May 23rd

Today was a rushed and disastrous affair. Thankfully the lady running our B&B was super helpful, as was her husband. We set off to the airport to grab our rental. Drove back almost unscathed. Someone had left their vehicle halfway in the middle of the road with their flashers on. I had not adjusted to driving on the left, nor was I used to how small the roads actually are. I smacked the persons car with my side mirror. Thankfully they are retractable (which actually when you park the car it is advisable to push your mirror in on the road facing side) and there was no damage. We parked and loaded up our luggage and then set off to finally master the bus system and see the last bit of Dublin. Side note: we hadn't encountered any problems checking in our luggage on the way here on Aer Lingus but the B&B lady was shocked we were allowed to have such large luggage and so many pieces... I hope we don't have any trouble on our way out... It was actually sunny today and I was over dressed but we stopped by the Tourism Centre and bought the rubgy shirt I had my eye on and I changed into it and was much more comfortable. We then hopped on the bus heading for Killmainham jail (the place where Eamon de Valera, and other famous Irish politicos were imprisoned and where "In the Name of the Father" was filmed for those of you who don't know any famous Irish figures). Being that Steve is Steve and I'm really not that much better so far - we missed the stop because we didn't ask someone about it (I figured I'd see signs along the way...). We toured through much of the suburbs before we got up the courage to ask the driver and so we ended up hoping off at the next stop and catching a bus in the other direction. We arrived there and started the tour and it was the longest, driest tour ever. Good historical info, very good actually, but the guide rubbed me the wrong way and made it harder to listen to. Tour took WAY longer than I had anticipated and although we hopped on the bus right away to make our way to the Jamiesons Distillery - our little detour through the suburbs meant that we arrived at the place at 5:10 just as the cashier was putting the sign away and we were told it had just sold out. Oh well - I don't like whiskey anyways... We had a fairly plain dinner on Lower Abbey street. My lasagna was actually pretty good and Steve had fish and chips. I swear that on this trip I have now eaten more bread in the last few days than I have in the entirety of the year 2008 thus far. To put it politely my digestive system is currently in revolt - but for a person on the run that doesn't have the time or the choices available it is super hard to find anyway to eat.

The B&B lady's husband warned us about rush hour and drivers with Yellow license plates. Apparently on the Ireland stretch of the M1 highway they don't get demerits for speeding or anything so if you see a yellow plate coming up behind you just get out of the way. We left much later than we had originally intended in order to miss rush hour and at first the drive wasn't that bad - it seemed to go by super quickly actually. That is until we got just outside of Belfast around 8:15pm. Constructions signs everywhere but no one seemed to be slowing down. Wasn't sure what to do - tried slowing down to the posted 40km but hard to do when everyone else is blwoing by you at 80km. Made it to the outskirts of the city and then Hell began. When I get home I'm going to take the time to create a map of Belfast and diagram just exactly where we went but for now I guess I'll talk myself through it. We ended up way past city centre at a Port turn off - neither of us having seen the unmissable junction on which the tourism lady had indicated on our map. I turned off the M1 and pulled into a gas station and intended to use a pay phone and call the B&B and ask for directions. No pay phone... Anger rising. Drove all the way back to the beginning of the M1 city centre turnoffs. Construction EVERYWHERE along here - with men in the process of changing the cone patterns on the road as we are dirivng back and forth... Still not seeing this roundabout we are supposed to be using we turn onto Lisburn road and try and look at the map again together. Having back tracked Steve thinks he has found an alternate route we can try based on signs we passed that had streets we could find on the map. Went all the way back up the M1 to exit onto Divis Street which according to the map we should be able to take straight through. We get halfway up this road and encounter a dead end and a sign indicating that a new roadway has been created. We back track on the M1 on exit the next exit not under construction in hopes of finding a street on the map we can follow. At this point it is starting to get dark and between trying not to kill us and looking for road signs (which are very poorly marked if marked at all anywhere along the main streches), getting more and more frustrated, I pull over and tell Steve to get directions. He phones the B&B from a Chinese Take Out place and gets directions from where we currently are. Unfortunately the streets the lady has indicated fall off the map that we currently have to follow. We keep driving and I pull into another gas station and luckily a cabby overhears me asking for directions and tries to point us in the right way tellings us we are "almost there" - we head back the way we came looking for Park Lane. It is now very dark and Steve can barely see. He thinks we have missed it as we go over a bridge that he tells me isn't on the map (it was). I pull over to look at the map and show him the bridge to which he replies that compared to the drawing it didn't seem big enough to be the same river and bridge on the map. We turn around yet again and head back to where he thinks Park Lane is and turn down it only to find part way that the road has been torn entirely up. Backtrack again and try and turn down a different street to get to Ravenshill Road. We find it but Steve still can't see anything and it is hard for me to pay attention to driving and make out the road signs. We get to the end of the road and have to turn back again as it is clear we have missed it. We stop at a pub and ask for directions and head off again. We turn after the church on the road and now we are on some random lane - not the right place and I have to do what I think must've been the 6th or 7th 4 point turn probably against traffic direction. We finally pull up and I park the car, turn off the engine and promptly burst into tears. The tears come at 11:45pm. A glass of wine would've been nice at this point but A) no corkscrew B) pubs close at midnight and C) we didn't know when we booked but the Maranthe House is a non-alcoholic establishment. Who needs to start drinking at midnight anyway. The room was nice although the pillows were overly soft and not comfortable. At least we made it!