My trip to Dublin 30.8. – 1.9.2009 - of course incl. CdeB-concert
It all began in May 2009, when 3 CdeB-concert-dates in Dublin were announced. Immediately after having read about them the corresponding between Cdeb-fans and friends started, and lots of people seemed to be interested in flying to Dublin to see one or more of those concerts in the Gaiety Theatre. Melanie unfortunately couldn’t get the time off from work. She was very sad, which I can understand. But I wrote a message in the CdeB forum about, that it would be so sad, that I would not be able to explore Dublin with Melanie. A moment later there was a message from Pauline, asking me, why I wouldn’t explore Dublin with her and Wendy. That was so nice of her – and I didn’t hesitate very long and agreed: yes!!! So the planning and organizing began. I must admit, I didn’t really have a lot to do, because Pauline is the perfect travel-planner! She found and booked a good hotel-room for the 3 of us, she bought the tickets for all of us, she even hired a car for us and found a nice restaurant for a dinner with lots of CdeB-fans for our 1st evening. All I had to do was to book my flight, which was no problem at all. Ryanair flies from Weeze to Dublin for a good price!
Time passed quickly, and in June there was a fan-meeting after the CdeB-concert in Bonn. Nearly everybody there was talking about going to Dublin – so even those few who had not yet been so sure if they should go now all were very keen on going too.
A few days later I got an e-mail from Evelyn from Solingen asking me with which airline I would fly, in which hotel I would stay etc. – After a few e-mails it was clear: Evelyn would book the same flight, would share the hotel room with us (Pauline changed the booking) and she would come to me the afternoon before our flight would go in the early the next morning. Planning became even more exciting as now 4 of us were involved. Besides exchanging e-mails with Pauline, Wendy and Evelyn also Sandra e-mailed from time to time with good sightseeing-tips.
Saturday, the 29th of August came. Pauline and Wendy already flew to Dublin that day. Evelyn arrived at our house at 3.30 p.m.. She ‘sold’ me 2 knives from Solingen. It’s not good to give knives as gifts because they cut the friendship, so I had to give her a Cent for them and ‘buy’ them. While we were drinking coffee the phone rang: It was Melanie from Liverpool who wished us a nice journey and told us again, how much she would like to be with us! I felt really sorry for her – but couldn’t change it! Also incidently a friend of Evelyn had flown to Dublin just the previous day and also was in ‘our’ Gaiety Theatre (to see ‘Riverdance’), and she sent Evelyn several mms of the Theatre, which was a nice pre-taste! In the late afternoon we started the challenge of getting our luggage sorted. We had planned to travel both with hand-luggage only = 10 kilos each. But the nearer the travel-date came the more nervous did Evelyn become – she had nightmares about explosive hairspray which would have been taken away from her at the airport-check-in etc. So she had booked one suitcase of 15 kilos only a few days before our flight. I put my liquids/toilettries into her suitcase and I carried a pair of her trousers instead in my travel bag. I had to step on the scales with and without all the 3 pieces of luggage several times. It was so funny and took a while till we had it all sorted and ready to leave. We were looking forward to the following days, watched CdeB-videos in the evening and tried to sleep early. That was not so easy because of all the excitement. In the end both us us didn’t manage to catch more than 1 – 2 hours sleep before our alarm went off at 3.00 a.m. early on Sunday morning (night)!
We left home at about 5.30 a.m. the next morning after our beauty-care for the long day and reached Weeze Airport, which is 70 km away after 50 min. Parking the car there on P2 is not too expensive, especially not if it’s devided through two. It was rather crowded in the terminal building, because a lot of planes took off after 6.00 a.m. after the night-break. It didn’t last very long untill we met Anneke and René from the Netherlands. It was so nice to talk to them. Their German is very good. We had already found out earlier (in Bonn in June) that they had booked the same flights as we had. The world is really small, isn’t it? And all the world seemed to be on their way to Dublin that weekend! At least it seemed so when I read facebook and the CdeB-community. Even Barry James had played a CdeB song at Radio Caroline for all the Ladies on their way to Dublin to see CdeB! Sooo lovely!
Our plane took off after 7.10 am. . I quickly sent a few good-bye-texts before I switched off my phones. The flight lasted 1:25 hours. The view was not the best because there were some clouds below us, but after about 1 hour the captain said, that we would now soon cross Manchester Airport and Liverpool. Oh – how enthousiastic was I! I couldn’t stop smiling. I’d see my favourite city!!! Really, there was Manchester Airport, which I had seen often before from a plane-window – but only when that airport had been my start- or destination-airport. A few minutes later I saw water. It looked like a huge lake – so I was rather confused. But soon the water got more nearrow and looked like a river – the Mersey-river. Now I could recognize Liverpool and the Wirral. I took many photos without really seeing all the well-known buildings, but I saw them all later at home after I had put my pics on the laptop and zoomed the pics closer. Even the Radio-City-Tower was on one of the pictures. It was nice to see the Wirral – surrounded by Mersey, Irish Sea and River Dee. There was a huge cloud above Hilbre Island. Magic-listener Malcolm T. from Bel Vale had written at Facebook that he would hang out blue laundry on the clothes-line (as Everton would play that weekend) – for me to see it from the plane. Francis M. wanted to hang out red clothes in Anfield. In my enthousiasm I unfortunately didn’t recognize them ;-) Then we saw clouds over the water for the next 15 min. before we reached Dublin at about 8.00 a.m.. A great feeling to touch irish ground for the very first time in life! But certainly not for the last time!!!!
It didn’t last long untill we met Robert and Kathy Cairns from Belgium. We knew them already from some previous concerts. So we were already 6. We managed to figure out how to find a bus into the city centre. We also noticed, that Evelyn’s and my German phones didn’t work. We both are t-mobile customers, and later we were told that there is no t-mobile-network in Ireland. What a shame! I have no idea why our phones didn’t switch to any other local mobile-phone-network! I tried out everything – but in vain (‘It’s better to have tried in vain than never try at all’). I was lucky to have my engl. Vadafone-phone with me. So I told some frequent-texters, that I would only be reachable via that phone. A pity that I had given my German number to so many other Cdeb-fans who wanted to meet up in Dublin! But first of all it was important to text Pauline to find out where and when to meet her and Wendy.
We met at about after 9.00 a. m. at our Blooms Hotel after the 30 min. bus-trip. It was great to finally meet Pauline and Wendy. I had seen them only once in my life before – in April 2009 before the concert in Manchester. After leaving our luggage in a store room in our hotel we took a taxi and drove to the car-rental where we had pre-booked our car for the day. We already laughed a lot while sitting squeezed together in the taxi!
