by

2 July 2016

The trip to Ireland went smoothly enough, but was long and had a few hiccups.  Our taxi arrived right on time and left our house a little before 7:30 PM and quickly dropped us at Dulles Airport.

When we checked our suitcase though, it weighed 52 pounds, two pounds (.9 kg) over the limit.  I was prepared to proceed with whatever the fee would be for the extra weight until Sarah and I realized the fee was $200!  Sarah quickly went to work and immediately the eBags paid off (literally).  The eBag with our rain jackets weighed exactly two pounds, so we moved it out of the suitcase and put it in my carry-on bag.

We breezed through Security and arrived at our gate with an hour and half to spare before boarding (just after 8:30 PM which is after regular bedtime for the children).  Everything went well with boarding, but weather left us on the runway for about 20 minutes, so we were late taking off (about 10:45 PM).

The flight went really well!  The Economy Plus seats were wonderful.  The extra room made a huge difference and was actually quite comfortable.  The only complaint I have is that on row 11 the aisle seats have the entertainment box and that takes up about 1/3 of the floor space so a backpack does not fit under the seat.  Fortunately, Liam (7) and I didn’t need much from our bags so we put them in the overhead bins.

The delay in leaving made us about 20 minutes late arriving to Dublin (about 10:45 AM).  I thought the surprising quickness with which we passed through Immigration and the very speedy baggage claim would make up for it though.  In less than five minutes we had our bag and I had used the ATM (there was no line).  While I was getting the bag, Sarah changed the children out of their pajamas into regular clothes.

SIDENOTE:  I would like to commend Dublin Airport.  ALL of the signage in the airport is bilingual with Irish first, followed by English.  In addition to that welcoming sight, the ATM in the baggage claim area allowed me to carry out my transaction entirely in Irish as well.

There was a snag with Avis however.  The employees were very nice, but after signing all of the forms it was 11:47 and we waited another 30-35 minutes for our car to be ready (our car was reserved for 11 AM).  We finally pulled out of the airport at 12:27 with Raidió na Life (Dublin’s all Irish language radio station) playing on the radio and headed for lunch as we were all very hungry.

Our Nissan Qashqai packed with our bags leaving Dublin Airport

We arrived in the carpark of the Monasterboice Inn at 1 PM in a light rain.  The trip in this direction requires taking the M1 which is a toll road that cost us €1.90.  The children have been wonderful!  They slept on the plane (as did I), but Sarah did not sleep much (but more than last time).  I think that leaving at 10:30 PM instead of 5:30 PM made it easier for everyone to sleep.

We ate our lunch, which was very good.  The children’s menu was especially impressive.  Fionnuala (4) had sausages and eggs, Liam (7) had chicken nuggets (which were amazing) with chips, Sarah had veggie soup (which was very good) and a sandwich.  I had a chicken panini (good quality, but not very flavorful) with chips.  We all had drinks (orange drink was a big treat for the kids — they drank the entire pitcher).  All of this for €33.35.  We would find that this is about as cheap a meal as can be had for a family of four and the restaurant is very clean and good for children.  We will definitely return if we are in the area again.

We chose the Monasterboice Inn due to its proximity to Monasterboice Abbey, but it was 1:57 by the time we left the restaurant and we still had to drive across the entire island.  So in the interest of time, we decided to skip our planned visit to Monasterboice and it’s famous high cross.  While a little disappointing, it was the right move.

Traffic and potty stops (the price of drinking the entire pitcher of orange juice) left us with some slow going on our way to Gaoth Dobhair.  One of the places along the route that I had targeted as a potential toilet break worked out especially well.  The McDonald’s in Omagh is an easy stop.  The toilets are sparkling, it is just off the road and has a large car park.  After using the toilet, I bought a white coffee and ice cream cone for £2.18.

Our plan was to text Pádraig (owner of Teac’ Phádraig where we would be staying) when we reached Letterkenny so he could meet us at the house.  When we got to Letterkenny (a little after 5 PM) we discovered a problem with our phone!  We stopped off at Kelly’s Centra in Letterkenny to top-up our phone (thinking this was the issue), but then could not get it to work.  After a considerable number of attempts to sort it out on our own I headed back into the shop.  I asked one of the guys working there and he was very helpful and tried everything he could think of to get the phone working.  Then he asked another employee to help who also spent a lot of time and effort to solve the problem.  In addition, the girl that sold me the top-up voucher asked if there was a problem and offered to refund my money.  I thanked them and asked where the Tesco and Vodafone shops were and then left the shop unsure of my next move.

Slight panic occurred, but we decided to proceed to Gaoth Dobhair and try to come up with a resolution on the drive there.  Sarah tried to use her American iPhone, but Pádraig did not receive the text.  We did get a text through to one of our friends in Dublin though and that was very encouraging!

The drive from Letterkenny through Glenveigh and Dún Luiche was stunning!  When we reached Gaoth Dobhair we went to Teac Jack which we knew was near our house and phoned Pádraig from the car park at 6:42 PM.  This thankfully worked and he met us minutes later and led us to the house.

Pádraig got us settled in and put a fire on.  He was disappointed that we had not been able to contact him earlier as he wanted a fire to be going when we arrived.  After he showed us the house, we went to the Spar shop in Doirí Beaga for some supper and groceries to get us through tomorrow morning, then it was bedtime for all.

While a long day, it actually went pretty smoothly.  It was really nice to see that much Irish in the Dublin Airport.  The workers in Kelly’s Centra were incredible trying to help with my phone even though the place was packed.  Most of all, we are all so very happy and excited to be here.

Total time from leaving our house: 23 hours
Total time from Dublin Airport including stops:  6:15

Gaeilge Experience:  Used ATM in Irish, Radio was in Irish until we lost the signal, IPOD playing songs in Irish

by