We made it to Newark Airport quickly, fortunately there was very little traffic on a Wednesday afternoon. After saying our goodbyes to Courtney & Ashley, we got in line to make our way through security. The line was not terribly long, but since we were excited, it seemed to move very slowly. Our flight wasn’t scheduled to depart until 10:20p.m., and we had a few hours to kill, so we went to the United Club Lounge for some refreshment.
We chowed down on complimentary snack mix, cheese and crackers, cookies and beer until it was time to make our way out to the gate and board the plane. Unfortunately, our boarding time came and went but we were still sitting at the gate. Finally, an announcement was made that there were mechanical issues that they were addressing, so it would still be awhile before we could get on the plane. I kept an eye on the weather radar, very concerned about the line of severe thunderstorms that were very rapidly making their way toward Newark. It was decided that they could not repair the plane and we would need to swap aircraft. We moved down to our new departure gate and charged our devices while we sat and waited. Finally, it was time to board the plane (only about an hour after we were supposed to depart!) All passengers made their way to their seats and we waited… and waited… and watched the lighting strikes through the windows….
That line of t-storms had moved into Newark and officially closed down the airport. Our Captain mentioned that we might be sitting there for at least an hour, so he was going to pull back allowing passengers to get off the plane and stretch their legs. Suddenly, he changed his mind and stated that with his 20 years of experience as a pilot, he believed we’d be able to get out of there shortly. We’ll never know exactly how he did it, but somehow we were preparing for takeoff in just a matter of minutes.
Even though we took off nearly two hours late, our Captain made up time and we touched down in Dublin less than an hour after we were scheduled to.
A few amusing notes: we were served ‘dinner’ at approximately 1:00a.m. EDT… The skies were bright at approximately 2:00a.m EDT… we were served breakfast at approximately 3:50a.m. EDT… neither of us slept a wink on the flight, but were ready to hit the ground running when we landed…
After claiming our bags our next stop was the ATM. We had landed in Ireland without a single Euro in our pockets! We quickly made a withdrawal and found our bus that would take us to the Conrad, where we arrived approximately 35 minutes later. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that our room was ready, so we dropped our stuff off, freshened up and headed out into the streets of Dublin. The very first sign we saw was a misleading one advertising Free Beer All Day!
Not really free beer
As tempting as ‘Free Beer’ sounded, we were not naive enough to believe that we could sit and drink at the cafe all day without being charged, and proceeded to make our way to famed Grafton Street, passing through St. Stephen’s Green on the way, where there were lots of people enjoying themselves in the sun as well as some swans and their cygnets.
Swan in St. Stephen’s
Cygnets swim in the pond in St. Stephen’s
St. Stephen’s is a lovely public park adjacent to Grafton Street. In addition to the wildlife, there is a fountain, many memorials, including one for WB Yeats, and many busts and statues including one of James Joyce. We found our way through the winding paths to the northwest corner, where we walked through Fusilier’s Arch and onto Grafton Street.