Ireland Day Three

Day three was another new adventure in Ireland.  I took a taxi at 6 am from the hotel to the train station. 

 

 

I found my car and I took the first class train car all the way to Dublin.  This was my first trip on a train, other than the polar express!

 

 

 

From the moment Robyn had told me about Ireland, all I could think of was seeing my friend Sue. 

I was so nervous and so excited!  I loved to watch the beautiful countryside roll by.

 

The only problem was this man....

 

 

The train was mostly empty.  We had a 2 person table and across was a 4 person table.  He sat with me and then worked the entire trip.  Not just paper work.  He recorded himself talking about his notes the entire way!  I wanted to kick him under the table!    Two hours with this dork talking about who know what!

 

Needless to say I was so excited to get off that train and find Sue!  We took a bus across town.  As we talked and walked we made our way to a little coffee shop.  Sue had hot tea, which I did not care for.  I just listened to her talk about Ireland and her work.  She now has a beautiful Irish accent.  Then she listened to my life story from the past 8-9 years.  It was good to catch up.  It seemed liked I had just seem her yesterday.  I love friends like that.  Sue stopped at a drug store and made me try Irish chocolate.  It was amazing.  Very creamy. 

 

  From there we went to a very posh tea room for lunch.  I was scared when I saw the little menu, but it was delicious.  I am so glad that I love goat cheese, it saved the day!

 

After lunch we walked around the city some more.  We made our way to the ocean.  We walked a long a boardwalk until we were icicles.

 

Our next stop was a soda at an Irish pub.  We were able to hear these musicians perform.  They were great!  The music was beautiful, but the lyrics were very strange.  We enjoyed ourselves there for a while before we headed to a large city park. 

 

The park was so beautiful!  It was filled with families and children enjoying the flowers, fountains and wildlife.  It was another beautiful place to just walk and talk.  I wished I had a pedometer because we walked all over Dublin.

 

When my train departure was drawing near, Sue found us a bus that took us back across town to the train station.  I would have been so completely lost without her.  Before we hugged goodbye, we realized that we didn't even get a picture together.  Sue asked a nice lady and we were able to capture one small moment together. 

 

As I rode the train back to Cork, I was able to reflect on the day.  I am so glad that I have a wonderful friend in Sue and that we were able to spend a little time together.  When I got back to the hotel at 10 pm, Robyn was still out with her team.  I visited with Dianne for a while in her room and we ordered some room service.  More of the same strange food, but it was all we had!  Robyn dragged in a little bit later and told us all about her night at the Blarney Castle.  I knew it was a place I had to hit before we left the Emerald Isle.