A new country

Flying to Dublin

Today, we fly to Dublin on Turkish Airlines departing at 1325.  We set the alarm for 0630, grabbed a light bite at the hotel rooftop restaurant before taking the tram to Aksaray for the 0820 Havaist bus to the airport.

Despite some initial traffic, we got to the airport in only 50 mins.  Immigration and security were both super quick today and we were in the lounge about 0930 for a stay of around 2h30 before heading to the departure gate.

On board the B737 Max 8, fitted with the larger lockers that look similar to the normal lockers on the B737-800, passengers didn’t put their wheelie bags on their side.  There were no placards to suggest this and with only 4 crew on board, they weren’t on hand to help.  One was busy in the galley loading meals into the oven instead.

Luckily, we didn’t run out of locker space despite the flight being nearly full and we left on time.

With only 2 crew serving in economy class, one from the front and the other from the back, they took about 40 mins to hand out all the meals.  Fortunately for us seated in the last few rows, we got fed quickly and even got our choice of meals.  We both chose the very generous portion of fried chicken on rice.

Arriving in Dublin

We landed in Dublin Terminal 1 a little early.  By the time we got to immigration, most people had gone through and it was a quick painless process for us.  It was a nice welcome into Ireland, a new country for me.

Kerbside, we found the Dublin Express bus to take us to our Premier Inn hotel at Docklands.  It was a scorching day at about 28 degC and the bus didn’t seem to have functioning aircon.  It was like a sauna and relatively short ride to the city via Terminal 1 felt like an eternity.

Temple Bar & Trinity College

We got to the hotel around 1700 and we headed out soon after, at around 1715.  We bought a single ride ticket from the kiosk at the tram line to take us to Abbey Street, which is in the centre of the city.

We couldn’t believe the number of new buildings that has been built in the Docklands area.  They seem to be taken up by corporates with an international workforce who also happen to be knocking off for the day, sharing the tram with us.

Once in the city centre, we bought a 24h transport card before heading to Temple Bar, the city’s watering hole and dining district.  The area was extremely lively.  I loved the pubs with the colourful and often floral facade.  However, Kim had lost interest already from the heat on the bus and then on the tram.

We saw a Spar supermarket with a eat-in area and found some items that appealed to us on such a hot evening.  We grabbed a sandwich, salad and a large diet soft drink and called that dinner.

Once fed and rehydrated, we felt a little better to explore the adjacent Trinity College area.  We entered via the western gate but once inside the compounds, we didn’t see another exit until we got to the far end in the east.

Exiting there, it didn’t seem worthwhile to start using our 24h transport pass for the short ride home.  Instead, we walked along the river and reached our cool aircon room by around 2000.