Today was travel day. We were up very early and went straight to the tube station, skipping breakfast, and headed over to Euston Station to catch our train. We had some bananas and a free sample of some kind of chocolate and then boarded our train. The train was freezing cold the whole way up to Holyhead, but seeing the English countryside was nice.
At Holyhead, we transferred to the ferry for Dublin. It was more like a cruise ship than a ferry, with restaurants, bars, slot machines, and so on. I guess people find this sort of thing convenient or entertaining, but to me it was depressing. Anyway, the girls watched a movie on the laptop and I slept for a while, and then I took the girls up on deck to see the ocean and the islands as we approached. The wind was gale force, so strong that I was afraid the girls might be blown overboard if I didn’t hold on to them. There were spots of rain, and it was quite cold as well, so we mostly stayed indoors. Phyllis was feeling sick from the motion of the boat, which was pretty extreme because of the wind.
When we arrived at Dublin port, we managed to miss the bus into town and had to wait around for quite a while for a taxi. We ended up sharing a cab with another couple and a single older guy to our hostel. The hostel turned out to be the sort of place I used to stay at all the time on previous trips – suited for young people, with flyers pointing to bars and pubs and so forth. I felt sort of old showing up with my family in tow, and I suspect that they don’t see eight-year-old girls checking in too often.
The room itself was pretty sparse – just two bunk beds and a bathroom. But the girls thought it was great because they loved the bunk beds. So thanks to them, what would have been a sort of depressing moment was happy instead.
Because it was late and we were tired, we decided to walk to a nearby restaurant for dinner. It was called Little Ceasars, but served pretty good Italian food. After dinner, we returned to the room and went to bed.
As for Dublin itself, we really only saw a little bit, mostly from the taxi. Overall, it seemed very bustling, with narrow curving streets overflowing with cars and people walking. It was hard to see how anyone could drive, with barely any room to pass, lots of one way streets, and seemingly every intersection branching into five different directions. But people did drive, and fast. Most of the area we saw seemed working class, and maybe a little poor. The people we met were all friendly, though.