Top o’ the mornin’ to ya.
Faith and begorrah.
They’re after me Lucky Charms.
All those borderline offensively stereotypical Irish exclamations can only mean one thing.
The Goodys? We’re going to Ireland!
Yup, we spent sort-of-kind-of 5ish days in the Emerald Isle at the end of May 2023. Why did we do such a thing? Well, we had Aer Lingus tickets we had to use due to a cancelled trip AND we wanted to spend some time together as a family AND Nickie and I were celebrating our 20th anniversary.
20 years guys. There wasn’t even an iPhone then. Tobey Maguire was the only Spider-Man anyone cared about. Joe Rogan was just “that guy that hosts Fear Factor.”
It was a simpler time.
So yeah, 5 days including travel days. Overnight flights. 5-hour time differences. And basically visiting both coasts of Ireland over the course of only 4 days.
Let’s get into it.
Our May 2023 trip to Ireland: Day 1
It’s here. It’s Day 1!!
And Day 1 was a Friday. While Nickie and I had today off and Myles’s freshman year at Seton Hall was officially over, Owen still unfortunately had a little bit of school he needed to handle.
Nerd.
But yeah, he had some tests he needed to attend to early in the day so despite our pleas to skip school (on account of us being the best parents ever), he was pretty adamant he needed to be there at least for the morning.
Dude works hard.
And it wasn’t like we were planning on really sleeping in anyways. Because our friends, John and Renee, were also heading out of town on vacation today so they were leaving their car in our driveway and I was driving them to the airport.
Their flight was an early one so they were at our house by around 6:15AM. But this worked out since this got me up early and I could hit the gym on the way home and get 6 miles in on the treadmill. This was important since (A) I wasn’t planning on running in Ireland and (B) they brought these with them!
Those right there are donuts from Kane’s Donuts (https://www.kanesdonuts.com/), the BEST donuts in the Boston area. Maple Bacon, Turtle, Blueberry, Whoopie Pie, and Coffee Roll.
All of these are great flavors but the Whoopie Pie is probably my absolute favorite of the bunch. Not only is it delicious but you can yell out “whoopie!” every time you take a bite.
That being said, when I got back from the gym, Owen had already gotten into that one so I ended up having half of the Maple Bacon donut and half of the Turtle. And the Maple Bacon is a strong contender as well. That thing is GOOD.
Donut get me wrong. I liked the Turtle too.
I also ate some of the Coffee Roll.
I like donuts.
Is what I am saying to you now.
And Renee and John are both awesome and the devil for bringing them over. Thanks guys we loved them and also you sons of B’s.
Being that this was Memorial Day weekend, news reports were really hyping up the crowds at the airport.
Which is an odd thing, right? News reports hyping things up?
Still though. We were deffo concerned. Our flight was at around 5:30 but we had a plan to dismiss Owen a little early from school so we could be at the airport around 1:30, which would give us plenty of time to work through the crowds and get some lunch and get some drinks and not lose our minds.
We spent the morning getting some last-minute packing done and getting the house cleaned. My mother-in-law was going to be staying at our house to take care of the doggos along with her husband, Alan, and their dog Abby. Which is obvs squad a HUGE help and we didn’t want them to come into a messy house.
Another big help? My mom was driving us to the airport today.
Going on vacation? It takes a village.
My mom was at the house at around 12:45 or so, while Nickie was out picking Owen up from school. I got the car packed up and pretty soon after Nickie returned with Owen, off we went to the airport.
We arrived at the airport at around 1:30, said our goodbyes to my mom…
…and made our way to Aer Lingus ticketing to drop off our bags. The airport wasn’t empty by any stretch but it also wasn’t the CROWD-GEDDON 2023 the news was playing it up to be.
#FakeNews, amirite?
And in fact, security took us literally like 5 minutes to get through. Which is saying a lot since the security line in Terminal C at Logan is usually a hellscape.
At this point, it was a little after 2PM and we were hungry. Especially Owen. On account of in our pre-vacation blurbrain today, we completely forgot to pack any sort of lunch or snacks for Owen. Which is obviously what he gets.
For being such a nerd.
