Day five - New Years Eve. After coffee at Mochaland, Michael went back to the apartment to read his book. Steve took Annie and I to the ticket office to get me an all day pass. Pretty sure I got seniors' rates without the girl even asking. Annie already had Steve's two day pass he got the day before. After he saw us on to the hop on hop off bus, Steve set out to explore the mall.
We sat on the top deck of the bus, under cover. It was still chilly but the view was obviously much better than the lower deck. We had a combination of live and recorded commentary. Having initially decided to stay on and be touted all over Dublin, we thought the Little Museum of Dublin sounded like it was worth a look. Before we got off, our driver gave us tickets which allowed us free entry as we had all day passes for the hoho bus (as Steve calls it). Bargain.
The tour turned out to be extremely entertaining. Our young guide with the unlikely name of Abie told us that not only would he give us a huge chunk of Irish history in 29 minutes, for an extra 16 minutes of our time at no additional cost, we would get about 900 years worth. He never stopped to draw breath, directly involved his audience, was very funny and informative. The time flew and before we knew it, Abie was entreating us to 'like him a lot' on TripAdvisor and we were back on the hoho bus. The next driver appeared to be the same one Steve had and was a bit of an Irish card. At each stop he introduced himself, Sean the first one, Dave the next, Seamus the one after that, and so on. Together with a smattering of Irish history with more than a few corny jokes thrown in, it was quite entertaining.
After our tour, we went to the mall to do some shopping. This included Dunnes Department Store, which to be honest wasn't as fab as we'd remembered from 5 years ago. We bought a couple of clothing items then headed back to the apartment around 5 ish to prepare for the evening's entertainment. A couple of night's previous, Steve did a bit of research and found a pub just around the corner and down the road, facing the Liffey. The Arlington offered a three course meal plus traditional Irish music and dance for 45 euros each. We all agreed that this option ticked all the boxes and that the Temple Bar area would be far too boisterous for the likes of us. So Steve went and purchased our tickets that same night. A great idea Steve.
Our dinner sitting was for 8pm so off we went in all our finery to see the old year out and the new one in. After a bit of confusion as to what list we were on, we were ushered to our table, one row back from the stage. As we walked through, one of the front of house women said to me "Great coat by the way!" To be sure, I did preen slightly, having felt self conscious in my slightly flamboyant affair from Mont Martre.
The food was great, lots of mash of course, needed to fortify the stomach against all the drink consumed, including the free champagne to start. I asked our waitress if I could have some greens to go with my chicken. She told me with a laugh that honestly, the Irish weren't all that fond of their veggies, especially greens! She managed to rustle up some beans which was just fine.
The music was great, lots of clapping along. The dancers were tapping all over the place, had us all tapping under the table. The wine flowed, spirits were buoyant, it was all grand. An added bit of entertainment was a portrait directly above us, which, every 20 minutes or so, came to life and either started chatting, reading a book or listening to an iPod. Fascinating stuff.
As midnight drew closer, an eejit from the table in front of us kept coming and sitting at our table. His nickname was Budgie and he, his wife and their daughter, with policeman boyfriend in tow, were from Yorkshire and had come over the ditch to celebrate New Year. Steve told him Michael was 75
years old, whereupon he fell on Michael's neck and kept saying "I loov this guy, I want him to be me daard!" Although Michael was unaware at that stage he had aged 10 years, he took it in good humour, all harmless fun. There was a lot more hugging and kissing when midnight struck, the usual thing. People you wouldn't look sideways at any other day of the year, get embraced like they were the love of your life. Some people do get a bit carried away though. Annie had to bat Budgie off who was trying to give her a French kiss
We trooped back to the apartment about 12.30am, just modestly drunk. It had been a great evening, no canasta for once.
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