This morning, at around 3:40 AM, a rather young and energetic man burst into the waiting area in the front room of the hostel I was staying at in Dublin.
“I have 7 seats for the 7 of you who come right now,” he said. There were 3 of us. His face kind of fell, but he regained his smile a bit when we each handed him the 6 euros we were paying him for the trip. Then, we loaded into his big white van(usually a red flag in the US), and he began to speed through the city streets at a break neck pace. It was the perfect pick-me-up after having been awake for nearly 20 hours at that point. Fearing for ones’ life always gets the blood pumpin’.
After we reached the airport and I had to walk around 400 meters to the terminal, I realized how cold it was(somewhere in the 40’s with a windchill that made it feel much lower). Then, I went through security which seemed like the process you go through when you go to a gym in the US, not an airport. Like a train ticket, I simply scanned by ticket on a sensor on a turnstile, and then was let through. Then I just had to take the liquids and my laptop out of my bag, and I was free to go.
After that, I settled in and got a ham and cheese sandwich along with some Tayto crisps. It was a pretty good breakfast. Eventually I boarded my Ryanair flight, in the dim light cast by the Irish sunrise, which was kind of an electric Mountain Dew green that I had never seen before.
It was a beautiful sight, until the stewardess began asking people in the first and last 5 rows to move, so she could balance the plane.
Balance the plane? I thought, with a bit of fear rising in my chest. So this is why the flight was so cheap.
However, everything went smoothly, and I am writing to you now.
After I got off the flight, I made my way to the train station from the airport that would take me to the city center. Endeavors such as these always remind me of how much I have to learn about public transportation, seeing as I accidentally sat in the first class section twice(the man on board was very nice about the whole thing). Even though I wasn’t in first class, the seats were very nice, and the views of the different towns speeding by were very nice.
I then arrived in Manchester Piccadilly Station, and walked to the Science and Industry Museum, stopping at the Alan Turing Memorial along the way. It was nice to see that all of his work was being recognized, even posthumously. From the Turing Memorial, I made my way through China Town, and then across to the museum. I had arrived a bit before it opened, so I sat in the cafe and had a hot chocolate along with some blueberry overnight oats.
Once the museum opened, I was excited to learn about Manchester. The museum is packed with artifacts and displays honoring Manchester’s rich history concerning power, trains, and computing. I think I liked the computing portion best, because it was the most in-depth; the other exhibits had mainly surface-level information. In addition to this, a special textile exhibit was also very cool, since a special room had been filled with old machinery that you could interact with.
As far as I could tell, this museum is as close as you can get to a children’s science museum without calling itself one. School children, young and old, at home and abroad, were running and screaming through the halls, which could make it hard to focus at times. However, if just one of them decides to pursue science, then I would count it as a great success. Overall, if you are not familiar with the rich scientific history of Manchester and would like to learn about it, I recommend visiting the museum on a weekend, or later in the day, so you can avoid the school crowds and fully appreciate the exhibits.
Then, I walked back towards the city center to a bookstore called Waterstones, where I picked up the memoirs of the most wanted hacker in US history, and sat for a little bit. On the way from Waterstones to the hostel, I popped into multiple supermarkets, both to avoid the sparse rain/hail, as well as to see if there was anything different between the UK/Ireland. Overall they seem to be the same, with the UK having slightly more pastries/sweets, and Manchester having larger supermarkets than Dublin.
When I finally got to the Potato Wharf(the location of my hostel), I was pleasantly surprised. The hostel was located on a beautiful waterfront property, and was nice and secluded from the hustle and bustle of the city. Additionally, the amenities here along with the general feel are very new and nice; the beds are even fully equipped with a reading light/device charging fixture.
At this point, I caught up on some house keeping stuff and got settled into the hostel. I told myself I would nap and then go back out for the sunset, but I slept through my alarm so maybe tomorrow. Overall today was a good day, but certainly a test of my travel endurance.
