This weekend was the first time that our group really split up and did their own thing. Caiti and I decided that we were going to Dublin with her sister, Erin, since she was flying to visit. We should have known the second that Caiti’s mom called saying Erin’s flight had been delayed that this trip was not going to go according to plan. Our flight was supposed to leave at 11:05 a.m. We were not on it. By 10:45 a.m. when the gates were closing, Erin was still no where in sight. Caiti and I had already gone through security and customs and were waiting by gate 82. When we talked to the flight attendant, she said Erin hadn’t even checked in yet. She had no phone and they couldn’t page her over the intercom. We had no way of getting a hold of her. They tried to tell us to just go on the flight anyway and that they would tell her to take the next one out, but we weren’t about to do that.
Finally deciding we were going to miss our flight, we headed back out and to the main waiting area. However, we would have to go back through security again, and once we did that, we knew there was no chance in making it to Dublin. We started to pace a bit and figure out what we were going to do. If we walked through those gates all the money we spent on the flight would be gone as well as the money for the hostel and bus tickets, which was quite a bit of money. Walking up to the custom service desk for Aer Lingus, we asked him to help us, hoping he could do more than the people from gate 82. Thankfully, he did. Somehow, he managed to get a hold of a woman who happened to be talking to Erin at that time. Caiti was able to talk to Erin on the phone and figure out what we were to do next. From what we were told on our side of security, Caiti and I would be able to get our tickets and just pay an additional £63 but Erin would have to buy an entirely new ticket for upwards of £213. With those amounts in mind, we killed our dream of going to Dublin and headed back through security.
After we finally reaching Erin, we found out she was told something much differently, that she, too, would be able to just pay the £63 and we could all make the 12:35 p.m. flight. Jumping on this opportunity, we bought our tickets and rushed back through security, only to be stopped and have our bags searched (something we didn’t have to go through an hour previous when we went though). Once we made it through security for the second time, we rushed back through the terminal and found our way to gate 84 and made our flight. It was quite a relief to be sitting on the plane and knowing we would actually make it there this time.
Once we reached Dublin, things began to go a little more smoothly, until we reached the hostel that is. Our room was on the third floor, which was fine by us. There were 15 beds, all full and of both men and women. We walked in to a shirtless man from Istanbul introducing himself to us. We soon had people from France, London, Bologna, Italy and a few other places sharing a room with us. This was a very new experience because we had never shared a room with anyone besides our group before and they have always been all girl rooms. At this moment, I felt at such a disadvantage. Not only was I a girl, but I was an American girl who only knew how to speak English. It felt like everyone else in the room could at least speak two, if not five, different languages.
Once we slightly settled in, we needed to head downstairs to get a locker for our belongings, though it was quite interesting to me how many people decided to leave their purses or bags scattered around their bed area free for anyone to take. As I headed down the hallway, there was a button you had to hit in order to unlock the door to the stairs. The button was broken. I brought Erin back to try to figure out the door to see if maybe I was doing something wrong. After about 5 minutes of playing around with the door, we both came to the conclusion that it was, in fact, broken. But there was an emergency exit I had seen signs for, so we decided it would be a good idea to venture out that way to see if that led anywhere. That turned out to be a terrible idea. We got stuck.
We soon realized the only exit in that dark, dirty, garbage filled stairwell, was a door that was wired with an alarm. There were doors to each floor, however, each was locked. Erin and I began to pound on each of doors on the floors hoping that someone would hear us. After a few minutes, Erin remembered that I had my computer on me-the one my father had shipped to her since my old computer had broke-and if we could get internet, we would be able to contact someone to help us in someway. That plan was quite short lived though because my dad put a password on the computer that I didn’t know. I did have my phone! Which also turned out to be a bust because we didn’t know what the calling out number would be to call Caiti and tell her to come let us out. So once again, we were stuck. The only option we had would be to get someones attention as they were walking into their room, because setting off that alarm was not an option, unless we wanted to be arrested. Twenty minutes after we got locked in the stairwell, a guy finally walked by and let us out. He didn’t seem to know much English and was very confused by why we were so frantic and in the stairwell.
Dublin did not seem to be treating us too well. Saturday ended up being a bit of a bust but Sunday did make up for it. We did a three hour walking tour and learned about the history of Dublin and saw all of the popular places in the city. We also were able to go to a few pubs and see firsthand live Irish music performed. In the end, Dublin did find a way to make a girl not want to leave. Over all, it was a great trip and a good learning experience. We never really thought about something going wrong, so in a way, I guess it was good that we did go through this to know how to handle stressful situations while traveling. I am excited to see the Eastern coast of Ireland, when we see the Cliffs of Moher, later on in the year.
