It's Time to Crash

May 19

It's Time to Crash

It's technically Tuesday, May 20 at 1:30am but for blogging sake, I'm still on Monday. We just got back after the longest day between traveling, customs, traveling across country, meeting friends, and having a great night out.

Sleep is overrated. I have not slept except for about an hour on the plane. It just was not going to happen. And here I am wide awake after midnight! I know I will crash any time now.

So let me get back to the day we had today. Arrival went with out any glitches, and we checked through Customs quickly too. While the line was long it did move quickly and we were off to wait for our luggage. In all the time it took for us to walk the length of the terminal and go through customs, the luggage had still not arrived. More waiting. At first I was a bit concerned that the suitcases had not transferred from our first flight to our second. But they did arrive, at about the end of all the luggage to come off the carosel. On to our rental car. Simple easy process and in about half an hour we were in our little Hyundai i10. There was only room enough in the truck (if you can call it that) for Rita's 2 smaller suitcases. My suitcase and carry on pretty much filled up the back seat. There are only 2 of us, so not a big concern. And we were off across country to Sligo.

Ireland has some interesting toll roads, and tolls are paid online, or at a service center by 8:00 the next night after they are incurred. We needed to get onto the toll road to access our turn off right after the toll. So have now to pay the 3.10 euro toll for the 1/8 mile we were on the road. And somewhere down the road to Sligo there was a different type of toll road with an actual toll booth. Don't know when we will see another, but they seem to pop up at the strangest times.

We met up with some friends from France, Stefanie and Ines, who had been in Ireland already for a couple of days on our arrival. After a quick hello with them we changed and headed off for dinner in the hotel. And speaking of this hotel, the Clarion, Sligo, I can't wait to post a picture. It's beautiful and we got a great rate for the one night. And then I heard it was a converted mental institution! Still not sure about that. I think some research is in order. :)

I'll post a picture in the next day or so.

After dinner we went to hear this amazing band, Rackhouse Pilfer, at a local pub. They are extremely popular with the locals, and while we arrived early, by the time they started playing at 9:30, the place was packed and more people continued to arrive. They have just released their second CD through a “fund it” campaign. From what I've heard of it, I really like it. I guess you could call it Alternative Country.

And they are the reason we got home so late. It was a perfect end to our first night in Ireland with great local music. For now, I need to get some sleep. We're off to Belfast tomorrow morning. Nite. :)