The men in the car-rental-office were not the most friendly people, but never mind. Our car, a silver Ford Focus, was ok and comfortable. I absolutely admired Pauline, who was so brave to drive with a strange car in a strange town – and that without any sat-nav! Wend was her human navigator with a map in her hands. And we weren’t in a hurry, so we managed it. Our first destination was the old monastry-village Glendalough in the Wicklow mountains. Already the way there was wonderful – even if the sky awas grey and cloudy and it rained a bit. We also crossed small villages and very nearrow roads and bridges. Pauline did a great job with driving us all the way. In Glendalough we went for a nice walk to the lake and the old monastry and graveyard. After our first bigger photo-session in the rain we went to the Glendalough-hotel to have a drink while we waited for the rain to stop. Meanwhile we all got to know each other better and better.
Then we went back to the car and drove back to the Powerscourt Gardens. We knew that Sandra also intended to drive there that afternoon. So I texted her 20 min. before we arrived there at 2.30 p.m.. She also was just on her way – what a good timing! We met on the carpark and walked through the beautiful gardens together. Lots of photos were taken by all of us!
Afterwards the 4 of us left Sandra at Powescourt and we drove 1 mile to Enniskerry, an interesting village for us, as it’s the village where CdeB lives close to. It is just a very, very small and idyllic village. But beautiful. We also had a look at the church. Then we drove back to Dublin. But that was not as easy as it sounds, because we didn’t find the way. I was so tired that I even fell asleep in the back of the car for a moment. Evelyn and I were without sleep and nearly without any food since getting up in the middle of the night!
We got into a traffic jam in Dublin due to a football-match. So it took us really a while to reach the car-rental-shop again. Of course it was closed by then. So we parked the car and took a taxi back home to our hotel. It also got stuck in that traffic and we had to pay 7 Euros more than for the same way in the morning!!! Never mind. We were happy to have reached our hotel and were curious to see how our hotel-room looked like.
The room was really nice. Big enough for the 4 of us with enough power-outlets for all the chargers and hair-dryers and even 2 TV-sets!!! We even had a balcony!
Now it was time to hand over the thank-you-gift we had for Pauline for all the trouble she had with organizing our trip (hotel, tickets, car etc.). Wend had chosen and bought it: a watch – and she let grave into the backside of the watch: ‘Dublin 2009’! So it will always be a nice memory for Pauline of this great trip to Dublin!
After relaxing for a moment we got ready for the Chinese Meal with all the other CdeB-fans which were in town. We were 13 persons altogether: Pauline, Wendy, Evelyn, Anneke and René (from the Netherlands), Kathy and Robert (from Belgium), Judy, Andrew and Logan (from California/USA), Sandra and Tina M. (Germany) and I. We had reserved a huge table in the ‘Imperial’ in Wicklow Street, which was not far from our hotel. The funny thing was, that Pauline had booked the table already some months ago, and the number of people, who would join the meal changed about weekly, so she had to ring up again and again. I’m sure the restaurant owners knew her name very well by now! The evening was very amusing, in spite of Evelyn and me already being awake for such a long time! I was at a point at which I hardly noticed anymore if I was hungry or tired or not. I just had fun with all the others. It was good, that I was not the only photo-crazy person there. Everybody took photos during our meal, because some of us had ordered something, which they had to eat by hand, and that was so funny. Besides Pauline had put off her shoes below the table, which caused some amusement. After the nice meal all of us (except Judy, Andrew and Logan) went to a nice pub with live music very close to our hotel. We had such a nice time – and I had my first Guinness in Dublin! Hmmm – how delicious! Usually I never liked Guinness, but in Ireland it tastes much better, it was so creamy. It is well known, that Guinness does not like to travel.
Time passed quickly, the 2-men-live-band was good, but when they made a break there was played “American Pie” in the jukebox (or from CD). That was of course very good for all of us CdeB-fans. We all sang along. It fitted even better as CdeB had sung exactly this song at “Captain America’s” a long time ago, before he became famous and before this song ended up as one of his covers on his “Footsteps”-album! We had soo much fun that evening, and also sang along to many other songs. Bedtime at about midnight or a bit afterwards. I had not expected anything special that evening – but the evening WAS special!
Evelyn and I shared a double-bed – with only one blanket! I tried to sleep very calm and quiet and not to move too much – and Evelyn found it warm enough to sleep without blanket (I didn’t check if she used it – I slept VERY tight all night long)! Wend’s bed was a single bed next to ours, Pauline slept in a little extra room, which was connected to ours without any door – the 2 connected rooms were kind of one room without any door to close between them. They told me that I was the one who fell asleep first, because I started snoring immediately after my head had touched my pillow!
Anyway, the night was much too short. At 6.00 a.m. on Monday morning we heard Pauline’s mobile-phone-alarm going off: a lovely well known voice singing ‘Live for the day’ – how appropiate as an alarm-tone! My alarm-ringtone ‘I love the night’ sounds a bit more like I would prefer staying in bed! It went off 1 hour later – at 7.00 a.m., when we really had to get up.
The 4 of us really got along well with sharing the bathroom etc. There also was enough space in our room/s. Enough power-outlets for several hair-dryers and chargers for phone and cameras etc. Everything was really ok and I can recommend our hotel for further Dublin-visits.
We went for our firest breakfast on that Munday-morning, which was lovely. Full irish breakfast buffet. Very good! When we had finished our breakfast Pauline and Wendy drove by taxi to the car-rental-shop where we had left our car the evening before. But as it was closed we still had not given back the key. That was their job for that morning. They came back by bus (with our rambler-ticket, so it didn’t cost them anything).
At about 10.00 a.m. we were ready for Dublin. We left the hotel and walked into town – in the pouring rain! We visited Molly Malone, I went to the Vodafone-store to get a voucher for my UK-phone, Pauline bought a special hair-dryer, which she needed to be prepared to go to the concert that evening! Otherwise I fear she would have stayed in the hotel….! We got all we needed, went through Grafton Street, which looked admittedly like any other shopping-street! Then we visited Trinity-college, where we took a guided tour, which was interesting. Even if I didn’t listen toooo carefully. We met Kathy and Robert and also Anneke and René there. CdeB-fans everywhere! It was interesting to see the HUGE library indoors at the end. VERY impressing – I never have seen so many books at one place. The books of Kells were something special – but not so special, that I found them too exciting as I must say!
