May 27 & 28, 2007

May 27th was a cold and rainy day. It suited my mood. We had a wonderful breakfast and then went out for a walk but it was so cold and windy. We went to the Promenade by car to see if anyone was using the Model Yacht Pool. A man had a really cool tugboat but it was so cold that we decided to get back into the car and drive around. After maybe an hour we went back to take a nap but our room was being prepared for the next people to check in. We loaded our stuff into the car and eventually went to the Links for lunch. There were twelve of us for lunch and there was so much food. We sang happy birthday to Aidan's mom and then we went to head out at 1.30. I checked my blackberry in the parking lot and there was a voicemail message. Dr. Colin wanted us to call him immediately. Aidan made the call and when he got off we had to make the tough decision. Aidan called Dr. Colin and I just sat in the car and bawled. I then called my mom while Aidan told his family in the restaurant. It was now 2.15 and we knew we'd be late to the airport. We managed to get there by 4.40 but our flight had closed and they couldn't get us on another flight until after 10pm. We sat in the airport for hours. I did my homework and we played scrabble and eventually read the newspapers online. The Ryanair flight was an experience - somewhat rickety and bumpy but it got us into Dublin safely. The airport was packed at midnight. We got our bags and got the car and took about 55 minutes to find the hotel. Needless to say, we slept like logs that night.Yesterday we stayed in bed until after 12 noon. We needed to recover. Aidan was up for most of the morning but I would wake up and then go back to sleep. We got ready, had lunch and then headed out in the beautiful sunshine for a walk down to Ballsbridge Bridge to see where we were and to buy a map. We then got the car and drove to St. Stephen's Green. We went to the shopping center which exited onto Grafton Street. We did some necessities shopping, visited the Tourist Center to get a few brochures and then had tea at Bewleys. After visiting a few bookstores we headed back to the hotel in order for me to do my homework. We had dinner in the hotel because Aidan was still feeling a bit jetlagged. The service wasn't great but the food was amazing. We decided to have an early night but discovered a great documentary on Hillsborough Castle (the residence of the Secretary of State of Northern Ireland) on the tv and watched it though to the end (around midnight).