Dublin

I woke at 7.00am and we had a gorgeous full English breakfast (or rather full Northern Ireland breakfast) which was included in the price of the hotel so it was actually better value than the Travelodge!

We caught a taxi to the station and then caught the 10.30am train to Dublin (£23 single). It stopped about 5 times and the funniest thing was watching one of our group trying to have a cigarette off the train at each stop and still ensuring that she got back on in time!

We arrived 10 minutes late at 12.40pm and I caught a taxi to my hotel. It was out by the airport (which still isn't too far from the centre of Dublin) and was an Expedia late booking special and turned out to be a lovely hotel with a really ornate staircase in the middle! I just had time for a cup of tea before I had to catch another taxi back to Parnell Square in the centre of Dublin. I met up with my friends again and they had unfortunately booked a real dive of a hotel and now realised why they had wanted payment up front! At least it's only for one night.

We had been told that there was no parking at the castle and that we had to catch buses out there. They left every 20 minutes and were supposed to take about half an hour to get there as it was about 10 miles away....ours took an hour and forty minutes!!!

We had caught the second bus and obviously our driver was used to driving in the city as he kept at 40mph even on the 120km (70mph) motorway! He also at least six times drifted over to the hard shoulder and once began to drift into the right hand lane and then jerked the bus back which was quite concerning! He took the "Concert traffic" turn-off off the motorway okay but when he got to the roundabout at the top, instead of following the bright yellow "Concert traffic" sign to the right, he went straight across the roundabout and went back on the motorway! We then went past the next 3 exits and he only stopped when he reached a toll booth. The people on the right side of the bus then saw the lady in the booth write down directions for him! He took the next exit and turned around so we were heading back towards Dublin but at the next exit there was a bright yellow sign that said "No Access to Concert" and he took the exit!!

We then had to drive through a few small villages where the roads were obviously not suitable for a double-decker bus before he found a policeman who gave him more directions! The security staff at the venue couldn't believe it when people were telling them about him!

We then had a fair walk up to where the venue was. It was a massive area (we'd seen it from the train earlier) with a flat area of about the size of a football pitch in front of the stage and then the area where people sat going up the hill. We got there just as the first act (a blues act) was starting so we sat and watched them. It began to get busy for Melanie C so we stood for her and for Status Quo. They put on an excellent performance again and everybody was jumping around to their songs!

As I wrote a few days ago (and in my review at http://www.KasimInfo.com/2005/06/18.html) I didn't enjoy the concert due to having to spend most of the time trying to stay upright. To make it worse, Kasim stood right near the back of the stage so I could hardly see him most of the time anyway! One of our group (a fan of Meat Loaf for over 25 years who has been to over 100 Meat Loaf concerts) soon gave up staying in the crowd and another girl I was with elbowed one particularly pushy guy every time he pushed forwards!

It wasn't much fun making our way back to where the coaches were as we had to constantly avoid drunks swaying along. There were lots of people singing on the way too which was good to hear, although the song they were all singing was Two Outta Three which isn't in the set list!

We were very impressed with the number of buses that were laid on. We didn't get there with the first load of people but there were still loads of room. Before we boarded we checked that it was a different driver! However it didn't matter as this one got lost too!! You would have thought that knowing where they are going would be a prerequisite of the job! He also scraped the bus along a wall as he tried to turn around.

We went past my hotel so I dashed to the front and got the driver to let me off. As I was walking back to the hotel, a taxi pulled up and a girl in a Meat Loaf T-shirt got out and was violently sick! That rather summed up the whole evening for me!

As I hadn't eaten, I order room service of some lovely turkey sandwiches and had a relaxing bath.

I got to bed at 1.00am and set my alarm for 6.00am but I was woken at 5.00am with the fire alarm going off for about 3 seconds 4 separate times!

I caught a taxi to the airport and it was surprisingly busy for 7.00am on a Sunday morning. I caught the 8.15am Ryanair flight to London Gatwick which landed on time. Unfortunately there were engineering works on the railway so I had to catch a bus part of the way home which meant that I didn't get in until past noon. That left me just enough time to unpack before I started work at 2.00pm!