Spring Break Part 2: Dublin

Laura and I arrived in Dublin Thursday about 5 p.m. We went to our hostel where we met our other friend, Megan. In this hostel we were supposed to be with 10 people total, but we had the room completely to ourselves. The three of us and a girl from New Zealand, Jenna. We went out to an Irish pub that night for pint of a Guinness then some food. The next day, we took a free 3 hour walking tour of Dublin and we had the BEST tour guide ever! He was exactly what one could hope for as a guide to Ireland, a 21 year old Irish boy from the North, with curly hair and bright red cheeks! He was so adorable, we all wanted to bottle up his accent and take it home with us. He was really funny too, cracking lots of jokes at the expense of the Irish (and English). He was a great guide, and the tour itself was very interesting. You always learn a lot on those tours!


Dublin Castle-tower was used for prisoners. Now it's a records facility.


After the tour was over, we took it upon ourselves to keep on touring. We went to see St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It was very pretty. It was built on the spot where St. Patrick preached Catholicism and turned Ireland into a Catholic nation. It also has a very pretty park in the area.



*St. Patrick's Cathedral

The next day we had a flight to Paris at 6 a.m. so we have the brilliant idea that we will stay out at a pub late and then sleep in the airport so we can be there for check in at 4 a.m. This will save us from unnecessarily spending money on one more night in the hostel. I have to say, what follows next is probably one of the craziest stories I have from the whole trip…

The pub was interesting. Right away, we somehow got tangled into a large group of British men dressed as cowboys. They were having some sort of crazy bachelor party and of course were already drunk by 10 p.m. And of course, once they know we’re American girls they are more than happy to try and talk to us. They asked if they could pass as real Texas cowboys and which European men are the most attractive of them all. It was pretty funny, actually. One of them kept trying to dance with Laura (unsuccessfully). We broke away from them for a little bit and talked to some Irish guys. They were just out having a good time and it was nice to get away from the drunks (). After that, we ended up chatting with some nice guys from Chicago and their friend from Denmark. They were really cool a lot of fun to hang out with. The pub was playing 70’s-90’s American rock music, oddly enough (this pub boasts “live Irish music” but we apparently missed that) and we all had a great time singing along. It was coming up on 2 a.m. and we wanted to go scope out a place at the airport to sleep. We got a cab to the airport and got there by 3 a.m. Apparently everybody in Dublin that night had the same idea as us and there were people sleeping EVERYWHERE. We each managed to grab a small chair in a lounge to try and catch some sleep. But of course by then we only had an hour or so until we could start checking in. Needless to say, I didn’t exactly get much sleep.

Laura and I only had our backpacks, so we didn’t need to check any luggage. We had checked in online earlier and had our printed boarding passes, so we were all ready to go! We get through security and walk the insanely long way to the gates (by the way, the enormous SIZE of this stupid airport comes into play a little later on in the story). Easy as PIE. We’re sitting at the gate, about a full hour early. Wow, we’re so smart, we think to ourselves. That was so fast and easy! Now we just have to wait!

And we waited. Megan finally came through a few minutes before it was time to board because by the time she had checked in her luggage, the lines for security had gotten really long. This is a really busy airport in the morning oh, and did I mention, HUGE WINDING MAZE LIKE WALKS TO THE GATES? Well, I should mention that. I should also mention that walking at a normal pace, it probably took about 15-20 minutes to walk from airport security down to the gate, and that was BEFORE it was full of people.

We get up to the front of line to board the plane. The woman at the front looks at mine and Laura’s tickets and says, “You were supposed to have your visa checked before getting into the security line. You’ll have to go back to before security and get this validated.”

You. Have. Got. To. Be. F*****G. KIDDING. ME. WOMAN.
NOBODY BOTHERED TO TELL US THAT AN HOUR AGO. DO YOU REALLY THINK WE CAN GET ALL THE WAY BACK THERE AND BACK HERE IN 10 MINUTES??? Will you at least hold the plane for us? Of course not. AWESOME.

So Laura and I start running. Through the crazy, large, maze of an airport, with our backpacks on, against the giant wave of people going the opposite direction. We ran all the way back to security and grabbed the first security guard we saw. “Look, we need these stupid stamps NOW. Our plane is leaving in 5 minutes.” Luckily, the guard we grabbed was really nice about the whole thing and took us straight through security and back. As we RAN (if anybody reading this really knows me, you will know that I DO NOT RUN FOR ANYTHING. I have not run this hard in my life since…. Ever, actually.) back through the giant maze of people, we saw 2 other girls running back towards security. Pretty sure they did the same thing as us, and they looked just as upset as we were.

We made it back to the gate just as they closed the doors on us and there was another group of kids our age standing by the gate who ALSO did not get their stamps. The plane left without them-but we were on it. I almost passed out, but I made it. We didn’t feel as stupid since there were a handful of other people who did the same exact thing. But what can you expect out of Ryan Air when your flight is less than 20 dollars US? So BOO-YAH Ryan Air, WE WIN THIS TIME.

I would also like to mention that the running was made all that more difficult since I hadn’t slept in over 20 hours and had spent a large portion of my night drinking whiskey and Guinness. I am pretty proud of myself. I was SORE all over the next few days, but I did it. Woot.


*Cheers!

All in all, I would say that Ireland is awesome. I know that I only saw Dublin but that made me want to see the rest of the country even more. Every now and again we would stumble upon a park that had the greenest grass I have ever seen in my life. It was a green that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. It really is that bright, almost fluorescent color that you see in photos. It was absolutely beautiful. Any actual Irish people we met were absolutely wonderful as well. They love to have a good time and have some laughs. I LOVED it there.


*I'm just a little obsessed with night photos



*This wasn't really built for any reason in particular, but look at that green! Amazing!

The next chapter of my journey will be set in Paris. But for now, I’m really tired and want to catch up on some of my TV. I’ll finish my posts shortly!