We finally made it to Ireland!
We landed in Dublin around 11 or so, and getting through customs was very easy. Like, surprisingly so. The toughest thing was walking to and through the line. But they separated arrivals by EU and non-EU passports and HOLY moly were there a lot of EU passports.
Meanwhile, Sarah and I breezed through with our American passports. Once we actually made it to the separation point, we walked straight up to the Customs agent.
To me, he was just going through the motions, but after having been in Ireland for all of 12 hours (I exaggerate) I think he was the gruffest guy we've met so far. (And even so he wasn't rude or anything, just you know--going through the motions. )
And then, getting through the bag checkpoint of customs was bizarre. They didn't scan our luggage in any noticeable way but it was so easy.
And then we got a quick lunch at a cafe before we picked up our car--delicious hot cocoa and a tomato mozzarella pan thing for me.
Waiting for the shuttle to the car rental kiosk we had a shuttle driver from a different company check in with us, make sure we knew where we were going, gave the cheeriest goodbye a stranger has ever given me and then our shuttle driver came up and was also pretty cheery about his job. (Not as much as the other guy, but I mean, that's not a fair comparison.)
Got the car and after a slow roll out (checking the car, fitting the luggage in, getting gps to work, etc)
we took the shindig the heck out of Dublin!
The castle we're staying at tonight (I KNOW RIGHT???) Lough Eske Castle in Donnegal is about a 4 hour drive from Dublin.
Well
It could be a lot shorter, but we took nothing but back roads apparently so our trip was preettty long.
Narrow, and narrower roads that twisted and turned through the Emerald Hills....and then it started raining.
Like I said, this place lives up to it's expectations.
I feel bad--I was navigator and there were definitely times I straight up CONKED out.
I was so tired, but Sarah persevered
Outside of the grey skies, the sun set pretty early so we arrived to the castle in the dark. But
it is gorgeous!
Just like....
damn.
5 star treatment.
It's amazing!!
New travel tip--
always treat yourself on the first night.
And we had dinner included and they told us we could eat at 6:30--we had arrived at about 5:45 so we were like, "We can make that." (It was 6:30 or 8:30 and that just felt too long).
And we mostly did! I was able to get dressed enough and not be dripping by 6:40 so I call that a win after about 24 hours in the same outfit. (Though if you think about it, it was actually longer for me. Gross.)
And then we proceeded to eat until 9! =OO 9! Actually pretty standard in the Pittman clan, but it was nice. the food was AMAZING. I had monkfish and Sarah had Duck, and there was cured salmon and crab dip and the wine was excellent. Just
*chefs kiss*
perfection.
And then we had a mini post dinner lay down--you know, where you can't quite nap, but you still can't move?
We did that for a bit before we went back to the main area for a nightcap and music in one of the lounges.
The lounge was peppered with the photographs of Father Browne, a clergyman who lived and traveled on the Titanic! Apparently he had done the short legs before the big one to New York, but couldn't afford the New York fare. Some newly found rich friends were like, "We'll pay!" And he was like, "Yeah but work? Lemme ask my boss."
The boss being a Patriarch, not God.
Anyways, the boss says no, and he's like, "Well, who am I to argue?" and lo and behold he survived by simply not being there.
But he did take a ton of photos which is why there's some documentation of the maiden voyage of the Titanic. Turns out, in GENERAL, Father Browne had taken over 42000 (yes that's 3 zeroes) in his life (possibly more?) of life in Ireland. Dude had great work.
And in the lounge there was also a guitar player and Sarah and I sat with a couple from Northern Ireland (UK side) and they were an absolute delight. Philip was a theater person (this is doing him an injustice to what he does, but you get why we clicked) and Ciara was a baker (same thing here, she does so much more but I'm keeping it simple.) So we sat and chatted and had a drink with them and talked about our trip and their work they gave us little tips and tricks to surviving our Ireland road trip.
They are so kind, and if everyone in Ireland is even a quarter as nice as them, we're going to have such a good trip meeting people, om top of the already amazing trip planned.
So, first day!
And finally, bed.
It's only been about 24 hours of non-stop go--it's going to be such a good sleep.