Lost in Dublin

After getting off the airplane, my list of blunders continued to mount.

I got through customs smoothly and headed to the bus station. Upon arriving, I forgot to take out euros from the ATM. I looked for a way to cross the street but there was no way to cross the street due to fences and signs saying DO NOT CROSS.

For awhile, I sat bewildered about what I could do next in order to get euros from the ATM. I finally asked the tenant at the bus station and he directed me to take the lift and then walk to the airport through the same bridge that I walked across to get over.

In case you didn't know, a lift is what they call an elevator.

I finally find the ATM in the airport and then tried to withdraw euros from it. Unfortunately, after three tries, the ATM kept saying that it was unable to read my card. I even tried my credit card and had no success. At this point, I was ready to panic because those were the only two cards that I have and, without being able to retrieve money from them, I will be in a lot of trouble traveling around Dublin.

In a last ditch effort, I went to another ATM and tried my card once again. Lo and behold, the card worked and I was able to retrieve some euros from it to pay for my bus ticket.

The bus ride gave a wonderful perspective of what Dublin looked like as a city. There are no skyscrapers that you would find in cities such as Chicago, Miami, and New York. However, the traffic was a joy and terror to watch. Bicycles and motorcycles weave in and out of traffic and pedestrians walk with a purpose in the street, sometimes not caring if they don't have the right of way.

After getting off the bus, I estimated that it should take me about 15-20 minutes to walk and find the hostel. Well... that didn't go to plan. I even tried asking someone for directions to the place and he said that he did not know, which did not help matters. I ended up turning on every street and corner around the hostel before finally finding it an hour later.

I checked in at the hostel at around 10:00 (about 5:00 AM EST) but they said that I couldn't get the key to my room until check-in at 2:30. Fortunately, they stored my luggage away until that time period but I was unsure of what to do for the next 4.5 hours.

I went to the common room and met people from Seattle, California, and Idaho. We each talked about how we ended up here and two of the girls said that there was a free tour of Ireland occurring at 11:00 if any of us were interested.

I decided to go on the tour and found out that it would be a 3 hour tour of Dublin and it was remarkable how much information the tour guide knew about Dublin.

He told us about the history of Dublin Castle and how the original spot of it used to be a castle but the modern arrangement only has the prison part of the castle remaining from a kitchen fire that burned down most of the castle. The area consisted of architecture from the castle, modern times, and Georgian architecture. In fact, some travelers come to the Castle simply to look at  the architecture of the doors there.

After that, we walked out to this large courtyard and we were told that this courtyard was actually a very intricate and well-designed helicopter pad based on Celts' designs.

Next, he introduced us to Veronica Guerin, whom was an Irish journalist who did amazing journalism on the heroine drug scene in Ireland. Unfortunately, like he said, she did such an amazing job that she was assassinated by a countryman in the 1990s but has a statue bust commemorating her efforts in cleaning up Ireland unlike anyone else before her.

After that, he discussed about Jonathan Swift. I had no idea that Swift was an Irish man and neither did I know that he was a wealthy Protestant that created these satires about Ireland and Britain policies.

His most famous satire is Gulliver's Travels. Although I did not see the movie, he said that the movie was a disgrace to the beauty of the book and that the actors such as Jack Black were piss poor choices for the movie.

About Irish stereotypes, here were the ones that the tour guide claimed were true: the Irish do indeed drink a bit, the weather is cold, cloudy, and rainy for most of the year, and that some have the 'irish accent'.

Unfortunately, most Irish people do not have the stereotypical Irish accent and are offended when people are in disbelief that they do not speak exactly like that.

The Spire, or the "Prick with the Stick", is Ireland's largest statue. It looks exactly like a large toothpick hence the mockery of a nickname. It was created to proclaim Ireland's resurgence entering the new millennium and to have a structure that 'cleansed itself'. Unfortunately, neither occurred and it is not viewed popularly among the locals.

There was so many stories that he shared along the tour, including one concerning the two famous pages shown in the Book of Kells in Trinity College. Apparently, it is an extremely old religious manuscript that is extremely popular among tourists.

However, the most fascinating fact was that Martin Luther King Jr. and Ghandi were influenced by an Irish man named Daniel O'Connell and his pacifist efforts in Ireland. I find that fascinating because history always says that Ghandi influenced Martin Luther King Jr. but it rarely discusses about other influences on their efforts such as O'Connell. Therefore, this is why O'Connell is highly revered in Dublin and has a street and a statue in his remembrance.

After the tour, I checked into my room and hung out for a little bit before trying to find my professor at DIT. Well.. long story short, a 20 minute walk turned into a 2-hour adventure where I gave up halfway looking for the building and tried looking for stuff that I needed at local stores. One in particular was a three-prong power converter. I got passed to four different stores before the last one told me that I didn't need it because the laptop's charger is sufficient with European standards.

Also, I got lost trying to re-locate my steps now that it was nighttime and I was walking around the city differently than before. Fortunately, I found a couple of familiar landmarks and eventually stitched my way back to the hostel.

All I can say is what a day, what a day but thank God Almighty that I am safe.

The final thing that I did before posting this blog is what I should have did the first time: get a visitor map guide of Dublin haha.