Ireland: Day One: Dublin

What an exhausting day I've had. It all started on May 12 when I woke up at 8:30 in Boone, got ready for my big day, and headed onto campus to meet the bus to the Greensboro Airport. Then, a quick little flight down to Atlanta and an oh-so-entertaining 3 hour layover at the Atlanta Airport. The layover actually wasn't as bad as it may sound, it was a really good time to get to know the other people on my trip and we enjoyed some really delicious American chain restaurant food for the last time in a while. Our waiter at the airport On The Border, "Sassy Michael," was the perfect energizer before we boarded the plane bound for DUBLIN!

I didn't sleep much on the plane, maybe 4 hours (and that's a super generous estimate). However, we did have the coolest little TV's that let us watch really good movies, all kind of TV shows, and listen to some surprisingly decent music. I was very pleased to see and Americana option in the music section, and I was even more pleased when I found the newest Ryan Adams album in that section! I ended up watching "Revolutionary Road" which was really depressing, but very good. It's kind of strange - I feel like lately I've been reading books and watching movies that all seem to deal with this theme of relationships and the toll that they take on the people involved in them. This whole idea is pretty pertinent to my life at the moment, so it's been pretty interesting to gather a lot of perspectives on relationships and their importance to the human experience.

And what flight across the Atlantic would be complete without a medical emergency?! I guess about halfway through the plane ride, the stewardesses starting getting a bit panicked and called for a doctor - apparently some older man had taken a pretty generous portion of sleeping pills with his after-dinner wine. That's always a good idea, right? It made for some pretty intense entertainment for at least half an hour as they attempted to revive the guy. Good news, he made it.

We landed in Dublin (at about 4:45 AM Boone time, mind you) to typical grey skies and Irish mist, but I was so excited to be back in Ireland! I was feeling pretty dirty and tired and I definitely wasn't doing my best breathing considering yours truly caught a cold the day before leaving for Ireland. Figures. Despite all of this, we had a really exciting drive into the city where we got checked in to our hotel and I promptly passed out for about 3 hours - of course, that had to wait until after we broke the elevator by loading it with all of our bags while we humans decided to take the stairs. I guess it goes without saying, the poor old Irish elevator was a bit overloaded and got stuck somewhere between the ground and 1st floors. Half an hour later, luggage extracted, I finally got out of my dirty clothes and into bed with my precious Bear.

At around 4:00 Dublin time, my roommate and I took a little walk down to Grafton Street to find a camera charger for her. I was really impressed by how much of the layout of Dublin I remembered. It really is a very well laid out city, especially considering how old it is. We then met up with the rest of the group and we headed into the Temple Bar area where we had our first pub experiences! We stopped in Gogarty's just long enough to have a pint and listen to some great traditional musicians... thus creating the first photo op!

Andie and I with our first half-pints of real Irish brew!!

And the musicians. They were so awesome!

We then had dinner at a little place called Milano's and got Gelato at a shop down the street. Considering I'm lactose intolerant, I opted for the some treats at the pharmacy next door - a new supply of Sudafed and some more packs of Kleenex! After a quick picture in the rain in front of THE Temple Bar, we headed back to the hotel considering we were all pretty beat.

And now I am here, at the hotel. It's approximately 8:15 PM and I'm about to hit the hay. Tomorrow morning starts early with IRISH BREAKFAST!!!! and then we relocate to Cork, where we'll be staying for most of our trip. I'm really excited to see Cork - everyone says such wonderful things about it and I've never been. It should be a really great time.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a photo from my last night in Athens and a couple from Kelly's wedding in Hilton Head.