Somewhere in February, 2012 I fell in love with Ireland. Tens of articles, hundreds of photos… Even Irish desktop theme for my notebook…
And it turned out that our thoughts are quite material. By July I received an invitation for a business trip to meet the team of our customer in Dublin.
Visa application, airplane tickets, bags packed – we are ready to go.
The schedule is going quite busy. Landing on Saturday evening, some free time on Sunday, business meetings from Monday to Friday, flying back from Saturday to Sunday.
The flight had a connection in Dusseldorf. 7 hours in airplane, then 8 hours of awaiting in airport, 2 hours more to reach Dublin… Add time zone shifting to this. It is enough to loose the sense of time.
As the result, we almost missed boarding in Dusseldorf and reached the gate counter right by the moment of the gate closing. Punctual Germans said couple bad words, and allowed us to board. But without Mike’s luggage (though we found this out only in Dublin). As for me, all that is mine I carry with me 🙂
After looking at those few airplane passengers, I got a strange feeling. July always seemed to be the summer month to me. So “all that is mine” was not impressive – I didn’t take any sweaters or jackets at all. To say the truth, I didn’t even take an umbrella as I hate dealing with the luggage. The passengers obviously were not so optimistic about July as me. Jackets, sweaters, hats, even scarfs… – are we going to the North Pole? During the whole flight Mike was laughing at me, boasting that he has his warm clothes with him. He didn’t know that his luggage will be travelling on its own yet 🙂
Landed in Dublin, didn’t find the luggage, filled couple forms. Airport staff took our hotel address and promised to deliver the bag in 1-2 days (so they did two days later – right to the room and totally free).
As we were going to rent a car, we aimed to an airport area with several car rental companies. Different names, but same proposals.
– What kind of car do you wish?
– Hmm… Well.. Not very small…
– Large one?
– Do you have anything medium-sized?
Medium-sized car (so called “Golf Class”) with satnav, full insurance and two drivers costed us 528 EUR for one week.
– No need to check the car for scratches as you have full insurance. Actually our cars are new.
– Ok.
– Here is the key. The car is on parking.
So what do we have…
Kia Venga: diesel 1.6, with 6 manual gears, metallic gray.
Automatic transmission is more expensive and not really popular, so additionally to “driving in the wrong lane”, we will have to train our lazy left hands 🙂
This photo goes a bit ahead, as we didn’t take any pictures on the dark airport parking, but the car is veeeery nice 🙂
First impressions from driving on left are strange and unusual. You are going in the “wrong lane”, roundabouts are being passed clockwise, gear shifter is on the left side…
Our car had 6 gears instead of usual 5. The range of gear usage is so short that you have to either sweat while switching them one by one, or skip the gear (1-3-5-6 or 2-4-6) 🙂 I did never drive a diesel car before. It was really nice and friendly, allowing to start even from the 4th gear when I messed up with shifting 🙂
Please note that Ireland has lots of roundabouts. Vehicles already on the roundabout (coming from your right) have priority over those entering it.
We reached the hotel and checked in. It was a midnight. What could we do after 17-hour flight? Of cause the only thing we could do is rushing to the other part of the isle in search of adventures! Anyway, we will have some time to see neighbourhoods during the working days.
Flights to Dublin:
Hotel prices in Dublin:
Quick navigation through articles:
1. Introduction
2. Southern Ireland
3. Dublin
4. Northern Ireland. Belfast
5. Summary
