Luck of the Irish

After the most depressing morning of my life, we left Courtfield for the last time and were off to Heathrow! Our plane had some issues with take-off, but I dozed through most of it, so life was alright!

Passport check 2 out of 5!

We finally arrived a Dublin Airport at around noon! Most of us were trying to figure out why the Dublin Airport didn't have a fancier name, like Sky Harbor or Heathrow, and then we discovered that it did. Aerfort Bhaile Átha Cliath is a name that I will never be referring to in casual conversation about Dublin Airport.

A short coach ride later, and we arrived at our destination!

UCD! The green!

The University College Dublin is a gorgeous campus. It is pristine, open, and most importantly, green! We were extremely excited. We were even more excited, however, when we got to the room-assignment portion of our afternoon...

My room!

The separate kitchen/living area for the four of us!

The view from our living room!

As much as I loved dear Courtfield, the UCD rooms put my old room to shame. I'm so excited to go to sleep tonight! Our views are incredible, and the added bonus of facing the courtyard is being able to spy on everyone coming and going about their nefarious activities!

After a brief settling in period, Dr. Foy and Dr. Facinelli wanted to show us the bus stop and how to use it. We're about 20 minutes (by bus) away from the inner city of Dublin, so bus rides are necessary if you want to get into town in a timely fashion! However, I know that London has trained us well for walking long and far, so I think we'll be alright no matter what travel we take.

Starving, we ducked into the first pub we saw and got some traditional Irish fare!

Laura, Marissa, and Olivia at the Merchant's Arch!

We decided to make a brief night of it, as we were exhausted from our travels. So we went to the first grocery store we found and picked up the essentials. Then we hopped on the 39A bus, as instructed, and headed back to our new home.

Or so we thought.

Cue the dramatic music here! For episode two of "The One Were We Get Lost: Dublin Edition!" This adventure was not entirely our fault, however. Dr. Facinelli clearly told us that the 39A bus would take us back to UCD, as it drives on a loop that begins and ends at UCD. So, applying that logic, we got on the first 39A bus we saw. It started off driving in the opposite direction, but we knew that it had to turn around eventually and go back to UCD. After about 45 minutes of not turning around, the concern began to set in. When we ended up deep in suburbia miles away from our starting point and the lights got turned off with only the four of us upstairs on the bus, we knew something had gone horribly awry. 

So of course, I was the one who was forced down the stairs to go and see just what kind of trouble we were in with the bus driver, who didn't know people were still on board. It turns out that buses are weird. That is basically what I got out of his explanation as to why he had taken his bus out of service for the day and was heading back to the depot. However, upon explaining our dire situation/telling him that we were clueless American students fresh off the plane from London, he kindly went out of his way to drop us off at the nearest bus station that would allow us to get on the right 39A bus back to UCD. 

We thanked him profusely (I'm sure any other bus driver in any other country would have just dumped us in the middle of nowhere to fend for ourselves) and promised him that we would get used to the bus system here (maybe). He took us to the bus stop that was closest to the city center and the one he judged as safest for four young ladies to wait at, and bade us farewell. Needless to say, we made it back in one piece! It was quite an adventure, however, and we did get our own personal mini-tour out of the ordeal! 

Dublin has an entirely different vibe altogether, and I am excited to see what the next 11 days will bring!