Luck 'o the Irish

As if it weren't hard enough to find an affordable hotel room in Dublin at the height of the tourist season, U2 had to go and have a concert, (no make that two concerts!) in Dublin this summer. Hailing from Dublin originally, this is a REALLY big deal to Dubliners; the Holy Grail of concerts.

I love U2. They are the anthem band of my youth. Under a Blood Red Sky is one of my favorite albums. Any songs from War and The Joshua Tree instantly take me back to those first tastes of freedom in high school and college. In the words of William Wallace, "Frr-r-r-eedom!" (Ok, so he's Scottish... and do NOT confuse the Irish with the Scottish, or English or Welsh, for that matter; EVER.)

Now I've never seen U2 in concert. On their 2005 Vertigo tour, I contemplated going, until I calculated that it would cost approximately one month's mortgage payment to go see them in Toronto or Boston, then I realized that's why they named it the Vertigo tour. Ok, I don't live in a McMansion, but jeez! I don't even like The WHO that much. Well, ok, maybe I do.

As our luck would have it, they will be playing in Dublin July 24 AND 25 - the same time we're going to be there. Wow! Cool! Great! What better place to see U2 for the first time than in their hometown of Dublin!

Sure, us and 80,000 other fans; make that 164,000 fans. This is not just any venue either - but the Croke Park Stadium, which holds as many as a concert at Rich Stadium including field seats, and then some, and is the fourth largest stadium in Europe! Yikes, kiss any hotel room goodbye for that matter. Both concerts SOLD OUT in an hour...such swift sales that they will likely will be adding a third night...oh dear.

So, just in case they didn't make enough $ on their most recent "You're Not THAT Old Yet, Tour", U2 kicks off their second "Baby-Boomers and Gen X'ers Relive Your Semi-Punk Adolescence In Case You Missed It Last Time, Tour", this time officially dubbed the 360° Tour. Full Circle, I guess. To be fair about the grinding sound of the money making machine here:

"In keeping with U2 manager Paul McGuinness pledge to allocate at least 10,000 tickets at each venue at a cost of €30 each, the cheapest tickets will be priced at €33.50 which includes the booking fee.


Tickets for both concerts will range from €33.50 to €131.50 and are limited to six person/transactions."

How very thoughtful.

We were enlightened to this amazing clash in the time-space continuum when every and all hotel rooms, from every and all hotel search engines, were sucked into a vacuous black hole in a matter of minutes of plopping in our travel dates.

Our epiphany went something like this:
"Hmm...there must be something big going on in town that weekend, (understatement of the century) ....hmmm, hopefully the Pope's not in town, ha ha!... Ok, Google....Dublin...July 24. Uh, it's much worse than the Pope being in town. It's ...please tell me it's not...a....U2..... CONCERT?!? Aghh!"

I think it would be easier to find a hotel room in Dublin on St. Paddy's day - with the Pope in town.

Happy Traveling Rule #1 (aside from having a DVD player with earphones for the kids) -

Don't Panic!

We were able to find a really nice and CHEAP hotel (Bewley's, as recommended by Samantha Brown of The Travel Channel!) for the 27th, so that is booked and we can rest assured that we have at least one night in Dublin with a bed, pillow, and private bathroom (THAT is a whole 'nother story).

Happy Traveling Rule #2 - Be Flexible!

Our only travel restriction is to be back to to Dublin by the 28th for our flight out to Glasgow. Instead of visiting Dublin as soon as we come over and then heading out two days later, we'll pick up our rental car and bee-line it to a location halfway between Dublin and Cork before the masses infiltrate on the 23rd. When we come back and drop off the car, then we'll do the touristy thing in Dublin, when all the other "tourists" have gone...hopefully.

Oh yeah, and...

Happy Traveling Rule #3 - Always Google for events in the town you're visiting, just in case you need to avoid them!