After we had seen everything at Trinity College we went back through Grafton Street and ended up in front of ‘Captain Americas’, where we intended to have a drink (coffee etc.). But they only opened at 12.00 p.m.. So we first had a look at the frontside of the Gaiety Theatre, in which we would enjoy CdeB in the evening. We also went to the backside, from where we could look into the inside of the venue. There was a kind of window, which could be closed by roller shutters. But they were open as the crew was building up the stage. Only crew to see – nobody else…. . We also went inside the St. Stephen’s Green Shopping-Centre, which looked lovely and very old. At 12.00 p.m. we went back to ‘Captain Americas’ which was open now. Of course we took photos of the CdeB-sign next to the door and also of the CdeB-picture inside. We had a table at the open window, and we could look into the little alley, in which the stage-door of the Gaiety-theatre was! So we had everything under control – very good. I saw Chris Andrews (CdeB’s personal assistant) coming out of that alley some minutes after we had sat down. I must admit, that we all now became VERY excited and thought, he might return with Mr. de Burgh very soon. Pauline already told us to shout at CdeB when he would come, so she would find time to hurry downstairs to reach him and talk to him!!! I think we all were happy when we had finished our drinks without anything happening. Evelyn and Wendy shared a jar of Coke – and it was a funny sight to see them drinking through straws together out of one jar! Meanwhile the waitress had closed the window and we would not even have been able to shout down. Kathy and Rob passed by and they did not notice our knocking at the window!!!! After we had payed we went back into that little alley and checked, how far the crew was with building up the stage. The instruments were now standing there, and we could see the band-members and Kenny. After a few minutes Kenny, Al and Dave came out. Only Dave greeted me. Pauline talked to him and got to know that the soundcheck would take place only 2 – 3 hours later. So we finally had time to do our Guinnes-Storehouse-tour!
We took a taxi to the Guinness Storehouse. It was VERY huge. I must admit, that I was a little bit disappointed, as I had expected a guided tour (I had seen the Cain’s Brewery in Liverpool in June, and I was very impressed by it and by the guide, who had a very nice way to explain us everything). The Guinness Storehouse is more like a beer-museum with a lot of interactive equipment like TVs (video) and other animated things. I found it very hectic! As we didn’t have too much time we just hurried through it all and took as many useful photos as possible! At least I can say, I have been there, even if I won’t really remember a lot. I’ll only remember, that I enjoyed the view from the Gravity bar at the top – in spite of the rain. I guess I even have a reason to come back again – in the sunshine with a better view!
Only Wendy and I had our free Guinness up there – with a shamrock on the top (in the foam). Very nice. Being there reminded me a bit of Phil Easton, who did his St.-Patrick-Day’s show live from the Guinness Storehouse several years for Magic 1548 Liverpool. He even interviewed CdeB from up there. And once I was so mad to send Phil a printed out photo (from his website) and asked for an autograph. He really signed it and made an arrow/sign on it saying “Chris’ house”. The picture is hanging in a frame in our cellar. Unfortunately I won’t be able to tell Phil anymore, that I now finally also made it to the Gravity Bar! (He died in Febr.). But my memories were nice!
It was about 3.00 p.m. when we took a taxi back to Grafton Street. Of course we had to check what was going on at the backside of the Gaiety theatre. It was still raining heavily. We waited for 20 – 30 min. In the meantime I bought some Kings Crisps Cheese & Onion – an insider-tip of a friend who comes from Dublin (very delicious by the way), I made a phonecall, and I started to freeze in the rain. Besides I had got a text from my good e-mail-friend Marianne from Switzerland, who meanwhile had arrived in Dublin with her friend Franziska. They were at the pub, which Andrew Stokes (CdeB fan who lives in Dublin) had suggested as a meeting point. Andrew had planned to be there from 2.00 p.m. onwards. We only arrived at 4.00 p.m., but that was ok. We met several other fans and for me it was great to meet Marianne for the very first time!!! We had been at the same concert in Dortmund in Nov. 2004, but we did not yet know each other then. If I remember right we got to know each other only in Febr. 2006 via e-mail and correspond a lot since then. So meeting her was a hightlight. BUT I must admit, that understanding Marianne and Franziska talking in Swiss-German was more difficult than understanding English or Irish English! We had a lot of fun in that Citi Bar in Dame Street. It was great to meet Andrew at last! We took lots of nice photos – and everybody is smiling on those photos – it was a lovely time!
At about 5.00 p.m. most of us left. But it would not take me 2 or more hours to get ready for the concert, so I stayed a little bit longer with Marianne and Franziska – and we also walked a bit through the streets of Temple Bar in spite of the rain. Time was too precious to waste it in our hotel rooms with styling for CdeB! Who knows when I’ll meet Marianne again.
She had a present for me and she even walked back to their hotel, the Cirq Hotel in the same street to fetch it and give it to me: A cuddely toy in form of a cow which could jodle! Typical from Switzerland. And 10 bars of chocolate! We didn’t have to starve hungry for the rest of our time in Ireland. I found a Dublin-car-sticker in a little tourist-shop, besides I bought some sandwiches which I ate later in the hotel-room – to be prepared for the concert!
Well, at 6.00 p.m. even I saw the need to go back to the hotel room to get changed for the concert. I did not even dry my hair again after all the rain. It wouldn’t have made any change! (Natural beauty – ha ha!) Pauline made a fashion-show for us – wearing only her towel – and acting like Patricia – the stripper (without stripping by the way….). It was sooooo funny!
Meanwhile the rain stopped and the sky became clear and blue. It was such a lovely evening. We met Judy and Kim as well as Kathy in our hotel lounge and went together to the venue – but straight to the stage door in that little alley, where we (the stalkers!!) had been already several times that day! Suddenly Chris Andrews came out of the stage door. Pauline asked him, if we maybe would have the chance to meet CdeB. He smiled and said, that he was just on the way to pick him up, he would be back in 10 min., then we would see what would happen. And he went away. We were very excited. Several things like tickets or jackets were dropped on the ground or into puddles of rain-water (because of the excitement)! We all felt like teenagers, I think! In that moment my phone went: an imcoming text from Patricia from Malta, wishing us a great concert, which I found so nice of her! I didn’t manage to text Marianne to tell her where we were – but luckily she and Franziska had the pleasure to meet CdeB the following day, when we were already long at home.
And then they came: Chris Andrews and Chris de Burgh! All our hearts were beating faster!
I was the one who stood there at the front – with my camera around my neck. So he first came to me and said: ‘Hello Doris’. He kissed me on both cheeks (and unfortunately nobody took a picture!). I do not want to know what he thought. Maybe he thought – all those crazy fans – GO AWAY! But he was so friendly and gave us all the feeling like being very welcome. He kissed everybody and tried to remember all our names. He remembered Wendy’s name. They all had something to sign for him and some of us gave him some gifts. I had a red rose in my hand but I did not even think of giving it to him. Besides I wanted to have something to have a reason to get up during the concert and give it to him! But I must admit, I really forgot about the rose when we met him. After the kissing and signing we took pictures with everybody and CdeB! He said something about the weather, that he had ordered nice weather extra for us. I remember that I replied, that he ordered the good weather a bit late….! And I said to Chris Andrews, that the concert would start 20 min. late as CdeB would have so much to do with us. He smiled. But then they went inside and left 7 happy smiling faces outdoors !!! There was a sign at the wall just where we met CdeB saying, that there would be a CCTV-camera. I would really love to see THAT film of us waiting there and meeting CdeB!
