Greetings from U2 in Dublin

Bono and The Edge greet me in front of the Conrad Hotel in Dublin. Photo by David Lansing.

Shortly after my flight touched down in Dublin a little after 7 in the morning (just love those red-eye flights, don’t you?), I got a text message from Bernard (who pronounces his name BER-nerd) saying he wouldn’t be picking me up at the airport and taking me to the hotel. “The options are a taxi or an airbus service which will take you to the city centre. But I have some special guests waiting for you at the hotel.”

Damn.

Up and over the traffic lanes to the other side of the airport, dragging my duffel behind me, and down the stairs, bumpety, bumpety, bump, swollen sleepy head looking for the taxi queue in a fine Irish misty morn when right in front of me just getting ready to depart is the AirCoach bus.

“Do you go anywhere near the Conrad?” I asked the driver as he was closing the baggage hold.

“Block away,” he said.

Fine, then. City centre and return, please. “Fourteen euros.”

Climb aboard and drag my tired carcass to the back of the bus and with head pressed against the cool glass, count the stops: Quinns Pub, O’Connell Street, Trinity College, Kildare, and finally me: St. Stephens Green. Raining, lightly, but I’m bushed and prefer a damp head to digging through my duffel for an umbrella. Besides, didn’t the fella say it was just a block away?

Up Earlsfort and past a lovely little café—I can smell the buttered toast and sweet scent of tea, but no time for that now; what I need is a bed, and sure enough, there’s the Conrad, flags hanging limp in the rain, and two figures smiling and pointing at me as if they’ve been waiting all morning for my arrival. It’s Bono with bee-eye sunglasses and a jaw that juts out from his chin like a diving platform, and The Edge, all perplexed and moody-eyed. Bigger than life. Really bigger than life.

“Hey, Dave!” they call as I walk by, stunned.

“How do you know my name?”

“BER-nerd,” says Bono. “BER-nerd said to say hello.”

Greetings from U2. And so begins my stay in Ireland.