stroll round the city, and the taking of some photos. Nice to see quite a few other people taking photos too, I don’t mean touristy shots but people making the most of the beauty with proper cameras.
Especially in St. Stephen’s Green, that is a lovely little park. A fraction of the size but probably more charming than the likes of London’s Royal parks. I wandered round there, went back into town, checked out the street acts around Grafton Street, of which there were plenty.
1830: Picked up a bag of chips from Dublin’s ‘oldest chipper’, which incidentally has been visited by tens of famous people, including U2 (guess they’ve been everywhere here!), Peter Andre, George Michael’s Band (I guess Georgie isn’t a chip fan) and many other names which I can’t remember, A list and Z list, mostly Irish. No doubt I’ll pop in again sometime, I’ll grab another look at the big board of fame on the wall inside. So I took my chips and went back to St. Stephen’s Green and lazed on the grass in the evening sunshine with loads of other people equally lazy (7pm, still lovely out!) munching and reading up on things to do. Beautiful.

Just that short spell a-wandering round Dublin is enough to remind me why I love the place. The people, the buzz, the colours and the charm. AKA ‘the craic’ so I believe. Hmm in that sentence TextEdit think that ‘colours’ is spelt wrong. Twice now. Anyway, where was I…

2030: Came back to my room for half hour or so for a rest, checked out the wireless networks and my room can get the hotel’s network. Well, just, signal is very low as I’m high up, but the provider’s welcome page works perfectly well so the rest of the net should be fine. Might treat myself to a voucher in the week, we’ll see. Then I started typing this ‘journal’ thing which I’ll probably post to my blog at the end. Yes I guess it will be long, so I’ll probably highlight words and phrases to break the monotony. Just to note, all times I’ve written here are approximate! There is more to life that looking at my watch in Ireland.
As for my room at Hotel Isaacs, it’s pretty nice. The view I’ve mentioned. I have two beds (shame there’s nobody to use the other one!), a TV with a nice selection of channels on some shelves, dressing table, bedside tables, stool, a couple of lamps, drawers, kettle and the usual tea making bits, iron and ironing board, a wooden thing with straps across it (no idea!), hairdryer, my own in-room safe, phone, obligatory bible (if I believed in all that) and a clothes rail.
Plus an en-suite of course, with the usual sink/shower/loo and a bath. A bath!! En-siute has a nice stone-tiled floor.
The hotel is different too, an open staircase and a lift goes up the the rooms, on my floor my room is around a few corners and up a little flight of stairs then past a mixture of normal/glass brick/open stone walls. Very unusual. There is also a cafe, a bar and a full on Italian restaurant on site.

2100: Off out again to catch the Saturday evening buzz. Got some nice pictures as it got dark. Including a drunken Irish bloke who really wanted to be in shot at the bottom of O’Connell Street. Had a nice stroll east towards the docks, about half a dozen French military boats moored up (not full frigate size ones). Returned via the Grand Canal Docks and Pearse Street back into the main area. Temple Bar was heaving. Well it is Saturday night, and full of Brits most likely.
Dublin really comes alive at night. Shops and bars open, thousands of other people all out enjoying it, lots of funky lighting, traffic traffic traffic! yes, whatever you may have heard about Dublin traffic it’s all true. About 2330 and it’s still queueing. OK not rush hour queues but, still.

2330: Back in now, call it a day. I must have walked miles today, I can sure feel it! Not a complaint, I enjoy walking. probably the best way to spend the first evening. Relaxing with a bit of Regina Spektor and a Guinness. Well I have to have Guinness on the first night in Dublin. Think I’ll ’sign out’ for today. Just realised how long these notes are…I don’t think I’ll post it to my blog in one chunk! Today’s will probably be the longest bit, seeing as its the first day. Sorry, I keep extending it…!

Went into Coventry centre today. Picked up a bunch of Euros of course. Found a load of good stuff, some of which were good bargains including the following:

Picked up some cargo shorts (hot sunny weather willlllll be here alllllll summer), one fairly standard pair from Debenhams at £15 (a few pounds of in a sale) and a Slazenger pair for just £6 from TJ Hughes. Also from TJs a new suitcase, super light, average size, large capacity, deep purple colour (easy to find on the carousel), down from 40 to just £16.

A charity comedy DVD down from a tenner to just 99p from a bargain shop. Also in the same bargain shop, a 6 pack of Guinness for £4.99, cans of D&B (hard to find these days!) for 23p a piece, 2 tubes ‘of XXL’ sized Pringles for £1.38 total, bottle of Marstons for 99p (£1.59 in supermarket) and a bottle of apple flavoured vodka mix drink (£2-3 in a bar) for 39p!

Stopping at United Footwear on the way home, found a pair of Base light brown suede shoes for £19.99, and a pair of black leather Skechers slip ons for just £5!

I do think I’ve done pretty darn well today.