We went to the front entrance of the theatre, where we met lots of other fans which we knew. I remember that I thought: Now we are so far away from home and I know about EVERYBODY who is standing here!!! Chris Raymond had arrived, Sheila, Allison, Tom Matthews and his brother Eugene and many more! Also Chris Williams and Stewart! I can not name them all, but I was amazed about how many of ‘us’ were gathered altogether!
Inside the venue took our seats. Most of us had seats in row 2. The theatre was rather small. About 1000 people fitted in. It was a very old and beautiful venue. Seats in red and high balconies. It reminded rather of a small version of the Royal Albert Hall in London (where I have never been). Marianne and Franziska had not such good seats, they were rather at the back of the Parterre. I saw many people which I knew from the CdeB-forum/community/mailinglist and which I had met at former concerts and fan-meetings, even Stefan and Annette, who had moved to Dalkey after formerly having lived even in Dinslaken were there. It was a feeling like all the world had gathered in Dublin that evening and during the days before and afterwards – a nice feeling!
Everything was so nice that we got over the disappointment that we could not reach the stage, as there was a fence and a pit in front of it. No chance to bring any gifts/roses for Chris to the front. Pauline gave her presents for Chris to Chris Andrews, who walked on the stage before the concert. I intended to throw my rose over at some point. But when I did so short before the end of the concert it landed somewhere behind the fence in the pit…. – never mind. It was only a rose……! But a bit embarrassing. I will have to practice the rose-throwing secretly at home. It hopefully was dark enough in the venue so that nobody saw my failed trial!
The concert started in time at 8.00 p.m. with ‘Last night’ and the powerful laser-show which we already knew from the German concerts in May/June. The set-list was a little bit different from the German concerts. It simply was great! The irish audience sang along loudly. Chris even stopped singing at some points and let the audience continue singing without him – which we did loud and clear!
We wondered what he would do about the Lady-in-red-walkabout, as there were no stairs, which lead down to the audience. But he found another way. After the beginning of that song he disappeared for a short while, and 1 minute later we could see him on the balcony, where he mixed amongst the audience, lay down on some people’s laps etc. – like always…..!
The concert ended at 11.00 p.m.. After the intermission Chris R. and Sheila, who had been sitting next to me, disappeared into the front row, where we had seen 2 spare seats for the whole first half. What a waste of the best seats!!! Now there were their 2 empty seats next to me. And as Marianne and Franziska had come to the front during Lady in red I waved to them and they came into my row. Wow – that it ever would happen that Marianne and I were sitting next to each other at a CdeB-concert!!! Now we did. But not for long, because the dancing part began immediately. For the first time we didn’t need to try to run to the front, as there was absolutely no space at the front. So we stayed where our seats were – but we kept standing and dancing and clapping and singing…. . It was a feeling like the whole floor was vibrating. ‘Africa’ sounded soo powerful! I thoroughly enjoyed this concert! The atmosphere was so great! And I wonder that I didn’t loose my sense of hearing when Marianne shouted loud and waved to the stage with a Swiss cow in her hand when Chris mentioned the word “Switzerland” in the song “Say goodbye to it all”!
Short before the end of the concert something happened, for which everybody had been waiting!!! Patricia! After telling us, that she was too old (Chris always says this!) he and the band began to play ‘Patricia the stripper’, and lots of knickers, slips and bras flew on the stage! Lots of concert visitors had come well-prepared! It was fantastic! When Chris talked after that song his voice sounded totally different – a bit higher – he must have given everything for that song and now just needed a rest.
Soon the huge globe hovered through the venue to the sounds of “Footsteps” and the concert was over – but not the evening!
All we fans gathered in front of the Gaiety Theatre and went into a pub on the opposite side of the street – the “Sinnott’s-Bar”. Lots of fan-photos were taken and I enjoyed having time to talk to Marianne and Andrew again. The bar closed at 11.00 p.m., but they only locked the door, so nobody could enter. We stayed till midnight untill they asked us finally to leave. It was funny, as we first couldn’t ‘escape’, as the door was still locked. How nice to be stuck somewhere with a nice bunch of CdeB-fans.
When we came out of the bar Nigel, Tony and Tony’s wife were just on the street outside and it was funny to shout a loud hello to them over the street.
As it was a Monday night it was difficult to find a pub, which was still open so late. We didn’t yet want to go back to our hotels. The time was much too prescious! Finally we found a pub, which was open. It was the same one in which we had been the night before. One of the very expensive pubs, where a Guinness costs 6.30 Euros after 11.00 p.m. – before 11.00 p.m. the price was 5,80 Euros. I never before heard about prices changing by the time of the day! Lol – but hey – we were glad to have found a place to go – and we enjoyed each other’s company untill 2.00 a.m. before we all said goodbye!
Back in our hotel-room we still laughed a lot untill we fell asleep at. 2.30 a.m..
Getting up on Tuesday morning was not so pleasant, as we had to fly back home that day. It was the last time that we heard Pauline’s phone’s ‘Live for the day’ wake up call! We packed everything and had breakfast. Kathy came and sat down with us – the last chance to talk with us. We re-lived all the last days and the concert – and we all were convinced that it was the best time ever and we all would do it again! We also share a room again! It had simply been like a dream! And as we have not yet seen a lot of Dublin/Ireland we really have a reason to come back. We all hope that CdeB also enjoyed the 3 concerts in Dublin so much that he will do it again there!
After breakfast it was time to say goodbye, then Evelyn and I went to our bus-station in O’Connell Street – not without taking some more photos. Now I also could see the Spire and the General Post Office.
Soon we had reached the airport by the green Airlink-bus. Evelyn’s suitcase was too heavy when she checked it in and she got stress opening it and putting some things into our hand-luggage. It mainly was her heavy coat, which had not been inside the suitcase before. No reason to panic – and we still had much time left. I bought myself a Guinness-mug and a Guinness-t-shirt and an Ireland keyring and a little pendant for my phone. All nice memories of Ireland/Dublin and the short time there. My first time!
Anneke and René also arrived at the airport and we waited for our plane together. They had bought a newspaper in which the concert was mentioned.
I didn’t mind that the sky was cloudy while we flew home, so I could close my eyes and dream without missing anything behind the plane-window. No Liverpool to see below us….. .
Only then I realized, that we had not met Aurelia from Cologne at all! She was on the missing list! Only later I found her texts on my German phone: She couldn’t get her flight and so she had not even come to Dublin – poor Aurelia! I would not have liked to be in her shoes! – And I still didn’t manage to meet her! We were at so many events where we could have met – but it never happened. But – one day we WILL meet!!!
We reached Weeze at about 14.10 p.m. and drove home, sorted our luggage and then Evelyn drove back home to Solingen while I did not know what to do first: cooking, sorting photos etc. etc. .
It took me some time to get out of Dublin-mood. Now – 8 days later, I still am half in Ireland with my thoughts…… .
