Quick Trip to Dublin, day three (part two)

I promise, I'll finish this...

When I left off last time, I had just finished watching the outstanding production of Hedda Gabler at the Abbey Theatre.  My beautiful gal pal met us outside the theater - the original plan was to head to the Dublin Writers Museum, but the play lasted a little too long for us to be able to tour the museum.  Ah well.  Next time.  I did get some fun photos on the way to and from the museum, most of which you'll see at the bottom of the post.

My gal pal and I decided we had to have some fish and chips before we left Dublin, so we stopped at Beshoff's.  They have several restaurants around town, but this one was on our way, so we went in.  I got the cod and chips and they were DELICIOUS!  The whole meal was a treat and not too expensive, either.  Since the euro and the dollar are about even at the moment, I found Dublin to be quite affordable, which was a nice surprise.

Anyway, after the yummy fish and chips, my beautiful gal pal and I walked slowly towards the Players Theatre at Trinity College for her performance.  We stopped at a small shop on the way to pick up some bottled water and the very attractive young cashier was very helpful in assisting me in which candy bar would make the yummiest after-dinner treat.  So that was a nice bonus.  :)  My beautiful gal pal was again brilliant in her show, as was the whole cast.  I know I saw the same show three times, but I really liked it.  I was happy to see more people in the audience the third night I was there - I haven't gotten an update yet on how sales were the weekend after I left...

After the show, I didn't want to be out too late because I had to get up obscenely early for the airport.  My beautiful gal pal and I decided we did want to go to a pub for a whiskey, because hello, Irish whiskey.  On our way towards a pub near the apartment, I saw that we were near the street the Grand Lodge of Ireland was on.  I asked my gal pal if we could please stop so she could take my picture in front of it, to show my dad.  We were outside the lodge, taking photos, when suddenly a man came out and said "Can I help you with something?"  I was so taken aback!  I said, oh, my father is a Mason in America and I just wanted to look at the Lodge.  He asked if we wanted to get a look at the inside.  Uh, YES!

I guess he was the caretaker.  He apologized for having locked up most of the rooms for the night, but he said we could see the main meeting room.  It's a large, beautiful room, with enormous ceilings and a huge pipe organ.  The caretaker said all of the Dublin chapters meet in that room.  He asked if I wanted to sit in the Grand Master's chair - uh, YES!  He even took my picture in it!  He said the chair was built in 1823 for the first Grand Master of Ireland, a gent who was only 21 when he took the post and he kept the post for over 60 years!  We got lots of good stories out of the very kind caretaker, who I think got a kick out of two American girls looking through his Lodge.  He kidded us about returning to the 'colonies' and again apologized for not being able to show us the museum.  I promised to go back again next time I was in Dublin.  But what a serendipitous thing!  We weren't even planning on being there and then had a wonderful little excursion!  I love things like that.

We wandered again towards the apartment and found a nice pub nearby.  We had a glass of Paddy's and toasted our friends and our trip.  It was very fun.  When we got back to the apartment, we regaled our friends about our Masonic experience and I packed and got ready for my trip home.  I was so sad to leave and wished I could stay longer.

Just some brief tidbits about my trip back:  my cabbie said we had plenty of time to get to the airport, so he took me on a little tour.  He showed me the new Google building and some other interesting architectural spots between the city center and the airport.  Once I got to the airport, there were quite a few people flying and the lines were quite long.  I was glad I got there early, though they have so many people working, the lines moved really quickly.  I hadn't done the 'pre-customs' thing before.  After I got a snack in the food court (I wanted to finish off those euros), I saw the departure board said I should head to the pre-customs area.  It was weird having my bag scanned again, then having my picture taken while my passport was scanned again.  I'm positive we didn't have to do any of that when I went to Italy, but whatever.  It was easy enough.  Oh, and I should mention that my cell phone provider finally Tweeted me that with my model of phone, I wouldn't be able to get international service anyway.  Geez.  Why didn't the first five people I dealt with tell me that?!?!  The customer service person on Twitter said they'd take the service off my bill.  Wouldn't you know that when I opened my new phone bill yesterday THE CHARGES WERE ON THERE.  I called and immediately got them credited.  But I don't get why no one talks to each other around there...

The flight back to NY was uneventful.  I sat next to a very chatty couple from Ohio (?!) and had quite a few snacks provided on the direct flight.  We got in early and I hopped in a cab home.  I think the cabbie may have been making a play for me - I'm not quite sure, I was so jetlagged by this time, I couldn't see straight - but he asked me if I were single, if I liked Moroccan food, and if I liked kids.  I mean, the answer to all of those is yes, but that doesn't mean I want to date a cabbie young enough to be my son.  Especially when I haven't slept in pretty much four days.

All in all, I am SO GLAD I decided to take the trip to Dublin!  The people were delightful, I could've toured for days and I loved every minute there.  There were so many things I wanted to see, but there just wasn't time.  I definitely will need to go back. And I definitely need to make more room for travel in my life.  Well, there's always room.  But there aren't always funds.  I have to work on that.  Thanks for touring with me!

 

 

sad to be leaving...