It would seem I spoke too soon about Iarnród Éireann’s internet seat booking system. In practice you can reserve seats using this system but when you get onto the train there may be no indication to other passengers that the seats are reserved. This happened to us coming back from Galway to Dublin last Sunday and rather than arguing with the hen party that was already encamped in our seats we just moved to the next available seats.
We had the luxury of doing this because we were pretty early. Of course the seats we ended up in were probably reserved too so there were some very puzzled looks when later passengers arrived. The only explanation we could offer was that everyone else seemed to be sitting where they pleased. BTW, this wasn’t a one off – the last time we got a train back from Galway to Dublin the station we had also reserved seats but the staff instructed us to ‘just sit anywhere’.
Meanwhile, most of the station staff were busy loitering on the platform not caring less about the confusion and frustration throughout the train. Well done lads, great job, very helpful.
aehso ireland, irish, rail, system, travel
Welcome to the 21st century Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail). I have no idea how much tax money they have spent on developing their new seat reservation system but it is a welcome departure from queuing for an hour in Heuston Station in order to get a seat on an intercity train.
in fairness to them it now rivals most online airline check-in systems. Now if they could just find a few more trains or drop their charges a bit they might be able to complete their apparent aspirations to run a budget airline type business model. Oh, and they’ll also have to deal with those pesky unions.
aehso ireland, irish, rail, system, travel
Nokia have released the slightly overdue GPS Navigation Kit for the N800 (Internet Tablet).
A new toy for my new-ish toy, or high tech wireless Lego bricks as I like to think of them. Soon I’ll be blindly driving into rivers with the best of them…
aehso mobile, tech, travel
Very slow day due to hangovers. We go to the only cafe in town and within 10
minutes they are running to the shop for more oranges, mushrooms, bacon, eggs
etc.
The Snowey Mountains is Australia’s only alpine region (it covers only .002% of
the continent but it’s a big continent!) We take a drive up to the Mt
Kosciuszko , the highest peak, passing through Smiggin Holes, a village that’s
the butt of a spoof 2010 Winter Olympics bid that all the Aussies are talking
about. The ski lifts we pass on the way ar shut down (there’s no snow) but I’m
not overly impressed – the runs look very short and there’s not many of them.
Me thinks I’d take my board to New Zealand, no question.
The landscape is breathtaking though and John gives me lots of tips on how to
take some decent photos (I bought a Cannon EOS 3000 SLR in the duty free on the
way down and I’m determined to take some decent shots with it)
aehso australia, travel, trip
Up at 6am to get started on this drive, we stop off in Goulburn for brekkie and
then on around Canberra (where there is nothing to see incidently) and then on
to Cooma where we load on on beer supplies before finally reaching Berridale,
population 300. After meeting Mick, Jessie’s mate, the others decide to take a
power nap and I go outside to read my book (No Logo by Naomi Klein, a good
read). After a few minutes though a kid runs over to me and shouts “Ich bin
kool, du bist kool” and runs off. Eh? What? A couple of minutes later another
one runs over and shouts “Das ist nichts dein hamburger das ist mein
hamburger!”. Now I hope I don’t have to explain there are no hamburgers in
sight, this kids are clearly a bit mad. When the third one runs over I
interrupt him and explain that I’m not German, I’m Irish. “Oh, that’s cool” is
the tame response. Odd people!
The barbque kicks off at 8pm but we’re underdressed – it’s an 80s theme night
but we didn’t know. Ah well. The whole town seems to turn up and by 10 it’s in
full swing. The rest is a bit of a blur but I do remember spooking one of the
kids I’d met earlier when he was in the middle of a limbo dancing competition
(Schnell, schell!) He fell, the little runt….
aehso australia, travel, trip
Its a bit cloudy (“cold” they call it here – easy tell they’ve never been to
Limerick!) so I take in the Aquarium (good but the one in Melbourne seems
better) and the Powerhouse Museum which is a science musem and a very good one
at that. That pretty much takes all day – these places are big!
Later we go out to the airport to pick up a rental car we’ve hired for the
weekend. Roisin’s boyfriend, Jesse, has some friends down in the Snowey
Mountains (5 hours south) and the plan is to go down for a big birthday
barbque. Driving is Sydney is a doddle – these people are such polite drivers
compared to the crap you have to put up with in Dublin (and recently Kilkenny!)
aehso australia, travel, trip
Since John Hudson has some free time (officially job hunting at the moment) we
decided to hit the beaches and aim for Manly taking the ferry out from Circular
Quay. Manly is a fair distance away, about 1/2 hour on the ferry but it’s well
worth the trip – the beach is superb, being ocean facing it’s got big surf
which always goes up your nose when it breaks on top of you. Fun, fun, fun! I
am several degrees whiter than everyone else on the beach though (just like the
other Irish out here I guess!)
aehso australia, travel, trip
Arrive in Melbourne airport for my flight to Sydney about 1 hour early and I get offered a seat on an earlier flight which is sounds good. I say goodbye to AnnMarie and the kids and off I go. 10 minutes later, I’m having serious reservations about this decision when 4 islamic blokes sit next to me at the departure gate. Nuts, that’d be just my luck. Airport security seem to be in control though (this reminds me of a recent Letterman joke – if your getting onto a flight these days and your first name is Kareem and your last name isn’t Abdul-Jabbar you can expect a bit of hassle off the security!)
Anyway, I make it to Sydney and take a train into town and then another one out to Roisin’s place which is in Milson’s Point, the Northern end of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Bloody hell, there is some view with the opera house just across the water under the bridge. We go out to a Swing dancing theme night in a club in town where we meet John Hudson, another ex-iona person. There are young men wearing 1920s suits throwing young women around the dance floor (and up in the air) at incredible speeds. I can’t figure out for the life of me how these people get into this type of dancing in the first place though – they are so serious they don’t even look like they are enjoying themselves! After several near misses I decide my drink would be safer if I sat a bit futher away from the dance floor! The music is good though!
aehso australia, travel, trip
Packing for the trip to Sydney. I fly out in the afternoon…
aehso australia, travel, trip
Packing for the trip to Sydney. I fly out in the afternoon…
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