Photos:
Dublin 1
Dublin 2
Concert 1
Concert 2
It all began in May 2009, when 3 CdeB-concert-dates in Dublin were announced. Immediately after having read about them the corresponding between Cdeb-fans and friends started, and lots of people seemed to be interested in flying to Dublin to see one or more of those concerts in the Gaiety Theatre. Melanie unfortunately couldn’t get the time off from work. She was very sad, which I can understand. But I wrote a message in the CdeB forum about, that it would be so sad, that I would not be able to explore Dublin with Melanie. A moment later there was a message from Pauline, asking me, why I wouldn’t explore Dublin with her and Wendy. That was so nice of her – and I didn’t hesitate very long and agreed: yes!!! So the planning and organizing began. I must admit, I didn’t really have a lot to do, because Pauline is the perfect travel-planner! She found and booked a good hotel-room for the 3 of us, she bought the tickets for all of us, she even hired a car for us and found a nice restaurant for a dinner with lots of CdeB-fans for our 1st evening. All I had to do was to book my flight, which was no problem at all. Ryanair flies from Weeze to Dublin for a good price!
Time passed quickly, and in June there was a fan-meeting after the CdeB-concert in Bonn. Nearly everybody there was talking about going to Dublin – so even those few who had not yet been so sure if they should go now all were very keen on going too.
A few days later I got an e-mail from Evelyn from Solingen asking me with which airline I would fly, in which hotel I would stay etc. – After a few e-mails it was clear: Evelyn would book the same flight, would share the hotel room with us (Pauline changed the booking) and she would come to me the afternoon before our flight would go in the early the next morning. Planning became even more exciting as now 4 of us were involved. Besides exchanging e-mails with Pauline, Wendy and Evelyn also Sandra e-mailed from time to time with good sightseeing-tips.
Saturday, the 29th of August came. Pauline and Wendy already flew to Dublin that day. Evelyn arrived at our house at 3.30 p.m.. She ‘sold’ me 2 knives from Solingen. It’s not good to give knives as gifts because they cut the friendship, so I had to give her a Cent for them and ‘buy’ them. While we were drinking coffee the phone rang: It was Melanie from Liverpool who wished us a nice journey and told us again, how much she would like to be with us! I felt really sorry for her – but couldn’t change it! Also incidently a friend of Evelyn had flown to Dublin just the previous day and also was in ‘our’ Gaiety Theatre (to see ‘Riverdance’), and she sent Evelyn several mms of the Theatre, which was a nice pre-taste! In the late afternoon we started the challenge of getting our luggage sorted. We had planned to travel both with hand-luggage only = 10 kilos each. But the nearer the travel-date came the more nervous did Evelyn become – she had nightmares about explosive hairspray which would have been taken away from her at the airport-check-in etc. So she had booked one suitcase of 15 kilos only a few days before our flight. I put my liquids/toilettries into her suitcase and I carried a pair of her trousers instead in my travel bag. I had to step on the scales with and without all the 3 pieces of luggage several times. It was so funny and took a while till we had it all sorted and ready to leave. We were looking forward to the following days, watched CdeB-videos in the evening and tried to sleep early. That was not so easy because of all the excitement. In the end both us us didn’t manage to catch more than 1 – 2 hours sleep before our alarm went off at 3.00 a.m. early on Sunday morning (night)!
We left home at about 5.30 a.m. the next morning after our beauty-care for the long day and reached Weeze Airport, which is 70 km away after 50 min. Parking the car there on P2 is not too expensive, especially not if it’s devided through two. It was rather crowded in the terminal building, because a lot of planes took off after 6.00 a.m. after the night-break. It didn’t last very long untill we met Anneke and René from the Netherlands. It was so nice to talk to them. Their German is very good. We had already found out earlier (in Bonn in June) that they had booked the same flights as we had. The world is really small, isn’t it? And all the world seemed to be on their way to Dublin that weekend! At least it seemed so when I read facebook and the CdeB-community. Even Barry James had played a CdeB song at Radio Caroline for all the Ladies on their way to Dublin to see CdeB! Sooo lovely!
Our plane took off after 7.10 am. . I quickly sent a few good-bye-texts before I switched off my phones. The flight lasted 1:25 hours. The view was not the best because there were some clouds below us, but after about 1 hour the captain said, that we would now soon cross Manchester Airport and Liverpool. Oh – how enthousiastic was I! I couldn’t stop smiling. I’d see my favourite city!!! Really, there was Manchester Airport, which I had seen often before from a plane-window – but only when that airport had been my start- or destination-airport. A few minutes later I saw water. It looked like a huge lake – so I was rather confused. But soon the water got more nearrow and looked like a river – the Mersey-river. Now I could recognize Liverpool and the Wirral. I took many photos without really seeing all the well-known buildings, but I saw them all later at home after I had put my pics on the laptop and zoomed the pics closer. Even the Radio-City-Tower was on one of the pictures. It was nice to see the Wirral – surrounded by Mersey, Irish Sea and River Dee. There was a huge cloud above Hilbre Island. Magic-listener Malcolm T. from Bel Vale had written at Facebook that he would hang out blue laundry on the clothes-line (as Everton would play that weekend) – for me to see it from the plane. Francis M. wanted to hang out red clothes in Anfield. In my enthousiasm I unfortunately didn’t recognize them ;-) Then we saw clouds over the water for the next 15 min. before we reached Dublin at about 8.00 a.m.. A great feeling to touch irish ground for the very first time in life! But certainly not for the last time!!!!
It didn’t last long untill we met Robert and Kathy Cairns from Belgium. We knew them already from some previous concerts. So we were already 6. We managed to figure out how to find a bus into the city centre. We also noticed, that Evelyn’s and my German phones didn’t work. We both are t-mobile customers, and later we were told that there is no t-mobile-network in Ireland. What a shame! I have no idea why our phones didn’t switch to any other local mobile-phone-network! I tried out everything – but in vain (‘It’s better to have tried in vain than never try at all’). I was lucky to have my engl. Vadafone-phone with me. So I told some frequent-texters, that I would only be reachable via that phone. A pity that I had given my German number to so many other Cdeb-fans who wanted to meet up in Dublin! But first of all it was important to text Pauline to find out where and when to meet her and Wendy.
We met at about after 9.00 a. m. at our Blooms Hotel after the 30 min. bus-trip. It was great to finally meet Pauline and Wendy. I had seen them only once in my life before – in April 2009 before the concert in Manchester. After leaving our luggage in a store room in our hotel we took a taxi and drove to the car-rental where we had pre-booked our car for the day. We already laughed a lot while sitting squeezed together in the taxi!
