Dungiven castle, northern ireland

We have had a great time here in northern Ireland. It is beautiful here. I love the scenery, the feeling of family and their accent- of course! Bob has been the best tour guide. He lives in rural northern Ireland. We were able to see and do a lot of things most tourist would not get to do.

Brian surprised me by booking a castle, honeymoon suite, for our last night stay. It included dinner and breakfast with over 22 acres of gardens to explore. We arrived around 5:30pm, to find out that they no longer serve dinner Monday through Wednesday. The castle restaurant is called, "longhorn grill". the owners are from America. Classic Americans! They took 30 pounds off our price and thought they could call it even. But bob, was not satisfied. He made them pay for our taxi and book us a dinner at a nice restaurant. As we were getting ready to go to dinner, Brian tried washing his hair in the sink. Come to find out, there was no hot water. With no time to waste, we finished getting ready and headed downstairs to wait on our taxi. We informed the front desk guy of the hot water. He said it should work by the time we get back. How he would mange that, I had no clue. But, We were staying in a real Irish castle.

Our dinner was great! No complaints there.

Once we got back to the castle and to our room, we discover there is still no hot water. Brian
called down to the front desk-no answer. Gavin, front desk worker, had just let us in,
so we knew he was around there somewhere. Brian was not gone to long, before he came back up to our room. This is where it goes down hill. Gavin had left us a note that read, "dear
residents, if you need any assistance through the night, please call me at this number." this
is when we realized we were in the castle by ourselves.

We tried calling Gavin from our room phone. like all other dumb americans- could not
figure out how to use the phone. After we tried several times, we headed down to the front
desk. We still could not get the phone to work. We looked out the windows, to see if we could
find a pay phone. None. Tired my cell phone, but we did not upgrade to the international plan because we didn't need it. Yeah right! After, what seemed like forever, I asked Brian if he had tried 9, then the number. He said, "he had upstairs, but not at front desk." I tried it and it worked. We later find, our room phone does not work. We talk with Gavin and he is sending some one over to look at it. We decided to call bob,Ed and Ann to let them in on what is going on. Bob was not to happy.

While we are waiting on Gavin. We are afraid to go out for a nice walk through the gardens because we have no idea if there are alarms and we do not have a code to get back in. Apparently, Dungiven Castle is the cool hangout spot. In the front of the castle, we had the 13 year olds hanging out on the patio of the castle. In the back, it resembled the citizens bank parking lot on a Saturday night. Who has the loudest car?? There were at least 12-15 cars out there at a time. So, needless to say it was not a good idea to prop the door open and take a stroll.

An hour passed and still no one had shown up. I was pissed. Brian called Bob back and spoke with him. Come to find out Bob had already spoken with the owners and we got to stay the night free. But there is still no hot water. I have to take a hot bath. That is one of the main things you do in a castle, right?

So, 15 minutes later we decide to just leave. We called for bob to come get us. Then who shows up? The owners! They saw our bags were packed and insisted that we stayed, because " they were going to stay with us." I told him, " I'm over this whole thing. You have no hot water. You left us here by ourselves. The phones in the room does not work. We were told dinner was included. We could not enjoy the gardens, because we had no code to get back in. Kids were blocking all entrances. There was no free Internet ( Brian informed him on what he needs to do to fix it) and you fax machine is out of paper and you have been getting faxes."

He puts paper in fax machine and what to you know??? More reservations. One guy is stay five nights. Boy was he excited.

He continued to ask where our friend Bob lived because, " word travels fast in small towns. Now don't you all go on bashing me on trip advisor." this is for real, you can't make this stuff up! He then decided that he was going to leave because his kids need to go to bed. It was around 11 pm. So, Brian told him he could leave. Just told us to shut the doors behind us, it will lock on it's own. Don't you worry, we will close up shop!

I'm starting to hate my night shift job.

5 minutes later he comes back in and says, " I probably should wait on Bob to get here." my response, " yeah, it's better to face the music. "

I informed him that he was very lucky it was us he did this too, because it could have been a lot worse. Open bar,7 other rooms, kitchen-steaks anyone? Brian wouldn't even let me get a diet coke. And I needed one!

Finally, bob and Ed made it.

Bob told the owner, " I am so upset that it is better I not speak. This is uncalled for."


The owner said, " see you soon"

I feel like I should note that...
The guy reminded me of someone and on the car ride home, I figured it out! A killer off of a
lifetime movie. Seriously. And we all know those types of men do not like women...