APAT Dublin....the day before. Pt IV
Friday 24th September 2010
I enter the Stena terminal and...joy of joys...am greeted with the famous British invention...the queue!
Yes...I don"t know why...and at this point I don"t care why check-in it still open..but it is...at least as far as I can tell.
While I"m standing there, shuffling along every few seconds or so, I see the familiar face of Paul McGuinness and we exchange greetings, he disappears for a minute or to (honestly, the man has a bladder the size of a peanut)..during which time I make my way to the front of the check-in line.
Now I"m fully expecting to be pulled aside and told I"m too late but...all is good, I check-in my bag, get my boarding card and make my way to the shuttle bus for foot passengers. I try to wait for Paul but he misses the first bus and will have to catch the second one in a couple of minutes.
Eventually, we drive onto the ferry, I manage to find Paul and we make our way up to the restaurant & bar deck.
We grab a couple of drinks and a table and settle down to make the crossing. I fire up the laptop and log-in to the free wifi but it"s got some net-nanny filter...no gambling sites allowed...so I can"t post up what"s happening.
Regardless, Paul and I have a good old natter about APAT, Dublin, Life, how proud he is of the Welsh Team at WCOAP and a fed other subjects.
We"re sitting outside Dublin harbour when the captain comes over the tannoy to advise us that our docking berth is still occupied by the other Stena ship due to someone falling ill on board and they can"t leave.
And if they can"t leave...we can"t arrive.
Over the next FOUR hours we are advised that the person suffered at heart attack which meant that they had to wait for an ambulance to arrive...the paramedics then worked on the poor soul until they had to give up. This then meant that they had to wait for the Garda to arrive and take witness statements.
So, a journey that should have taken 3.5 hours took nearly 7.5 hours...but eventually we dock and disembark. Paul and I collect our luggage and head out of the terminal to find a cab. I would have thought they would be swarming but apparently not.
Stena do put on a courtesy bus into Connelly station but Paul has already found a taxi firm who will send us a cab if we can wait 15 minutes or so. Fair enough.
As it happens, a cab pulls in after about 5 minutes, apparently for hire. We flag him down and Paul goes up to the cab and says "McGuinness?"...the driver says yes and we climb in.
Only it wasn"t the cab we called...the driver"s name WAS McGuinness!
Doesn"t matter to us...we"re on board and heading for my hotel. Paul"s booked into the same one but only for Saturday and Sunday so I offer him my floor. I can see him while I"m typing this...snoring away..poor lamb...it wasn"t a late night for us...but it was a long day.
Anyway, we arrive safely at Latchfords about 9pm and I get us checked in. Nice place, self-catering, but they lay on tea and coffee in the room. Microwave, kettle, toaster and even a full oven.
Other than the kettle I don"t see those getting a lot of use. Literally over the road from Larry Murphy"s and only 55 euro a night. GOLDEN!
After getting sorted we wander over to Larry Murphys and are greeted by the Ger contingent and a few others. Hilarity ensues.
My reputation as a "Travel Guru" is clearly in tatters but I maintain that, if everything goes right, that journey is pretty sweet. Can"t say that I would do it exactly the same as I did this time, I might allow a little more time but sometimes stuff happens.
Onwards...breakfast awaits...if I can wake Paul.
