Welp, so much for taking the City of the Dead tour. I just wasn’t into it at the time. I sat around, read, and made sure everything was packed for the trip to Dublin. Met the newest hostel mate last night. Started with an M I think, but he was from Australia and him and a bunch of friends booked a drinking tour where they get pissed drunk every night in different cities. He asked if I wanted to go out and get blind stinking drunk. I told him unless I was with a hundred folks dressed up in weird shit or there were fire affects, I don’t really get plowed anymore. I think of it as amateur drunk night.
I did go out and had a good Chinese meal. Unfortunately the only good place is a half block from the strip clubs. So yah, I spent more money foolishly. Had a couple beers. They seem to like Americans in there as we tip better and they can understand us more. A number of the strippers were from other countries and no one seemed to have any problem understanding me. Plus they had a negative view of Scottish men. Walking around the street of bars, I got the same impression. It felt like a frat house all along the street. Cest la vie. The guys I talked to in the clubs were pretty cool, but definitely well into drinking.
Woke up via meh phone, sneakily packed my things so as not to wake the hungover Aussie. Got downstairs and called a taxi to take me to the airport. Got to the airport on time, whizzed through security, hopped on a jumper airplane and was in Dublin in less than an hour. Since I had a travel agency in Edinburgh do it for me, they even had one of those chauffeur guys with my name on a sign once I picked up my bags. Took me straight to the hostel. Easiest city transfer yet, no?
Actually, hell no.
One of the things I always check as a top priority is whether a hostel has lockers in their rooms. Simple safety setup. You keep your clothes under/next to your bunk and your passport/papers/laptop/camera/electronics locked up so someone else in the room can't walk off with it.
Well, when I show up, they tell me to just put it in the pull out drawer under the bunk and lock it up. Standard procedure, no worries. I lug my heavy pack four floors to the top rooms with a four bed bunk setup. The hostel setup is pretty cool and I was digging it.
Wait a second. The open took roll out drawer cage has about a 8 inch gap between the top of the drawer and the bottom of the metal bunk. There was nothing stopping anyone from simply reaching in any side (it was a rolled steel bunk frame) and grabbing anything they wanted. Even if I picked up the front of the drawer and pulled it up to lock it, the T bar support on the bunk bed preventing enough room to use a lock.
So I went downstairs and asked them what the hell was going on. Their advert on Hostelworld said they had lockers, otherwise I wouldn't have booked with them. She said they must have changed the drawer style as there was a clash that you could use to lock. Which was bullshit as I seen to welding marks or drill holes in any areas which would have made it possible. So I spent about a 1/2 hour examining the setup in my room and determined about four easy, cheap, and simple ways that would have foiled most attempts (barring an angle iron of large bolt cutters) from being able to get to the belongings. After further reflection, the fact that it was Sunday so no hardware stores were open, and the pissed off realization that I shouldn't be fixing someone else's engineering stupidity - I went back downstairs.
The gal said that they had lockers in the first floor common area. I checked them and there were approximately 32 lunchbox sized laptop holders that required a Euro each time you used them. I know there were 42 rooms as I was in room 40. Consider the smallest room had four bunks and the large dorm downstairs had 24 bunks, they have roughly 200 bunks. So all the lunchbox lockers were taken. Even if they wouldn't have been - the thought of walking down four flights of stairs just to use my phone or laptop was just ridiculous. At one euro per use. Fuck that. I spent close to 600 bucks just dealing with visa crap for Russia and Belarus. Plus I had to pre-pay the hotels to get the visas. So if my passport would have gotten stolen, I would have been out roughly 2k. So no way was I going to go somewhere without a way to secure my stuff.
So I tried going to three different tourist information places where the gal at the lobby said I could check other hotels. Since it was Sunday, either they weren't open and the ones that were didn't check hotels - only hostels. I checked three nearby hotels and because of a big game here next Friday and on today - no one had six nights available. after a coupe hours searching I found a TravelLodge on Stephen's Green that charged me an arm and a leg for those days when the games where happening. I ended up paying 650 euros versus the 150 I would have paid. I can afford it, though it fucking sucks.
I do get my own hotel room, which is a good break. And it has a big bathtub so I can soak away for a while. So while I did get royally fucked, I will be relaxing in style in a nice hotel room in a good part of town in Dublin. I'll get some of my meditation and self-help stuff taken care of in peace and quiet.
Actually, hell no.
One of the things I always check as a top priority is whether a hostel has lockers in their rooms. Simple safety setup. You keep your clothes under/next to your bunk and your passport/papers/laptop/camera/electronics locked up so someone else in the room can't walk off with it.
Well, when I show up, they tell me to just put it in the pull out drawer under the bunk and lock it up. Standard procedure, no worries. I lug my heavy pack four floors to the top rooms with a four bed bunk setup. The hostel setup is pretty cool and I was digging it.
Wait a second. The open took roll out drawer cage has about a 8 inch gap between the top of the drawer and the bottom of the metal bunk. There was nothing stopping anyone from simply reaching in any side (it was a rolled steel bunk frame) and grabbing anything they wanted. Even if I picked up the front of the drawer and pulled it up to lock it, the T bar support on the bunk bed preventing enough room to use a lock.
So I went downstairs and asked them what the hell was going on. Their advert on Hostelworld said they had lockers, otherwise I wouldn't have booked with them. She said they must have changed the drawer style as there was a clash that you could use to lock. Which was bullshit as I seen to welding marks or drill holes in any areas which would have made it possible. So I spent about a 1/2 hour examining the setup in my room and determined about four easy, cheap, and simple ways that would have foiled most attempts (barring an angle iron of large bolt cutters) from being able to get to the belongings. After further reflection, the fact that it was Sunday so no hardware stores were open, and the pissed off realization that I shouldn't be fixing someone else's engineering stupidity - I went back downstairs.
The gal said that they had lockers in the first floor common area. I checked them and there were approximately 32 lunchbox sized laptop holders that required a Euro each time you used them. I know there were 42 rooms as I was in room 40. Consider the smallest room had four bunks and the large dorm downstairs had 24 bunks, they have roughly 200 bunks. So all the lunchbox lockers were taken. Even if they wouldn't have been - the thought of walking down four flights of stairs just to use my phone or laptop was just ridiculous. At one euro per use. Fuck that. I spent close to 600 bucks just dealing with visa crap for Russia and Belarus. Plus I had to pre-pay the hotels to get the visas. So if my passport would have gotten stolen, I would have been out roughly 2k. So no way was I going to go somewhere without a way to secure my stuff.
So I tried going to three different tourist information places where the gal at the lobby said I could check other hotels. Since it was Sunday, either they weren't open and the ones that were didn't check hotels - only hostels. I checked three nearby hotels and because of a big game here next Friday and on today - no one had six nights available. after a coupe hours searching I found a TravelLodge on Stephen's Green that charged me an arm and a leg for those days when the games where happening. I ended up paying 650 euros versus the 150 I would have paid. I can afford it, though it fucking sucks.
I do get my own hotel room, which is a good break. And it has a big bathtub so I can soak away for a while. So while I did get royally fucked, I will be relaxing in style in a nice hotel room in a good part of town in Dublin. I'll get some of my meditation and self-help stuff taken care of in peace and quiet.
Yes, I see yer concern in a country full of five-finger-discount drunks. From whom I descend. YAY.
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