Cad é an scéal? What's the Story?

I went to the land of Guinness last week for work. Transited at Schiphol for several hours and meeting up some friends while stocking up my cheese [oude amsterdam] and toothpaste [red paradontax] plus re-adjusting my orthopedic sole [for free! If I made a new one in Jakarta it would've cost me USD 400]. It was a great day in lowland.. such a great weather. I told my ex-flatmate that it wasnt the typical weather I associate lowland with. Too bad I didnt have the chance of eating raw haring or that risotto and italian ice cream near my old place.

Landed in Dublin that night and found out my almost brand new baggage [it was only it's second use] was cracked. Complained to KLM and was told to complain to Aer Lingus. Every Irishmen I met wishing me good luck with that. Not a good start.

The last time I checked my email in NL and I was told that the dinner was canceled the next day. So I spent the day with friends doing walkabouts and watched some Irish music. I made a mistake ordering my lunch, it was huge. Nice seafood chowder and salmon sandwich that I couldnt finish (I thought it would be in Dutch smaller portion for that price). Got to the hotel that night with voice mails about dinner, they were afraid I was missing.

The hotel was interesting, part of it was an old castle near a battle field from 1014! I told my friend if there were any ghosts, I'll move to their place. A lot of old people & Americans stay in the hotel.

The next day after my boss was deemed MIA, we went down to Wicklow County with a tour bus. It was said that the temperature was 1 degree but felt like -7. Grand. We went to Sally gap where they shot P.S. I Love You, and visited the place they shot Brave Heart and Bally Kiss Angel. We visited St Kevin's monastery and I hugged the true cross, stopped by the Guinness Estate with it's pint-looking-lake-and-imported-white-florida-sands-as-it's-foam and a waterfall. We also visited the place where Thomas Moore wrote his poem The Meeting of The Waters. We had a lovely dinner at Dun Loaghaire followed by a quick meeting at the hotel about the next day.

On Monday we met several companies all day long before going to a so-called Dutch Indonesian Restaurant in Temple Bar area. I was warned about the restaurant by John and my friend so my expectation was pretty low. When I was asked about the food by Edel, I said it's not Indonesian, nor Dutch Indonesian. But as fusion it was alright. We then headed to a proper Irish bar for a pint of Guinness. I had a lovely chat with Edel. That night we had more drinks at the hotel. When in Dublin you know...

The following day we had more meetings but we ended the day at the Guinness Storehouse. Their 360degrees Gravity bar is awesome. Since Guinness is not my poison of choice and I was famish, I passed up the pint. We had dinner at Brazen Head, the oldest pub from 1198 or so they say. The food was nice actually. The group split up as I had to accompany our reporter to track down my boss at some pub for an interview and more drinking.

Back in Indonesia I wanted to visit Newgrange, the second oldest building in the world. It's a burial site actually. However, due to last minute meetings I had to cancel that trip. The last meeting for the trip was the best meeting ever! I had the chance to fulfill my dream of flying an aeroplane for half an hour. That's the reason I wont complain about not visiting Newgrange. The guys then gave me vodka to celebrate it.

The last day of my trip was on St Patrick's day. I waited for 3 hours for a 1.5 hour parade. It's craic tho. We then rushed to the airport where my plane was delayed and I had to run like mad at Schiphol to reach E22 from D17 in 20 minutes. Thank you Aer Lingus!

So that's the Story so far...