quite.precious: Suburbia

Sunday, 22 July 2012

Suburbia

Balls Bridge is a bridge in Dublin. Though the area is officially called Pembroke, it is often referred to as Ballsbridge. It's in the suburb of Dublin, but only a 15 minute walk away from the city centre. It is known for its very expensive properties. And the houses were indeed lovely!

I stayed at the Clyde Court hotel, who offered me a complimentary junior suite. The room was big, with a walk-in wardrobe, and king-size bed. Unfortunately, the guests in the suite above me were having a party. At 6pm. Loud music and shouting and even with the telly on in my room, I could hear it all. Feeling a little ungrateful, I went to reception and asked whether I could have another room. It wasn't clear whether another room was available and I was sent back to my room to wait for their phone call.

Half an hour passed and I decided that I would much rather pay for a room elsewhere than stay the night. I went back to reception. Apparently, the manager had gone to speak to the guests and asked them to keep the noise down. With no effect of course. I should have received a phone call. Which I hadn't. They did have standard rooms available, but they basically didn't want to give me one, as they were under strict instructions to treat me well, as they were hoping to get my company's business. I tried to explain to them again, that I really appreciated this, but that I would walk out of this place if I wasn't able to have another room.
So, eventually, I was given a standard room with views of the Aviva stadium.

The hotel room was nice enough, but the windows did not isolate very well. I wasn't even facing the main road, but the noise level from the outside traffic was surprisingly and annoyingly high.

I went for a little walk around the area and the houses really were stunning. Some of the were completely fenced off - or rather walled off - from the street. I thought the walls very much covered up the niceness of the houses.