Yesterday, after my science class, I headed out to Gerards, a local sandwich place. I bought myself a delicious sandwich with coleslaw and some other veggies on it, as coleslaw is always an option at a sandwich bar here! I walked the short distance over to St Stephen's Green and found myself an empty park bench. I sat down enjoying watching children sticking their hands in the fountains, reaching their hands up making it just far enough to get their fingers wet. I watched pigeons flapping around and flirting with one another. One would puff out its colorful neck while the other one cooed and walking slowly away. Underneath a Chinese architectural shelter I saw a group warming up to do Tai Chi, stretching out and practicing the motions.

Around 12:30, the business men and women as well as the school children walked through the center of the park in packs, headed home or out for lunch. This happens everyday around the same time and the streets are full with lunch goers and Grafton Street is full and hard to find a path down without following the crowds. You can forget about walking fast, because people are at a medium pace, fast enough to get somewhere, slow enough to enjoy the walk.

After lunch I went to the Chester Beatty Library for class to view the exhibits there. We all enjoyed hot chocolate and coffee afterward and discussed our travel plans. After a quick stop at Dunnes for some last minute grocery shopping, we headed home. Usually we cut through St Stephen's green to get back home, but as soon as the sun starts going down the gates close to the park and it is easier to take the back roads, which have become fairly familiar by now.

Dublin has become very familiar and the consistencies are comforting. After each weekend that I'm away, I can't wait to get back home to Dublin.

Posted by Caitlin Patey at 12:32 PM | Permalink

The first time I flew by myself, I was flying down to Ft Lauderdale to meet a friend. The excitement and freedom of checking in on the automated kiosks and the thrill of de-metal-ing yourself before going through customs.. while waiting in line and walking at the same time, (a talent that has since been perfected), was all I needed for a little adventure in my life. I would make sure to always choose a window seat so that i could look out over the earth and see big patches of field and baseball diamond dirt. I would see mountains, lakes, rivers, and oceans. It was all so intriguing.

I was ready for that excitement again as I prepared to fly to Dublin, flying into Newark for a layover first. I arrived at the airport and they quickly swept me onto an earlier flight because of bad conditions. I walked through security with not one person ahead or behind me and I made it to the gate in time to adjust my bag and board the plane. This is was about the time that I started to dislike airports. Still a bit excited, I found my window seat and sat down next to two very nice ladies, but the rest of the plane was practically empty. Once situated in our squished row I looked out the window for a quick glance. There it was, the ever dreaded wing. I was disappointed. I sat on that plane for about 45 minutes to an hour before we started taxiing the runway for takeoff and a little over an hour or so later, after peeking through the window in front of me where the wing wasn't abstracting my vision, I was in Newark.

I enjoyed a $4.00 bottle of water and a delicious sandwich while waiting for my flight to leave, at this point already delayed about 20 minutes. Everyone scrambled to the line with their carry-ons askew from trying to entertain themselves, once the announcements for boarding started. After taxiing the runway for close to two hours, we departed. I arrived safely in Dublin with a greeting from a chauffeur and Stephen, the head of the program here.

I still seemed to be OK with airports at this point as two other girls and I booked our flights to various European destinations. After the first trip last weekend, I was even ready to take on the airport again this weekend until... dun dun dun

We took the 14 euro (return) bus to the airport, made our way through security, got a slightly expensive sandwich and water, and sat and waited with a slight pity for all of those other flyers whose flights seemed to be switching to canceled on the big screens. We waited.

and we waited.

And then we checked the screen, just to make sure. And sure enough, there it was in small innocent white letters, the word that would cause us the rest of the day, our feet, our minds, and our money. CANCELED. We could not believe that a flight to Barcelona would be canceled. With the small portion of little money that I have left sitting in my pocket, I slowly came to realize just how much we had lost. We were directed to a long, which seemed short at first, but ended up being about 4 hours line. During this time we went through the fazes:

Faze 1: hahaha ohhh that stinks maybe there is another flight or we'll just go home whateverr
Faze 2: hmmm I don't think we're going to get another flight out, we'll just get our money back.
Faze 3: wow this line is long let's play a game
Faze 4: It has been 2 hours, we're so not getting there let's call the hostel and cancel, costing us the first night (18euro each)
Faze 5: Wow we paid 14 euro each for the bus and 18 euro each for the hostel ughh that's 32 euro... this really really stinks and ensue frustration.
Faze 6: lady behind us on the phone with ryanair figures out that she will not be refunded for return flight as THAT flight hasn't been canceled.... begin anger and add on another 25 euro to the tab of lost money
Faze 7: Finally make it to the counter after 4 hours to recieve a piece of paper with a fax number on it, find out that we could fly out sunday and fly back sunday, and that Madrid is booked... even though we did not ask about it, the lady felt the need to tell us 4 times.
Faze 8: mope all the way home

After we made it back home and dropped our stuff, we ranted, got our emotions out... as I am doing now a bit...

and then we went to Porter House and got the best fish and chips I have ever tasted, which made everything ok in the end... well for the most part.

