This morning I got up at 6:00 AM. Usually, I sleep in on Spring Break, but this year I definitely did not. I took the rain to the airport. I checked in for my flight and went through passport control. I got a stamp saying I was leaving the country. Because Spain is what they call a Schengen Country, I did not have to do this for my last flight. As I walked through the airport, I realized I never went through security. I was a little surprised and worried but just continued to my gate. When I finally got there, I found that my gate had a separate security place which I had to go through right before boarding. My flight departed at 9:40. I arrived in Dublin at 10:10 their time which is an hour behind The Netherlands.
I had to go through passport control which took awhile. Thankfully, I was one of the first off the plane so I was towards the front of the line. When I first arrived in Amsterdam, they looked briefly at my passport, stamped it, and I was on my way. In Ireland, I was asked quite a few questions. The man wanted to know how long I was staying and why I was visiting. It made me a little nervous even though I knew I should have no problems entering. A man two people in front of me was a different case. I really don’t know where he was from but I heard that he had to check in with someone once a month for the length of his stay. He was asked a lot more questions than I was.
Rick’s flight arrived before mine so he was waiting for me at the airport. We took the bus to downtown Dublin. We met up with the group of people Rick traveled with and they checked into their hostel. Unfortunately, since I decided to go after they planned their trip the hostel was full so I had to stay somewhere else. We were hungry so we headed out to find a place to eat. Dublin is an expensive city. We found a restaurant that offered 10 Euro lunch specials. I ordered a Panini with soup. The Panini had ham, cheese, onions, and tomatoes. My soup said it was winter vegetable but it just tasted like a creamy potato soup. Rick ordered a beef stew that consisted of beef, potatoes, carrots, and the sauce had Guinness and red wine. The stew was served with a side of mashed potatoes.
After lunch, we went back to their hostel. We sat on the couches in the common area. The group got even less sleep than I did, so we all ended up falling asleep for quite awhile. When we got up, Rick and I went to my hostel so I could get checked in. This took much longer than it should have. The battery in the card reader on my door was dead so I had to wait for them to change it. The group went to the Jameson Whiskey Brewery. We were planning to meet them there but were too late. Rick and I walked there so we could meet them when they were done touring. The man at the door said the tour lasted about an hour. We knew they went to the 4:00 tour. At about 5:30, we finally gave up and decided we must have missed them. So Rick and I headed tour next destination. Later we found out that the tour lasted over an hour and we probably left five minutes before they walked out.
Because it was the week of St. Patrick’s Day, there were a few special events going on. We found a free one to go to. It was called the Spheres at Docklands. It was interesting, but I am glad we did not pay money to see it. Once again, this is something difficult to describe. People stood on poles and had globes around them. The performance lasted about forty five minutes. After the show, we stopped at a grocery store and bought supplies to make sandwiches for dinner. We went back to Rick’s hostel and celebrated one of the group member’s birthdays. We then went to a bar that had free live music. That night, there was a man who played guitar and sang. He sang traditional Irish music and some pop songs. He sang a song he wrote about missing home. For all of us who have been away for two months or more, it meant a lot to us.
We stayed for the first part of his performance and then decided that it was getting late and we all needed some sleep. Rick walked me to my hostel and then I went to bed around midnight. I fell asleep quickly, but at 12:30 I was rudely awoken by six men who had just checked in. They made their beds and left. They returned at about 4:30 and again were talking very loudly and woke me up. So I did not have a good night.
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