The Emerald Isle - (the Final) Part 3

On to the final leg of our trip - DUBLIN!

We got into Dublin on a Friday afternoon after taking a bus and a few trains.  The night before we left Lisdoonvarna, Abby just happened to see on her brother Neil's facebook that one of Neil's friends, who is also a boy that Abby babysat many years ago, Marcus McKeough, got last minute tickets to the Notre Dame (American) college football game.  Marcus is no longer the little boy Abby used to babysit.  He is a proud member of the Air Force and stationed in the UK (Thank you Marcus for your service!!).  She made a comment on the status that if he heard of anyone with extra tickets that we would be very interested in them.  Luckily Marcus saw this and told us that the guy he got his from had 4 tickets and still had 2 available!  Marcus gave Abby the contact information to get in touch with the person with the tickets and she sent him a facebook message right away asking if he still had the 2 tickets available.  Every hour or so (well, actually every 20 minutes, but we were so exited about the prospect of getting tickets that it felt like hours) during the train ride to Dublin, Abby checked her facebook to see if there was any response.  Just before we arrive in Dublin, we heard back from the guy with tickets and he confirmed that they were ours if we wanted them.  We almost jumped out of our train seats with excitement!  We arranged to meet the guy at The Gresham Hotel in downtown Dublin that night to pick up our tickets

We eventually made it out to Bray and checked into the hotel where we were staying.  We had a seafront view room, overlooking the Irish Sea.  The hotel itself was a bit disappointing, but the views were spectacular:

There was a cross on the top of this hill and Dan was able to zoom in and get a pretty neat picture.

This was the view from our room on our first morning!

After checking into our hotel, we decided to take a short walk around Bray and got a bite to eat.  After relaxing for a bit, we then went back into Dublin to do some exploring.  Our hopes were to meet up with the Garys, but we got a little bit mixed up and went to the wrong hotel.  They were staying at The Maldron and we all figured out too late that there were 4 hotels by that name just in Dublin!  At that point we figured we might as well walk around the city a bit.  We got out our trusty map and checked out a number of shops.  The big "tourist" shop was called Carroll's, and as it was a chain, it had a number of stores throughout the city.  We thought it might be good to pick up some ND Emerald Isle Classic shirts or sweatshirts to wear to the game, but when we went to the shop, they only had baby and children's sizes.  The gentleman there said every Carroll's in the city was sold out of ND adult gear.  The Fightin' Irish American fans had definitely stormed the city!  We heard from several sources that more than 25,000 Americans had come over to see the game.  At least 4 different locals told us that they had never seen so many Americans.

Later that evening, around 9:00 pm, we met up at the Gresham to get our tickets.  Once we had them in hand, we were so excited and could barely contain ourselves.  Yes, of course we had hoped that we would be able to score last minute tickets, but we thought that the chances of that happening were slim to none.  About 30 minutes after our arrival, Marcus came and got his tickets as well, and we found that our seats were next to his.  Marcus pulled up a diagram on his phone of where are seats were, and from the picture, it looked like they were pretty good!

After getting our tickets we chatted and had a few drinks with Marcus.  We wanted to stay longer and catch-up with Marcus, but the last train to going to Bray left at 11:28pm.  If we weren't on that train then we would either have to stay in Dublin or pay for a taxi to take us all the way out to Bray.  We hopped on the local tram, called the LUAS, to go to Connolly station where we would catch the last train to Bray.  We had taken this trip a couple times so we were confident we would make it, but this time the LUAS went right past Connolly station without stopping.  We weren't sure what was going on but by the time we realized we missed the stop we were far past the station.  Time was running out to catch the last train to Bray and we started to get stressed.  We got off the tram and got on the next tram going back towards Connolly station.  The LUAS stopped about 300 yards from the station.  We had less than 5 minutes to catch the train.  We sprinted around the corner, across the street, down the block an up the steps to the station.  A quick look at the departure board and we ran to the platform and straight on the train.  Just after we got in the train the doors closed behind us.  We thought we were so lucky!  As the train started rolling we suddenly realized...the train was going North and we needed to go South.  It was the wrong train!  We were gutted.

We got off at the first stop and took the next train going back to Connolly station.  Unfortunately, the last train to Bray was long gone.  We arrived back in Connolly station and went out front to hail a taxi.  We found a taxi that would take us to Bray.  It was a 40 minute taxi ride and not cheap, but it was the only way to get home.  The worst part was that Abby strained her Achilles tendon during our sprint to the train station and it would bother her for the next 3 weeks.

