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Previously painful experiences with taxis, and a general feeling of not being made of money meant that we planned to travel from the airport, situated on the outskirts of Dublin (apparently, there's not much room for planes to land in the city centre!), via bus. But which bus? The guide book had hardly made things clear, but it did indicate a couple of possible bus routes. We studied the bus stop carefully, walking around the pole, on which a cylindrical sign was fixed, to read the list of bus routes. We planned to get bus 41, which was expected to arrive within a few minutes. As we were waiting, I saw someone else using the sign on the bus stop's pole. He, quite correctly, stood in one place and turned the sign, which was on some, suddenly obvious, form of mounting designed for that very action. Learn from your mistakes.
Losing my patience, I spoke to a bus driver, who convinced me that his bus would get me to a stop close enough to the hotel to walk from. Admittedly, his information was what I wanted to hear, owing to the aforementioned phobia of taxi fees. However, I think that the driver was also doing his best to fill his bus. In the grand scheme of things, O'Connell street is not that far away from the Shelbourne Hotel, which is located at St Stephen's Green. However, when you have bags in tow, it seems a fair trek.
The route we followed, carrying a suitcase and other assorted travel bags, involved traveling the length of O'Connell street and crossing the river Liffey, followed by a sling-shot around Trinity College, a wander up the length of Grafton Street and then a stagger across the width of St Stephen's Green itself... So it's a reasonable distance, especially with luggage and when you are praying that you'll reach your hotel looking as unbedraggled as possible, since it's quite embarrassing to have to explain to the concierge that you're a patron, not a tramp.
Imagine, then, my relief as we arrived at our hotel, slight hot, but in one piece. There was nobody outside, either to observe our rather unceremonious arrival or to tout for tips by carrying our cases 3 yards into the hotel. All that stood between us and our plush room was entering the hotel and announcing ourselves.
>> 7. The Frieze party has arrived
12 April 2002
Ashley Frieze