My parents invited me on the trip with the assignment of being the travel agent. and then proceeded to provide little input or direction to help guide decisions. With a deep breath, I admit that I can't provide much guidance in the realm of costs because I am spoiled by privilege. But I do know it was expensive.
Time of Year: We were here during the off season (until the bank holiday happened). If we had been here during the busy time of year, I would not recommend following our (complete lack of) plan.
Currency: Because it was the off season, some of the BnBs were cash only, but the booking site didn't say that. And sometimes they said they were cash only, when really they weren't.
Transportation: My dad rented a car through Hertz/Thrift/Dollar. It was a BMW with really good nav. It was a larger car because there were 4 of us. He paid a lot for insurance on the car, but was glad he did because the streets are NARROW. My dad did all the driving because he had experience driving on the left side of the road (lived in England for three years, 30 years ago). It is advised to hire someone
Lodging: My dad wanted to find places as we went. Y'all, I gots anxiety. This is NOT how I roll. It was also a banker's holiday for the second part of our trip, and a ton of places were sold out or super expensive. We spent about 50 euro per person per night. We used booking.com or stopped at somewhere we drove past to find places to say. We got better rates by dropping by because they have to pay a portion of the fee back to the website. My mom also negotiated on rates. I also think got some better rates by paying cash. But that also meant we needed 1,000 euro cash. I don't carry cash or a debit card. I should probably fix that. It's made problems for me on trips since Philly in 2014.
Most places have twin and double beds, but we found one or two that were queen sized for my parents. They elected for rooms with two twins instead of trying to share a double. I never roomed with my parents, but no joke, I could hear my dad snoring through the walls at multiple places.
Hygiene: Because we stayed at different places each night, I got to tour many different bathrooms. Since I'm remodeling mine at home right now, this was useful. The showers are tiny. TINY. Some didn't have a place to set bottles/soap and barely enough room to grab yours from the floor. Also, some of the shower heads liked to move around of their own accord. and I swear in that tiny space, it's still possible to feel like you're going to slip and die.
Monday, May 7, 2018
Ireland Final Day
Monday May 7th:
Dublin Airport to return to US
The Dublin airport has two sets of security if you are flying to the US. The benefit of this is that you can go straight home or to your connecting flight when you arrive landside without having to grab your bags, go through customs with them, and then recheck them. Once you go through the US pre-screening, you can't go back to the main part of the airport.
My experience:
1. You scan your passport into the machine and it collects your info on the screen and asks you to verify it's accuracy. My info was incorrect. The machine just rescanned and made the same error... so there was no way to actually fix it there. (The error was Country of Birth. I was born in the UK and it kept saying I was born in the US.
2. They take your picture and print off another slip of paper you have to carry through with you. They said line your face up with the box, and I am short. So I'm trying to step on my tippy toes to get my face in that damn box. Then the lady pointed out I could have taken a step back to get it right. Whoops.
3. My boarding pass had a code on it that meant I was randomly selected for additional screening. I am not joking when I say that body search felt pretty intense. It was not a light pat down and there was nearly no area that escaped untouched (they can't touch bear skin. They wear gloves.) I was wearing a dress, which is what I think made it feel worse. She felt both my legs and at one point thought she felt something on my thigh. (Sometimes I wonder why I even bring the thunder.)
4. The flight was delayed 4 hours. :(
Dublin Airport to return to US
The Dublin airport has two sets of security if you are flying to the US. The benefit of this is that you can go straight home or to your connecting flight when you arrive landside without having to grab your bags, go through customs with them, and then recheck them. Once you go through the US pre-screening, you can't go back to the main part of the airport.
My experience:
1. You scan your passport into the machine and it collects your info on the screen and asks you to verify it's accuracy. My info was incorrect. The machine just rescanned and made the same error... so there was no way to actually fix it there. (The error was Country of Birth. I was born in the UK and it kept saying I was born in the US.
2. They take your picture and print off another slip of paper you have to carry through with you. They said line your face up with the box, and I am short. So I'm trying to step on my tippy toes to get my face in that damn box. Then the lady pointed out I could have taken a step back to get it right. Whoops.
3. My boarding pass had a code on it that meant I was randomly selected for additional screening. I am not joking when I say that body search felt pretty intense. It was not a light pat down and there was nearly no area that escaped untouched (they can't touch bear skin. They wear gloves.) I was wearing a dress, which is what I think made it feel worse. She felt both my legs and at one point thought she felt something on my thigh. (Sometimes I wonder why I even bring the thunder.)
4. The flight was delayed 4 hours. :(
Confessions
So, I haven't put anything up here in about 6 years. I'm back to write a series of posts about my trip to Ireland, but I feel I need to provide context and address the previous content of this blog.
Even thought I could easily delete the old posts, or start a whole new blog, I believe it is important to honor the past.
Too Long, Didn't Write:
Confession #1: I've gained all the weight back (and then some). But now I'm working on body positivity and decolonizing beauty and a healthy relationship with food that doesn't involve binging or panic attacks when faced with food.
Confession #2: I am divorced. I am very happily divorced, and the appropriate response to this news is "Congratulations." not "I'm sorry."
Even thought I could easily delete the old posts, or start a whole new blog, I believe it is important to honor the past.
Too Long, Didn't Write:
Confession #1: I've gained all the weight back (and then some). But now I'm working on body positivity and decolonizing beauty and a healthy relationship with food that doesn't involve binging or panic attacks when faced with food.
Confession #2: I am divorced. I am very happily divorced, and the appropriate response to this news is "Congratulations." not "I'm sorry."
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