On Saturday morning we woke up and got some breakfast in the hotel restaurant and were SO excited for the game.  We were going to try and meet up with the Garys again before the game but we weren't able to so we made plans to hang out with them later that evening.  We took a train to the area where the game and we got off.  We were walking down the road and it was almost like being on the ND campus - the energy was incredible, we could smell barbecues in the air and there were ND fans EVERYWHERE!  We haven't heard so many people speaking American English since we lived back in the States.  It's a small thing, but hearing so many familiar accents made us feel at home.  Another great part of the walk around was the Navy personnel and everyone's respect for their service.  We constantly saw people walking up to mid-shipmen, shaking their hands, thanking them for their service and asking to take pictures with them.  Navy was the 'enemy' of ND that day but the respect for the men and women who chose to put their lives on the line for us transcended all competition.  No one can ever thank them enough for what they do.

We came here to The Bath pub where we planned on meeting up with Marcus to grab a drink then walk to the stadium.  The place was packed and we thought it would take us FOREVER to find him, but low and behold, just as we were walking indoors, he was walking out!  For old time's sake, we had to take a photo of Abby and Marcus, when she babysat him, he was quite a bit smaller than he is now:

We then decided to walk to the game - we were so excited and still almost could not believe we were actually going.  We really lucked out with the weather (we actually were very fortunate weather-wise for the entire trip) - it was sunny and comfortable.  On our walk to the stadium, we had a magnificent view, as Aviva Stadium is a very cool architectural structure.

On our way into the stadium, Dan snapped this photo, thinking this is the closest we would get to the field...

We finally made it to our seats and they were INCREDIBLE!  Notre Dame dominated Navy with a final score of 50-10.  We thought we could attempt to write about the game, but agreed that the photos would be a better way to describe it.

The spectacular view from our seats!

Loved the Irish, American and Emerald Isle Classic flags all together.

We couldn't have been happier!

There were a number of very cool tributes to the Navy and everything they do to serve and protect our country.

Thanks to Dan's awesome zoom on his camera, we were able to get some great shots of Brian Kelly on the sidelines:

Because we had such great seats, we were able to get some up-close photos of the teams in action.  Check out ND's shoes!

Of course, we had to snap a photo of the Irish Guard.

This little fella tried to run out on the field dressed as a leprechaun but the ushers caught him and escorted him back to his seat.  He couldn't have been more than 7 or 8 years old!

CHEER, CHEER FOR OLD NOTRE DAME!!!!! Final score: Notre Dame:50 Navy:10.

After the game, we had finally arranged to meet up with the Garys in a small town called Dalkey just south of the stadium.  There were throngs of people so we figured we wouldn't be able to find them at the game and would just meet them in Dalkey at the pub.  We got on the metro and were waiting for it to leave when low and behold, we look out the window and see the whole Gary clan walking by!  We ran out of our train car and caught up with them at last.  Abby was so excited to see Michelle and to catch up.  We rode with them out to Dalkey where we joined them for a drink at Flanagan's pub.  The decision was made to go there because the owner of the pub is best friends with a neighbor of Brianne (Michelle's sister) and her husband Joey back in Chicago - small world!  We hung out there for a bit and just enjoyed ourselves, our friends and Dan even made friends with some of the locals.

 

Best friends reunited - couldn't be happier!

This is Sean one of the locals Dan met and his dog Buddy.

After a few drinks at the pub we went with the Garys and their group to a restaurant right around the corner for some good food and good fun.  We had a great time catching up with the entire Gary family - Abby has been friends with Michelle for years so it felt like we weren't just friends, but family as well.  It was amazing to have the opportunity to enjoy our friends and family from home and we loved every moment of it, wishing it didn't have to end.

Abby with the Gary family.

Just having a little fun!

Poor Chad was getting tired.

Abby and Melissa, Michelle's youngest sister.

The time finally came where we had to say our goodbyes to the Garys.  It was very sad but we were so thankful to be able to spend time with them.  We are so lucky to have such amazing friends.  Here are a few parting shots we took of them as we were waiting on the opposite side of the train tracks:

Don't ask.

Always smiling Michelle - Chad is trying to look tough.

Happy to be in Ireland!  We were so sad to seem them go...

Final waves good-bye - a fun bunch!

We finally arrived back in Bray late that evening.  It was a clear night and we knew our trip was ending the next day, so we walked along the shoreline for a bit, just soaking it all up.  We both agreed this was the best vacation we'd ever taken and were so sad that it was just about over.  

We returned back to our hotel exhausted but happy and content after an amazing day.

The next morning we woke up and went into Dublin to do a bit of shopping for gifts for a few people.  We walked around a bit here and there but we did not spend too much time in the city.  After we found all the gifts we wanted, we took a bus to Dublin Airport.  We can say this much - we did not want to leave at all.  We had such an amazing time (clearly, since it took 3 long blog posts to detail our trip) and would DEFINITELY recommend Ireland for anyone even remotely thinking about a vacation in Europe.  It was definitely one of those trips that we will never forget and will tell the story to our children some day.

Well, that is all for now.  We hope you've enjoyed our Ireland trip and are maybe even thinking about going there now yourself.

We love and miss you all very much!