Thankfully, right near our gate was the new Santarpio’s Pizza they just opened.
For those who live outside Boston – the original Santarpio’s in East Boston is probably the best pizza place around. Well, Regina’s in the North End also takes a run at the title but ask me most days what the best pizza place in Boston is and I’ll say Santarpio’s.
In East Boston.
That “East Boston” is an important qualifier because there is another Santarpio’s in Peabody that’s…eh…not the best.
So going into an airport Santarpio’s had us unsure of what to expect.
Was it going to be a Santarpi…
Or a Santarpi…
Only one way to find out.
…
…
We have to eat there. Is what I am saying to you now.
And look at this.
It says, “Irish.” Which originally we took as some sort of like cool cosmic situation or whatever. But now that I think about it, that Santarpio’s is right outside the Aer Lingus gates.
So I dunno. Maybe it wasn’t as cosmic as I thought.
The first meal of the trip is always an exciting one. It’s usually in an airport so it’s not the food that makes it so. But it’s the promise of what lies before you and the unknown of what’s to come.
Also? There’s usually beer.
Well for me anyways. Nickie got a glass of wine.
The menu was, surprise surprise, heavily pizza-based but there were sandwiches and salads and what not as well. But the boys and I were all thinking pizza.
All three of us wanted pepperoni so it would have been great to split a pie but as we looked around, it seemed these were individual-size deals. So three pepperonis, please.
…
…
They were out of pepperoni.
They were out of pepperoni. The pizza place. Out of pepperoni.
Soooo, the boys each ordered a cheese.
And I got myself a sausage.
Don’t freak out btw. There were plates under those pizzas.
Nickie ordered a chicken sandwich, but for some reason I didn’t take a picture of it? We are already off to a great start with this blogging stuff.
The pizza though? It was pretty good stuff. Like for airport pizza, this was really good. Well-cooked, good sauce, right amount of cheese. All good. A solid first meal of the trip.
After lunch had ended, it was still before 4:00 so we had around an hour until we started boarding. So we decided to go for a little walk around the airport before we settled in for our trans-Atlantic flight.
From the other side of the terminal, we got a good look at our plane, which was already at the gate.
It’s nice enough. Looks a little plane.
The walk wasted a little bit of time, but not quite enough so we went back to Santarpio’s to grab a drink. I opted for a Basil Hayden on the rocks.
And yeah, it was good. Doy.
As we were sitting in Santarpio’s, we saw quite a long line forming outside our gate pretty early. And, like, it made no sense to me. They board on Aer Lingus by row from the back of the plane so I mean, lining up early really offers no benefit. As I sipped my Basil on the rocks, I really felt like I was winning.
They were all losing.
Eventually though, we did pay our bill, gather our bags and make our way over to the gate. We were on the jetway a little after 5:00.
We were excited. As evidenced by thumbs being in the up position.
Look. See. Excited.
As you can see, we were in the middle section, which we have liked in past international flights because it’s four seats across. This plane, however, was a bit of an oldie. There was an insanely low amount of legroom in these seats. I mean, I don’t think being on the sides would have helped that at all but it just kind of felt like we were crammed in there a little bit. On the one hand, that’s not the best. On the other hand? It does make for easy cuddling.
So yeah, flight took off around 5:45. And spoiler alert – our flight ended up taking a little under 5 hours. This meant that we would be arriving at what felt like close to 11PM on Friday for us but was, because of the time difference, 4AM on Saturday in Dublin.
Shizz was gonna be cray.
Given that timetable, it was going to be tough to sleep on this plane. Sooo…I was hoping to put a dent in the new book Nickie got me for my birthday – The Nineties: a Book by Chuck Klosterman.
Klosterman. Good stuff.
I was also hoping to put a dent in these as well.
Once we were at cruising altitude, the flight attendants came by with beverage offerings. I got myself a Diet Coke.
And that did not have any rum in it. I definitely did not bring any nips on this plane you guys. Because that would be against the rules.
So no.
No rum.
Guys, stop asking.
Nickie whined.
Sorry.
Nickie wined.
After they finished the beverage service, out came our main meals for the flight. We were offered a choice of beef or chicken. I went in for the beef, as did Myles.
