matthandy

To be clear, no-one is under any pressure to post let alone all at once. It is a privilege to read what is posted here, not a right.

thom1033

Conrad Dublin
I selected the Conrad Dublin for a simple reason. I’m pretty much a Hilton whore and I’ve found their products consistently good enough that I can select one of their hotels and have a generally acceptable experience. I’m also Diamond with Hilton so I figured this would help with the free breakfast offered to me at the Conrad. The price was reasonable and it was conveniently located within a block of St. Stephen’s Green. Hotel pics:

thom1033

Out and about:
After a rest after checking in late afternoon, I decided to have a wander and find dinner. I searched out The Duke pub on the recommendation of a friend who’s been to Dublin many times. I wanted something old, low key and authentic. It was a great place to have a quiet beer (or four) and a casual dinner after a long day of travel. The food was very good and I decided to try my first “Irish” Guinness. I’d had it once or twice in the states and didn’t love it. It’s not Guiness’s fault, I’m a total pansy when it comes to drinking beer. I much prefer the lighter wheat beers that you put lemon in. Yep. I’m one step away from drinking Zima. Embarrassing really.

While the Irish Guinness was different from the US, I still didn’t prefer it. Something I’ve been careful not to articulate until safely back in my home country. I expect this bold claim gets me on some sort of blacklist should I ever try to re-enter Ireland.







I spent the remainder of my time in Dublin wandering the city, spending some time touring the home location of my organization and going through the Guinness Storehouse, which was a great experience and I highly recommend.

I did have one, umm, unpleasant event. Quick backstory: I’m a huge fan of massages. I’m not talking $50 rub and tugs, but real, deep, quality massages. Done right I think they can be better than sex. Neither of which my ex was good at. Hiyo!

Anyway, I decided since this was my vacation I’d find a location and get a massage. I found a Thai Massage place that looked to be on the up and up. Well, I’ll let the email to a friend of mine immediately after tell the story:

“Funny story, I was thinking about you and you had mentioned getting a massage. I was thinking, hey, that's a great idea, being on vacation and all. Went to this very nice looking massage place and got this tiny little Thai lady who spoke very little English. I thought it was a little weird that the table was so low to the ground. I quickly figure out why when she climbed on top of me and proceeded to kick the living .... out of me, massage style. She walked on me, dug her heels and knees into me, etc. A couple of select quotes from her in very broken English:
Her: "That OK?" (Early on in the massage)
Me: "Yep"
Her: "Ok, I kill you now, ha ha!"
Later in the massage as I'm grunting and writhing in pain:
Her: "Pain?"
Me: "Yes"
Her: "OK. Pain good"
Me: "Hhhhhhhmmmmmggggghhssjebeiaifbeismdhdrjs"
Her a little later: "It OK to cry. Some people cry"
Me trying hard not to show weakness, as she seemed to enjoy it: "No, no cry”
Her: "OK, not done yet, haha"
Me near the end, as she was actually really funny: "Do you know what a sadist is?"
Her: "Ah, sadist, yes I hear this!"
Me: (under my breath) "No ...."
I feel great after, but holy .....

thom1033

***Please accept my apologies for the slowness in getting this TR posted. I'm one who also likes to sit down and read through TRs beginning to end. I'm particularly challenged as the one PC I have access to that has a keyboard to type this all out is something of a POS which locks up when I try to pull up my album in Photobucket to grab the pics. What I find myself doing is typing it out in Word, then using my Ipad to grab the picture links I want, emailing the links to myself, opening the email on the PC and getting the links into the body of the TR. Super inefficient and I'm sure there's a better way to do it. In the meantime I'm doing my best to get this knocked out, but I'm a newbie at this and not very good thus far.

thom1033

Working on it. I've been extremely busy with work since my return and haven't had the opportunity to sit down and get it typed out. As mentioned, I find myself forced to use a pretty inefficient process to integrate the pictures into the TR. My thinking was I'd try to provide something back to the forum by posting this, better late than never.

wrp96

You don't need to apologize. I'm really enjoying your trip report - at the speed you are posting. I know it's a lot of work and I appreciate it.

thom1033

Lol. I haven't started the hunt for my next ex-wife.

I'm thinking if I do decide to torture another unwitting woman by subjecting her to marriage with me, the purchase immediately after that divorce will be a shovel and an alibi. Not doing this again!

LANDJ999

Nah, you just have to find the right one. Looking can be fun

thom1033

Dublin to SYD
It was with mixed emotions that my time passed quickly in Dublin. I was very much enjoying getting to know the city but looking forward to my next travel adventure to SYD too. I caught a cab to the DUB airport giving myself a couple of hours to kill there. I’m one who much prefers to be early and have spare time than feel the pressure and stress of running late.
I don’t have a lot of pictures of the Dublin airport as it’s not much to speak of, but I did find a great place for lunch. It’s on an upper level and is called the Garden Terrace. It was so good I went on my return trip where I had to double back through Dublin. You find a table then go to the bar to order your food and they’ll give you your drink there (Beer, of course for me. Cuz I’m sophisticated like that). The meal they brought out, picture below, was excellent. Especially the Garlic & Parmesan fries. Amazing.




