On the Road Again

I’M BAAACKK!!!

Hey everyone, I hope you’re all doing well, and welcome back to To Valencia and Beyond, the continuing adventures of the fun travel things I’m doing.

My excuse for travel this summer is a study abroad program in Germany during the month of June, but there will also be Ireland, Croatia, France, Belgium, and Scotland, because once you’re over here, you might as well do as much as you can.

This missive is brought to you by the 6 hour layover I’m currently experiencing in the Frankfurt airport, because that’s when the magic happens. And by magic I mean that I have enough time on my hands to ramble onto a keyboard for a while.

SO it’s day… umm… well it depends on how you count. So let’s just start from the beginning:

May 20^th!

I got on a plane from Greenville, SC to Charlotte, SC. I then got on another plane to Dublin, Ireland. I watched movies, I didn’t sleep, I ate subpar airplane food and drank horribly overbrewed tea. It was a transatlantic flight.

But I did get to watch the new version of Annie and The Imitation Game, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed. 

May 21^st!

I got off the plane at 06:35 Dublin time, which is approximately 1 in the morning Eastern Standard Time, and the fun began. I got on a shuttle and headed to my hostel. I wound up chatting with a bunch of people in line for the shuttle and on the way to the hostel. Apparently I give off an air of knowing what I’m doing during travel, so I had a number of people ask me for directions or advice, which is kind of a strange feeling, but also a really great compliment, and I tried to help the best I could.

The hostel I was staying at was the same one I stayed at last summer in Dublin, which was really nice, because I knew what landmarks to look for when I got off the shuttle and how to get most important places from there. The first thing I did after I dumped my luggage was go shopping. Because the one thing I forgot back home was a jacket, and it was like 40 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius) in Dublin. And I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans. So I bought a nice bright purple jacket and went back to the hostel to take the free walking tour at the hostel, because I needed something to keep me on my feet and occupied.

And the tour was great for that. I don’t think I did a tour last time I was in Dublin, so it was really great to get to hear some of the history of the city and see some of the sights. Being in Ireland also really helps me appreciate how terrible the English were to the Irish for a long time, because even the symbolism in the government buildings is just… awful. For example, there is a statue of Justice on top of an arch, but this Justice isn’t blindfolded, because Justice was NOT blind when it came to the Irish. Justice watches and remembers. Shudder

But tragic history aside, we saw a bunch of cool stuff, and I had a great time. I met an Australian guy and we discussed the merits of traveling alone, and I managed to shock everyone by not liking beer, chocolate, and cheese.  It was hilarious. 

After the tour I went and ate an absolutely delicious meat pie before heading back to the hostel.  I checked in, read, and tried desperately not to go to sleep. I had been falling asleep standing up by the end of the walking tour. I was trying to get through the day on caffine and sheer force of will, but it was HARD. So I made myself get up and do things. I went to the Oscar Wilde memorial, which is just one of my favorite memorials for anyone ever. I probably wrote about it in my blogs for my trip to Dublin last time, but it really struck me again this time. 

Because what the Oscar Wilde memorial makes me realize is how impersonal most memorials are. They tend to be big blocks of stone, and the most personal touch is a quote or a statue, but I always go to the Oscar Wilde memorial and think that the people who designed it understood Oscar Wilde. There’s the terribly gaudy mutl-colored marble statue of him, which I would hate in any other context, but Oscar Wilde is not a plain, classy white marble kind of guy. And this statue is reclining on a giant rock, smoking a pipe, and looking like he’s judging you. 

Which he probably is, let's be real. And then there are the pillars. There are two of them, each with a statue on top: one male and one female. The pillars themselves are black and covered in quotes from Oscar Wilde. 

And actually, there was a special adornment on the memorial when I was there because on Friday Ireland had a referendum on whether or not to allow same-sex couples to marry. There were posters all over the city, most featuring either the word "YES" very large or "NO" very large. And on Thursday when I visited the Oscar Wilde Memorial, someone had done this 

I think Oscar would have approved. And that's really the thing. I feel like this whole memorial really captures the spirit of the man its dedicated to, and it really shows how Oscar Wilde would have liked to be remembered. 

So then I went and wandered a little bit. I did a little shopping, sat in St. Stephen's Green and read, wandered, and got take out samosas from an Indian restaurant on my way to the Anglican Cathedral of Dublin. I went and listened to evensong service, which was beautiful. Sung services are absolutely my favorite kind. Unfortunately, the sitting listening to beautiful music in a prayerful attitude made me very sleepy indeed, and I may have dozed off slightly, but I'm glad I went nonetheless. After that I  headed back to my hostel, took a much-needed shower, and hit the hay. 

Even as tired as I was my first day in Ireland, it was really good to be back here. Ireland is one of my favorite places on Earth and it felt like coming home to be back in Dublin. I missed the way things felt in Europe: the atmosphere, the pace of life, the ubiquity of churches, the different accents and multiple languages. Coming back to Dublin was great, because I knew my way around, I knew landmarks, and, more esoterically, I knew the sights and smells and rhythms of the city. I'm really glad that I chose to fly into Dublin, and I'm even more glad that I'm back on my proper content. 

Next time on Katie's Blog 2.0....

the non-jetlagged day in Ireland.