My flight arrived in Dublin at 6:15 AM, 30 minutes before it was scheduled to get in (the luck of the Irish I guess). I took a bus from the airport that dropped me off 2 blocks from the hotel where the students from my study abroad program were being housed. This would’ve been really convenient but I misunderstood the bus driver’s directions and went 4 blocks in the wrong direction. I had a map that I had printed out so that this wouldn’t happen but it wasn’t detailed enough for me to realize that I was going the wrong way for quite a while so what should have been a two block journey became a 10 block journey. Like I said, it was still very early in the morning but my hotel room wasn’t going to be ready until two in the afternoon. I left my luggage with the hotel staff and, after taking a short nap in the hotel lobby, went to explore Dublin for the first time.
I immediately went to the convenience store across the street and grabbed a snack for myself. I thought about killing some time in coffee shop or eating an authentic Irish breakfast somewhere but I wanted to save as many euros as possible and knew that there would be plenty of time to socialize over food later, so I went with a cheaper option. After that, I set out for a little exploring. I came upon a really large park called St. Stephen’s Green and walked around for a while. It was a Sunday so there were a lot of families there with their kids and it was really nice. I also saw these really odd-looking birds in the park’s pond. They were mixed in with a flock of pigeons but they were roughly twice the size of pigeons and seem like a cross between seagulls, ducks and chickens. They were also really aggressive but the parents in the park were still letting their kids feed them. I guess they were more accustomed to them than I was. I definitely didn’t think I would be exposed to new wildlife in Dublin!
As I made my way back to my hotel I stopped at Trinity College’s campus. Trinity is surrounded by a gate but open to the public since it is a popular tourist attraction (some of the school’s buildings date back to the 1500s). I found Trinity’s campus to be more beautiful than that of any university I’ve ever seen in the US. It looks more like a castle than a college. It also really took me aback to see posters that said “Join Trinity’s Kayaking Club!” and “Looking for a German tutor?” on the wall of a Medieval building.
When I got back to my hotel, the room still wasn’t ready even though it was after two. However, I did discover that another girl studying with the same program as I was had arrived as well. We bonded while they were preparing our room and decided to have dinner later that night. We were both taken aback by how jammed the streets were with people going in and out of pubs and restaurants and how much was going on. When we found a pub to eat at, we stood inside the doorway awkwardly before someone told us to find a seat. We had been waiting for a hostess like we would in the US! We had a very delicious and filling meal, but the best thing about the pub was definitely the live music. When we finished eating we went to the second floor of the pub to see the band. It’s typically for pubs to have live music most or all nights of the week so as you walk down the street you might here a few different performances on just one block.
Overall, my first day in Ireland was amazing. It’s made me incredibly excited for another day in Dublin and even more excited to continue my journey on to Galway.