Ireland Part 1

We left CHS at approximately 5:30p.m. and arrived at 6:40p.m. in ATL. We hauled rears, literally running to make our flight to Dublin which was leaving at 7:30. We arrived in Concourse A or B (can't remember) and had to go to E, and then all the way down to like E1 or something. They were well into boarding when we showed up. Several hours, dinner, and a couple of bad movies later, we arrived in Dublin at 7:30a.m. Dublin time (2:30 a.m EDT). We made it through Immigration, baggage and Hertz very quickly. We rented an automatic category "e" car (compact), and got a red Nissan Tiida. It wasn't that bad and we had lots of luggage and leg room.

So we left Hertz, driving on the "wrong" side of the car, and the "wrong" side of the road. So two wrongs, make a right, I guess???? As we leave the airport (approx 8:30a.m. DT), we hit rush hour traffic into Dublin. We were on one of the M/N roads (1, perhaps - I can't remember) so signage was still good. I had all of my maps in my lap as well as my binder with step by step driving directions to The Shelbourne. It didn't take us too long to catch on that there were NO street signs. Or, if there were, they were ON the buildings between the first and the second story.



When we arrived, we were so very glad to get rid of the car. My nerves were so frazzled, I was literally shaking. It took us close to 2 hours to drive what should have been 30 minutes. We were immediately checked into our room and we dropped off our luggage and hit the streets of Dublin. We found a little cafe and got some Wild Mushroom soup, baguettes, and fruit for a quick brunch before heading to the The National Library of Ireland.

While at the library, we were able to pull the baptismal records for several of Joe's ancestors. We didn't have too long, because we had an appointment with Helen Kelly, the Genealogy Butler with The Shelbourne. We met in the parlor over tea and coffee and it was fantastic. She was able to shed some light onto the work I and a family member had been doing. She helped steer us into the right direction and also heavily persuaded me to go to The General Register Office.

After our meeting, we went back to the library for a little while, then back to the hotel's gorgeous concierge room. We had a FANTASTIC dinner of salad and Beef Stroganoff (which I got the recipe for), and then headed to our room for an early night.