Last Tuesday was a cool day. Earlier this year in good old SF, Valerie worked with a guy named Michael at the St Francis hotel. I got to meet him at a company barbecue at a Giants game, and he was indeed an interesting guy.

Anyway, he was over in Ireland for about a week on holidays with his friend, Jamie (both of them are originally from Boston, but Michael now lives in SF and Jamie in LA). On the final part of their holiday, Valerie and I drove down from Belfast to Dublin to spend the day with them and catch up a little bit.

That’s us at the Molly Malone statue, Michael in the middle and Jamie on the right. We spent most of the day doing touristy things - Trinity College, Dublinia, Temple Bar, St. Stephen’s Green…it was fun as I don’t visit Dublin very often. The weather wasn’t too bad, it rained a bit but was mostly clear. Was definitely colder than Belfast, though. I was freezing all day!

We had dinner together at the Westin hotel, and as Michael is an employee with Westin - we had the whole meal for half price. Unfortunately saving money wouldn’t last long.

At the end of the day, Valerie and I went back to the car park to get my car, expecting a big parking charge of around €25. To be fair, we did eventually pay the €27 fee, but turns out the car garage closed at 7pm (what sort of place is this??) so my car got locked in. Nightmare.

I phoned the number to get help, and was told it would be a €60 callout fee to release the car. We briefly considered staying overnight and picking the car up in the morning, but eventually Valerie and I concluded that we just wanted to go home. 20 minutes the guy said and somebody would come and open the gates.

1 hour later and there’s still nobody, and the directions for where to meet this guy were so vague that I was beginning to worry if I was ever going to see him. Eventually after another half hour he shows up, with the thickest Irish countryside accent I’ve ever heard (like Tom from Father Ted). Still have to pay the car park fee, then pay this swine his €60 tax, and the amount of time spent on the phone cost me another £5 at least. Expensive night, but worth the effort.

It all got a bit much for Val, she barfed just outside Newry.

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website