Could You Tell Me Where The Restroom Is?

Arrived in Dublin 10 o'clock this morning, and as of now I have been awake for over 35 hours. Our flight connection was PDX-JFK-DUB. Portland to New York was direct and took us 5 hours; while New York to Dublin took another 6 hours. Flights were relatively short so we didn't really get a chance to catch up with sleep while on the plane. It's been rough. LOL.

During our 6-hour lay-over yesterday at JFK, by the way, we made an attempt to go to China Town for pho (yea, it's that damn beef noodle soup). But for some reason subway worked so slow that day that after spending nearly two hours on the blimmin' subway Glen and I decided to detour and got off at the Manhattan Mall. We didn't end up eating pho, sniffle! Had to be happy eating at Tims and KFC that night. Oh well! Six hours is certainly not enough time to get around in such a huge city like NYC. Well, you technically can, but you really have to move fast and have your fingers crossed that there won't be transport-related problems.

Me at DUB

My first impressions upon arriving in Dublin are..
They must be quite proud of their own language! Irish (Gaelic) comes before English in any printed signs at the Dublin airport. Secondly..,the place kind of reminds me of Indonesia for I get to see quite a lot of open grassy fields here and there. In addition, Dublin's highway is quite a difference compared to those in the States. You can see still open fields right by the high way -as in no platform/barrier/concrete separating structure, while there will be an isolation from those sorts with US highways. Also.. people here are sooo proper! I got the 'Hello Miss' kind of greeting at the hotel. I don't get one of that sort back in the US. Suddenly felt important LOL. What's funny was people didn't quite get me when I asked them where a restroom was.

Anyway.., here it went:
Me: "Could you tell me where the restroom is? I have to run in there real quick"
Reception Lady: "Oh, go behind this desk please"
Me: "What??.."
..
Despite my confusion, I went to the room behind the reception and was searching for the restroom. None. Nothing! Asked one of the waitressed who replied me this way: "Oh, toilet?"
DUH!! Good thing I finally found my way to the damn loo.

Stephen's Green Park

My lunch!

Spent the day checking out the Trinity University, Grafton St (a street reserved for pedestrians only, reminds me of the one in Mexico City around Zocalo), and St. Stephen's Green Park downtown Dublin. Trinity was established in 1592 and stands as one of the premiere colleges (on top of being the oldest)  in Ireland. Had lunch at the uni's cafeteria and price was dirt cheap. My meal (rice, lamb stew, veg) only cost 4.95 Euros. To wrap up the day, we spent the evening meeting the family of an old friend. We were driven to this town near Northern Ireland called Carrickdale, where we had a lovely dinner at Carrickdale Hotel (I had baked cod fillet reasonably priced at 12.50 Euros). The drive took a little over an hour from Port Marnock Dublin, passing Drogheda and Dundalk. No stop-over though at the so called the Corrs hometown.

Sitting at the hotel's lobby at Portmarnock now thinking about more things to write. The hotel (Portmarnock Hotel & Golf) is very nice and is reasonably priced at 79 Euros/night at this non-peak season. The blimmin' room is spacious. And I'd say that this place is the best deal that we got for the entire trip. Man it's getting late (12:00 am GMT) so I guess I'll sum up here. My day has been pretty good!

Our room at Portmarnock Hotel & Golf located at Portmarnock, Dublin 13