23.2.12 Dublin, Ireland

For some reason my phone didn’t update the time in Dublin so when my alarm went off at 6 it was really 5 a.m. I had no idea what time it really was so I Googled what time it was in Dublin. Turns out it was 5. So I went back to sleep for an hour.

I packed and showered and went down to breakfast, which was already going on before the designated 7:30 start time. It was a very solid breakfast. They had Cocoa Pebbles, strawberry yogurt, toast with Nutella, orange juice, and yogurt. The switch from corn flakes to Cocoa Pebbles was very welcomed.

It was beautiful outside in Dublin. I had absolutely no expectations for Dublin so I think anything I did I enjoyed a bunch. I walked down to Grafton Street and a bunch of people were going to work. I grabbed a free paper. The sun was still coming up. It was great. And warm, right around 60 degrees. I would have enjoyed staying longer.

Dublin is a much smaller city than I remembered. I walked all Grafton Street and into St. Stephen’s Green and over by the university. Dublin’s architecture is surprisingly beautiful (other than the stupid pole on O’Connell Street). It’s not a London or a Paris, but it’s just a nice place. I wouldn’t have wanted to spend days there or anything but a couple more hours I wouldn’t have minded.

I realized Dublin probably had a Primark so I went back to the hostel, grabbed all my stuff, and Googled it. Turns out Primark started in Dublin and was called Penny’s. Best yet, it was on O’Connell Street right by where I had to catch the airport bus. So I headed over.

The clothes there are way, way worse than in London. And more expensive. They didn’t have the trench coat I would have bought or a lot of the other things I was looking at in London. But they did have a really cool brown and blue striped shirt. It was eight Euros, more than I expected, but I got it and planned to wear it on the plane.

I was waiting on the wrong side of the street for the airport bus but realized it quick. The bus was parked on the other side of the street for a driver change apparently. I knocked on the window and the driver pointed up to the bus stop, but I couldn’t tell where. It was a couple blocks away. So when he took off, I had to take off running, not really fun with my feet. But it wouldn’t be a flight without running.

I looked online earlier and the Delta flights were out of the terminal I wasn’t used to. But it was the first of the airport stops on the bus. I went to the Delta gate and did the first of around four security/customs checks. The lady at the desk said I didn’t have much time and needed to go right to the US preboarding area and gave me a customs card to fill out. I had almost an hour and a half. She didn’t know a lot of time is around 20 minutes for me.

I went through security, customs, then special US security and I was finally at the gate. I had about 20 Euros and a bunch of coins left so I got an Aero bar using 20 and 10 cent coins.

At the gate they asked me the old questions about leaving bags unattended. For the second time. And this lady was sending people for further inspection if they didn’t answer quickly. When she asked me if I had bought any food I told her I ate an Aero bar. She laughed.

I changed my seat to be on the aisle. And the plane had video screens on the back of the headrests! I was very excited. Both times I’ve been though Atlanta they haven’t had the screens, so I won’t be doing that again.

I watched ‘Ides of March’ (I liked it but nothing happy happens, I can see why it didn’t do great) and the food was actually solid. It was sort of a mixed vegetable and rice dish.

I watched some of ‘Drive’ and hated it so I stopped. Instead I watched a terrible Kurt Cobain documentary the low-budget kind where they can't get any of the music rights and all the interviews are random music writers, a London travel video, and a TED talk on why adults should be more like kids.

Lunch was a cheese and tomato panini with grapes, some of the better airplane food I had.

There wasn’t anything else I really wanted to watch that was free so I put on ‘In Bruges’ again. The whole thing looks so familiar now, I was wondering what it would be like after going there. I got bored watching the film I just saw so I played "Anonymous" about Shakespeare's identity. I wish I saw that earlier because it wasn't over by the time we landed.

This was an awesome trip. It was great to see Luke and all the unexpected things I ended up doing were the best. The renting a car, ice skating, biking, meeting people, eating great food and seeing places I never thought I would (or even knew of). I miss it already.

22.2.12 Bruges and Brussels, Belgium and Dublin, Ireland

At breakfast they didn’t have the pastries with flavors so I just got cornflakes, rolls, coffee and orange juice. Still pretty solid. I typed up the rest of yesterday and did my Playboy thing. I packed and got out much later than I anticipated, but it was fine.