The men in the car-rental-office were not the most friendly people, but never mind. Our car, a silver Ford Focus, was ok and comfortable. I absolutely admired Pauline, who was so brave to drive with a strange car in a strange town – and that without any sat-nav! Wend was her human navigator with a map in her hands. And we weren’t in a hurry, so we managed it. Our first destination was the old monastry-village Glendalough in the Wicklow mountains. Already the way there was wonderful – even if the sky awas grey and cloudy and it rained a bit. We also crossed small villages and very nearrow roads and bridges. Pauline did a great job with driving us all the way. In Glendalough we went for a nice walk to the lake and the old monastry and graveyard. After our first bigger photo-session in the rain we went to the Glendalough-hotel to have a drink while we waited for the rain to stop. Meanwhile we all got to know each other better and better.
Then we went back to the car and drove back to the Powerscourt Gardens. We knew that Sandra also intended to drive there that afternoon. So I texted her 20 min. before we arrived there at 2.30 p.m.. She also was just on her way – what a good timing! We met on the carpark and walked through the beautiful gardens together. Lots of photos were taken by all of us!
Afterwards the 4 of us left Sandra at Powescourt and we drove 1 mile to Enniskerry, an interesting village for us, as it’s the village where CdeB lives close to. It is just a very, very small and idyllic village. But beautiful. We also had a look at the church. Then we drove back to Dublin. But that was not as easy as it sounds, because we didn’t find the way. I was so tired that I even fell asleep in the back of the car for a moment. Evelyn and I were without sleep and nearly without any food since getting up in the middle of the night!
We got into a traffic jam in Dublin due to a football-match. So it took us really a while to reach the car-rental-shop again. Of course it was closed by then. So we parked the car and took a taxi back home to our hotel. It also got stuck in that traffic and we had to pay 7 Euros more than for the same way in the morning!!! Never mind. We were happy to have reached our hotel and were curious to see how our hotel-room looked like.
The room was really nice. Big enough for the 4 of us with enough power-outlets for all the chargers and hair-dryers and even 2 TV-sets!!! We even had a balcony!
Now it was time to hand over the thank-you-gift we had for Pauline for all the trouble she had with organizing our trip (hotel, tickets, car etc.). Wend had chosen and bought it: a watch – and she let grave into the backside of the watch: ‘Dublin 2009’! So it will always be a nice memory for Pauline of this great trip to Dublin!
After relaxing for a moment we got ready for the Chinese Meal with all the other CdeB-fans which were in town. We were 13 persons altogether: Pauline, Wendy, Evelyn, Anneke and René (from the Netherlands), Kathy and Robert (from Belgium), Judy, Andrew and Logan (from California/USA), Sandra and Tina M. (Germany) and I. We had reserved a huge table in the ‘Imperial’ in Wicklow Street, which was not far from our hotel. The funny thing was, that Pauline had booked the table already some months ago, and the number of people, who would join the meal changed about weekly, so she had to ring up again and again. I’m sure the restaurant owners knew her name very well by now! The evening was very amusing, in spite of Evelyn and me already being awake for such a long time! I was at a point at which I hardly noticed anymore if I was hungry or tired or not. I just had fun with all the others. It was good, that I was not the only photo-crazy person there. Everybody took photos during our meal, because some of us had ordered something, which they had to eat by hand, and that was so funny. Besides Pauline had put off her shoes below the table, which caused some amusement. After the nice meal all of us (except Judy, Andrew and Logan) went to a nice pub with live music very close to our hotel. We had such a nice time – and I had my first Guinness in Dublin! Hmmm – how delicious! Usually I never liked Guinness, but in Ireland it tastes much better, it was so creamy. It is well known, that Guinness does not like to travel.
Time passed quickly, the 2-men-live-band was good, but when they made a break there was played “American Pie” in the jukebox (or from CD). That was of course very good for all of us CdeB-fans. We all sang along. It fitted even better as CdeB had sung exactly this song at “Captain America’s” a long time ago, before he became famous and before this song ended up as one of his covers on his “Footsteps”-album! We had soo much fun that evening, and also sang along to many other songs. Bedtime at about midnight or a bit afterwards. I had not expected anything special that evening – but the evening WAS special!
Evelyn and I shared a double-bed – with only one blanket! I tried to sleep very calm and quiet and not to move too much – and Evelyn found it warm enough to sleep without blanket (I didn’t check if she used it – I slept VERY tight all night long)! Wend’s bed was a single bed next to ours, Pauline slept in a little extra room, which was connected to ours without any door – the 2 connected rooms were kind of one room without any door to close between them. They told me that I was the one who fell asleep first, because I started snoring immediately after my head had touched my pillow!
Anyway, the night was much too short. At 6.00 a.m. on Monday morning we heard Pauline’s mobile-phone-alarm going off: a lovely well known voice singing ‘Live for the day’ – how appropiate as an alarm-tone! My alarm-ringtone ‘I love the night’ sounds a bit more like I would prefer staying in bed! It went off 1 hour later – at 7.00 a.m., when we really had to get up.
The 4 of us really got along well with sharing the bathroom etc. There also was enough space in our room/s. Enough power-outlets for several hair-dryers and chargers for phone and cameras etc. Everything was really ok and I can recommend our hotel for further Dublin-visits.
We went for our firest breakfast on that Munday-morning, which was lovely. Full irish breakfast buffet. Very good! When we had finished our breakfast Pauline and Wendy drove by taxi to the car-rental-shop where we had left our car the evening before. But as it was closed we still had not given back the key. That was their job for that morning. They came back by bus (with our rambler-ticket, so it didn’t cost them anything).
At about 10.00 a.m. we were ready for Dublin. We left the hotel and walked into town – in the pouring rain! We visited Molly Malone, I went to the Vodafone-store to get a voucher for my UK-phone, Pauline bought a special hair-dryer, which she needed to be prepared to go to the concert that evening! Otherwise I fear she would have stayed in the hotel….! We got all we needed, went through Grafton Street, which looked admittedly like any other shopping-street! Then we visited Trinity-college, where we took a guided tour, which was interesting. Even if I didn’t listen toooo carefully. We met Kathy and Robert and also Anneke and René there. CdeB-fans everywhere! It was interesting to see the HUGE library indoors at the end. VERY impressing – I never have seen so many books at one place. The books of Kells were something special – but not so special, that I found them too exciting as I must say!
