The (Not So) Rocky Road to Dublin

Ireland first came into sight early this morning, though it was rather cloudy and gray; not quite the brilliant green I’ve heard so much about. When we were descending, Taylor and I both turned to each other at the same time with thoughts of how our ancestors had left Ireland a century or two before with no idea of what was in store for them in America. Our 8-hour flight, unlike their 6-week sail, was quick and smooth, though little sleep was had. However, they had mini pop cans! It was so exciting and made up for the lack of sleep. The lilting voices of the all blonde, mostly female (kinda odd…) flight crew were a joy to hear as well. My dad forbade me from falling in love over here, but I’ve already fallen in love with the Irish accent. Some of the time I can’t even understand what’s being said the accents are so thick. Annie Harmon, if you’re reading this, there are so many ginger kids over here. They’re all adorable; you’d fit right in. 

            I had a bit of a scare at the airport when I realized I didn’t know my pin number as I was trying to get money out of the ATM. I panicked a slight bit, but was able to remember eventually and went on to make a successful money withdrawal. Taylor and I then proceeded to navigate Dublin public transport quite well only to be stumped blocks from our hostel when we realized there were NO STREET SIGNS. I was beginning to think Dubliners are simply born with a map of the city in their heads or have some sort of internal navigation until we spotted a street sign like 10 feet up on a building. After we obtained a map we realized too that the street names change every block on a lot of the roads. This is hard to follow, especially with the lack of street sign visibility. However, wandering does allow one to see lots of different things, like the man tap dancing to Irish music on the street. And people seem very willing to help.

            In our wanderings, we ended up at a Starbucks, which we knew had free WiFi, so we could plan our next few hours out. Sitting down turned out to be a mistake, since that’s when the exhaustion hit me. When I am tired, I am very irritable and quiet. So we sat mostly in silence for about an hour, only commenting on the skateboard convention we could only assume was happening upstairs judging by the number of kids walking in with skateboards. A bit of coffee revived us enough to walk around Trinity College and take lots of pictures. Unfortunately the Book of Kells is closed until we’re gone, but the architecture was impressive nonetheless. We’re determined to stay awake until at least 9 tonight, but are taking a brief hiatus at our hostel to wash off the grime that comes with 24 hours of travel. Our roommates are from Thailand, France, and Australia; how is that for a mix! 

I accidentally left Taylor across the street. Traffic is different and people don't know how to walk on the sidewalk. And jaywalking is a thing. 

Us at Trinity!