Thursday 20 September 2012

Brisky Morning

First, a little explaining about the butter...on my way to Dublin from the connection at Boston Logan Int'l, we were given dinner on the flight aboard Aer Lingus, beef brisket to be exact. I happened upon this little butter packet that is customary to usual flight meal trays, and thought nothing of it at first. I was bored, it was there, saw some bread, decided might as well.... Maybe it was the sleep deprivation and strange cabin air, but the butter tasted like actual...well...butter to me! It was so rich and creamy and before sounding like some advertisement, I will stop there and leave the rest to your imagination. It's probably really bad for my health but good thing I will only have it for 4 months...right? I did consider taking some back with me minus the small problem of it melting everywhere and not sure if it's supposed to be declared as a liquid... first world problems...



It was a bit strange getting off the plane at 7:05 am in Dublin. The airport looked half grown over by grass, making me a bit apprehensive until I realized there was another whole portion that we were still taxi-ing to. I got off the plane like anyone else who has been flying overnight and sitting too long- disheveled hair, crooked shirt and a tired but excited expression at finally arriving. I was in some comfy pants covered in plane seat lint, my oversized UCSD Revelle sweatshirt that I had packed (thankfully) because it couldn't fit in my bag and flip flops that were in absolute tatters by the time I had arrived. Clanking my way through the waxed floors of Dublin International, I was met with a blast of cold air and realized my flip flops from San Diego would not do.

The airport looked like any other airport except with more languages and symbols that I couldn't understand, but the people seemed friendly enough and the cafes were still money sucking as usual, this time in euros instead of USD. One of the first things that surprised me about Ireland was the different toilets. It sounds weird but when I first saw the toilets here, I did a double take as I wasn't used to how perfectly circular they were! Restrooms are also called Toilets here, which I found a bit strange as well.

The first day was really long since it was actually 2 days put into one with all the time changes and everything. I got to walk around Dublin and the city centre, have lots of tea in various coffee shops and look at all the pretty bridges. Maybe I've been cooped up in California for too long but I just can't get over the rivers here with their bridges. I can't believe that almost all the buildings and sculptures are older than 200 years old with their own stories of how they became the way they are now and what parts they took in the wars, etc. It makes me wish that the US had things like that, with rustic and quaint cottages, turrets and rivers galore...but then when I think about it, despite the modern buildings and all the skyscrapers in the cities, they still all have a story behind them and is part of a history being built.




Living in a hostel for the first few days in Dublin was a combination of emotions varying between intrigue, annoyance, confusion and excitement. Another one of the first things I noticed before too long was the lack of free wifi and internet accessibility in general in Ireland. At the hostel, wifi never worked at night, and only got wisps of it in the morning when I woke up. Showering was slightly difficult as I trudged down 2 flights of stairs to a public shower. Despite the annoyance of the lack of internet, it made me realize just how technologically dependent I've become by living in the US all these years. Here, people actually read the paper with their coffee in the mornings and take time to converse with each other instead of being constantly absorbed in their iPads, laptops and phones. The one thing I was glad about the hostel was that they had warm comforters that were soft and comfortable. It gets down to the lower 40s at night, so a good thick comforter is definitely a need for me!

Blogging has been a bit difficult to catch up on this first week as everything seemed to happen so fast. There were many attractions and museums to visit but almost no time to visit them all! As it is, spending 2 days in Dublin were much too few to visit all of Dublin, and another visit must be planned soon to visit the free museums/art galleries and the Guinness Storehouse. I can't describe all the amazing things I've seen and experienced in this one entry, so I shall include them in the next seeing as this one is rather lengthy already!


No comments:

Post a Comment