Ireland Vacation (Continued)

Thursday, July 23, 2010

After flying out of Las Vegas we flew for 10 hours and over 5000 miles (Tina thinks the mileage is a little high) we finally landed in London. I tried to sleep as much as I could to beat the jetlag situation that I knew would was coming. I read some and that didn't put me to sleep, so I watched a movie. Still awake; I was beginning to worry. The guy sitting next to us seemed to have no problem sleeping. He probably got a good 5-6 hours. Finally I got my phone out which I had downloaded the audio of the last General Conference. I put my head phones on and started with the first session. I don’t think I made it past the opening prayer. When I woke up I was on the last talk. I drifted back to sleep and when I woke again, I was over half way through the second session. I did this a few more times. Judging by the sessions, I figured I must have got 3-4 hours of sleep time in.

Unfortunately, Tina didn't load general conference on her ipod so she didn't get too much sleep on the flight, maybe a half hour or so. I'll bet she'll never make that mistake again. You should have seen her in London. She could not stay awake, but there was so much going on in the terminal that she really couldn't sleep either. She tried lying on benches, sitting up and sleeping, but nothing seemed to work. I pretended I wasn't with her as much as possible as she was flopping all over the place. I was worried that her head would become a dangerous weapon, falling back and forth the way it was and that she might hurt herself, me or someone else. To compound the issue, out plane from London to Ireland was delayed over an hour.

You know how we always talk about how it seems that time has been sped up? This does not seem to be the case in airports. The conversations in airports go something like this. "What time is it?", "11:03!" Then thirty minutes later, "what time is it now?", "11:07". There must be some sort of time warp in reverse that hangs over airports. Finally after what seemed to be about 4 days, but was actually around 5 hours according to our clocks, we finally were able to board the plane from going from London to Dublin, Ireland. It was the Irish airline, Air Lingus.

Once boarded, Tina did not even need conference to stimulate her ability to sleep. She slept the entire hour that it took to fly to Ireland. In fact she woke up and asked when they were going to bring snacks. Little late for that…

Once we landed in Dublin we converted our money from Dollars to Euros and took a bus to where we were staying. It is a little Bed & Breakfast called the Arial House located on Lansdowne Road. The building is old on the outside, but nice inside. If I could get the pictures from my camera to this computer, I would post it right below here. Since I can't you'll have to use your imagination. I'll get the pictures loaded later.

After checking in, we took the city bus to what they call City Centre (spelling correct for over here). We wandered around and checked out the sights on Connolly Street, which is where everything in Dublin starts from. Not much had changed other than they have built this huge spire that goes way up into the sky. I mean way up. It was to replace something that was there before, but was blown up by the IRA. It was supposed to be built in 2000 for the new Millennium, but they didn't get it completed until 4 years later. They were going to call it something like the "New Millennium Spire", but since it was so late, they had to name it something else. I think they might just call it "The Spire".

By now it is getting later and we are hungry. We looked and looked for what they call chippers. They are these greasy food joints that sell fish and chips (French fries). They also sell chicken. I lived on these things when I was on my mission. They cook everything in these big vats of grease. Once it is done they wrap the meat, in my case chicken and the chips in paper. Actually before wrapping it, they cover everything with malt vinegar. There is so much grease on the food that it would soak the paper, but man was it good. I suspect that it probably either clogged my arteries and shortened my life by 20 years or they are so well lubricated that I will live to be 100. Hopefully not the second! My maximum height in my hay day was not that great, and I have noticed that I'm on a decline so if I were to live to be 100 I'll be lucky to be 4 feet tall.

Anyway, back to the chipper. We found one and it was just like I remember it. I ate all mine and half of Tina's. The next place we headed was to find an Irish Swiss Roll. I'm guessing that it is not really Irish, probably Swiss. Even though the address on the box is in Ireland, I'm guessing they must have imported a bunch of Swiss people to make them. At any rate, it was pretty good, but not as good as I remember. It may have been the brand, or maybe they were really made by the Irish and their recipe is not as good as what the Swiss have.

You also had to eat them with a pint of milk. The milk cartons have changed now also. They used to be in these pyramid looking cartons, but now they are in little plastic bottles. Expensive plastic bottles I might add. It was like 1.80 Euros for a pint.

After enjoying two of my fondest memories we set out back home. One problem, we didn't know how to get back to where we were staying. Fortunately, the Irish people are very nice and helpful, but you have to get used to the way they give directions. They do it a little backward from how I would give directions. Where I would say, "See that 1st stop light down there? Go to the light and turn left; walk 50 yards and you'll see the bus stop at the next corner, on the right hand side." Here is how they like to give instructions. "See that 2nd stoplight down there? Don't go that far. Now see how at the first stoplight you can go right? Don't go right. Turn left. When you get to the next corner, don't go through it, stop before you get to it; make sure you are not on the left side of the road and the bus stop will be right there." Why they think I need to know all the places not to go, I'm not sure, but living here for two years I became and expert in culling out all the non essential information. We finally got on the right bus and with a little more help from our Irish friends, made it home by 11:00 PM. Keep in mind it is not getting dark until after 10:30 PM.

So that was our day three. I did not let the plane delay nor our inability to find our way back to the B&B deter the good luck feeling I have since getting to ride in the Executive Shuttle for the same price as it would have cost to ride in the regular shuttle. That was my good luck charm.

I can’t believe I have finally returned to Ireland…