Alk's European Vacation (advice needed)

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If I have learned one thing on this trip, it's go to everything early. We have felt like the crowds have followed us everywhere we go. We sit down in an empty pub for a pint and the crowd seems to trickle in behind us. We went to Howth today. Very manageable crowds until we got done with our boat tour and the crowds were insane. Today there is the hurling championship so all of our drivers have said that Dublin is going to be rocking. 82,000 people in a stadium for an amateur sporting event. 🤯
 
Alk said:
If I have learned one thing on this trip, it's go to everything early. We have felt like the crowds have followed us everywhere we go. We sit down in an empty pub for a pint and the crowd seems to trickle in behind us. We went to Howth today. Very manageable crowds until we got done with our boat tour and the crowds were insane. Today there is the hurling championship so all of our drivers have said that Dublin is going to be rocking. 82,000 people in a stadium for an amateur sporting event. 🤯
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That's right, it's the All-Ireland Hurling Championship final between Limerick and Galway. It's one sport of the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association), the other being Gaelic Football, which has similarities to Aussie Rules. The players play for the counties they were born in, so it's very personal and tribal. Parish v Parish sort of stuff. The players aren't paid so it's farmers, factory workers, lawyers, bankers, teachers, policemen, soldiers, you name it, they all have full time jobs but they train like pros. They do it for the jersey.
 
Roberto71 said:
That's right, it's the All-Ireland Hurling Championship final between Limerick and Galway. It's one sport of the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association), the other being Gaelic Football, which has similarities to Aussie Rules. The players play for the counties they were born in, so it's very personal and tribal. Parish v Parish sort of stuff. The players aren't paid so it's farmers, factory workers, lawyers, bankers, teachers, policemen, soldiers, you name it, they all have full time jobs but they train like pros. They do it for the jersey.
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Oof. Galway did not fare so well. 😬
 
Alk said:
If I have learned one thing on this trip, it's go to everything early. We have felt like the crowds have followed us everywhere we go. We sit down in an empty pub for a pint and the crowd seems to trickle in behind us. We went to Howth today. Very manageable crowds until we got done with our boat tour and the crowds were insane. Today there is the hurling championship so all of our drivers have said that Dublin is going to be rocking. 82,000 people in a stadium for an amateur sporting event. 🤯
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I had the opposite occur in Ireland one time. I believe it was 1999 and we were staying somewhere in or around Cork in August. There was an away game in soccer or hurling or whatever. The only people left in town were us and the proprietors of the Chinese and Indian restaurants. I’d never experienced anything like it. It was almost post-apocalyptic. The whole damn town left.
 
3 Point Stan said:
I had the opposite occur in Ireland one time. I believe it was 1999 and we were staying somewhere in or around Cork in August. There was an away game in soccer or hurling or whatever. The only people left in town were us and the proprietors of the Chinese and Indian restaurants. I’d never experienced anything like it. It was almost post-apocalyptic. The whole damn town left.
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If it's Cork, it would have been hurling. They are fanatical about it down there. It's a fascinating sport. Would you believe the pic below is US Army veterans of the Iraq/Afghan war who, when they were passing through Shannon Airport on their way to and from the Middle East, watched the game on TV and loved it? They found out about the sport's warrior roots, the GAA got them equipment, and they formed a team called the Barley House Wolves, all New Hampshire vets. They've been to Ireland to play in tournaments and everything. The vets said it was a great way for them to stay in touch with each other and help themselves get over the war etc

great-story-about-us-soldiers-that-started-their-own-hurling-club.jpg
 
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Last day in Ireland. We took a bus to see the Black Hedges and Giant's Causeway. I liked the Cliffs of Moher but IMO, the Causeway was way cooler. We're currently at a pub in Belfast before we get back on the bus and head back to Dublin to finish our journey.
 

