I feel like each trip begins with steeling myself for the longest flight ever, but one trip set a new record because we started on our bus tour directly after arriving at Dublin airport. Our flight was just over 6 hours and very smooth if crowded. It was great to get a pickup from the airport so made the first confusion of finding our way around a little less than usual. Welcome to Ireland, take 2.
I first came to Dublin in 2013 via ferry while I was backpacking around England (see https://www.weeksintheworld.com/uk/). I’d wanted to see Dublin especially because in my undergraduate literary studies degree I did an entire course on James Joyce’s Ulysses, which uses the city as its backdrop. An amazing professor made the course very memorable and delving so deeply into a work of literature with such a strong setting made me eager to see the city.
The first time I came, I spent two nights, saw the Book of Kells at Trinity College, went to the Writers’ Museum, took a tour of Kilmainham gaol and walked a lot of the city. The visit prompted me to add “more of Ireland” to my travel list, and when my Mom (Sandra) said she would also be up for the trip, we booked a weeklong tour plus some extra time in Dublin and a couple of nights in Belfast.
Back on the longest day, we boarded the coach that would become our home for the upcoming week on a Royal Irish Tours “Irish Twist” Tour https://ritvacations.com/ireland/promo/irishtwist/ and headed from the airport immediately out of town to Wicklow, south of Dublin. Over a pub lunch, we began to get to know our 22 fellow tour travelers, all Canadian over what would become a familiar fare of vegetable soup and sandwiches. I thought it would be pint o’clcock as soon as we got off the plane but realized alcohol would only compound the zombie state so decided to hold off. There would be plenty of pints in days to come: Guinness for Mom, cider for me.
We arrived at the Ferrycarrig hotel just outside Wexford and had a nice meal in the airy dining room overlooking a natural setting. A wedding was being held at the same time in another part of the hotel and it was clear why the couple would choose it as a venue. But the peaceful scenery would have to wait until I put down my head for a proper 12 hours.