I promised more information as we got closer…here it is!
We leave for the Emerald Isle a week from Wednesday. This weekend I lugged the suitcase up from the basement (it’s a carry-on, but will still be hefty when I’m done loading up on MY essentials.)
We also had a revelation this weekend…we discovered not all of Ireland uses the same currency! We knew we’d need Euros, but Northern Ireland still uses British Pounds Sterling (£). Yikes. What else don’t we know? Apparently there might be an issue with the electrical converters that we used in Spain…it seems Ireland may be slightly different there too. Hellooooo Amazon. Ordered those too. Whew!
Now for the nitty gritty. As I mentioned earlier, we are doing this trip on a very aggressive budget. The planning was pretty intense, but with the help of Expedia, Airbnb, and Amazon we were able to make all the arrangements. We will be flying non-stop from Philadelphia directly to Dublin, and returning the same way. No First Class for us…Coach will have to do!
Figuring out the accommodations was a little trickier. Apparently lots of people in the world (the Irish included) are interested in welcoming strangers into their homes! We put a few restrictions on this process…we’re not staying in someone’s guest room while they are in the next room snoring away! In each place we are staying, we’ll be in a guest house, separate apartment or cottage on the property. (I’ll be sharing pictures of each place we stay so you’ll get the idea.) I scoured all the reviews, and my interaction with each host (that’s an Airbnb thing) has been warm and lovely.
Mike will be spending part of the next week watching YouTube videos on how to drive on the wrong side of the road. I predict there will be some heated conversations around this phenomenon. I also plan to stop and take pictures of EVERYTHING, so prepare for some charming architecture and lots of sheep.
We’ve been socking away $100 a week since we started planning this trip in an envelope marked “IRELAND” – this week I’ll be heading out to the bank to exchange some of our savings into euros and pounds. The only things (other than entertainment ) we’ll need to buy are food and gas.
Coming up…the itinerary.
WeilStyle 