It was another beautiful day in Bruges, sun was out, people walking around, and in Burg Square they had food and flowers market filled with people. I love the markets in Europe so I walked around a little. It was pretty lively, the vendors calling out, people moving about, and almost no tourists which was strange. I found the only waffle place in the square and got a waffle with chocolate. The guy at the stand seemed really happy to be making the waffles, talking with everyone in whatever language they spoke. A bunch of kids were getting waffles with their parents on the way to school.

The waffle was great, hot and soft. In America I feel like they’re crispier but I like the chewiness.

I went and bought a little bike rental model and went inside the Belfry. There wasn’t a whole lot to see in the courtyard and the signs inside said it was closed. So I’m glad I didn’t get up early to see nothing. I’m planning on waking up super early to see Dublin tomorrow morning so getting a little extra sleep was fine.

I took a slightly different way back to the station. It’s such a nice day I was sad to leave but felt I got a good feel for Bruges. Museums are very overrated, walking the city (or renting a bike) is the way to go.

My train left at 11:35 and it was a newer train with a second deck. Like with bunk beds, I’m always pumped to go to the second level. It was nice to just stare out the window and listen to ‘Watching the Wheels’ (acoustic) on repeat. I’ve really come to enjoy taking the train again.

I got into the same station in Brussels and found the luggage storage pretty easily. Best yet, it was only four Euro for the whole day. I bought a map for 50 cents from the tourism office and attempted to walk into town. Around the train station the streets are somehow very difficult to navigate (at least for me). Instead of walking into the city center I ended up horizontally from the station and couldn’t find any of the street names on the maps. I walked toward some huge old looking thing and figured I could find that. I finally did and was able to get into the center finally, after maybe an hour of wandering. My feet and legs weren’t doing great and it was a little gloomy out so I wasn’t in a particularly great mood.

The first thing I saw was the statue of Little Julien who is sort of a symbol of the city. They had him dressed up in clothes and tons of people were around taking pictures. Immediately after there were like five or six chocolate and waffles places. I tried to buy some chocolate from a place recommended on Wikitravel but they cash register was broken. The lady said that couldn’t take my money. I said that was fine. Unfortunately she said to come back in a half hour when it was working. So I went across the street and got a waffle with whipped cream and chocolate.

This was not an easy food to eat. The whipped cream was about three inches tall so you couldn’t exactly bit it. They gave me one of those tiny little fork things that couldn’t cut through the waffle. So I sort of ate off the whipped cream and ate the waffle by hand, but not before I dropped a decent amount of whipped cream on my boot just as I ended the Grand Palace Square. Really it could only help my boots smell better.

The square is incredible. All of the buildings date from around the 17^th century and the details on them are unlike any I’ve seen. They have statues all over with carvings of animals or other symbols above the doors. It was even better than the one in Bruges, although strangely there weren’t any places to sit.

I walked around looking at the buildings and one of them had a plaque saying Karl Marx spent New Year’s Eve in one. I got a big kick out of this for some reason.

From there I really had no idea what to do. I had done very little research on Brussels. So I decided to sort of wander around the area and found another Leonidas chocolate shop with a working cash register. I got the 15-piece box. They had a couple different flavors than the one in Bruges including a strawberry sort of one that I really liked.

I wanted to go see the European Parliament even though I realized I had no idea what it looked like or really even how it worked. I knew it was a newer building but that was about it. It was away from the center a ways so I walked through some parks, stopping for some fries since I figured I needed food other than chocolate at some point. The big park by the palace was nice, more like a Central park with statues and interesting trees and landscaping. Maybe the Jardin du Luxembourg would be a better comparison.

I think the city closest to Brussels would be Paris. It has a lot of the same bigger cosmopolitan city feel to it with some nice older architecture but just less nice. Not in a grittier or more authentic way but just in sort of a worse way. As I got closer to the Parliament all the new architecture started showing up. It kind of has a cold feel to it, like a Canary Warf or any new American skyscraper with all the lifeless glass. Combined with the cloudy and sort of chilly day it didn’t do the city any favors.

I got to Parliament (a big glass building) and asked at the info center if I could tour the building. They said it was too late but I should come back tomorrow. Probably wasn’t going to work out so well.

I walked around the area and saw on the map there was an Iguanodon in one of the parks not too far so I walked over there. It was a life size bronze Iguanodon in front of the museum there. A bunch of kids were playing on its tail. I thought of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins. He’d probably be happy.

I sat for a little with my feet aching and had some more chocolates. I was debating between going to see the shiny metallic Ferris wheel thing on the train or walking back into town. I decided to go to town again.

