IRELAND, DAYS 1-2: TRAVEL, ARRIVAL, AND EXPLORING KILKENNY

 July 3-4, 2024

We left home at about 3:00 PM and made it through downtown LA and to our parking garage in about two hours.  Not bad.

We had an uneventful check-in for a non-stop flight to Dublin on Aer Lingus, a new airline for us. We were seated on the 3rd or 4th to the last row in the center section of a 2-4-2 configuration, but the last five rows or so only had three middle seats, making the aisles wider in the back near the bathrooms. Genius. Anyway, we both had aisle seats with an empty seat between us. Miraculous! And another miracle--I slept for a good part of the 9 1/2 hour flight, a rarity for me. We did have two meals. Dinner was tortellini with tomato sauce, salad, a roll, and chocolate mousse that was pretty good. Breakfast was a hot bagel with melted cheese and a sausage patty--not so good.  I watched one movie, Disenchanted with Amy Adams, sequel to Enchanted. Worst move I've seen in a long time. You can't win them all.

For a relatively small airport, we had a long walk between getting off the plane and passport control, but by then our suitcases were waiting for us. We walked to the car rental area to get our car from Budget and discovered why our rental (and every other rental we looked at) had been so cheap. They REQUIRE customers to buy insurance, which added $400, plus we had to put down a $2,000 security deposit. They must have lots of problems with people who can't drive on the left side of the road and with a steering wheel on the right. We had a very small Renault Clio with a manual transmission, but Bob, fortunately, is an absolute pro at shifting with his left hand and driving on the left side of the road.  

Our plan was to immediately leave Dublin and drive to Kilkenny, a distance of about 80 miles, which we thought might take an hour and a half. However, traffic was very heavy leaving Dublin, and not long after leaving the car rental place, the car began beeping at irregular intervals. Then the tire light came on, so we figured the low tire pressure caused the beeping. We got off the freeway, found a gas station, filled the tires, then figured out how to turn off the tire warning light. Sixty seconds into our drive, the beeping came back. Ultimately, I figured out that it was a sensor for lane control. Every time Bob began to drift towards a line in the road without signally, it beeped--and that was often. I found the instructions for how to disable that feature, and we continued our drive in peace.

ROME: THE ROME TEMPLE,

 March 23-24, 2024      

Our return flights to the US went through Rome, where the shortest layover was something like ten hours, so we decided just to take a full day and enjoy some of the Eternal City.

Feker picked us up at our hotel and dropped us off at the front entrance to the airport, then parked the car and joined us. 

We had an interesting experience at the Tunisia International Airport. Bob checked a bag because he had liquids he had purchased in Sicily that he didn't want to forfeit, but checking the back was almost (or over) $100 USD. Stan's bag was too heavy and they were going to make him check it as well, but Feker opened Stan's suitcase and started taking things out to go into his backpack and Chris's suitcase, which had already been weighed and tagged and so weight wasn't an issue. Feker got Stan's suitcase down to the given maximum, or close enough. It's a dumb system and easy to get around.

We finally got through, boarded, and had a flight to Rome that lasted an hour and about 20 minutes. 

Bob collected his checked bag and we went outside to grab a taxi. Because we were going to our hotel, which was not in the city center of Rome (which has a standard €50 taxi fee, we had to find another taxi. One driver was watching for those like us who were going to the airport area, which was obviously much closer than the downtown area. We ended up paying €50, the same amount as a ride four times as long to the city center. It was such a rip off.

We dropped our bags in our room and went outside to call a ride to take us to the Rome LDS Temple Visitor Center. We waited and waited, and it appeared the taxi may have gone to the temple rather than to where we were. I tried calling but got a lengthy voice message in Italian. We finally cancelled for a €3 charge and tried again. This one took longer than expected but did actually show up. Our ride to the temple, which is pretty far away from the tourist part of Rome, took about 45 minutes and cost over $100 US. 

This 41,010-square-foot temple was announced in 2008 and dedicated in 2019 by LDS Church President Russell Nelson. The dedication event was the first time ever that the entire First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gathered in one location outside the United States, so it was a big deal.

The temple was closed for two weeks for cleaning when we were there, When it is open, only members of the LDS Church who hold a temple recommend are allowed to enter.

INDONESIA - BALI TO LABUAN BAJO TO KELOR ISLAND

 July 11, 2023

We got up at 4:20 AM, feeling sleep depreived, and were in the lobby at 5:30 as instructed. Our guide and driver were 15 minutes late, but we had plenty of time at the airport. 

I liked the reminder to stand to the left on the escalator so those in a hurry can get past you.

Another practical feature are the child-sized toilets in the "mother's stall."  Why don't more public restrooms do this? 

The photo murals are unique . . .

. . . as are the swirling fabric fans suspended from the ceiling.

INDONESIA: ON THE WAY TO BALI AND A FEW OBSERVATIONS

 July 10, 2023

We originally had a non-stop flight from Sulawesi to Bali, but because we had to eliminate our Sulawesi portion of the trip at the last minute, thereby changing our departure city, we had to now go through Jakarta, and then to Bali, a much longer process with an afternoon arrival rather than a morning one.

We got to the airport early, and after checking in, we realized they had only given us one boarding pass, but we had two flights. We waited in the check-in line again. The counter guy had to call someone about it, and then told us we had to go to the Super Air Jet airline desk in Jakarta to get the next boarding pass. Bob tried to argue, but it didn't help. When we got to our gate, we asked the attendant there. He also had to call someone and got the same answer. I asked if that meant we had to go out of the passenger area and find the main desk, then go through security again, and he said yes. If everything was on time, we only had a 1 hour 20 minute layover.  It didn't seem possible that it could work.

There didn't seem to be much that we could do, so we settled in to wait for our flight.  I passed up the dried fish . . . 

. . . in favor of a chocolate cream puff at Beard Papa's. I know that is surprising.

It wasn't as good as other cream puffs I have had at Beard Papa's, but it was better than nothing for breakfast, which is what Bob had.