My friend Robert the Chef was in town last week to see me. With his friend Jay. Every year they travel for New Year, a tradition we used to have with several of our friends until we all went our separate ways. I blame Cynthia, who married and moved away. I miss that tradition. The boys visited London, Munich, and Prague before they flew to Dublin for 3 days to see me. Yep, just to see ME! They were here last year, before I moved here, so they've done the whole Let's-Get-Drunk-In-Every-Pub-We-See thing which freed us up to do other things. Which sent me into a mini-panic. Compounded by the fact that they arrived on a Tuesday... it was difficult to figure out what to do. I'll take them to Eno. No, wait, who comes to Ireland to taste wine? I'll rent a car and we'll drive into the country. No, wait, I can't drive on the British side of the road. Aughhhh! In the end, I decided on a day to recoup, a day to hike along the shore line and a day to hike in the countryside. I was determined to show them Ireland and evidently that means lots of hiking.
The night they arrived, I met them at the hotel bar, which I realized, as Rob-bob chased me down the street when I walked by it twice, is a bar I've been to before. I had no idea it was part of a hotel though. Seriously, I could see the sign on the building for the hotel and a sign on a door telling me that the entrance to the hotel was at the corner, where I found the entrance to the Turk's Head. I ask you, what kind of an entry is that?! "Hi. Welcome to our Bar. I mean Hotel. Enjoy your restful stay." Whatever. So as I was wandering the street and beginning to formulate a curse, Rob-bob popped out on the street to rescue me and any passers by. So much for my cool entrance. "Look at me, I'm lost" We decided to have dinner, they were tired from the long trip from the Czech Republic that required several connections. So dinner and a bottle of wine while we caught up was perfect. The next day I sent them to a bus tour of the Irish countryside, to Glendalough, which I mentioned in one of my very early posts, which I cannot seem to locate. Maybe it was in my journal, which I still keep, although it is sounding more and more like this blog than my innermost thoughts. (no, I don't share everything with you. A girl has to have some mystery and that's as close as I can get) Glendalough is a valley with 2 lakes and the oldest monastic settlement in Ireland. It's spooky and eerie and absolutely mystical. Tax Boy took me there one afternoon and we hiked in the mist and drizzle. I loved it, so I sent the guys on the bus tour. When I left for work that day, I almost called the hotel to make sure they made the 10am bus, but stopped myself and spent the rest of the day thinking, they didn't make it. They didn't. Instead they slept in and then took the Hop On Hop Off tour of Dublin which they enjoyed. We met up at the hotel again and decided to go for a nice dinner which took us 4 restaurants to locate. It's nearly impossible to walk into a nice restaurant without reservations here. We ended up in an Irish/French place that was really good. I was unsure when we walked into the virtually empty place, but the food was really quite nice and the service was much more attentive than the usual Dublin standard, somewhere just above surly teenager at the mall. It was a nice treat for me. I never get to do this anymore, dress up and have an adult meal. It's depressing to go to a nice meal on your own and most of the people I know would rather be in the pub with that money. After dinner I took them to the smallest pub in Dublin. It's close to the size of our apartment. Very cozy and I rather like it there. Then, they called it a night. Tired. Going cliff hiking tomorrow, would rather be energetic for that.
Morning dawned and I crawled back in bed. After coaxing myself out, which is ironic considering it is the worlds most uncomfortable bed, I met the guys at the train station and we headed to Howth, a town north of Dublin. We walked thru the village on the route the woman at the gas station described and found the entry to the cliff walk. That's what I'd asked for anyway. What she sent us to was the street that leads to the 30 minute walk up hill to the entry to the cliff walk. We walked most of it, stopping at a few bus stops on the way, hoping that one of the three busses scheduled to arrive would indeed arrive. They didn't. But several busses passed us on the way down the hill, however. We finally decided to wait it out and when we finally boarded the bus, just as Jay predicted, the summit was a 2 minute walk from where we were. sigh... But the nice bus driver let us ride free. Off the bus we zipped into the Summit Pub, whatever it was called, to have a drink (warm up!) before we hit the cliff walk. It was a nice little place and we decided to have lunch there after the hike. Finally, out on the trial, we see the water, the walk down, some people coming up, and we head out. Ah, the rugged Irish coastline. The fresh sea air. The slight drizzle of the rain. At one point it got pretty steep and I remember thinking, this is going to hurt going back up, but I soldiered on like a good host. We stopped to take photos and that's when the boys decided they'd had enough. Seen it, done it, got the photos. A good 10 minute hike works up quite an appetite, let me tell you. After lunch, we boarded the train to Dun Laougherie (which I must now learn to spell since I'm moving there and would like to receive mail) where Jay nodded off and Rob-bob got to see the coast. It's quite a dramatic ride, scenery wise. I caved and took them to Eno, where I took my wine classes and they really liked the system. www.enowine.ie We did a bit of tasting and then walked into DL, a short 10 minute walk and down to the coast to see the lights of Dublin and Howth across the bay. We had a drink and decided to head back to Dublin for dinner and an early night in before they left the following day. I exhausted them with the walking. I forget that Americans don't walk very much. And I forgot that I now walk just about everywhere and think nothing of a 20 minute walk. To be fair, they took several extended walking tours of the cities before they arrived in Dublin, but they kept saying that they were exhausted from the walk to the summit that morning. Sigh. I guess I'm not such a good tour guide. But it was a good test for me, for when others come visit. Perhaps. I know to skip Howth and head straight to the places I love. And not to listen to my German co-worker who said it was an easy hike. The three strapping young men in the pub that came off the cliff walk said it took them 2 hours and they were exhausted. Think they were Dutch. I know they were huge. Anyway, it was great fun showing my old friends my new home. I wish they could have stayed a day longer and I'd taken more time off work so they could have slept thru me driving thru the countryside.
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