After we had seen everything at Trinity College we went back through Grafton Street and ended up in front of ‘Captain Americas’, where we intended to have a drink (coffee etc.). But they only opened at 12.00 p.m.. So we first had a look at the frontside of the Gaiety Theatre, in which we would enjoy CdeB in the evening. We also went to the backside, from where we could look into the inside of the venue. There was a kind of window, which could be closed by roller shutters. But they were open as the crew was building up the stage. Only crew to see – nobody else…. . We also went inside the St. Stephen’s Green Shopping-Centre, which looked lovely and very old. At 12.00 p.m. we went back to ‘Captain Americas’ which was open now. Of course we took photos of the CdeB-sign next to the door and also of the CdeB-picture inside. We had a table at the open window, and we could look into the little alley, in which the stage-door of the Gaiety-theatre was! So we had everything under control – very good. I saw Chris Andrews (CdeB’s personal assistant) coming out of that alley some minutes after we had sat down. I must admit, that we all now became VERY excited and thought, he might return with Mr. de Burgh very soon. Pauline already told us to shout at CdeB when he would come, so she would find time to hurry downstairs to reach him and talk to him!!! I think we all were happy when we had finished our drinks without anything happening. Evelyn and Wendy shared a jar of Coke – and it was a funny sight to see them drinking through straws together out of one jar! Meanwhile the waitress had closed the window and we would not even have been able to shout down. Kathy and Rob passed by and they did not notice our knocking at the window!!!! After we had payed we went back into that little alley and checked, how far the crew was with building up the stage. The instruments were now standing there, and we could see the band-members and Kenny. After a few minutes Kenny, Al and Dave came out. Only Dave greeted me. Pauline talked to him and got to know that the soundcheck would take place only 2 – 3 hours later. So we finally had time to do our Guinnes-Storehouse-tour!
We took a taxi to the Guinness Storehouse. It was VERY huge. I must admit, that I was a little bit disappointed, as I had expected a guided tour (I had seen the Cain’s Brewery in Liverpool in June, and I was very impressed by it and by the guide, who had a very nice way to explain us everything). The Guinness Storehouse is more like a beer-museum with a lot of interactive equipment like TVs (video) and other animated things. I found it very hectic! As we didn’t have too much time we just hurried through it all and took as many useful photos as possible! At least I can say, I have been there, even if I won’t really remember a lot. I’ll only remember, that I enjoyed the view from the Gravity bar at the top – in spite of the rain. I guess I even have a reason to come back again – in the sunshine with a better view!
Only Wendy and I had our free Guinness up there – with a shamrock on the top (in the foam). Very nice. Being there reminded me a bit of Phil Easton, who did his St.-Patrick-Day’s show live from the Guinness Storehouse several years for Magic 1548 Liverpool. He even interviewed CdeB from up there. And once I was so mad to send Phil a printed out photo (from his website) and asked for an autograph. He really signed it and made an arrow/sign on it saying “Chris’ house”. The picture is hanging in a frame in our cellar. Unfortunately I won’t be able to tell Phil anymore, that I now finally also made it to the Gravity Bar! (He died in Febr.). But my memories were nice!
It was about 3.00 p.m. when we took a taxi back to Grafton Street. Of course we had to check what was going on at the backside of the Gaiety theatre. It was still raining heavily. We waited for 20 – 30 min. In the meantime I bought some Kings Crisps Cheese & Onion – an insider-tip of a friend who comes from Dublin (very delicious by the way), I made a phonecall, and I started to freeze in the rain. Besides I had got a text from my good e-mail-friend Marianne from Switzerland, who meanwhile had arrived in Dublin with her friend Franziska. They were at the pub, which Andrew Stokes (CdeB fan who lives in Dublin) had suggested as a meeting point. Andrew had planned to be there from 2.00 p.m. onwards. We only arrived at 4.00 p.m., but that was ok. We met several other fans and for me it was great to meet Marianne for the very first time!!! We had been at the same concert in Dortmund in Nov. 2004, but we did not yet know each other then. If I remember right we got to know each other only in Febr. 2006 via e-mail and correspond a lot since then. So meeting her was a hightlight. BUT I must admit, that understanding Marianne and Franziska talking in Swiss-German was more difficult than understanding English or Irish English! We had a lot of fun in that Citi Bar in Dame Street. It was great to meet Andrew at last! We took lots of nice photos – and everybody is smiling on those photos – it was a lovely time!
At about 5.00 p.m. most of us left. But it would not take me 2 or more hours to get ready for the concert, so I stayed a little bit longer with Marianne and Franziska – and we also walked a bit through the streets of Temple Bar in spite of the rain. Time was too precious to waste it in our hotel rooms with styling for CdeB! Who knows when I’ll meet Marianne again.
She had a present for me and she even walked back to their hotel, the Cirq Hotel in the same street to fetch it and give it to me: A cuddely toy in form of a cow which could jodle! Typical from Switzerland. And 10 bars of chocolate! We didn’t have to starve hungry for the rest of our time in Ireland. I found a Dublin-car-sticker in a little tourist-shop, besides I bought some sandwiches which I ate later in the hotel-room – to be prepared for the concert!
Well, at 6.00 p.m. even I saw the need to go back to the hotel room to get changed for the concert. I did not even dry my hair again after all the rain. It wouldn’t have made any change! (Natural beauty – ha ha!) Pauline made a fashion-show for us – wearing only her towel – and acting like Patricia – the stripper (without stripping by the way….). It was sooooo funny!
Meanwhile the rain stopped and the sky became clear and blue. It was such a lovely evening. We met Judy and Kim as well as Kathy in our hotel lounge and went together to the venue – but straight to the stage door in that little alley, where we (the stalkers!!) had been already several times that day! Suddenly Chris Andrews came out of the stage door. Pauline asked him, if we maybe would have the chance to meet CdeB. He smiled and said, that he was just on the way to pick him up, he would be back in 10 min., then we would see what would happen. And he went away. We were very excited. Several things like tickets or jackets were dropped on the ground or into puddles of rain-water (because of the excitement)! We all felt like teenagers, I think! In that moment my phone went: an imcoming text from Patricia from Malta, wishing us a great concert, which I found so nice of her! I didn’t manage to text Marianne to tell her where we were – but luckily she and Franziska had the pleasure to meet CdeB the following day, when we were already long at home.
And then they came: Chris Andrews and Chris de Burgh! All our hearts were beating faster!
I was the one who stood there at the front – with my camera around my neck. So he first came to me and said: ‘Hello Doris’. He kissed me on both cheeks (and unfortunately nobody took a picture!). I do not want to know what he thought. Maybe he thought – all those crazy fans – GO AWAY! But he was so friendly and gave us all the feeling like being very welcome. He kissed everybody and tried to remember all our names. He remembered Wendy’s name. They all had something to sign for him and some of us gave him some gifts. I had a red rose in my hand but I did not even think of giving it to him. Besides I wanted to have something to have a reason to get up during the concert and give it to him! But I must admit, I really forgot about the rose when we met him. After the kissing and signing we took pictures with everybody and CdeB! He said something about the weather, that he had ordered nice weather extra for us. I remember that I replied, that he ordered the good weather a bit late….! And I said to Chris Andrews, that the concert would start 20 min. late as CdeB would have so much to do with us. He smiled. But then they went inside and left 7 happy smiling faces outdoors !!! There was a sign at the wall just where we met CdeB saying, that there would be a CCTV-camera. I would really love to see THAT film of us waiting there and meeting CdeB!