Next weekend, our romantic valentines weekend away in Bruges and Brussels, will be a test of my love for the airport. I might have anger and hatred toward Ryanair but we'll be flying Aer lingus from now on, so I can't hate the airport too much! :)

Posted by Caitlin Patey at 12:53 PM | Permalink

This past weekend I had the chance to journey to Nice, France with two lovely ladies, Cassie and Lindsay. We left our apartments at 8am headed for the Aircoach stop on Lower Leeson Street, a block or so up from the academic center. The Aircoach is a bus that costs 7 Euro each way that took us right to Dublin Airport to catch our Aer Lingus flight to France. Once at the airport we looked around, a bit confused, trying to figure out where we were supposed to check in. Eventually we made our way upstairs, led by a sign stating, "check in 1-13"; I was nervous that we would need 14+, and I saw no additional signs for these.

Once checked in, we walked in one direction, then turned to walk in the other, then looked at one another and laughed. Finally we found our way to our gate and waited patiently while reading Irish History books for class. It was about a two hour flight of sleeping, reading, and writing with incredible views of the Alps and beautiful landscapes mixed with clouds and sky.

As we started our descent we were greeted with incredible views of an oceanside city. I was a bit nervous, as it looked like we were landing on the ocean, but a strip of runway appeared our of nowhere. We got off the plane to find ourselves surrounded by palm trees and sun. Once we found our way out of the airport, warmish air surrounded us and we found the bus that we were supposed to take.

The bus took us to the train station which was very close to our hostel. This hostel was basically a hotel where we had a private room with a bathroom and big french doors leading to a balcony. We spent the first day exploring our new surroundings and finding that the French don't really eat out for lunch. We walked out onto the main strip which was filled with pedestrians, big stores, cafe's, and a metro running up and down the middle. After we found some food we headed down to the water for a feel of the Mediterranean and some time to watch the waves. We watched the sunset over the city and the lights turn on down the strip. It was breathtaking.

That night we went to a restaurant on the market street down by the water. We dined on pizza, water (which came in a vase like bottle), and a bottle of wine recommended by our rather attractive English speaking waiter. For desert we enjoyed crepes filled with either chocolate or Nutella, which were so delicious, and laughed about the magnetism of our utensils to the table. That night we went back to the hostel and watched CNN, the only English channel on the TV.

Our second day in France started bright and early. We geared up and headed toward the water again and stopped for some delicious breakfast to go. I tested my french out, as I did a few times, and was excited to be understood. I had a Pain au Chocolate, which was basically a croissant with chocolate pieces in it. Once down by the water we headed up the stairs that led to the top of a large hill/mountain/park. We spent the morning climbing up to see beautiful panoramic views and some old ruins.

After the hike we hit up the public market which was located on a street completely dedicated to this daily market, filled with flowers, foods, and other goods. We bought ourself a baguette, a slice of brie, and a focaccia type of bread with peppers on top. We brought our 5 euro feast down to the water and watched the waves, enjoying our finds.

That afternoon we headed back and found ourselves on a pedestrian street, famous for its shops. We found a jewelry store where you had to take a number to get assistance, but everything was fairly cheap and I ended up getting a pair of earrings and fake pearls for 3 euro total. After a long day of walking we went back to the hostel and rested for an hour or so before going back out to a Lebanese restaurant for dinner. After another delicious meal we went to a gelato stand that we had found earlier that day and walked home trying to forget the cold while devouring the gelato.

The next morning we woke up and packed up our stuff. We checked out of the hostel and headed in search for more Pain au Chocolate. The place that we went to the day before was closed, but we ended up finding some at the market, where we went to get another baguette, more brie, and another focaccia for lunch that day. We visited the beach one last time and ate our breakfast before journeying to find the Russian Cathedral. We hiked past the train station, backpacks weighing us down, and finally made it to the beautiful Cathedral where we quickly took a few pictures, ran inside, observed, and quickly walked back to the train station to catch our bus to the airport.

We made it safely home and spent the evening relaxing. Nice was beautiful and it was a very relaxing weekend. It made me really excited for our next trip to Barcelona this coming weekend where I will get to see me best best best friend from home who is studying in Spain. It also gave me a chance to speak a little French, which made me want to finish learning it and allowed me to view a new culture, which is always very intriguing and very exciting.

Posted by Caitlin Patey at 4:58 PM | Permalink