I flew out of O'Hare and had a 3 hour flight, landing in Newark. That's when the headache started. I new there was some type of transportation to JFK airport and was actually directed to the "Air Train" after picking up my bike from the baggage claim. The air train only took me to the train station where I took a train to 3 different stations before arriving at the JFK shuttle. The ticketing and shuffling from train to train was enough to make me give up.
It was pretty easy getting through the airport at JFK. Luckily, my bike was able to be checked at of all the airports for no charge. However, my bike bag ended up with a couple tears from rough handling. I was at ease after boarding, knowing this was the last flight before landing in Ireland. Not long after departing, we had our complimentary dinner which was nice. I was able to sleep most of the way, with waking a few times for comfort reasons. Prior to landing, we also had complimentary breakfast.
Flying over Ireland was a thrill! I can now see why Ireland is associated with green. All but a few recently tilled farm lands was green. The green became more prominent as we got closer to landing. The cliffs were impressive as well.
The landing was nice and claiming baggage and going through customs was a breeze. The original plan was to assemble my bike at the airport and ride to the hostel. Instead, I caught a cab. It always seems to take a bit to get used to driving on the left of the road. The cab driver was interesting to talk to. Better yet, he was fun to listen to because of his thick accent. When we arrived at the hostel, I tried to check in but the the desk person said I wasn't going to be able to check in until after 2. At this point, it was a little after 8. He did let me pay for the bed and let me use the key to the bike garage so I could assemble my bike. The bike went together easily and I was able to use my new panniers. I was able to get a locker where I could store all the packing materials for my bike.
I decided that since I had a lot of time to kill, I would explore around Dublin (which was actually in my itinerary for today for after checking in). I caught onto riding on the left side pretty easily. However, there's a lot of one way roads and their road system and intersections are something complete foreign to what we have in the U.S. I rode around for a while until I got lost. Not really lost but had difficulty finding where the hostel was. I knew about where it was at, but the issue was getting to it with all of the one way streets. I eventually got off the bike and walked it to the hostel. Ireland (and particularly Dublin) is very bike friendly. They have bike lanes almost any where and the roads that don't have "cycle tracks", the drivers are very courteous. Some streets are barely wide enough for a car whereas some streets have lanes wide enough to fit 2 cars. Regardless, drivers are always good about giving bikers plenty of room and often times give right of way to the bikers. The people here are very friendly.
When 2:00 came around, I was able to check in an get the room key. The rooms are all locked with hotel style door locks. I took a quick shower which felt really good after spending almost 24 hours in airports.
The room I'm staying in is a 16 bed mixed dorm. The room is small but it doesn't really need to be that big since I'm spending most of my time outside. The common room is pretty nice, as is the break room, game room, sauna room, kitchen, and library. I made a trip to the break room to access the wifi. By this point, I had 2 Dublin maps and bunch of literature on attractions. I went through my itinerary and marked each place on the maps. Then I was off.
I grabbed my backpack with some of the snacks I had leftover from the plane, and started walking around. If someone is not used to the Ireland road systems, biking can be somewhat difficult, so I found it easier to walk around and now I know most of the places around the hostel. I decided to also take a trip downtown.
Downtown was pretty cool. It was there that I saw some of the ruins of the city's original gates. I also was able to see many historical buildings, including Dublin Castle and a few cathedrals and churches. I'm sure my tour tomorrow will go by many of these but I will probably get a lot more history from the tour.
As I was walking, I learned that the Irish have different ways of going about day to day tasks. They are a bit more relaxed and open than Americans. But I think my favorite part of Ireland so far is listening to the people talk. I love their accent.
Well I was thinking it was close to dinner time so I walked around until I found a pizza shop that had an awesome deal on whole pizzas. So I stopped there and brought the pizza back to the hostel so I could eat here. I saw a great tea shop earlier, but when I went looking for it, I couldn't find it. I may have to go looking for it tomorrow. Even though we get free tea and coffee at the hostel, it will be cool having some good Irish tea. I would also like to get some to take home.
This brings us up to where I am now. I can say that I am exhausted. I don't think I will have any problem sleeping tonight on that top bunk. Tomorrow is free breakfast so lucky I'm looking forward to that.