Nickie and Owen chose the chicken.
The beef was served sort of like a beef stew kind of thing with potatoes and carrots while the chicken had, what, chickpeas? While I ordered the beef, I also tried the chicken. They were both…fine. I mean I thought the potatoes in the beef dish were not bad actually but overall it had the feel of a Lean Cuisine type situation.
But I mean, still. Not terrible. Airline food isn’t really supposed to be incredible. It’s just supposed to sort of be.
As you can also see, both meals came with a roll and butter, Caprese salad, a Jell-O cup of water for some reason, and a Triple Chocolate Mousse with Chocolate Ganache.
The Caprese Salad was actually very good. I know it wasn’t fresh but it tasted fresh, especially the mozzarella. The roll was not great. It was super dry…like it had a stale consistency to it. I mean, I still ate it of course. But my bar is low.
The Triple Chocolate Mousse was also good.
Overall, the meal did the trick. Gave us something to do and nothing was overly terrible. Which is a stellar review when it comes to main cabin airline food.
I mentioned earlier the whole legroom problem on this plane. But I think that was the result of this plane being old AF. Look at what you use to control the screen.
A remote control? And the other side of this thing was a phone. Where were we flying? Palm Springs so we can see Jessie Spano’s dad get married to an aerobics instructor and Slater can date a princess?
This plane was old is what I am saying to you now.
Man, Jessie really did not like Leslie.
Look guys. We were really flying over the Atlantic. I wasn’t lying.
At around an hour before landing, the flight attendants came around with a food box containing a blueberry muffin and orange juice.
The blueberry muffin was a blueberry muffin in name only as blueberries were pretty hard to come by. Should have just been called “muffin.” The orange juice, meanwhile, was pretty much frozen. So it was more an orange slushie than juice.
Owen was down.
Our plane landed at around 4AM Ireland time and we were off the plane, through customs, and had our bags in hand by 5AM. Though I must remind you all it felt like midnight at this point. Not completely exhausted at this point but we were feeling it.
And it was officially Day 2 I guess?
We found our way to the restrooms so we could wash up a little bit and brush our teeth. And when we opened up our suitcase, we found that one of our shampoo bottles had exploded in the Ziploc bag containing our toothbrushes. So like, our teeth were extra clean.
And silky.
Anyways, bring on the good times.
Right.
The plan for the first half of the day today was to do a little bit of exploring in Dublin so we had pre-purchased a bus pass for us on the Dublin Express to take us from the airport into the center of the city. So we walked outside and down to the bus stop.
We had just missed a bus so the next one didn’t come until 5:39AM (Boston time, 12:39AM).
The bus was actually really nice. Super comfy seats on which I could nap. And busses have a super special lane they can take into the city to avoid traffic.
We took the bus to Aston Quay. Which is pronounced “Key” not “Quay.” As Myles and Owen pointed out to Nickie many many times.
We were surprised the streets were so empty. Until of course we remembered it wasn’t even 6AM yet.
I am going to be talking about time in these posts a lot. Just call me Cyndi Lauper.
Because it’s just gonna be time…after time.
We had a list of a few spots we wanted to see this morning. And first on the list was Ha’Penny Bridge.
If you look real close at that picture above? Hidden Myles and Owen.
And if you look real close at this picture below? Not-so-hidden Myles and Owen.
The next stop on our list was about a 7-minute walk. With our luggage.
Our next stop was these.
Sorry.
This.
Our next stop was this.
The Molly Malone statue.
I can’t believe this is the first prostitute we’ve featured on the blog.
As you can see, the area erm…the area below her neck but above her stomach…is a little worn. And that’s because it’s considered good luck to rub her…to rub…
in that area.
Sorry guys. I’m just as uncomfortable as you with what all just transpired here. Let’s just move on.
OK so at this point, it was approaching 6:30AM (1:30AM Boston time), which meant it was breakfast time. I mean, I don’t fully know why that would explicitly mean breakfast time, 6:30AM. But today it did. On account of we were hungry.
And our planned spot for breakfast today was about a 6 minute walk away from the Molly Malone statue. At the Stage Door Café.