I did pay a relatively brief visit to the contract DAA lounge in DUB. It’s definitely not one you’d make any effort to arrive early in order to enjoy. It was a respite from the crowds and that’s about it.




Soon enough it was back on the butt killer BA CE service from DUB to LHR. I didn’t take any additional pics as the service and experience was consistent with the trip to DUB. My only complaint, other than the sciatic pinching seats, is the thimble sized cans of soda they provide. Seriously. I’ve done shots bigger than these things. Anyway.

thom1033

A short time later and I was at LHR and making the reverse trek from T5 to T3. My first stop was the Cathay Pacific First Class lounge. I was interested to see if they’d let me in. I’d made the QF F trip from LHR to SYD about a year and a half prior and had attempted to gain access to the lounge but was denied. At the time the lounge staff said a QF ticket didn’t grant me access, but they gave me access to the business class lounge given my OW Sapphire status.
This time they let me in without hesitation. The lounge was pretty busy but cleared out shortly after I arrived when the HKG flight started boarding. Given they were due to close the next day I figured I’d do my duty as a OW elite member and assist the lounge staff in eliminating their stock of Champagne given the place was about to be shuttered. I think it’s safe to say I did my part. 
Err. I hope my sponsor isn’t on FT. That’s gonna be awkward!




I wandered over to the dining area and settled into one of their round private seats and had some food from the buffet. It was OK. I think it was just bad timing on my part as the food had obviously been on the buffet for a while. I expect they don’t work hard to refresh it once the HKG flight departs.



I then made my way over to the BA Galleries First lounge. I got some champagne (there’s a theme forming here), and tried some of the gnocchi from the buffet, which was good. I was then invited to eat in the private dining area, in which I was the only patron at the time. I tried the Coq Au Vin as I’d never had it and the name makes me giggle in an immature way. (another theme forming here, I may be getting older but I’m never growing up).

thom1033

Following my gluttony of food and champagne on the ground it was time to it was time to make my way down to the gate and see if I could continue the trend in the air. I’ve been fortunate enough to experience QF F a couple of times before and as always it’s a great experience. Wonderful staff, great hard and soft product, etc. This time was no exception. I know it’s been heavily reviewed on here so I’ll just let the pics do the talking.








Given the odd timing of the flights with the stop in DXB, I tried to strategize my sleep on this trip. I elected to stay awake during the LHR-DXB leg, then sleep on the longer DXB-SYD leg, especially given that the flight gets in early AM Sydney time. This worked out well for me. I watched movies, listened to music and drank champagne. I didn’t eat much on the flight as I’d eaten well in the lounges prior to departure and I knew the DXB First Class Lounge had plenty on offer.

thom1033

This flight has a two hour layover in DXB which worked perfectly for me. It was enough time to get through a very disinterested transit security, grab a quick shower in the FC lounge and then grab something to eat at the restaurant. That said, the entire experience is a bit over the top for me. There are attendants seemingly every 5 feet asking if they can help you with anything and just the overabundance of EVERYTHING. A good example is when you sit down in the restaurant they bring you this huge freaking bread basket and place it at the table. The bread alone could feed four people easily. Just silly. I had the mushroom crepes and they were very good.





Soon enough it was our indicated boarding time. The odd thing being that while they appeared to be boarding Economy and Business, they wouldn’t let FC passengers through the dedicated entry from the lounge for a good 15-20 minutes after boarding started. While I understand that there’s less of a rush for us, I was eager to get changed into pajamas and get settled in as I was very ready to get some sleep.
Looking down on the poor people in Y, literally:



Soon enough we were back on board in the same seat with a fresh crew and fresh amenity set and PJs. I don’t have a lot else to say at this point about the trip as I promptly passed out and slept most of the rest of the trip to SYD.





Arrival in SYD was easy as always with their passport kiosks and automated entry system. My bag was waiting for me when I got to baggage claim and all told it took less than 15 minutes to get all the way through and meet my driver that comes courtesy of Qantas.
I decided to stay at the Four Seasons in Sydney as they had very reasonable rates for the dates I was there and it was very conveniently located at the Circular Quay. I read less than stellar reviews on here about this hotel but I had a great experience for less than half of what the Park Hyatt would have cost. That review and my time in Sydney next, though that may be a few days. I’m on the road all week this week.

diningdecadence

what champers were they serving on QF?

thom1033

Pol Roger

roadwarrier

Sorry to hear about the divorce, but hey, with that car and this awesome TR ^^

Looking forward to the rest.

On my last trip, I wrote some stuff up, but my photos were so crap, I decided not to do it, so will try again next month with another trip. So good on you to embark on writing one up - you are a better man than me