I am actually not still in Boston, I made it to Dublin on Tuesday, but I have been too busy out touring, meeting new people, or just too tired to write out comprehensive sentences. I finally got my act together, so here we go...
My flight from Boston was pretty decent, about 5 hours, but of course I slept maybe a total of 1.5 hours. Fortunately, my seatmate was a fairly normal person, encroaching on my space only slightly. He refrained from telling me about how he smuggled pot into Las Vegas or his experiences from 'Nam the whole flight, which is what usually happens, Brendan and Emily know what I mean.
We landed in Dublin around 7:30am on Tuesday. I got off the plane and a slight sense of panic set in, thinking to myself "Ok, now what do I do..." I stopped at an airport cafe to eat some breakfast, but mostly to use the internet so it could tell me how to find a bus that would drop me off near my hostel. It turned out to be fairly easy to find, however I was soon approached by a man as I looked for the ticket kiosk. Now after all the warnings I received before leaving and hearing my friend Mona's story about a man trying to take her at an airport in Costa Rica, my paranoia set in. He asked me if I knew what I was doing or needed any help, and that he could sell me a ticket for the bus. I assumed he was going to rip me off or stuff me into a van, so I said no thank you and attempted to get a ticket on my own. After that failed, I saw everyone else getting tickets from him, and realized he was legit. I ended up surviving the most opportune time to be kidnapped in a foreign land.
I was able to find my hostel fairly easily, and dropped off my luggage since I couldn't check in until 2:30pm. The hostel staffer told me a free walking tour of Dublin would be starting in a few minutes, so in an attempt to follow Morgan Griffith's number 1 tip, "No matter what you do, stay awake," I decided to do it. While heading to the start of the tour I met my first travel friend a girl named, Lisa, from Australia! She had been working in London for the past two years, and is now traveling alone for a few months before heading back home. So I'm not the only solo female traveler out there!
The tour was a three hour stop and walk tour through Dublin, where we saw Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, Trinity College, and St. Stephen's Green Park, stopping by a pub midway through for a pint. It was a good thing to do at the beginning of a visit, helping me with the general layout of the city. The weather wasn't the best for a three hours of outside time, hailing a few times, strong winds, and rain. When that came to an end, Lisa and I, grabbed some lunch at the "Ugly Duckling" a sandwich place our guide recommended. I got a Po' Boy that was quite delish, and then a hand dryer told me I was beautiful even after 24 of little to no sleep!
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| Trinity College |
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| Tour Guide telling us about Dublin Castle in the background. |
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| St. Stephen's Green |
Aw shucks!
After lunch, I checked into my hostel,
Barnacles in Temple Bar, where I stayed in a 10 person room of both males and females. I got stuck with a lower bunk, and hit my head on the upper at least 5 times. The faucets in the bathrooms are interesting here, in that there was one for hot water and one for cold. So you either get to wash your hands with scorching hot water or freezing cold water. I even attempted to cup my hands to collect a bit of each, but that strategy wasn't too practical. Two of my hostel roommates were in town from Scotland to try and be cast as extras in the show "Vikings, along with many other people in Dublin that day. Walking through Temple Bar that, there was a line of people, mostly with beards, extending for blocks.
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| Only a fraction of the people hoping to become Vikings. |
That night the hostel hosted a Pub Crawl for everyone staying at Barnacles to join. We went to 5 different pubs, where we were greeted with a free shot or beer upon entrance, along with drink specials inside. It was a great way to meet others staying in the hostel. The general speak was "Where are you from? What brought you to Dublin? How long are you staying?" I met people who were visiting from South Africa, Germany, Canada, Australia, Scotland, France, and more. I forget the names of the bars we went to, but I know that a scene from one of the most critically acclaimed films of the 21st Century, "P.S. I Love You", was shot at one Pub we went to. No big deal. Somehow I managed to stay up until 4am that night, crushing my goal of not falling asleep during the day.
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Peeps on the Pub Crawl
Tequila shots and beer, yerm.
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| Enjoying some live Irish music |
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On Wednesday I got myself up to take the
1916 Rebellion Walking Tour, recommended to me by Auntie Anne. We met in a bar and then set out to walk all over Dublin stopping at various sites to learn about the Rebellion and its leaders. It lasted about two hours, ending at the Garden of Remembrance, and was a very informative tour. I then ate at the Kingfisher, getting some fish and chips, and used the alone time to update my travel journal. I then continued exploring the city on my own the rest of the day and taking some pics.
I've obviously been here for more than two days, but I'll post about the rest tomorrow!
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