I'm in Dublin now. Still haven't decided what I think about it, and probably still won't be able to by the time I leave tomorrow morning (nor after the additional evening I spend on Friday). It's just so big, right?
Getting here was much, much more difficult than I had imagined. I had a 9:50 a.m. flight out of Stansted and a car reserved when I arrived, as well as a hostel booked in the center of town. I did not think it would take approximately 8 hours door to door to get there:
1. I was under the mistaken impression that the tube starts running at 6:00 a.m. This would have given me ample time to catch the tube to Liverpool Street station, where I would catch a train to Stansted, which even with a 15 minute delay, would still get me to the airport on time. The tube didn't start until 7:00 a.m., so even though I managed to wake up at 6:00 a.m. like a good responsible person, I was left standing on the street in front of Notting Hill Gate, the minutes ticking away, with no plan. I found a bus to take me to Oxford Circus (sloooowwwwwwwww), and then had to wait another 15-20 minutes to catch another bus to take me to Liverpool Street. I grabbed a McDonalds' breakfast along the way. Quite filling. But this whole process involved a lot of wasted time, and worry, and running after the bus, and not knowing exactly when it was going to come, and repeatedly checking google maps to see how far away I was from Liverpool Street Station.
2. I got to Liverpool Street Station at around 7:20 a.m., which wasn't TOO bad, but was cutting ti much closer than I had originally intended. Thank gosh for the 45 minute train to Stansted...except the train wasn't running so I had to take the hour long bus, for 30 pounds round trip. So another 15 minutes lost. Riding on the bus, I slowly started to feel myself fading from having been up way too early.
3. Okay, line for check in is short at Ryan Air! Excellent! Except...I was supposed to print out my boarding pass before I showed up at the airport, which I know other people do all the time, but which I usually think is kind of stupid when all you have to do typically is show them the passport (which I end up doing anyway) and it never really seems to save much time. Except...Ryan Air charges a 40 pound penalty for the trouble of printing out that piece of paper. Which I should have known about because it was stated prominently in my confirmation email for my reservation. Which of course I didn't read. Because who reads those? We've all flown before, since when do the rules change? This would be like if one day an airline decided to install seatbelts that were stuck together with peanut butter and jelly instead of buckles and it was actually important for once to listen to the flight attendant safety instructions to figure out how to use them. So after saving a lot of cash by living cheaply in London, I went and blew 40 pounds (over 60 dollars) for printing out a piece of paper. And being made to feel like an ass for not doing it.
4. Ryan Air is crazy about boarding times, typically only permitting a 10 minute window between boarding commencing and the gate being closed. So I wanted to get there super early as to not miss it. But of course, even though we are not only about 25 minutes before boarding commences, the gate still has not been announced. So I'm standing in the main lobby, waiting around, craning my neck at the sign. Finally it is announced, Gate 50. I have 20 minutes to get there as quickly as I can. It wasn't very close.
5. Okay, I made it to the gate on time, phew! Boarding should begin any minute now, right? Nope, delayed. Not the hugest deal in the world, but it got me thinking about Ryan Air. For every single "convenience" you take from them (like a bottle of water on the plane, or the ability to check a single bag) there is a fairly significant fee. I actually think that's fine...I just think there should also be a small refund every time they screw something up. Like maybe 10 pounds for every half hour delay. Hell, even 5 pounds would make me feel a lot better.
6. I was fine with not being able to recline my seat. I was not, and have never been fine with being told I can't listen to my iPod during take off and landing. For once, I fell asleep on the runway, listening to Belle & Sebastian or something wimpy like that, and the flight attendant woke me up and told me to take them out. I am completely convinced that the only reason they do that is to make it easier to sell crap on the plane. Can't sell stuff to someone sleeping, or happily enjoying some music.
7. Passport control for non-EU citizens took forever, but whatever.
8. Line for Sixt (the car rental place) was short (nice) and the girl working there was friendly (great!), but instead of just walking across the street to a car park full of nice, small, fully automatic rental cars, I had to wait about 10 minutes for a van to come and take me there. The driver was super friendly, but still, it's starting to get ridiculous.
9. Oh, and my blackberry is not getting any service, so I can't even check my email while I'm waiting or use google maps.
10. I get the car. It is great. It is small, it is relatively easy to drive. It is automatic (a non-standard feature in Europe). Although the steering wheel is on the right side and I have to drive on the left side. This is extremely scary for me, and I am not used to it. So I am holding on for dear life.
11. Finding my way to Dublin is not that hard. Finding my way to the hostel is extremely difficult for me. Dublin is one of those cities (San Franciso too, maybe? Maybe Pasadena?) where instead of a million different ways to get to a particular spot (like in the San Fernando Valley), there is only one combination of one way streets and alleys, or you'll end up circling forever. So I circled on busy Dublin streets, not doing a particularly charming job as a driver, for a good half hour. I had heard something about a car park for the hostel but it was not to be found. So I parked at a shopping center parking lot which was kind of far away for 4 euros more per day. But I parked the car.
And from here everything went much more smoothly.
First off, the hostel, the Abbey Court Hostel is truly exceptional for the following reasons:
1. Right in the middle of Dublin on the Liffey River. None of that way out of town business like they tried to pull in Lausanne.
2. 15 euro a night, nice price!
