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.