This morning at around 8:30 AM, my flight from Philadelphia landed. While I was in the queue for the flight, I met an Irish man who was going back home after a vacation in Florida. He had studied at UCD(the school I am visiting for), and we had a nice chat. It was a fairly uneventful flight, besides the child next to me who slept horizontal in his seat with his feet pressed against my leg(his mom was very apologetic). During the first half, I watched Beautiful Boy, with Timothy Chalamet and Steve Carell. It was a really good movie, and I wrote more about it on my Things I Like page.
Once I got off the plane, I went through customs, where I got a bit held up because the officer wanted me to describe every detail of my trip. Once I got through, I took the 747 bus from the airport to Dublin. It was a gigantic double decker beast, and sitting on top felt like being on some type of carnival ride. However, the views were unmatched, and I enjoyed it nonetheless. Then, I missed my stop(Talbot Street), and went one more. Thankfully, bus stops are close together and I only had to walk around 10 minutes to get back to the stop I wanted to get off at, which is right by the hostel I am staying at.
I dropped off my bags at Isaac’s Hostel, and then sat in the lounge area for a little bit as I recollected myself. From there, I walked west along the river, over Ha’penny Bridge, and into the Temple Bar area. Here the narrow cobble stone roads are lined with old buildings ranging from 2 to 3 stories. It was very cute and quaint, with a lot of trendy restaurants and shops. As I am writing this, I am in a cafe on the roof of a department store near Trinity College Dublin. I’ll probably get back to you later regarding what I did with the rest of my day, as it is only 11:58 AM right now.
I’m back again, but now it is 8:10 PM and I am sitting in the basement of my hostel(which has been converted into a work space). After I left the roof top cafe from which I was last writing to you, I went back to the hostel and swapped out some of the stuff in my bag. I then took the Dart, which is Dublin’s train system to Dun Laoghaire, where I walked along the beach until the famous Forty Foot. There I saw people diving off of high rocks into the dark cold water below, in glorious fashions. I wasn’t dressed to join them today, but perhaps tomorrow I will return. Then I walked back to the Dun Laoghaire station(a 30-40 minute walk or so. It was probably so long because I was stopping to admire the ocean, and climbed around the bulk heads. After I got back into the city, I once again swapped some of my items and then went back out, this time in the search for a Cadburry Creme Egg McFlurry. Unfortunately, the McFlurry was not available, so I continued on to a convenience store where I got some type of pear ice pop with an ice cream swirl around it. I ate it as I walked along the main river in Dublin, which was nice since the sun was setting. After the sun set, I returned to the hostel where I am now, because I want to get a good night’s sleep before touring Google tomorrow.
Overall today was a good day that gave me an introduction to the layout of the city, and how to use the public transportation. I’m really excited for tomorrow.