3. The beds:
a. Clean. Really felt freshly laundered.
b. Already made. I am always saddened when handed a pile of sheets and told to put them on the bed I am paying for.
c. Warm! The bed cover was really nice. Even though the room was cold from the window being slightly open, I slept very happily.
d. Bottom bunk! I guess that's not really the fault of the hostel that I got lucky, but still, a huge improvement over top bunks, which usually result in me sleeping in my clothes with my backpack piled on top.
e. TWO power plugs next to each bed. I simultaneously charged my phone and camera battery overnight, right next to me so I didn't have to wonder if my phone plugged all the way across the room would still be there in the morning.
4. Normal shower! Turn the knob, hot water comes out. No pushing a button every 30 seconds.
5. Internet! Not only free, but really fast, and fast computers. No freezing, no weird codes. No bizarre keyboard. And power plugs all over the place so I can charge my phone while I'm at it. Am using it now, and almost don't want to leave. I think this is almost the first time including when I stay with people where I think and type slower than the computer operates. That is, I'm not spending time staring at a loading or frozen screen with thoughts that I want to get out.
6. The coffee with breakfast was probably the best hostel coffee I've had, although it wasn't exactly amazing.
7. Each 12 person dorm room has its own bathroom, but there is a door for the whole thing, not just the toilets and shower. Which means I can brush my teeth without disturbing a room full of people.
Okay, so I check in, and it's 2:00 p.m. and I want to do something touristy. I grab a quick lunch (pizza -- I ask for hot sauce, all they had was chili oil, which is somewhat spicy but also very oily) at Bar Italia. I've so many times heard people talk about the Guinness Brewery so I thought, fine, I'll go. It was an approximately 20 minute walk from the hostel:
1. I like Guinness. It is a reasonably good tasting beverage, especially the first few sips. But when people talk about it like it is this delicious nectar of the gods, it just sounds silly to me. It doesn't taste great, it just tastes pretty good for beer. Has a nice flavor. Plan on keeping on drinking it in the future, but I can't think of how many times I have had more than 2. Besides, in my opinion, beer generally only tastes really good if I'm really thirsty and/or stressed, especially if both. In fact, probably some of the most delicious beers I've had were Pabst Blue Ribbons when I was super thirsty. Also probably some of the least delicious beers I've had were from the same brand. So stop acting like Guinness tastes as good as a hot dog, or a donut, or pancakes, or a really good sushi handroll or an al pastor burrito, okay?
2. Which brings me to my biggest gripe about it. It presents itself as a museum/entertainment, which it arguably is -- lots of old items used historically in the beer brewing process, and some history on the company, and on the brewing process -- but really it's just one big advertisement that you pay to watch. Like...between all the videos of current master brewer Fergal Murray telling me how delicious Guinness is, and how pure the water is that goes into it, and how carefully they make sure that the barley is properly malted, and how only the "finest" barley is used (this right after a sign saying that 2/3 of the barley grown in Ireland is purchased by Guinness...so it's the top 2/3 of the country's barley?) and the room showcasing the specific adverts used by Guinness over the years (including those signs that appear in every Irish bar and some college dorm rooms), I felt mostly like I was being sold.
3. There was the room where they "teach" you how to pour a perfect Guinness, which basically involves turning the glass 45 degrees, pouring in 3/4, waiting for it to settle and then pouring in the rest without the tilt, and then you get to drink one Guinness.
This was kind of fun. The "instructor" had 6 or so people for each instruction, and asked one of the guys (from Italy) what his favorite thing to do in Ireland was, probably expecting him to say something like "drink beer". Instead, the guy said "to pray!" to which the instructor awkwardly said "yes, Ireland is a good place to pray!" Here is a picture of the Guinness that I poured and drank.4. There was a bar on the top of the Brewery (7th floor), the highest bar in Dublin, which had a really cool 360 view of the city. I would have liked to have stayed there, but I didn't feel like buying another Guinness and drinking it by myself.
Then I walked to St. Patrick's Cathedral. It's super old. First structure there was from the 300s or something like that, but the current structure is from the 12th Century. And it looks nice. Good stained glass windows, the whole thing. I mostly just sat and relaxed while I was there and then walked next door to the park. Jonathan Swift was once the...gosh what's the word that means "leader of the cathedral" but whatever it is, he was that. There was a lot of information about him there, and I'm tempted to finally read Gulliver's Travels. Here's a picture of the interior which doesn't capture how cool it looked.Came back here to enjoy the amazing computer.
Went to dinner at Gruel, recommended by that horrible book Lonely Planet. Was fantastic. The kind of place that would be popular in Los Angeles -- kind of an old fashioned looking interior, simple, traditional food, but very hip crowd, and the xx album was playing. I had shepard's pie (a super hot bowl of meat and vegetable stew topped with mashed potatoes, oil city) and a carafe of wine. Very happy with this place.
And then a drink at the Stag's Head, also recommended by the terrible Lonely Planet. Looked like an Irish bar, but without all the signage you see in the states. Had some Power's Whisky from a cask and read Exodus and send emails to friends. With a fully charged Blackberry, and the time zones properly aligned, I didn't feel alone at all.
When I got back to the hostel I met a group of other backpackers in my room, a couple from Michigan and two guys from some town in Ontario, Canada near Niagara Falls. All seemed reasonably nice, and we chatted and joked around for a while before turning off the light and trying to go to sleep. But instead of sleeping, since we were everybody in the room, we stayed up even later talking, felt like a middle school sleepover.
Belle & Sebastian -- I Know Where the Summer Goes
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