"Leavin' on a jet plane..."

Today was my last day at work before my vacation, and MAAAN, did it drag on. I didn't get out of there until almost nine o'clock. But now...I'm FREE! My flight goes Friday night, so I have the day to get my shit together and maybe even decide to pack at some point. I have to do laundry first, though. I feel that's a sound strategy. Laundry first, then pack, as opposed to the reverse.

But I'm very excited! My flight gets in to London Saturday morning just after 10. I'll spend the first week in London, staying at my friend Sue's place just north of Notting Hill, then I fly to Dublin on the morning of Monday the 26th, returning to London the following Thursday evening. So that gives me a full eight days to explore Londontown, then the better part of 4 days in Dublin, 3 nights accommodation (which suits my budget), then back to London for the last weekend, returning home Sunday July 2, giving me the holiday Monday to recuperate.

Only snag is, while I have the London-Dublin flight booked (70 GBP return, not too bad), I haven't yet secured a place to stay while I'm there. Been doing lots of research on the Web, and have contacted a few places to get rates and availability, so I'm sure I'll get something settled before I leave tomorrow night. They're just waking up there as I type this, so when I get up (I'm about to hit the sack) I should have a few email replies to my inquiries. I think I've narrowed it down to a couple of hotels/guesthouses. One right in the Temple Bar area, a couple on the northside of the Liffey but still in the core, and one off a park near Trinity College. Customer reviews on tripadvisor.com were pretty handy. Some of the places in the Temple Bar area got some pretty bad reviews, but I have a hunch some of that was from people staying there on the weekends when the bars are all rockin', the hotels were packed with partiers and their rooms were noisy. Probably won't be that bad Mon-Thurs. I think the ideal would be to find a place just outside that area but still close to all the city centre attractions. Seems like a lot of places are within easy walking distance.

I may try to get a few blog entries in while I'm over there, so stay tuned.

Toodles.