My Holiday to Irelandand the Midlands

On Sunday November 20th I was all packed to fly! I got the train from Polegate to Gatwick Airport.

I got to Gatwick and checked in straight away. I was flying with Aer Lingus, which is basically the Irish

equivalent of British Airways.

After a bit of a long wait, it was time toboard the plane - an Airbus A320.

Flying was awesome. We had a bit of turbulence because of the bad weather, but it was really cool to be

above the clouds.

The flight from Gatwick to Dublin took about 1 hour and 10 minutes, and I bought this model our actual plane on

board as a souvenir.

To get to my hotel in a place called Red Cow, I got the Airlink Express bus into Dublin city centre then the tram

out to Red Cow in the east.

My hotel was an Ibis near the motorway but was surprisingly quiet. The tram stop was just a short walk

over a bridge.

I ate at the hotel for most of the trip, it was just so much easier than looking for somewhere in the city and the

prices were fairly reasonable. My first meal was:

Bruschetta to start. Beef burger and chips.

Chocolate fondant for dessert.

It was strange not seeing the whole of the UK on the weather map! As you can see, the weather

was a bit grotty.

On Monday I got the big train up to Belfast called the Enterprise. It was very comfortable, much nicer than

British ones.

I explored some of the railways in Northern Ireland, travelling from Belfast to Bangor and Antrim.

I stayed in Antrim for a little while to have lunch and watch some of the buses and coaches.

On Tuesday I travelled by train to Cork in the south. Irish trains are very nice and comfortable, and it was nice to go on some trains I’ve never seen before for a change.

I also went to Cobh which is by the sea and the sun finally appeared!

This is the train I got back fromCork to Dublin, I think its one of myfavourite looking trains for itsstreamlined front.

The interior was cool, apart from the weird blue-tinted windows!? And I liked the old fashioned light-up map to

show where we were going.

That evening, I spent some time travelling on the DART, which stands for Dublin Area Rapid Transport. Its sort of

what they have instead of the tube.

I had pizza and chips for dinner at the hotel that day, was really tasty.

On Wednesday, I did a bus tour of Dublin city. It was really interesting as we passed the grand General Post Office, the

Guinness brewery, and many other landmarks.

This is the house where the president lives.

Its interesting to see the small differences over in Ireland, like how the pedestrian crossings also have an orange light and the

push-buttons are different too.

The last meal I had at the hotel was a chicken breast burger, and I left a note and a tip for the lovely restaurant staff

On the Thursday it was sadly time to leave. I got the Airlink bus back to the Airport, and checked in for my flight to Manchester.

This is the view from the Departure Lounge at Dublin airport. It was nice to watch the planes moving around, gave me something

to during the long wait after Security.

The weather was much clearer for the return flight which was nice as I could look down over Dublin, Liverpool and Manchester

as I flew over the UK.

I also saw an off-shore wind farm which was cool.

I was met at the airport by my friends Mark (left) and Dan (right). After stopping off for a Nando’s dinner in Manchester city centre,

we got the train first class across to Chesterfield, Derbyshire.

After staying at Mark’s house in Chesterfield, we were joined by Louis (left) and Corin (right) on Friday.

We went bowling.

Me!

We met up with another friend Martin that night and all went for a nice meal at the pub before walking back to Mark’s house.

We spent the rest of the evening playing Twister and Jenga.

On Saturday we all got a bus out to the Monsall Trail, which is a walk and cycle route in the Peak District which follows the path

of an old railway line.

The walk has some lovely views, but the best part is…

The route also includes the original railway tunnels!

After another night of Twister and Monopoly, it was time to head home on the Sunday.

The End