And this place was cute and cozy AF. I think there were a total of like 4 tables. And as we were walking in, another family that was walking in at the same time noticed our Celtics jerseys and yelled out, “Celtics in 7!” I also noticed one of them was wearing an Oak Bluffs t-shirt. Turned out they were all from either MA or CT.
Annnd…another couple came in and sat down at another table and turned out they were from Boston too. It was like a little Masshole reunion up in here.
To start, I ordered an Americano and Nickie ordered a hot tea.
The kids grabbed a couple Cadbury hot chocolates with marshmallows.
Leh. Git. Hot Chocolate.
We were a little early so the kitchen was just ramping up and not ready for food orders just yet. Which was fine since we were def enjoying just kind of hanging out for a little while. On account of we like each other.
I overheard a guy at the other table order an Irish Coffee and had some immediate FOMOOABD.
Fear Of Missing Out On Alcoholic Breakfast Drinks.
So once I finished my regular non-alcoholic coffee drink?
For breakfast, Nickie, Myles, and I ordered the Irish Breakfast. Obvs squad.
Brown Bread. Egg. Bacon. Sausage. Black and White Pudding. Baked Beans.
This right here a plate of whoa.
This was a seriously good breakfast. I was a full fledged member of the CPC (Clean Plate Club) today no doubt.
Owen doesn’t go in for all that so he ordered just eggs, bacon, and toast.
I mean not just. Those are all components of a solid breakfast and what not.
Highly recommend Stage Door Café. Chill, intimate environment. Great service. Delicious food. Whiskey.
It’s all there.
And through the entire meal, we were all eyeing this giant jar of lollipops. Wondering….no, hoping…these would feature somehow into our Stage Door breakfast experience. And then, when we got the bill…
Aw.
Yeah.
I also need to mention there were some interesting, adult-oriented décor choices in Stage Door. I took a picture of said décor but am holding it back from the main blog since this is a family affair situation. I’ll be saving it for the weheartdisney Onlyfans.
After we finished up with breakfast, it was time to head to our next stop – Dublin Castle, a castle dropped smack in the middle of the city. Well, not dropped. Constructed. But yeah, just like a castle in the middle of a main street.
So I mean. Dublin obviously copied Walt Disney World.
The castle was about a 5-minute walk from breakfast.
And yup. A crane. Like I said, completely copied Walt Disney World.
As you can tell btw – it was such a nice day out today. We came prepared with hoodies and what not but the skies were clear and the sun was hot. Which was nice. Also not the best conditions for lugging bags around a busy city. But we were powering through.
Because we are the true heroes.
For the castle, we didn’t have a tour planned or anything. We were just kind of planning to take a walk around the grounds and snap some pictures. The castle was also only part of the draw here. We had heard really good things about the garden. And those good things? They held true.
We took a walk around the garden (there was a little path circling the whole thing).
I just wanna do a quick time check here. It was 8:41AM Dublin time (3:41 Boston time). I mention this for two reasons. For one, it was pretty impressive all we had gotten done in Dublin before 9:00AM. And two, we were definitely starting to feel that time difference.
And we still had a bunch more stops on our list we wanted to see. So I mean, let’s get to it.
Our next point of interest was Trinity College, which was about a 10 minute walk from Dublin Castle.
And not to get into too many details, but I will say this. If you find yourself in Dublin and you have to…you know…take care of business…I highly recommend the public restrooms at Trinity. Each is private and it’s like a little apartment in there.
Place was fire. Literally. I think my bathroom had a fireplace in it.
After we left Trinity, it was getting clear we were all getting pretty tired. The issue was that we had a train to catch from Dublin to Galway and our ticket was for 1PM. It was around 9AM now. So, we had the idea to just start walking to the train station now, maybe making a couple stops along the way, and hopefully when we got there, maybe they would let us switch for an earlier train.
The Heuston Train Station was a little over a half hour walk away. Which doesn’t seem like much now but with the whole luggage/heat/exhaustion trifecta we had going on, it felt like it was on the other side of the world.
Luckily though, there was a stop we wanted to make along the way…
OF COURSE we stopped at the Disney Store on Grafton St. It’s how we do.
