Five Days in Ireland - a Belated Travelogue

Recently, I began writing my annual “year in review” post, which is going to have a rather different tone from previous posts owing to an unpleasant personal event that took place over the past year. As I was writing, however, I realized I never posted about the trip to Ireland that Daniel and I undertook in late March and early April. This presented a challenge, as the memories of the trip are now more than six months old. Then I remembered that I had composed an email for close friends and family as the trip progressed. I’ve adapted that account for the bulk of this post, along with a link to the video from our trip.

As with Cancún in February, we selected Dublin because it’s reachable from Cleveland via a nonstop flight. I was able to score a great deal on Business Class tickets on Aer Lingus. The only issue was that we had to walk between various security checkpoints at Cleveland Hopkins Airport because our TSA PreCheck passes weren’t accepted. Fortunately, CLE doesn't have the hours-long TSA lines you've seen on the news at larger airports. We had enough time to relax in the United Club lounge, thanks to its partnership with Aer Lingus.

The plane itself was an Airbus A321neoLR. Our seats reclined fully flat and even had a massage option, a retractable table, and plenty of storage space. Very welcome amenities for an overnight flight, although I was so excited about the trip that I slept little. The flight included a hot meal not long after takeoff and breakfast just before landing, but I’d be lying if I told you I remembered what we ate.

Our flight landed early Saturday morning, and despite the long lines at immigration, we were through quickly enough that we left the airport around the time our flight was originally scheduled to land. We took the Dublin Express to the city center and walked to our hotel to drop off our luggage. We stayed at the Holiday Inn on O’Connell Street. Even though we weren't checking in until that afternoon, the staff invited us to take advantage of the breakfast buffet. But we were still sated from the food on our flight, so we just grabbed some coffee to go.

From there, we walked around the area, taking in the sights and acquainting ourselves with the layout of the city. Two highlights were St. Stephen’s Green and Merrion Square, with its famous statue of Oscar Wilde. By the time we returned to the hotel to check in and head to our room, we were exhausted, so we took a brief nap.

No account of a trip to Ireland would be complete without discussing one of its most distinctive exports: Guinness stout. We both enjoyed our share (especially Daniel), but I found myself preferring Orchard Thieves cider. We visited so many pubs that I can't recall them all, but Pennylane became our semi-regular evening haunt—we went there at least three times.

Sunday started off poorly. We had planned to visit the Guinness brewery, but when we arrived, we learned that tours were already sold out for the day. We had taken the tram there, but on the return trip it became so crowded that we decided to get off and walk. Now I know what it feels like to be packed in like sardines.

We did some free associating on Sunday, going wherever our whims took us. By evening, we were tired of walking, so we stopped at a local cinema and saw Project Hail Mary. Jet lag must have caught up with us because we both dozed off at the beginning of the film. We awakened after a while, however, and the plot held our attention once things got going.

The movie, in which Ryan Gosling plays the sole survivor of an interstellar crew assigned to investigate a threat to Earth, finds his character encountering a counterpart from a world in the Eridani star system—also the sole survivor of a similar mission. Despite belonging to vastly different species—the counterpart comes from a race of living rocks—a strong friendship develops, with each character risking his life to help the other. A heartwarming story, and one sorely needed in our times. I must give a shout-out to Ryan Gosling, whose performance is the emotional center of the film.

Monday was a fully planned-out day. We took the train to Belfast to visit Titanic Belfast, about a two-hour ride during which we spoke with an older Irish gentleman. Since we were crossing into Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, we brought our passports, but we didn't need them.

Today, Belfast is known to many foreigners for two things: “the Troubles”—the religious, ethnic, and nationalist conflict that lasted roughly 30 years beginning in the late 1960s—and as the city where the White Star Line's great ships were built, most (in)famously Titanic. Once in Belfast, we took the Glider bus to the Titanic Quarter, where you can stand on the slipway down which Titanic entered the water for the first time.

King of the World

Belfast is the furthest north Danny and I have ever been, and the weather proved it. Yet there were people jogging in shorts, and on the train back to Dublin, we saw young people playing soccer in shorts and light shirts.

We slept in Tuesday. Instead of the hotel's buffet breakfast, we went to Flanagan's, a nearby restaurant, for a proper full Irish breakfast. That was enough to hold us until dinner.

Tuesday was also the day of our rescheduled tour of the Guinness brewery. Unfortunately, whilst waiting for the tram, our heads were anointed by a bird flying overhead. For future reference, always wear a hat while outside in Ireland, regardless of the weather.

Despite the incident, we made it to Guinness at the appointed hour and learned about the exacting process by which the legendary stout is made. Then we enjoyed some of the beverage at the top-floor bar. My enjoyment was tempered by the cold I'd felt coming on over the previous few hours. I seldom get sick, but when I do, it nearly always coincides with travel. To make matters worse, I learned that the “Cicada” strain of COVID was making its way through Ireland.

After we returned from Guinness, I bought some medication, and we continued our day, including dinner, where I had fish and chips and Danny had pork belly—which tasted like chicharrón.

Neither of us slept well Tuesday night—a combination of not feeling well and the usual trip anxiety. But we managed to make it to the airport on time.

Dublin Airport is run like a well-oiled machine. It's one of the few airports with a U.S. customs preclearance facility, so the process is completed in Ireland. When we arrived in Cleveland, we simply walked off the plane, collected our luggage, and went home.

We spent some of our remaining euros at the duty-free shop, scoring some good deals on Irish whiskey and other sundries. I watched a hilarious British film on the flight back: Fackham Hall. We were safely home by 8:00 p.m. local time.

I'm aware of Ireland's history, particularly with regard to Northern Ireland. But I'm also cognizant that Ireland never had an empire, nor did it ever have designs on creating one, unlike Rome, Britain, Russia, or—arguably—the United States. Consequently, there's next to no hostility directed toward Ireland from other nations or peoples.

What struck me as we walked the streets of Dublin and Belfast was that the people seemed generally content and genuinely happy to see us. Not the professional “happy” required in the service industries, but a welcoming spirit that seemed to come from within.

And I also noticed that when people realized we were from the United States—which is easy to determine by listening to me, but not so much Daniel, with his distinctly Puerto Rican accent—we sometimes received a look that suggested sympathy, almost pity, as if they were thinking, “Ah, the U.S. What a nice place that used to be.”