What a hectic 48 hours – another day another 7,500km
travelled!
We had a final half a day in New York – a last goodbye to
Central Park and the playground with the swinging tyre.
America was a fabulous experience! It was HOT (my goodness
it was hot)…and it was crowded...but no one can say that America and Americans
are not full of life and living it to the fullest! They are polite, helpful and
friendly bunch and America, whilst not ‘beautiful’ in a sense like Europe, it
has a uniqueness and energy that makes it special in its own way. We will be
back!
Now – the flight to Dublin was, in a word – tough. Not tough
in the sense that the kids were terrible or the food, service, etc was bad –
because none of these were true. Again the girls were as close to perfect as
you can expect and we flew Swiss air and those Swiss people are a polite and
efficient bunch.
But it was tough in terms of jetlag and time differences. I
always thought the Sydney-Europe flight was pretty horrendous – leaving in the
afternoon and landing the following morning bleary-eyed and exhausted….but at
least in that journey you have 24 hours to try and get at least ‘some’ sleep.
This flight (or flights) were strange in that we left New
York at 6:30pm…they served us dinner at about 8:00pm and then turned down the
lights at around 9:30pm. No problem. But a mere 2.5 hours later the lights were
back on and we were served breakfast…landing at the equivalent of 1:30am (New
York time) which was 8am (Swiss time, or 7am Ireland time). So we had to fit in
a night of sleep in a 2.5 hour time frame…impossible!!!
We had to fly from New York to Zurich, Switzerland first
(part of our around the world ticket conditions) and then back-track to Dublin,
Ireland.
With the last name “Dempsey” we are in our element in
Ireland…there are thousands of us here! Neve happens to be one of the most
popular girls names in Ireland so she should be right at home.
Landing at Dublin airport we were one of the last through
the immigration check. The man at the passport control looked Neve up and down
and agreed that she looked every inch the Irish girl...although he admitted
that he had never, ever seen Neve spelt the way we do. We have an
“Australian-ised” version of Neve’s name – which in Ireland is spelt Niamh (but
we figured not many people in Australia would know how to pronounce it
correctly).
Dublin was about 15 degrees cooler than New York –about 17
degrees (which is much the same as we are having mid-winter at home). It didn’t
‘feel’ as cold as Sydney but the temperature drop was a welcome relief I must
admit.
We were all exhausted so it was blissful but slightly
surreal to arrive in our accommodation for the next 3 weeks, which is in a
quiet residential area just 2 stops on the “dart” (the Dublin light rail
system) from the centre of Dublin. A short stroll to the centre of the village,
past gorgeous little terraces and cottages…it seemed so incredibly different
from the noise, pace, crowds and heat of New York!
We barely managed to eat dinner before going to bed. Nearly
14 hours later we emerged feeling far more human and ready to explore.
We caught the dart into the city and wandered along
O’Connell and Henry streets which are two of the main shopping streets in
Dublin. The crowds here gave us a sense of familiarity with the last 2 weeks.
Dublin is a beautiful city and Shane has decided the Irish
accent is one of the best in the world – it is very melodic. We are looking
forward to the next 3 weeks exploring this city and the rest of Ireland as
well.
