Saturday, April 14, 2007

Arrival in Dublin

My flights and everything went very smoothly, minus some little things like being able to get a good night's sleep (that's on tonight's agenda, though). My first view of Ireland was all clouds, as we flew over it to my stop in Heathrow, but once I actually landed in Dublin, the weather was lovely and sunny.

The O'Callaghan Davenport, Dublin I'm staying at the O'Callaghan Davenport hotel, which is rather nicer than anywhere I'd stay on my own if I didn't have a company paying for it. I'm on the third floor, for large values of three (since they start counting at zero over here). It's a lovely room, though I'm not sure why I need two desks, or a phone next to the toilet, or this weird "Man by Carmen" thing in the closet. And this is just a "junior suite." Who knows how many things I wouldn't know what to do with if I had gotten a full grown one. But it does have a bed and a shower, which are the things I'm most interested in just now.

St. Stephen's Green I mostly just strolled around this afternoon, getting my bearings. I'm less than a mile from the office, and it's an easy walk, so I'm all ready for Monday morning. The hotel is very close to a couple lovely parks: Merrion Square and St. Stephen's -- that is, James Joyce's -- Green. Both full of happy Saturday afternoon people, Dubliners and otherwise. I also walked up the pedestrian mall at Grafton Street, went by Christ Church Cathedral, and zigzagged over various bridges across the Liffey.

Relevant Tunes:
Tune Titles I Should Use:
  • Fishamble Street (or, The Ambling Fish)
  • The Fire Hose Reel (a sign I saw on a wall in the airport, where they kept the fire hose)

1 comment:

tpiglette said...

Hahaha. I'm pretty sure the thing in your closet is for pressing your pants. Not sure what the "Gentleman" label means, though. Maybe they have an "Obnoxious Punk" line out there or something.

Glad to hear you made it over there safely and are enjoying your stay so far!