Weekend Plans

I might have mentioned that we are planning on spending the weekend in Dublin. We have been in Ireland for a little over two months now and have not seen Dublin (except the airport). So we were planning on doing the December shopping/sightseeing/Christmas Spirit trip to Dublin. We were going to take the train. It is 40 Euros r/t and drops you off in downtown Dublin.

Now you might notice the change of tense in the middle of that paragraph. We have had a little change of plans that is going to radically change our weekend plans.

As a little background, back in September Paty was invited to the Attachmate (her company) BENELUX Christmas party to be held in Antwerp this Saturday. We talked about going, but there is really no way to get to Antwerp from Galway in an efficient manner.

Paty did really want to go to this party as this is the group of people she worked with for the first assignment. And she established some strong ties over that time.

So we inquired if there was still room for us at the party. It turns out that, yes in fact there is room for Paty plus one (your blog author). They had to pull some strings to get us a hotel room and a spot at the dinner but we are in. So at 2:09 PM the Benelux people e-mail Paty that all the arrangements are taken care of and we are in.

So at 3:40 PM TODAY I get a phone call from Paty that we need to finalize the travel plans to get to Antwerp on Saturday.

Needless to say, this was my task after the late afternoon phone call. I immediately packed up the laptop and headed to a good wifi zone, Fibbers. It turns out that there are a few cost effective options.

Ryanair goes to Brussels on Friday and returns Sunday, but the flight out is pretty full and thus too expensive. Plus we would need to book a hotel for Friday and a way to get from the random Brussels airport that Ryanair flies into to Antwerp. Antwerp might be the diamond capital of the world, but it is not exactly a travel hub. We can train from Brussels pretty easy, but the airport that Ryanair flies in to is also not a travel hub. In addition, Paty is pretty busy at work right now so taking Friday off on short notice is not the best idea.

As of now, the best option I found would be to leave tomorrow from Shannon and fly to Paris. Rent a car in Paris and drive to Antwerp over the next two days. It is only 200 miles and the roads are much better than what passes for a road here in Ireland (this is another blog post someday, the roads in Ireland are a total joke! Going anywhere via car is an adventure). The problem with this is the same as the other options. Paty probably can't take half of Thursday and all of Friday off with zero notice.

I will update this space when we figure out how we are going to get to Antwerp. It is not like I have anything to do that is keeping me here so we have options. Although we were going to our first Rugby game on Friday night as the Galway team, Connacht, takes on a French team, Montpellier, in what is allegedly a big European match. It looks like I am now going to miss my first live Rugby match.

post script #1, Paty got permission to work from Brussels either Friday or Monday to make this work, so it is looking more and more like we are going. Although she is balking at the fly to Paris and rent a car option.

post script #2, It looks like we are going. We are flying to Dublin Thursday at 5:15 PM. We are staying at a hotel at the Dublin airport for the night. Then we fly out at 6:50 AM to Brussels. Paty will work on Friday from her old Brussels office. We will stay the night in Brussels. Because we haven't stayed enough nights in Brussels yet. But I am looking forward to the Italian dinner on Friday. This place has the best Truffle ravioli ever made! Then Saturday AM to Antwerp on the train. Paty's company is including the hotel on Saturday night as that comes with the party and they don't want anyone to drink drive. Sunday it is back to Brussels and a 6 PM flight to Shannon airport. Get a cab/car to Galway and we are back home. The good news is I get to see Antwerp, as I haven't seen it yet. The better news is we have just enough time to explore Antwerp, but not enough time for Paty to go diamond shopping! I imagine that there will be some user generated content from the weekend in this space early next week...

On a totally unrelated note, I was flipping through the channels and found Villanova versus Oklahoma live on TV. My first college hoops game of the year! It must be an ESPN production because Rick Majerus is on the call. This is one of the things I miss.

Big road game for the Dawgs this weekend. I did find a way to listen to the Huskies v Zags game live on the radio. But despite my best efforts I have not found a way to watch the game.