We went to the front entrance of the theatre, where we met lots of other fans which we knew. I remember that I thought: Now we are so far away from home and I know about EVERYBODY who is standing here!!! Chris Raymond had arrived, Sheila, Allison, Tom Matthews and his brother Eugene and many more! Also Chris Williams and Stewart! I can not name them all, but I was amazed about how many of ‘us’ were gathered altogether!
Inside the venue took our seats. Most of us had seats in row 2. The theatre was rather small. About 1000 people fitted in. It was a very old and beautiful venue. Seats in red and high balconies. It reminded rather of a small version of the Royal Albert Hall in London (where I have never been). Marianne and Franziska had not such good seats, they were rather at the back of the Parterre. I saw many people which I knew from the CdeB-forum/community/mailinglist and which I had met at former concerts and fan-meetings, even Stefan and Annette, who had moved to Dalkey after formerly having lived even in Dinslaken were there. It was a feeling like all the world had gathered in Dublin that evening and during the days before and afterwards – a nice feeling!
Everything was so nice that we got over the disappointment that we could not reach the stage, as there was a fence and a pit in front of it. No chance to bring any gifts/roses for Chris to the front. Pauline gave her presents for Chris to Chris Andrews, who walked on the stage before the concert. I intended to throw my rose over at some point. But when I did so short before the end of the concert it landed somewhere behind the fence in the pit…. – never mind. It was only a rose……! But a bit embarrassing. I will have to practice the rose-throwing secretly at home. It hopefully was dark enough in the venue so that nobody saw my failed trial!
The concert started in time at 8.00 p.m. with ‘Last night’ and the powerful laser-show which we already knew from the German concerts in May/June. The set-list was a little bit different from the German concerts. It simply was great! The irish audience sang along loudly. Chris even stopped singing at some points and let the audience continue singing without him – which we did loud and clear!
We wondered what he would do about the Lady-in-red-walkabout, as there were no stairs, which lead down to the audience. But he found another way. After the beginning of that song he disappeared for a short while, and 1 minute later we could see him on the balcony, where he mixed amongst the audience, lay down on some people’s laps etc. – like always…..!
The concert ended at 11.00 p.m.. After the intermission Chris R. and Sheila, who had been sitting next to me, disappeared into the front row, where we had seen 2 spare seats for the whole first half. What a waste of the best seats!!! Now there were their 2 empty seats next to me. And as Marianne and Franziska had come to the front during Lady in red I waved to them and they came into my row. Wow – that it ever would happen that Marianne and I were sitting next to each other at a CdeB-concert!!! Now we did. But not for long, because the dancing part began immediately. For the first time we didn’t need to try to run to the front, as there was absolutely no space at the front. So we stayed where our seats were – but we kept standing and dancing and clapping and singing…. . It was a feeling like the whole floor was vibrating. ‘Africa’ sounded soo powerful! I thoroughly enjoyed this concert! The atmosphere was so great! And I wonder that I didn’t loose my sense of hearing when Marianne shouted loud and waved to the stage with a Swiss cow in her hand when Chris mentioned the word “Switzerland” in the song “Say goodbye to it all”!
Short before the end of the concert something happened, for which everybody had been waiting!!! Patricia! After telling us, that she was too old (Chris always says this!) he and the band began to play ‘Patricia the stripper’, and lots of knickers, slips and bras flew on the stage! Lots of concert visitors had come well-prepared! It was fantastic! When Chris talked after that song his voice sounded totally different – a bit higher – he must have given everything for that song and now just needed a rest.
Soon the huge globe hovered through the venue to the sounds of “Footsteps” and the concert was over – but not the evening!
All we fans gathered in front of the Gaiety Theatre and went into a pub on the opposite side of the street – the “Sinnott’s-Bar”. Lots of fan-photos were taken and I enjoyed having time to talk to Marianne and Andrew again. The bar closed at 11.00 p.m., but they only locked the door, so nobody could enter. We stayed till midnight untill they asked us finally to leave. It was funny, as we first couldn’t ‘escape’, as the door was still locked. How nice to be stuck somewhere with a nice bunch of CdeB-fans.
When we came out of the bar Nigel, Tony and Tony’s wife were just on the street outside and it was funny to shout a loud hello to them over the street.
As it was a Monday night it was difficult to find a pub, which was still open so late. We didn’t yet want to go back to our hotels. The time was much too prescious! Finally we found a pub, which was open. It was the same one in which we had been the night before. One of the very expensive pubs, where a Guinness costs 6.30 Euros after 11.00 p.m. – before 11.00 p.m. the price was 5,80 Euros. I never before heard about prices changing by the time of the day! Lol – but hey – we were glad to have found a place to go – and we enjoyed each other’s company untill 2.00 a.m. before we all said goodbye!
Back in our hotel-room we still laughed a lot untill we fell asleep at. 2.30 a.m..
Getting up on Tuesday morning was not so pleasant, as we had to fly back home that day. It was the last time that we heard Pauline’s phone’s ‘Live for the day’ wake up call! We packed everything and had breakfast. Kathy came and sat down with us – the last chance to talk with us. We re-lived all the last days and the concert – and we all were convinced that it was the best time ever and we all would do it again! We also share a room again! It had simply been like a dream! And as we have not yet seen a lot of Dublin/Ireland we really have a reason to come back. We all hope that CdeB also enjoyed the 3 concerts in Dublin so much that he will do it again there!
After breakfast it was time to say goodbye, then Evelyn and I went to our bus-station in O’Connell Street – not without taking some more photos. Now I also could see the Spire and the General Post Office.
Soon we had reached the airport by the green Airlink-bus. Evelyn’s suitcase was too heavy when she checked it in and she got stress opening it and putting some things into our hand-luggage. It mainly was her heavy coat, which had not been inside the suitcase before. No reason to panic – and we still had much time left. I bought myself a Guinness-mug and a Guinness-t-shirt and an Ireland keyring and a little pendant for my phone. All nice memories of Ireland/Dublin and the short time there. My first time!
Anneke and René also arrived at the airport and we waited for our plane together. They had bought a newspaper in which the concert was mentioned.
I didn’t mind that the sky was cloudy while we flew home, so I could close my eyes and dream without missing anything behind the plane-window. No Liverpool to see below us….. .
Only then I realized, that we had not met Aurelia from Cologne at all! She was on the missing list! Only later I found her texts on my German phone: She couldn’t get her flight and so she had not even come to Dublin – poor Aurelia! I would not have liked to be in her shoes! – And I still didn’t manage to meet her! We were at so many events where we could have met – but it never happened. But – one day we WILL meet!!!
We reached Weeze at about 14.10 p.m. and drove home, sorted our luggage and then Evelyn drove back home to Solingen while I did not know what to do first: cooking, sorting photos etc. etc. .
It took me some time to get out of Dublin-mood. Now – 8 days later, I still am half in Ireland with my thoughts…… .
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posted by Doris @ 11:31 PM
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