Accommodation proved to be difficult. Anywhere we looked for accommodation, the price was not cheap and yes that includes Airbnb. We couldn't figure out why exactly - there didn't appear to be any obvious reason why Dublin should be busy that weekend yet it certainly seemed to be. Sure, it was the last weekend of the school holidays but that didn't explain why the Sunday night was just as expensive as the Saturday and Sunday. Not content to wear the high prices unless we absolutely had to, we kept looking at accommodation for many days until Sasha suddenly found a private room in a Hostel available for a decent price. It must have been a room who's reservation had been cancelled and so it was available again - we wasted no time in snapping it up. I'd locked in our day trip to Blarney Castle, Sasha had booked our tickets to the Guinness Store House, and we were pretty much all set!
So - how did it go?
Day 0 - Flying to the Republic
So I head back to Platform 1 and hang around near the stair area, not too far away from where two Platform attendants were telling prospective passengers they need to find alternative travel methods and that there are no trains whatsoever on the London Overground network. All of the station signs reflect what these people are saying, however I know that there is a train because Sasha got on it. After a while one of them must have had enough of my loitering nearby and comes up to me all in a fuss, with a big scowl on his face and asks me where I'm travelling to. "I'm just waiting for someone to come off the Overground train that will arrive soon here at Platform 1" I tell him. "No but where are you going to, all Overground services are cancelled" he says. "Well Gatwick, but I'm just waiting for someone that's on the Overground train which will shortly be arriving here into Platform 1" I reply, almost spelling it out so he could clearly understand what I'm saying. It takes him a moment to comprehend what I've said, the scowl is replaced by a look of surprise, then consternation as he replies "Oh! yes, there's a shuttle train running, but we've got no idea when it will be here". "Well it left Kensington Olympia about 5 minutes ago so it can't be too far away" I reply. "Yes" he says with a rather confused look on his face. He turns around, goes behind the makeshift barrier with his colleague and asks his colleague to find out where the shuttle train is. 2 minutes later, they're talking amongst themselves and then they're announcing that a limited shuttle train service will be running as far as Shepherd's Bush and back, and start letting people back on the platform. The Overground train arrives, Sasha hops off and we head to the platform for the trains to Gatwick.
I always say that no matter how often I travel and how expert I've become at packing my bag, I always forget to pack something. Often its something minor that can either be obtained easily or I can go without. This time however, my packing error was rather egregious. It was my Belkin - the uber-handy travel plug adapter which I take everywhere and it lets me charge 2 USB devices and two plugged devices at a time. Of all the things I could have forgotten to bring, this is probably the worst thing I could possibly have not brought (passport aside!). I had taken it out of my bag after packing at home in order to charge my spare camera battery, and apparently I never put it back - meaning not only did we not have a wall plug to plug our USB cables into to charge our cellphones with, but I had only 1 camera battery of an unknown charge amount and no spare. We had our charging battery bricks which are good for at least 1 charge, but mine was not charged up - I had not gotten around to recharging it. There was not much that could be done at this late hour (it was after midnight), but we had one good brick so since Sasha's phone had less charge than mine, I made her use the brick to charge her phone overnight. I put my phone into airplane mode which uses virtually no charge when not in use to preserve what was left, and we called it a night.
Day 1 - Getting to know Dublin
Once it was all over, we called it a night - but not before noting that a hostel near ours was advertising hostel rooms on an electronic sign "from €199 a night". What the hell was going on this weekend that the place was so busy and expensive?
Day 2 - To Blarney and Back
Cold, wet and hungry, we McDonald'sed it for dinner because it was easy and it was there. On the way back to our accommodation, we got a few photos of the General Post Office which was around the corner from our accommodation and lit up with the Irish Flag on it.
Day 3 - Getting Educated
Summing Up
So that's Ireland. What next? Well, after this trip I thought I knew what was coming up next. Turns out I didn't, but that's the subject of yet another blog post...