After an adventurous first few days, it was time to actually "earn" the trip so to speak. I woke up, showered, and hit the road ... not knowing where I was going to spend the next night ... but I left my bags in the Westin Dublin hotel room just in case.
The drive into work was interesting as traffic in the vicinity of Dublin is totally insane. Thankfully I was headed out of town whereas all of the heavy traffic was on the way in. All in all I would say it took about 40-45 minutes to drive into work ... but it's an interesting drive full of narrow lanes and semi-confusing roundabouts (which are a rather interesting way to move traffic). Once you have been through the roundabout a few times ... you start to get a feel for how not to completely annoy all of the local drivers. Due to a slight issue negotiating the last roundabout on the way into Intel, I wound up in the wrong parking lot, heading in the wrong direction on the Intel campus. On the bright side, I got a nice driving tour of the campus, and once I was parked (a real interesting thing to attempt when driving a car on the right hand side!) it was into the building to start the work-day.
Monday was not to be a heavy day as far as work goes ... the morning consisted of breakfast with the group we are working with ... and a few meetings. Then on to lunch ... a few more meetings ... and a terrible fright from a project perspective. It seems that the project that we were to start the next day hit a snag when the building facility maintenance project that was to happen at the same time was postponed due to bad weather. It was a tenuous few hours the project managers negotiated to continue with "my" project ... albeit a few hours later than we were supposed to start. The day ended a bit late, but it was mainly due to attending meeting and chatting/IM'ing with folks from Arizona.
One of the MOST important parts of my work day was to check in with the Intel Ireland travel agency to see what the status of my reservation is/was. I went to visit with the gal that was responsible for my reservations ... and SUPRISE ... she was not in on Monday. Luckily another gal that was working was able to find my "card" and said she would follow up on the status of my hotel. About 30 minutes later I received an email from her that cleared all the smoke from the situation ... my hotel reservation was actually made for the Fitzwilliam Hotel and the confirmation number was in their format. The travel agent had inadvertently typed "Westin Dublin" instead of "Fitzwilliam Hotel"!!!! Um ... not sure how you can make that mistake ... but the gal that helped figure it out was very apologetic and made sure that my reservation was still valid for the rest of my stay.
Leaving work the driving continued to get easier ... and I was determined to get to the Westin and get checked out, so I could then get checked into the Fitzwilliam. When I arrived at the Westin and spoke to the desk agent, she was very accommodating and mentioned that since I arrived so late and was trying to check out, that she would have to check with her manager to see if I would be charged for an extra night. Thankfully I was not charged ... so it was quickly up to my room to collect my bags ... and off to the Fitzwilliam hotel. The route from one to the other is WILD ... weaving in and out of the streets of Dublin.
I arrived at the Fitzwilliam and allowed the concierge to valet park my car ... not remembering that I left my bags in the boot of the car (read: trunk). I checked in and proceeded up to my room ... walked in ... and almost choked ... I had been given a smoking room!! (Can I catch a break on this trip?!). I phoned down to the reception desk to ask if there were any non-smoking rooms ... and of course ... there was not but they would switch me the next night. So it was a stinky night in the Fitzwilliam.
The night was young ... and Brian had text'ed me about having dinner and was asking where to meet. I didn't think I could fit the directions to get to my hotel in a text message ... so I told him to meet me at the Westin, and we'd go from there. I was off to walk from the Fitzwilliam hotel to the Westin ... and the best part was that I had no idea where I was going. I knew the general direction ... and started out that way ... but I came upon Trinity College and was baffled by the large wall and the fact that, again, I had no idea where I was. So I started off in an "easterly" direction ... and kept on walking ... and walking ... and walking ... until I finally figured out that I was lost ... and I should stop and ask for directions. After speaking to a nice young lady in the Alexander hotel she put me on the right path to get to the Westin ... ugh! 55 minutes later I met Brian and we walked around for another 20 minutes looking for a place to eat ... when we stumbled upon a place that Caoimhe had recommended (but if you didn't know where to look you would have never found) called the Pizza Stop. It was a decent little shop and it was a nice little dinner ... and I learned a cultural lesson about restaurant dining in Ireland. Apparently you have to ASK for the check when you are ready to leave since it is common for diners to sit at a table and have drinks and talk for a while after eating ... being from the US ... I was waiting for the server to bring over the check and shuffle us out the door. A big thanks to me buddy Andrew for this bit of Irish culture.
After a HUGE dinner Brian and I walked over to the Porterhouse Pub for a sample of Ireland's finest micro-brew beers. I chose the stout/porter sampler (read: heavy/dark beers) ... it was a nice way to try a few beers without having to drink 3 PINTS of beer. After dinner it was a short walk home (now that I know where I am going) and it was back into the stinky room. I called home to speak to Heidi and get caught up on how life is going on without me. I sure miss my girls ... and I wish they were able to experience Ireland ... but I can tell you that there is NO WAY COME H#LL OR HIGHWATER that Heidi would drive here. HA HA HA HA. And I can't imagine trying to experience something like Ireland, or any other country for that matter, with two little kids ... it would be an adventure in and of itself.
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