Ireland

May is another reserve month for me, when I am at the beck and call of the airline.  They called me on Friday morning for an afternoon deadhead to Chicago to work a trip to Dublin, Ireland.  Longtime readers of the blog may recall my 2008 layover in Dublin (you can refresh your memory at http://ronno1976.blogspot.com/2008/07/when-irish-eyes-are-smiling.html).  It was still exciting to get to go back and I was lucky I was assigned that trip considering all the garbage everyone else was getting assigned.

From Chicago, flights to Europe are so much shorter than what we are used to... especially to Ireland.  The flying time was just under 7 hours going over.  We arrived at the hotel and enjoyed a nice breakfast while we waited for our rooms.  I set my alarm for 2:30 or so and then woke up and headed downtown to do a little exploring.  I wanted to go to Temple Bar, the area with pubs and restaurants.  On my way there, it was misting and cloudy, but I had brought my umbrella and was prepared for the worst.

When I got down to the main drag, I encountered three separate protests for three separate causes.  The first was a large group of young people urging the legalization of marijuana.  I had to hold my breath as they marched by, if you know what I mean.

The next group was protesting persecution of Falon Gong in China.  The People's Republic of China has classified it as an evil religion so they are subject to persecution by the government.

And finally I came upon a group raising awareness for the civil unrest in Libya.  They were chanting for the departure of Gaddafi.

After making my way thru all the evil unrest, I crossed the River Liffey and made my way to Temple Bar.  I found a quaint little pub called Fitzgerald's and had a couple of Red O'Hara's (beer) and some Shepherd's Pie with mushy peas. Yum!

I had to hightail it back to the hotel by 6pm though because the free wine comes out at that time and you have to be there right at 6 or the Continental Airlines crews will drink the wine designated for our airline!  

After a class of mediocre red, I bid my farewell to the crew (I did not quite mesh with them.  It was hard enough having to be on a plane with them, so I opted to skip the group dinner) and went back to my room and began to wind down.  Our pick up was at 7:50 the next morning (12:50am body clock time).

One cool thing about Dublin is that it is a Pre-Clearance city.  Customs and Immigration officers from the United States are stationed over in Dublin and you do all your formalities before you get on the plane (similar to Canada) so when you land in Chicago, you walk right into the terminal without having to mess with passports or forms).  We arrived early and I was able to catch an earlier deadhead back to base!