Monday, June 6, 2011

Day 7 - Dublin and Home

Up early for our last half day in Dublin, breakfast first then a final package check and it was off to the post office to post the last parcels home. We went to a small one person post office and I was lucky that there was no one in a queue so just walked straight up to the counter. The man at the counter gave me the small form to fill in that had to be stuck to the parcel and charged me the 60 euro and that was it.

Neil was next and he had the two parcels that needed to be taped together to post as one parcel. The post worked did not have any sticky tape (over here it is the most used thing in the post office) so Neil had to leave the parcels and go to find some. There was a 2 euro shop down the road but it did not have any either. A nearby hardware store did not have any either. Finally Neil went into a DHL office and asked to buy a roll of tape. They did not sell any but allowed him to take their roll of tape to the post office and use it then return it to them. Finally Neil was able to post his parcel.

We went back to the room and did our final packing of suitcases for home. I had bought a travel scale to weigh luggage and we all tried it for our bags. As mentioned before only 20 kilos were allowed on the Dublin to London flight and then we would be able to have 30 for the London to Sydney legs. Myself and Dave were over the limit but we did not know by how much as the scales only go up to 22 kilos.

We took our luggage down to the foyer so I could arrange checking out of the hotel. It took a few trips to get it all down and it was going to be a difficult 800 metre trip to the bus stop with what we had.

Before we left Australia I had bought return tickets on the Airbus to the airport but I asked the boys if they would mind if I used some of our kitty money to get us a maxi taxi to the airport. This would mean we would be picked up at the hotel door and dropped straight back to the airport, saving a lot of time and a decent struggle to get to the bus stop. They all agreed so I booked a taxi and it arrived within 15 minutes.

We arrived at the airport in no time and went to put in our luggage. The check in person was confused as it seemed that my seat allocation was booked 4 times, Neil's was booked 3 times, Dave's 2 times and Barry's once. Strange but she sorted it out and asked us if we would like to be moved forward to a plane leaving two hours earlier for Heathrow as there was a possibility of staff shortages for the later flights and it might not take off. We agreed and were put onto the earlier flight.

Checking in the bags did cause a few problems with the weight allowance. Between Dave and I we were 8 kilos over the limit. At 15 euro per kilo we were in for a 120 euro fee. She dropped it back to 5 kilos and charged us 75 euro.

The plane trip was quick and we arrived in Heathrow and had to do the reverse walk back from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3 through the underground maze of walkways. We finally arrived at the Emirates check in and were seen to by a trainee check in person. They made plenty of mistakes which were corrected by their supervisor but then asked to weigh in our carry on luggage.

I was worried by this as I had a lot of stuff in my carry on case. Putting it on the scales it came to 12.2 kilos. The person said I needed to reduce it to 8 kilos. I pulled out some books, my camera and my electrical bag of goodies and got it below 8 kilos (The airlines say 8 kilos is the limit per item in overhead luggage). Of course I then had to carry these but as soon as I walked around a corner I opened my bag and put them all back in to the case.

I had also had as carry on my backpack with more gear in it inside a Duty Free Bag so it looked like Duty Free goodies and I had my lap top bag which had quite a few kilos of paperwork as well as the laptop. I reckon all up I had close to 40 kilos of luggage.

We went through the security control and because we had taken the early flight to Heathrow had 6 hours to kill before the flight. We went to a restaurant that was styled like an English pub and had some food and a couple of drinks before settling down in the waiting area taking turns to look after the luggage whilst the others walked around checking the duty free shops.

Finally it came time for us to proceed to the gate for boarding. Heathrow being an older terminal is stuck with a lot of the gates being a long way from the central area. We had to show our boarding passes again before being put onto the plane. The other three boys sat together on the right side of the plane and I was in the centre set of seats but on the right isle next to them. We were fed a meal once in the air and the staff came around a couple of time with extra drinks whilst we were in the air. I watched a couple of movies and got some sleep before we arrived in Dubai.

Getting through the transit search and into the terminal proper we had two hours before our connecting flight home. Neil wanted to get a beer glass from the bar he had a drink in on the way over last week. He found the bar but there was a different person in charge that the last time he was there. He told the lady what he wanted and that he had arranged with the manager of the bar on the last trip to get a glass on the way back. Neil had a cap, a stubby holder and some brochures to give the manager in return for the glass. The person non duty phoned the manager and it was arranged for Neil to get the glass.

Dave did some final shopping before heading for home and Neil though he would do a good thing and buy his partner a gold necklace as a present. He saw a nice one that was only $US51 and though he would get it. The salesperson got it out of the display and he said he would take it. From then on things got a little to hot for him as the assistant put it on the scales to weight the gold necklace, see it was $US51 per gram and when weighted the cost of the necklace was just over $US750. So a quick retreat was made and he bought another gold item that was a little less expensive. I am sure it would be well received at home.

When we were ready for the plane there was a security issue and we boarded about 30 minutes late. Boarding was completed and we were on our last leg of the trip home. I again got a right side isle seat in the centre of the plane and was lucky that there was an empty seat next to me for the flight. The other three boys sat together on the right side of the plane again.

It is over 14 hours in the air from Dubai to Sydney and between meals, movies, TV shows and some more sleep we arrived back in Sydney on time at 6.00am Friday morning. There was no issues getting through customs in Sydney and we all said our farewell's after the 11 day trip. Neil had to get the train to the domestic airport to get his connecting flight to Melbourne. He had a 5 hour wait for the plane. Barry and Dave got a train back to Barry's home where Dave had left his car, Dave had a shower and a cup of coffee at Barry's before driving off home down the Hume Highway to Wagga.

I had to wait about an hour for my Bus service as there were others to get on the bus that did not arrive in Sydney till after 7am. Luckily for me I was first drop off on the bus and I got home about 8.30am.

Overall Thoughts

What a great trip. I was very lucky to win the trip and must thank Wotif.com for running the competition and providing such a wonderful experience and also Guinness and Emirates.

I was also very lucky to be able to take three of my best mates with me and we had a wonderful time travelling together and sharing such a fantastic time in Ireland, both in Dublin and travelling over 1000 kilometres in the three days we had the car. There was a great mixture of sightseeing in Dublin and the countryside, visiting the other cities and some very interesting architecture including several castles and ruins.

We were able to visit many pubs and bars and gained a lot of items for all our brewery collections. We met many very friendly people and were treated very well by all of them. The tour of The Guinness Storehouse and the Smithwick's Brewery were highlights and being able to see so much in seven days was fantastic.

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