Archive for July 17th, 2009

After our Wicklow tour we headed back to the hostel and decided to spend the rest of our time enjoying Dublin and the folks we’d met in the hostel.

We wandered out the next day and made our way through the city with three lovely English girls we’d met before.

Alex:

And Hannah & Alex:

and last but not least Lizzie:

As you can see Lizzie became quite acquainted with Miss Molly Malone famed Lady of the Night and fish monger of Grafton street Dublin.

As we continued our adventure we discovered an amazing monument to those who fell during the Irish potato famine. With eerie bronze statues moving slowly on their treacherous route toward the port, life, and opportunity.

And last but not least: A police convention in the middle of the street

And finally the Irish predilection to keepin’ clean.

I woke up early after Alex and his first night out in Dublin. The night before we had decided to join our new found friends, the Danes, for a day tour of Wicklow county. Rising around 6am, I wandered down to the showers and prepared for the days travels. Having chosen my Norwegian sweater and jeans, with thick wool Civati cap, I was ready for our exciting journey. I woke Alex and after he had gotten ready we made our way down into the common room of Kinlay House. There we met up with our friends around 8:55 and proceeded to jump, hop and skip to catch our giant purple tour bus.

It was going to be a great day.

We started off leaving Dublin center with our guide. He cheerfully introduced us to the history and spirit of the region from the center and streets of Dublin to the ring developments and the beautiful quirks of the Wicklow mountains. In between every breath he tossed in a joke or two and when a break came along in the history, he threw in some wisdom. The Wicklow Mountains are the area where tannin has been absorbed by the natural spring waters and it colours the water a deep Guinness brown. It is the birthplace of Guinness, the set for Braveheart and holds the lake where Scrambled Eggs was first conceived and written.

As we wound our way through narrow valleys and along tiny roads we discovered the beauty of the area and its innate charm..Rolling hills covered with turf and heather just turning the first shades of purple, preparing to bloom in the coming weeks. We arrived at an old army barracks which had been converted to a child prison,then to an orphanage, and now the building is used as a site for peace talks between northern Ireland and Ireland. It was a touching site.

We then headed to an ancient monastic town straddling two lakes. We wandered about and explored the graves embedded deep into the turf before deciding to tough out the rain and walk to the upper lake. we met the bus then and after some chips and malt vinegar we headed on.

One of the crosses is known as a wishing cross:

We broke for lunch in a small village along the way with a beautiful cathedral and great fish and chips. We shared the fish and chips and a 1/4lb hamburger special.

As we climbed back aboard it was time to adventure back down out of the mountains. We stopped at Thomas More’s meeting of the waters:

Between napping and enjoying the driver’s humor we arrived in Dublin, took a breath and then prepared for the evening.

The hostel had a bed available for me but it wasn’t free until 2pm. Everything locked up I headed out for a walk about the town, came back, checked up on e-mail and then started chatting and meeting people in the hostel. The common room was great. Open, relaxed and with a constant queue of people waiting for internet it was easy to strike up conversation.

I walked down to the local Spar, picked up some spiced chicken breast and some wonderful meatballs (from which I made a sandwich) and then took a rest before heading out.

That night I met three Danes traveling, two Israelis and some Brits. We headed out to a local pub, armed with free sample waivers and ready for a good time. We did some pretty funny dancing, had a wonderful night and returned to the hostel around 2am. It had been a long day.

I woke up the next morning, caught breakfast of toast and jam with some hot coffee and then waited. Bored I decided to head outside and went for a little walk around Christchurch. I returned to the hostel and waited for Alex to arrive. Around 12:30 he showed up and armed with a flying tackle I welcomed him to Dublin. From there we found a bit more food and Alex took a nap to fight off the jet lag. After a brief walk about and the discovery of a local pub with some great older Irish men catching the Irish football game, we headed back to the hostel. I made dinner and then we headed out for a brief run around the pubs with our new Danish friends from Kopenhagen.

That night a huge group of German highschoolers arrived. They provided a great amount of noise and entertainment.

I headed over to the Cologne train station after saying farewell to Michael and packing my luggage at the hostel. I grabbed the evening train to Charleroi finding that the first class ticket was cheaper than the 2nd class seats…most unusual.

I bought my ticket for the three hour ride and then waited on the platform. I was joined by two others for the first leg of my journey, a young Bulgarian man, and another gentleman he was traveling with.

In Liege we changed trains and headed on toward Charleroi Sud…the south station which had connections to the airport. From Charleroi Sud the Bulgarian man and I headed on our way toward the airport while his friend caught a connecting train to Brussels.

From the station we caught the bus to the airport and arrived just after 10pm. The final flight arrived at 11:15 and the airport shops went silent around 11:45. I’d made friends with the young Bulgarian and we decided to swap music. He had has laptop out. I opened my Ipod and transfered a small selection of the music I have to his HD. We spent the next three hours comparing bands and favorite songs. He shared a few Bulgarian bands with me with some pretty neat traditional tunes.

Around 3am the cleaning crews started in…sweeping, mopping, and working their way slowly through the small terminal. It was tedious work and slow at best. By 5am they reached our spot where we’d decided to take a nap. At 6am I shook my friend’s hand, headed to check in and got through security without a problem. Excited I passed through passport control and customs to get my EU exit stamps and then waited at the terminal gate for the boarding to begin for my 6:35 flight to Dublin.

Boarding started and together with a young Belgian couple we began down the steps toward the aircraft and open air. Unfortunately someone had forgotten to inform the ground crew that we were boarding, as they had forgotten to unlock the doors leading out of the tight, unventilated stairwell. Cramped and heating up rapidly as more and more eager passengers pushed themselves down into the stairwell we finally managed to get word up to the desk to unlock the doors. A crew member ran through the crowd and opened up the stairwell and we breached into the fresh cool air. We made our way up the ramps to the plane doors and found seats for our short journey.

The plane ride across the sea was even and short…only 30 minutes at altitude and around an hour and fifteen minutes total for the flight.

We touched down in Dublin on Greenwich standard time at 7:00am. I headed out of the airport to enter Ireland. Ready and excited to stay in Dublin and eager to meet my brother the next morning I hurriedly walked through bag check, passed through customs, and then stopped to have my passport checked to enter Ireland.

At the passport control office I ran into a little flack. Unfortunately, because I am young and traveling, the immigration officer did not believe I was going to leave Ireland. Instead they began to hassle me about how much money I had on me, how much I had direct access to, and when I was leaving Ireland. Now keep in mind that they are asking for these very personal details whilst nosey and quite impatient passengers are striving forward, as if crowding me and the immigration booths would hurry their decision.

Finally the immigration officer asked me for my return ticket home. I told him that I didn’t have it. That my ticket for leaving Ireland was on the 16th (I’d arrived the 11th). Because it was an online check in from Ryan air, I wouldn’t print it until the day before I flew out. I then noted that if he’d permit I’d be happy to show him the flight confirmation on my email. After a grimace and a frustrated look he grabbed my passport from the desk, slapped it down, stamped it and wrote me a four day visa expiring the 16th of July. He then noted that should I ignore that exit date I’d be subject to court and heavy fines and told me to pass along.

Happy with what I had, I grabbed my passport and headed through the doors to freedom. I caught the bus into the city and with hostel address in hand I hit the hostel and dropped my bags in a locker.