On our way!
The Ireland adventure began late Tuesday night when I began packing for the four-day trip. I am notoriously bad at packing for even the shortest of trips, and we didn't want to check anything because it would cost more. That meant for four days, I had my backpack and my purse. Not easy. Somehow, though, I made it work.
Wednesday morning was a whirlwind of making sure I had everything and making sure the room wouldn't somehow catch on fire in the four days I would be gone. (The more I live on my own, the more I realize just how much I am my mother's daughter.) Sam's family had been in town for the week, and they were heading with us to the airport so they could catch a plane home. We met them at the bus station and got on the incredibly crowded bus to Victoria Station in London.
At this point, I think it is a rule that I must sleep on buses. I have yet to stay awake on a bus ride that is any longer than 40 minutes. Once we were at Victoria, we had to wait about 20 minutes for our next bus to Heathrow. That was a shorter ride, and I was getting a little nervous for the flight, so I managed to stay awake. At Heathrow, we found our way to our flight's departure to print our boarding passes. At that point, Sam's family realized they were taking off from a different terminal, so we said a very short goodbye to them before they headed out.
After we had our boarding passes, we headed through security. I think something about me must scream terrorist or something because I always have something extra done at security. On the flight from O'Hare, I was pulled out and had to go through the individual x-ray machine. This time, they took my bag with liquids and said they needed to do an extra test on it. It only took about 45 seconds to do, so I have no idea what they were testing it for.
Once we got through security, we found somewhere to eat lunch. I feel like this shows how much better I have become at flying. Before our flight to England, I couldn't eat a thing because I was so scared. This time, we found an amazing little Italian place, and ate lunch before heading to our gate.
I wasn't sure what to expect for such a short flight, but our airline, bmi, was really nice. While I have gotten a little better, I am still pretty terrified of flying. Poor Sam tried to take my mind off it, and she held my hand the entire takeoff. The flight was fine until we were getting ready for our descent. It was raining in Ireland, so going down through the clouds caused some turblence. (If I thought it was bad then, though, it was nothing compared to our flight back.) I felt much safer and happier when we finally landed on Irish soil :)
We went through customs, and I got a green stamp on my passport :) We had a little while to wait before our bus picked us up, so we found a little cafe to get something to drink. I got a hot chocolate that turned out to be the worst thing I have ever had in my life. I made Sam try it, and she agreed. I don't know what it was, but it definitely wasn't hot chocolate.
Our bus was very easy to spot. It was green, of course, with the word PADDYWAGON written down the side. It took about a half an hour to get to our hostel in the center of Dublin. Paddy's Palace may not have been the best place, but for a hostel, I've heard it is pretty good. We stayed in a ten person room that had 5 bunk beds. Once we checked in and put our things in the room, we left to explore Dublin. We were only a few minutes from the main road, O'Connell Street. We walked up and down the street for a while and immediately noticed that the main road has two McDonald's and two Burger Kings. If that doesn't make you feel at home, I don't know what does :)
O'Connell Street also has a very large spire in the middle that we were pretty confused about. It just seemed to be a huge spike on the main road. It was apparently built to commemorate the millennium, but it wasn't finished until 2003. The citizens of Dublin are not very impressed with it, and our bus driver was incredibly excited to tell us it has nicknames like: The Stiffy on the Liffey (Liffey is the river that runs through Dublin), The Erection in the Intersection, and the Stiletto in the Ghetto. The best part was hearing the old man on our tour get a huge kick out of these names :) The Spire did come in handy, though. If we ever got turned around, we just needed to walk toward it, and we could always find our way back to the hostel.
As we walked up and down the street, we found a movie theater. We were pretty tired from the trip, and we knew we weren't up to going out that night, so we figured a movie would be something good to do for our first night in Ireland. We found a little restaurant to eat dinner, and then we went to see The Social Network. (GREAT movie by the way. Andrew Garfield is amazing...and British!) The best part was hearing the Irish accents in the little commercials while we waited for the movie to start :)
After the movie, we found our way back to the hostel. One thing about hostels: people go to sleep whenever they want. That means that if you are staying in a ten-person room, and two people want to go to sleep at 9, you get to try to find your way around in the dark. It's not always easy when you are trying to get ready for bed and not slam into the bar while getting in the bottom bunk. (Or, you could just be mean and turn on the lights. That happened later while we were trying to sleep.) In the end, though, we were pretty tired. We went to sleep ready for our bus tour the next day.
So, that's the end of day one, so I think it's a logical place to stop. Next blog should be soon!
~Taylor