We were hoping to find some sort of Ireland-specific Disney merch, like we found in Rome and New York but no such luck. Nothing. Not a mug. Spirit Jersey. Nothing.
But it was a nice store.
Thing was multiple floors. And on the bottom floor was the Star Wars and Marvel Fan Zone. Which worked out for me. Since I am a fan and always in the zone.
This is not the luggage you’re looking for.
Fun little stop for sure but we didn’t end up buying anything.
I know. I do feel shame.
On we continued down Grafton.
Until we saw, as we came to a corner, like some sort of oasis beckoning us with its deep-fried siren calls…
The Rolling Donut. Hallelujah.
Nickie said she had seen many people mention this place in the Ireland Travel Advice & Information Facebook group so I was excited to try it.
On account of donuts = life.
I got myself the Kinder Bueno (a sourdough donut with a Kinder Bueno filling topped with white chocolate ganache and chocolate flakes.)
Owen ordered the Cookies and Cream (cookies and cream filling with a chocolate ganache and an OREO cookie).
Myles went for a Vanilla Sprinkles, which was their signature vanilla pod glaze with rainbow sprinkles. He, however, devoured it before I could get a picture of it.
Nickie got a water.
Overall, though, these were stellar donuts. I mean as you can see, Myles didn’t even make it to a picture and I was lucky to get a picture of Owen’s before his was gone. My Kinder Bueno was a heavy donut with a large amount of filling. And the dough was flaky with a nice chew to it. Everything tasted very fresh as well. Good stuff.
On we walked. Thankfully we were now fueled by the magic of donuts because look at these stairs we had to walk up (this picture was taken looking back on said stairs after we had walked them).
Ok ok. Stop stair-ing.
But that was it for us. Those stairs did us in. There would be no more walking to the train station.
We grabbed a cab for the rest of the way.
And man, that was a good move. We were at Heuston Station in no time. People should take cars all the time. WAY better than walking.
After we entered the station, Nickie tried to get on an earlier train but the guy in the ticket window said our ticket was semi-flexible. Which, I guess in Ireland means “not flexible.” Because there was nothing we could do. At this point it was a little after 10AM Ireland time (5AM Boston time). We had three hours until we could board our train.
Which would then take three hours to get to Galway.
Oof, today.
I asked the ticket dude if there was a pub nearby where we could kind of wait out our…well our wait. He pointed us to the Galway Hooker Bar at the far end of the station.
I’d like to note that, again, it was like a little after 10AM and a good amount of the folks in that picture, at least more than you would expect at 10AM, were definitely drunk. That dude with the white hat on talked to me for a good ten minutes and the only words I could make out were, “how’s your mother doing?”
No judgement at all btw. Dude’s my hero.
We walked in and found a table in the back with some comfortable chairs where the boys could doze off.
I went up to the bar to grab Nickie and I a couple beers – a Guinness for me and a Smithwick’s for her.
You should probably get used to the phrase, “Guinness for me” on account this happens a lot.
And, given 18 is the legal drinking age in Ireland, Myles was also able to partake.
This was a big deal. Not only was this Myles’s first beer in a pub but it was also his first beer with Nickie and I and it was his first Guinness. A big day for Myles. Maybe his biggest?
I mean. It’s in contention.
But I don’t know. Maybe this one didn’t count. He was just having a sip of my Guinness rather than his own. Also maybe none of them count? Because Myles only had a sip of ALL the Guinness he had on this trip. Like, he may have broken a world record for the smallest amount of Guinness drank from a purchased brew.
A…and say it with me here…Guinness World Record.
I know. I hate myself for that one.
But eh, it’s a good thing he only had that little bit. Because it put him (and Owen by association) out for the count.
Nickie and I passed the time by playing some Ride the Bus.
Also, after I finished my Guinness and Nickie finished her Smithwick’s, we moved onto a Galway Hooker Irish Pale Ale (for me) and a Coors Light (for Nickie).
The kids, meanwhile, continued to do their thing.
Eventually, our three hours were nearly up. So we woke the boys up, gathered our bags, and headed out onto the platform.
And guys – check out this sign.
