Friday, July 1, 2011

Day 15

Today we packed up and checked out of our resort in Spain and our driver arrived to fetch us as arranged at 10 am to take us to Malaga airport for our flight to Dublin. 

One of the problems with this trip is the fact that on our Malaga/Dublin and Dublin/London flights we are only allowed 20kgs of luggage….big problem!  You want to know how hard it is to pack only 20kgs for a full month, with expected weather ranging from 13 degrees to about 50 degrees C and 9 day stretches with no laundry facilities….?  Well in my world it’s impossible!  As was evidenced when we got to the check-in counter and were told that we were collectively 4 kgs over our allocated baggage allowance… and no, they would not ignore that fact… they charged us a whopping €60 penalty.  Ouch!  Eina! Pain!  To add insult to injury, Grant discovered that he had forgotten his Leatherman in his hand luggage and that was promptly confiscated too!  Freakin hell!

Anyway, we went and consoled ourselves at Starbucks and then boarded our flight.  Only to discover that we were booked on the airline equivalent of a kindergarten…. Screaming brats wherever you looked and I mean that literally…. they were screaming!  The little shit vile child 3 rows ahead of us, who screamed loudly and solidly for more than 25 minutes, can be thankful he was not born into my family, he wouldn’t survive a single day. 

I decided to distract myself by watching a movie and chose “Blue Valentine” – I like both Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, so reckoned it was a safe bet.  Well!  A more bizarre movie has never been made and as for the ending????  So yes… this flying experience was not a whole lot of fun!

In any event, we arrived safe and sound at Dublin airport, with all of our (very heavy) baggage.  Our hotel in Dublin is one of those large, non-descript places.  A bit of a let-down after the gorgeousness that was our Paris hotel, but it’s convenient as it is the hotel we’ll be using on the first night of our tour.

We checked in, unpacked (our very heavy luggage) and relaxed for a bit, before getting ready for a very exciting night out.  Unfortunately we left our transport arrangements to Grant and Dad, which is why Rox and I found ourselves teetering along one endless block after another in our “going out shoes” - the guys felt we should walk to the theatre! 

We had supper at a Chinese restaurant (more screaming brats, what is it with this place?)


and then headed to the Gaiety theatre, right next door, for Riverdance.  It was amazing!  We had seen the DVD and the making of it and seen the show live in Durban many moons ago, but to see it in Dublin...we loved every minute of it!  What an experience!




Then it was back to the hotel for some sleep, or so we thought… unfortunately our hotel is situated in an area with verrrry many students and verrrrry many pubs… The noise!  Unbelieveable!

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