First 48 hours

Airports are much like cities. Busy, with lots of people traffic and shops and restaurants. Chicago's airport was really nice. I found some really cool gift shops that I might hit up on the way back, except oh yeah, I don't go through there on the way home. Oh well. I enjoyed the 5 hours or so layover I had there. I took a handful of pictures including one of a giant skeleton of a brachiosaurus. I didn't know they had airports back in the time of the dinosaurs.... Anyway, Frankfurt was cool too. Very big. Somewhat confusing at first. It was SO multicultural. There were no "minorities" because everyone in the world was there I think. Man it was huge. One other thing I liked about the Frankfurt airport were the glass enclosed smoking rooms which could get quite packed. It looked like a game of sardines where everyone was smoking. Lol.

So I got here last night around 8:30pm. My flight into Dublin was delayed but not too bad. I was pooped after I got all settled into the hostel. I was also starving though so I made my way to the nearest grocery store thanks to a fellow guest who was kind enough to show me directions on a google map. It was quite an adventure as I only had 15 minutes to make it there before it closed! It was like the Amazing Race. For awhile I was just briskly walking aimlessly because, even though I knew I was heading the right direction, I couldn't find any street signs! It took several blocks to figure out that the street signs were placed right on the sides of the buildings. And sometimes some of the letters have worn off which makes it even more difficult to figure out. (I made it just fine though) It was drizzly and warm out, the streets were pretty full of nightlife. I got a sandwich and some other things and mozied my way back to the hostel, taking in all the sights and sounds. It's a happening area of town, Temple Bar. Kind of like Uptown in Minneapolis, only much more compact. The streets, many of which are brick, are very narrow, as are the sidewalks. Restaurants, bars, and other shops are everywhere. The bigger buildings are either banks, churches, or museums.

The cars drive on the wrong side of the road and the drivers sit in the wrong side of the car. It's very strange. And there's not exactly a buffer zone between where the sidewalk ends and the driving lane begins, so stay on that sidewalk if you don't want to get side-swiped by one of the double decker city busses!

One of my classmates got here this afternoon. We went out walking a bit and met an interesting, perhaps a little eccentric, local. So much I could say about that. A short man, about 50, wearing a suit and tie, strong accent, said his name was John-Paul O'Reily. He asked us where we were headed. Said Dublin was his city. Just before running into him, Anna and I saw several black cars drive by, surrounded by several police officers on motorcycles. Mr. O'Reily asked us if we knew who just drove by and before we got a chance to reply he informed us that is was the Queen herself. I was in some disbelief even though I knew from watching the news that morning that she was, in fact, in Dublin at the present. It somehow seemed to me that for the Queen of England there should have been bigger cars, or more cars, or a parade of people, or paparazzi, or something! But besides the sirens of the motorcops and the 4 black cars that passed by, it was like no big thing. Interesting.

Mr. O'Reily then showed us what he thought of the Queen by using a gesture aimed in the direction that the cars had passed by just a moment ago. Very interesting.

I could say more about Mr. O'Reiley, like the fact that he likes Barack Obama, and a song by Pink, and that he predicted Anna would be a pop star and I would be a politician (Ha!), but I am pretty pooped and ready to prepare for bed. I will be waking up early to catch the bus to the airport to meet the rest of the class. As they say in Frankfurt, Auf Wiedersehen.