I had no real sites to see or anything so I just started walking. And I finally started to really enjoy Brussels. I was stressed between my feet/legs/not knowing where I was that I wasn’t actually enjoying being there.

I walked down and watched some kids play basketball. They were not good but they could be the best basketball players in Belgium.

The streets got less touristy and more real Belgian. Little record stores, places to buy bread, things like that. If I had come here first instead of last I would have loved it.

I ended up in a square by where I got fries and managed to actually find a bench and people watched for a while. There was a statue of a dude with his dog and a big mustache and people would come up and take funny pictures with him. Some would sit on his lap others would hold his mustache. A very little girl was fascinated with it and kept touching him. This was probably my favorite part of Brussels.

I went through the main square again and though a weird mall and then down the street I wanted to take to the train station, probably the biggest one in the city which was invisible to me at the time.

I realized my problem was it didn’t go right to the train station, you sort of had to wander off from the street toward it without real streets. Weird.

I picked up my bag (I accidentally gave the guy my bus ticket and he asked me where I was going, a bizarre question until I realized what I did) and began to search for the bus. You’d think there would be signs for something like that. Not so much. I sort of went off memory through the huge station and found the bus not by where the bus signs pointed, but just out some random door.

The ride was good again. I watched a probably college age couple say goodbye. The guy was sitting right in front of me so I felt a little awkward. The girl kept jumping up and giving the guy high five though the window of the bus before we left. I listened to the Weeknd and may have fallen asleep, not sure.

The airport is super nice in Charelroi, the Ryanair desk was even in the right place. Although at security I’ve never had people go through my bags so thoroughly. Not sure what they thought they saw. Probably just admiring the packing job. I was so worried about fitting my bag on the flights. No problems at all.

I had a while to kill so I watched a Belgian father and son play a game where the kid would run under the dad’s arm he held against the wall. He was laughing the whole time.

I fell asleep on the flight, although it was a little shaky at times. The low cost airlines don’t inspire a lot of faith in me but you don’t hear about them dropping out of the sky or anything.

I had a nice talk with the lady at customs about my holiday. The Irish are super nice people.

The bus was waiting at the stop and I had no problems getting to the O’Connell Street stop. They had video screens listing each stop. They do a really good job with that in Europe. On the trains in Belgium they had that too.

The hostel was just across the street and right on the River Laffey. I have no idea why I didn’t stay here before, it’s right in the middle of everything.

The guy at the reception looked like he was (or still is) in a ‘70s punk band. The room was alright, it didn’t smell fantastic and the first thing I did was nearly walk in on a guy in the bathroom.

I went out to walk around Temple Bar and along the river. I heard a couple kids playing ‘Where is My Mind’ using guitar, drums, and kazoos. It was great. I stopped and listened for a minute.

I was very dehydrated so I went into a store and grabbed two carbonated waters for two Euro. There weren’t a ton of places open other than a couple pubs, but there were still a lot of young people out. I wanted to get some real food so I found a pizza place with a bunch of people in it. I got two slices for 4 Euros. They were pretty good other than the flavor. But I was hungry and happy. The people in the pizza place were talking about comedians. I wish I had friends to talk about comedians with.

When I walked out I noticed it was Ray’s Pizza. It couldn’t be the same as in New York, although the symbol looked suspiciously similar. I’m convincing myself they aren’t the same.

I walked around for a bit through the town and went back to the hostel. Amazingly Dublin was the warmest place on the trip so far. Go figure. I was worried it was going to rain the whole time I was there. It was a little damp, but no rain.

I wasn’t tired and Skyped mom for a bit. I noticed part of the reason I was struggling walking so much is I had blisters between my pinky and fourth toe. I didn’t have a pin or I would have popped them. I asked the punk rock guy if he had a safety pin. He said no and asked me what for. I told him popping blisters. Pretty punk rock.

I went upstairs and people were sleeping in my room so I took the end of the looped wire from my little reporter notebook and popped the blisters sitting on the floor outside my hostel room at about 3:30 in the morning. Not my proudest moment. And OSHA surely wouldn’t approve. But they probably wouldn’t approve of most stuff I’ve been doing lately. I can’t wait to wash my clothes.

I got in bed and eventually fell asleep. Maybe being the last day in Europe gave me energy. I wasn’t looking forward to going back but I don’t know if I physically could have handled more right now.