Like, this wasn’t the only place we saw this sign. Ireland was pushing New Jersey hardcore. And no disrespect to New Jersey but I mean…I don’t think of it as one of THE vacation destinations in the United States.
But now that I think about it. I mean, Snooki is a global treasure.
While we were waiting for the train, Nickie stopped in the store on the platform to get us all some drinks for the train. She got me a Coke Zero. Which I dropped. Like multiple times.
Thing was lethal.
Our train started boarding at around 1:30. We bought our tickets in advance and secured four seats around a table.
Which was a good call. Because, you know…
We all managed to doze off here and there through the little-over-two-hour train ride to Galway but in between sleepytimez, we were treated to some nice views of the Ireland we were passing.
We pulled into Galway at around 3:45.
And the original plan was to walk around the center of town since the rest of the trip we had day-long tours that would have us back in Galway after most of the shops and what not had closed. However, the boys were still pretty exhausted so they wanted to just get back to the hotel to chill for a bit.
Which meant we had to grab a cab since we were staying outside of town in the Salthill area of Galway at the Salthill Hotel, which was about a ten minute drive away, but it was right on the Salthill Promenade.
We checked in and were in our room by 4:30.
And as you can see from the above picture, we were very concerned with whether we could connect my laptop or our phones to the TV because the Celtics were playing the Heat in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Which was both exciting (because the Celtics had just bounced back from being down 3-0 to being down 3-2) and frightening (because given the time difference, the game was scheduled to start at 1:30AM Ireland time.)
The plan was to try and get to bed by 8PM so that we could get at least a little bit of sleep before having to wake up for the game. I know. We are kind of incredible sometimes.
Also, when we got in the room, Nickie saw the surprise I pre-ordered for her – Moet champagne and a bouquet of flowers to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.
On account of I am the whole package.
After a little bit of downtime in the room, we headed out to walk the promenade in search of dinner. On our way, we passed a little fun park that I tried my best to get to during our stay there, but never made it.
So this Ferris Wheel just sort of stood there mocking me for the four days we were there.
Stupid Ferris Wheel. Shut up.
Being this was Saturday night, the promenade was hopping. While we hoped to duck into a traditional pub for dinner, it just really wasn’t gonna happen. We did, however, find seating at Oslo, a Galway Bay Brewery Restaurant.
I started with an old-fashioned.
Which was…ok. As you can see it was pretty light. And while I don’t have the ingredients in front of me right now, I assume that was because it was made with Irish whiskey?
I should have opted for the Pornstar Martini.
For dinner, I think we all ended up getting burgers since they seemed to be a prime feature of the menu. I opted for the Juicy BBQ Burger (100% Irish Beef Patty, Battered Onion Rings, BBQ Sauce, Rocket Salad, Beef Tomato on a Brioche Bun) with a side of fries.
Which was actually a pretty good burger. Was it the best burger I’ve ever had? No. But it was pretty tasty.
Honestly, this dinner was a tough one because we were all exhausted. I wouldn’t say we were in a good mood so the meh-ness of this dinner definitely wasn’t Oslo’s fault. Under normal circumstances, I most likely would have been drinking a pornstar martini and doing my thang instead of sitting there with resting grouch-face.
But hey – at this point it was 6:22PM Ireland time (1:22PM Boston time). We boarded our flight nearly 20 hours ago. Things were dicey, man.
We were determined to salvage things though. On our way back to the hotel, we took a detour through the garden across the street. And place was nice. Very garden-y.
And Nickie and I stopped off for a quick drink at Blackrock Bar in our hotel.
We sat out on the patio. Nickie ordered a white wine while I opted for, surprise surprise, a Guinness.
And yeah, that helped. I mean the alcohol was nice and everything but having a moment to decompress with Nickie outside on the water in some pretty stellar weather helped to put things into perspective a little. We were in Ireland. The four of us. And we had some memories ahead of us to make.
After we finished our drinks, we met the boys back in the room. It was around 8PM at this point, which meant it was time to get to bed so that we could wake up at 1:30AM to watch Game 6.
Do we do it?
I mean, that’s Day 3 man. You’ll have to wait and see.
Next post – Day 3
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