What to do? What to do? We had one last day in Ireland and decided at breakfast to head to the Croke Park to see if we could purchase tickets for the Galway Dublin Gaelic Football game! After all, the Galway players were staying at our hotel and we felt the need to support them! Mike, we were happy to report, was feeling much better this morning! Patte joined us for breakfast, but decided to hang close to the hotel today with a recuperating Mike!
It was another beautiful morning in Dublin, the rain of yesterday was replaced with blue skies and sunshine! John figured out the bus system and we hopped on Bus 16, which transported us right to the stadium?
Vendors were on every street corner, selling merchandise for the first game between Louth and Monaghan as well as merchandise for the Galway and Dublin game.
Excitement filled the air! We asked several people where the ticket office was located and we got several different answers! But everyone was so nice!
A nice Irishman, Benny, came out of his business to warn us against buying tickets from “touters” or, as we say in the States, scalpers! We were told by another gentlemen to speak to the guards once the gates were opened. Apparently, honest people will give their unused tickets to the guards, who will then give them away! We chummed up to the nicest guard, who was on the look out for tickets for us!
Loved the saying on the doors, “Let’s make this brilliant!”
After a while, our sweet guard came up and told us to go by the main entrance and ask one of the guys in suits if there were any spare tickets. He said he has seen them, on occasion, let people in the stadium. We tried and were told that there were no spare tickets as it was a sell out! Well, darn! We waited by the gate to see if anyone would come by selling tickets—and one guy did, but he only had one ticket!
Finally, once the first game was well under way, we gave up and walked to the nearest pub. Inside, it was literally standing room only with the smallest television set known to man! On we went in search of the perfect place to watch the game! John spotted a beer garden sign, but, would you believe, when we walked inside there wasn’t a television set in sight. We decided to hop on a bus going in the direction of our hotel and get a little ways away from the stadium. Perhaps the pubs wouldn’t be quite as CRAZY! We hopped off the bus when we saw this place!
It was PERFECT! Two “specials” later and we were in business!
It didn’t take long for us to figure out how Gaelic football was played and scored. And it was great watching the game in a pub filled with Irishmen! Later, during the Galway-Dublin game, the pub offered a delicious Guinness Beef Irish Stew, an excellent choice for our final Irish dinner before we head back to the states tomorrow!
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