Disclaimer #1: I will try to make these update posts a daily thing. I’m sorry if I miss a day, it just means I was too busy, tired, cranky or I just could not be bothered.
Disclaimer #2: I didn’t take many pictures because I’m kind of focusing more on my GoPro. I’m shooting short 5-second clips which I’ll turn into a kick-ass travel video when I get back home. I’ll be sure to share it with you all 😉
Wow. What a refreshing, well-needed change of pace compared to a month and a half of sitting in my room, doing nothing but studying, eating and sleeping all day every day. Yesterday was one of the busiest days I’ve had in a long while. Let me tell you about it!
Early morning
In order to catch my 9:55 am flight, I had to be at the airport at 7:55. This meant that I had to catch two early trains (because there was no direct connection from where I was to the airport). This, in turn, meant that I had to take a bus at 6:22 to get to the train station in time. In short, this obligated me to get up at 5:30, which was another thing I hadn’t done in a long time.
The night before, I thought to myself “I’ll go to sleep around 8 pm, that way I can still get eight hours of sleep”. Bad idea. Let me tell you something: if your body is used to going to sleep at 11:30, YOU WILL NOT actually fall asleep until around that time. I learnt this the hard way. I lay awake in my bed for about three hours until I finally fell asleep. It was awful.
All things considered, though, I did manage to fall asleep eventually and wake up in time. I got to the bus stop on time, caught my bus, caught my train, caught my connecting train, got through airport security and customs swiftly and I was at my gate an hour early. Oh well, it’s better like this than to have to rush in order to even make it.
Late morning, noon and early afternoon
So everything regarding my flight to Dublin went pretty smoothly. (This doesn’t mean nothing went wrong, but I’ll tell you more about that when I’m back in Belgium.) After getting my baggage back from the conveyor belt, I went to the big airport hall. There, I had to queue for about 10 minutes for a bus ticket. For the unaware, Dublin Airport (like most airports) is not exactly located in the city centre. In this case, there were about 15 kilometres between the airport and the city.
Obviously, I couldn’t walk that far with my big bag of stuff. So I searched for the bus stop and waited a little while. Luckily, the bus system in Dublin is pretty well organised, so I didn’t have to wait more than 5 minutes. What followed was a bus ride that didn’t seem to end. This might be because I am used to bus rides that take about 10 minutes in Belgium though. Half an hour later, I arrived at the bus stop that was closest to my hostel (according to Google Maps). I embarked on a 15-minute walk that probably could have been shorter if I had known my way around. In the end, I did arrive at my hostel though.
Time check: it’s 1:30 pm. I couldn’t get into my room until 2:30 because they were still cleaning it, so I decided to get lunch at the café because I was starving. All in all, it was pretty good and I managed to fill up enough time so that I was now able to access my room. I went there, unloaded my baggage and headed out.
Afternoon
By the time I decided to get out and explore the city, it was raining cats and dogs. According to the online weather forecast, it was going to stay like that until around 6 pm. So I said screw it and headed out anyway. In hindsight, this was a pretty good decision since it did in fact keep raining until the evening.
I walked around what I considered to be the city centre of Dublin. But, of course, what I thought was the centre was actually not. It turned out to be kind of a suburb of Temple Bar, if that makes any sense whatsoever. After realizing I was walking on a road I had walked on before, I made the decision to just stop walking and head into a pub. Being determined as I am, I walked into the first pub I came across and had myself my first pint in Ireland.
After this little endeavour, I headed back to the actual city centre because – well, obviously – I hadn’t been there yet. Temple Bar is a really nice place to just walk around with no real destination in mind. I just strolled through the streets and soaked up the atmosphere. I really liked how there was a mix of locals and tourists there.
Evening
Having seen both the urban hub of Dublin and its outskirts, I decided to go have dinner at the Hard Rock Café, which was conveniently located in said urban hub. First, I bought myself a T-shirt though. Yes, I know I’m basic, sue me. I was kind of stressed for this, as it was my first time eating alone abroad and even my first time eating alone in general. It turned out to be less awkward and lonely than I had anticipated. The waiting staff were really friendly and the weird looks from others that I had expected didn’t come.
Right at the end of my lovely dinner, I got a message back from someone I knew from school back home. I had seen him and his travel companion at the airport and I sent him a message about it. We decided to meet up for a pint at Temple Bar. It was a great, unexpected hour or so in a typically Irish pub.
Night
By now, I had to start thinking about how I would get to my next destination. You see, I was planning on going to a bar that organized comedy nights. Friday night was “International Comedy Club”. So I got out my trusty Google Maps, and went through the struggle of trying to find my way without decent internet connection. Eventually, I did get there.
The comedy was great; there were four comedians coming in and two of them were absolutely hilarious. The other two were not bad, but they weren’t great either. The comedians even improvised jokes about the audience, which was very impressive to me. There was a lovely atmosphere of love for each other and solidarity between everyone there.
After the comedy club hilarity, I tried to find my way back home. I took about three wrong turns before finally managing to find the river, by which I orientated myself and found my hostel. After a 20-minute walk, I found my way back to my room, where I fell asleep almost instantaneously.
Well, this was the summary of my first day. More summaries are on the way, but they will likely be a little late because of who I am as a person and because I don’t have as much time as I had hoped and anticipated. Thanks for reading this daily update post!
-S
