Tales from Dublin, Ireland - Part Un

Urmm, a bit ashamed to announce that 'intermission' has been rudely interrupted? As it turns out, I have connection at the hotel...*sheepish*

Am at Valley Hotel now. It's located in fivemiletown in Tyrone County, where the wedding is being held. It's a v small town with little to do really. Have not seen the wedding premises but expect it to be quaint. *fingers crossed* Never been to an Irish wedding before, thus v excited. Hope there'll be shamrock-throwing (in replacement of rice/confetti) and leprechauns prancing around! Or a pot of gold would be nice too! Kekeke

Our day started at 6am as we had to get to the airport by 10am. We hired a mini cab to take us Gatwick Airport as opposed to taking a train. We figured by the time we spend on train tickets for 2 to the airport, we might as well top up a bit and be chauffer-driven instead? It would certainly minimize stress and hassle. And it turned out to be better decision coz lugging a pram, a baby car seat, a clothes bag and our luggage was far too taxing. Not to mention handling a very grumpy Danielle who had to be rudely awakened to 'fit in' with the tight schedule.

First time at Gatwick Airport and found it nothing spectacular. Had quite a few nice shops (FCUK, NEXT, Harrod's) but seriously, ALL airports (or at least the ones I've encountered) pale in comparison to Changi Airport... We were lucky to arrive at the A/P by 8am, despite London's horrendous early morning traffic. Checking in was a breeze, no problems with hand luggage although had to strip myself of shoes and belt at the customs area. Was also frisked by a female A/P staff and that was just plain awkward. But otherwise, the whole check-in process was brisk (I had expected it to take longer due to the recent bomb threat). We made the cardinal mistake of arriving late at the departure gate, however. Forgetting it was a budget airline(Ryanair)we were taking, and that meant free-seating, we shd hv boarded the plane earlier. In the end, was seated separately from Dee. Never mind, lesson learnt.

Got to Dublin A/P within an hour. Flight was a tad bumpy and found myself saying mini prayers throughout the trip. That's the problem with small planes I think. You feel more turbulence? Anyway, once out of the A/P, we picked up our rented BUDGET car and zipped off to our first destination - Malahide Castle.
(see www.malahidecastle.com/malahidecastle/)

After 15 mins of wrong turns and directions, we finally got our navigation sorted and were at Malahide by noon. Hmmm, quite disappointed with the castle to be honest. Expected to see a big, commanding, medieval building but saw a teeny-tiny castle instead? Was mainly disheartened by the artifacts in the castle. Most were borrowed from other museums or foundations so were not the real McCoy, i.e the actual furniture or items from the castle. Malahide Castle was inhabited by the Talbot family for 800 years but it's ownership came to a sad ending when the last Talbot had to give up the castle due to inheritance tax. I thought it was tragic that the remaining descendent could no longer up keep the castle due to modern day tax issues? I hear she's still alive (ripe old age of 91!) and now residing in Tasmania. How odd isn't it? I mean, Tasmania, Australia???

Walking through the castle corridors filled me with a sense of gloom, or perhaps, a certain loneliness? Can't explain it but just felt like it was not a very happy castle and wondered whether its past inhabitants had sad stories to tell? I could not imagine the children playing happily in its walls, even though there was a children's room. The ballroom was crammed and uninviting. A far cry from the ostentatious ballrooms we see on telly. Perhaps those are the ficticious ones, and the real ones really aren't that opulent?

All in all, despite the disappointment, I'm glad I got to visit my first castle... :)

More on Ireland tmr. Better snooze now. Have to be fresh for Danielle and the wedding tmr!