Dublin

Friday 6/26/09

Today has been a very long day. It started early at the B&B, we had a last breakfast in the roof top garden, grabbed our things and headed for the airport. We had to take the subway to the main station, and then catch a bus to get out to the airport. Similar to last time, Ryan air didn’t fly out of Rome’s main airport, they flew out of a ‘smaller’ airport outside of the Rome city limits. Unlike in Glasgow where the smaller airport was about the size of Albany International, in Rome the ‘smaller’ airport was closer to the size of LaGuardia. So we got there and were relieved to see a sign for Ryan air up in one of the many check in lines. We hopped in line, and checked the screens to see that our flight was still planning on leaving on time. We figured out that it was leaving out of gate 22, so we knew where to go after checking in. Things were good. Then we got to the front of the check in line after waiting about half an hour. The woman at the desk told us that we were in the wrong line. It would seem that we had misinterpreted the Italian writing on the display screen, the flight wasn’t leaving out of gate 22, we needed to check in at desk 22. Great, so we run over to gate 22 and there is another huge line. So now I’m getting really worried, because we have less then an hour till our flight is suppose to leave, and Ryan air states clearly on their website that if you don’t check your baggage at least 40 minutes before the flight departs they won’t guarantee that it will make it through with you to your destination. So we waited, and waited, and at 20 minutes before our flight was scheduled to leave we finally checked in. The woman at the desk was unconcerned however, and seemed to think there would be no problem with the baggage. We got through security, and got to our real gate (#4) and were ready to leave. Our departure time came and went as we waited in line, finally they let us board. Twenty minutes past our departure time they finally closed the plane… and then we sat there. For another hour, we sat there captive on the runway, until the plane finally left. Then it was another 3 hour flight to Dublin. Sigh, despite all the potential issues, we made it to Dublin in one piece, and our baggage managed to make it with us.
The first thing that registered in my mind when I stepped out of the airport was that I miss Italy already. It was cold, and overcast here, and it was starting to sprinkle. We caught a lime green double decker bus from the airport to a stop near our hotel, and checked in no problem. Our room is a little odd. I thought we were getting a standard double room, with either a double bed, or two singles. Turns out that we got both a double bed and two singles, so our room is a little more crowded then it needed to be, but is otherwise comfortable. Once again here it seems that “wifi in every room”, translates to “pay us an unreasonable amount of money and you can use the wifi in your room”. Fortunately there are a few internet café’s nearby that charge very little to use the internet, so we will most likely try to post from there tomorrow. We went for a walk after getting into the hotel, just to get a feel for the city… it started to rain. We tried to go to a pub for dinner, but they didn’t serve food, only beer. Morgan got his first Guinness in Ireland, and I tried a bit, still tastes horrible even when it’s Irish. We had planned to stay for some entertainment, but the smoky atmosphere drove us out. We went back to the hotel, picking up sandwiches on the way. I’m really quite tired, so I’m gonna call it an early night. Maybe tomorrow will be better.