Boarding passes and burning places: Dublin day one

February 16, 2010

After two days of packing, three days of travel, and one day of class, I’m back! And what a weekend it has been. First traveling experience without Linette or Mom making all the plans and guiding the way. But I think we did pretty well by ourselves. We definitely made some mistakes, learned from them, and had a lot of fun.

Thursday was unnecessarily stressful and just couldn’t seem to go by quick enough. My history test went okay. I couldn’t remember which King succeeded Elizabeth I… It was James I. I think I put Charles II. Ugh. Anyway, after that assault on my grade was over, it was back to the flat for packing, last minute planning, and sleep. I actually packed pretty light, stuffing enough for three days in Amy’s huge brown backpack. That thing is awesome. It holds everything, but things also get lost in there very easily. I don’t know how many times I had to lay that thing out on the ground and search for something. Usually by passport or ticket of some sort. In the airport, on the street… didn’t matter. There is no way to subtly dig into that bottomless pit.

Around 9PM, we finally laid down to sleep. But, of course, just like the first day of school, I was so anxious and excited that I couldn’t sleep a wink. I must have fallen asleep at some point, because before I knew it, my alarm sounded at 2AM…and we had to get up toe catch our hour taxi ride to the London Stansted Airport, which is pretty far north of London. After about four cups of coffee, no joke, I was mildly conscious. Awake enough to be terrified in the taxi to the airport. I know I feared for my life at some point. Way too fast on skinny roads, in the dark, with loads of other crazy drivers. Our taxi driver was 45 minutes late picking us up, so I think he felt that he had to make up that time or something. Someone should have told him that we had plenty of time, but we were all half-asleep in the back of that car, that none of us could get passed the fear-coma to say something to the driver. We thought we had plenty of time…

Oh, Stansted. Why can’t you just love me? From the moment we stepped out of the taxi and onto the departures entrance, Stansted kicked our ass time and time again. First, funnily, there is this big revolving door out front. But there were so many people cramming into this little space that the emergency breaks kept stopping the revolutions and it would freeze every inch of so… took us 10 minutes just to get in the door! But it only gets better. We found the line for RyanAir and waited. But only for about 20 minutes. Upon getting up to the counter, the lady gives me an annoyed look, rambles off some directions and points me to a bunch of computers. Huh? She explains again, slower this time, but also more irritated. Apparently, I’ve printed off the flight itinerary and not the boarding passes… and its 40 euros to print if you haven’t checked in online yet. Luckily, I’d already checked us all in online, so we just had to print out passes at the computer station. After a bit of complication with the printers and a nice Italian man, we get back in line with our passes. But by this time, it is 5:30 and the lines are a lot longer. Fifteen minutes go by before we start freaking out. Our flight leaves at 6:30. Where did all our free time go? We woke up at 2! Eventually, a nice RyanAir lady takes sympathy on us and approves our passes quickly, stamps our boarding passes, and sends us through to security.

Security… I’m always scared going through security, but I was sweating bullets here. They had to search my bag after the really loud alarm went off… And its now 6AM. Half-hour to go. First, the guard thinks it is something with my Advair. Nope, I’ve got asthma. He smiles like he doesn’t believe me, but then moves on. A nice lady comes to search my bag. Empties the entire contents out on a stainless steel table for everyone see. Undies and all! My waterbottle set it off. At least mine wasn’t full like Hallie’s. They had to search her bag and almost threw her waterbottle away until a nice man offered to empty it for her. By the time we get through security, we are utterly terrified of missing this flight. Briskly walking/running to our terminal. We make it. I think 15 minutes before it took off. I don’t even remember much of this part. I was just so happy to be there. So happy to see my plane on the ground, not in the air without me in it.

Cool fact: we boarded the plane right from the tarmac. Walked right outside, climbed the steps onto the plane, and chose our own seats. European flying is very different from stateside flying…

Flight was good. They have funny commercials going over the intercom every few minutes, which I though was funny, but annoying. Thank God for the iPod. The flight was only about 45 minutes and then we were in Dublin!! Customs in Dublin was a snap. And we took a coach bus from the airport to downtown that was only about half-hour and only 12 euro. Awesome!

The weather was perfect for our whole trip. Blue skies and sunny, sometimes a bit cold in the mornings and night. The whole of downtown Dublin is set on the banks of the River Liffey. Divided between north and south, each side has its own attractions and charms. As we drove down O’Connell Street into town, our bus driver described Dublin as a big little town. And after three days, I fully agree with that description. No towering skyscrapers or underground subway, instead cobblestone, narrow streets lined with historic buildings, friendly people, and excitement. Maybe it was just because it was Valentine’s Day weekend, but the city really felt alive, almost a carnival atmosphere the entire time we were there.

The bus dropped us off next to Trinity College and we started walking in the direction we thought our hostel was in. After a few blocks, I realized this was going to be very different from London. The street names change every block! With very few street signs to tell you where you are. We were immediately lost, of course. But we always seem to be lost in London, too…Maybe its us. After we found the River Liffey, we headed west along the river, knowing our hostel was somewhere down there.

The river is gorgeous. And I was so happy to have made it to Dublin, I was on a bit of cloud-nine after a Red Bull and a sandwich as we walked along the river. After a few more blocks, we noticed this huge, gray cloud hanging over us. And as we took pictures, our view of the river became all foggy. Only a few blocks from our hostel, we found a bunch of fire fighters, ladders, and fire trucks trying to put out this huge blaze that was eating up the city block. I’ll put up pictures of the fire and smoke on Facebook, but it was huge. To me, anyway. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a burning building before.

Well, we finally made it to our hostel. Our fifteen-minute walk turned into an hour after we stopped to take pictures every two seconds. I took over 500 pictures this weekend! Crazy. Our hostel was crazy, too. Titled Four Courts Hostel, all the walls had murals and there was a huge spiral staircase running up the middle of the building. Free breakfast and Viv and I shared a bunk. After having to do the check-in dance to check in – the receptionist said it was like the chicken dance, but called the check-in dance…embarrassing – we changed clothes, relaxed a bit, but then headed back out for more.

We split for the afternoon. Hal went to tour the Guinness brewery. I decided that I’d had enough of that after the Coor’s Brewery in Colorado. So Viv and I headed across town to the Irish Museum of Modern Art. And we got lost on the way there, of course. But we eventually found it. The building is a converted hospital with this grand courtyard in the middle and four corridors on each side. The building was almost more interesting than the stuff they had on display. But the best part, was the gardens out back… Seriously, just like a movie set in Victorian England. Beautiful even in February.

Once we had our museum fill, we met up with Hal for a late lunch and then walked around the southern part of Dublin for the afternoon. We checked out Christ Church Cathedral, the City Hall, Dublin Castle, and Dubh Linn Gardens. My favorite part was Dublin Castle. Divided up into towers and other old buildings, part of it is painted in these bizarrely bright colors: green, yellow, red, blue. It was crazy, but also fun to look at. I thought it was interesting.

After a bit more wondering, we headed to the Porterhouse for dinner. We did a little research before our trip and found that this pub was one of the better ones. Too bad we were too tired to enjoy anything by this time. We ate dinner and headed back to our hostel for the best sleep of my life.

Thank God I brought my earplugs, because I don’t think I would have slept very well in our chaotic room without them. We met a bunch of other students. Most studying abroad, as well. Most American. In fact, most of the people out and about in Dublin were American. The city centre attracts a lot of tourists, but we were able to experience more of authentic Ireland when we headed out to Howth on Sunday.

And that was just day one…