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Just landed in Minneapolis. Not a single Guinness tap in sight. 😭
 
We made it back home!! We managed to stay awake from 8:00 AM Dublin time all the way until we pulled into our driveway at 11:30 PM Central time no clue how many hours total that is. We logged over 90 miles of walking over the past two weeks. We pretty much walked everywhere within reason and only caught a cab if we needed to be somewhere quick or a bus or train if we were going to a different town. It was no problem falling asleep before Midnight but my wife was awake at 5:30 and I was awake at 6:30. I'm back at work just waiting for the sleep wall to come up and smack me square in the face. :ROFLMAO: I have tons of great pictures to go through but don't want to overload the board with them.
 
Alk said:
We made it back home!! We managed to stay awake from 8:00 AM Dublin time all the way until we pulled into our driveway at 11:30 PM Central time no clue how many hours total that is. We logged over 90 miles of walking over the past two weeks. We pretty much walked everywhere within reason and only caught a cab if we needed to be somewhere quick or a bus or train if we were going to a different town. It was no problem falling asleep before Midnight but my wife was awake at 5:30 and I was awake at 6:30. I'm back at work just waiting for the sleep wall to come up and smack me square in the face. :ROFLMAO: I have tons of great pictures to go through but don't want to overload the board with them.
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Welcome back!
you went to work the day after you came back??
That's hardcore! Definitely, welcome more pictures when you have a chance. Also, let me know the final results of carrying so little luggage. Do you think you needed more stuff?Could you have gone lighter?
 
HSanders said:
Welcome back!
you went to work the day after you came back??
That's hardcore! Definitely, welcome more pictures when you have a chance. Also, let me know the final results of carrying so little luggage. Do you think you needed more stuff?Could you have gone lighter?
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We absolutely loved packing light although our friends that went with didn't exactly take it to the extremes that we did. :ROFLMAO: The other woman in our group was maybe a little (lot) more high maintenance than my wife is. It was an absolute game changer only having to run around with a backpack and the carry on suitcase. The one downside to it was...lets just say washers and dryers aren't exactly like what we're used to in the states. They are tiny and they. take. foreverrrrrr!! We did laundry two times while we were over there.

I packed two pair of shoes because everyone we talked to said that we would want a second pair. I never even took the second pair out of the suitcase so that was a good chunk of wasted space. If you find yourself having a lot of time between arriving and being able to check into your room, there are places everywhere (usually convenience stores) that will store your bags for a fee. We did that a couple of times so we weren't having to lug everything through the city.

I touched on this earlier but check into the airlines that you might be using when you get over there. Ryanair in particular will make you check your regular sized carry on suitcase. They make special ones for those airlines. From what I could tell they just don't have the little expansion part in the middle of the suitcase.
 
Alk said:
We made it back home!! We managed to stay awake from 8:00 AM Dublin time all the way until we pulled into our driveway at 11:30 PM Central time no clue how many hours total that is. We logged over 90 miles of walking over the past two weeks. We pretty much walked everywhere within reason and only caught a cab if we needed to be somewhere quick or a bus or train if we were going to a different town. It was no problem falling asleep before Midnight but my wife was awake at 5:30 and I was awake at 6:30. I'm back at work just waiting for the sleep wall to come up and smack me square in the face. :ROFLMAO: I have tons of great pictures to go through but don't want to overload the board with them.
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Wow. If my maths is correct, you stayed awake from 0200 Central to 2330 Central, or 0800 BST (British Summer Time) to 0530. Sounds like you had a great trip, though.

On our first trip to the US, we flew from London to Denver, via Detroit. When we got into our accommodation in Boulder, Monday Night Football was on, and I really couldn't cope with it still being light whilst it was on.
 
gomezcat said:
Wow. If my maths is correct, you stayed awake from 0200 Central to 2330 Central, or 0800 BST (British Summer Time) to 0530. Sounds like you had a great trip, though.

On our first trip to the US, we flew from London to Denver, via Detroit. When we got into our accommodation in Boulder, Monday Night Football was on, and I really couldn't cope with it still being light whilst it was on.
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It was an incredible trip. We have already started talking about things that we missed out on that we would really like to get back to see (Southern Ireland and Western Scotland) but I'm not sure how soon that will be. We still have lots of countries that we want to explore.
 
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