Trains are Not Like the Hogwarts Express

I had no idea what to expect when it came to riding the train. When I think of trains I think of the Hogwarts Express from Harry Potter. You know, the ornately decorated wood, with compartments where four people can sit, and a lady with a trolley brings around candy. Yeah that's definitely not it, but it wasn't bad either. You would think I would know what a real train looks like on the inside since my dad has been a toy train collector since I was born and I grew up playing with them, but nope. The inside is kind of like a plane, just with more room to move and you can walk around to get coffee or a snack. It's a pretty smooth ride too. I have to say my favorite part was hearing the whistle all the time. Definitely brought back lots of memories of my childhood. Too bad the Amtrak engines don't have a smoke stack like my cool trains did. Also, we arrived in Chicago an hour late due waiting on a Norfolk Southern freight train that was converging on the same track. The Grand Hall in Union Station was stunning, but I didn't stop to take any photos because I didn't want to be late, on the way home I definitely will!!

Got to the airport no problem despite lugging two pieces of luggage around Chicago. Check in everything goes smoothly, get to my terminal and wait. I realized I haven't eaten or drank anything all day so I find a food stand and grab a banana and juice. Then I look at the time and my flight isn't supposed to start boarding for an hour and a half, so I try to update the blog, but for some reason the wifi the airport is supposed to have wouldn't connect. So I'm just sitting there...then they switch terminals, good thing it was the one right next to where we were. They tell us that they're just waiting on the plane that's there to leave so ours can pull up. My flight was supposed to leave at 4p. Finally 4:30p rolls around and you can see all the passengers getting restless, then they announce that our terminal was changed again from F6 to E15...which just happens to be at the other end of the "Y" shaped terminal. So all of us haul butt to get over there. After waiting for the passengers that were on the plane to disembark and us to load, we didn't leave Chicago until 5:15p..my flight from Philly (1hr ahead of Chicago time) is supposed to leave for Dublin at 9p and it's a 2hr flight to Philly!! As soon as we land I get off the plane and have to run, literally run to my terminal. I stopped to use the bathroom before I boarded and almost missed my flight. I boarded and not five minutes later my plane took off! It was crazy and US Airways needs to get their poop in a group.

By this time I'm starving and exhausted because all I had to eat earlier was a banana and I've been awake since 6:30a. So you can imagine my excitement when they said they were going to serve an in-flight meal, which wasn't that bad surprisingly. Then I realized because I had to run, I didn't have a chance to pick up any Tylenol PM to help me sleep. Never again will I not stop. That was seriously the l-o-n-g-e-s-t flight I've ever had to endure. There was no getting comfy and there was definitely no sleeping. Surprisingly with everything else running late, the flight to Dublin landed 1hr early. When we land I had been awake for 20hrs, but I had to gather my brain and take some pictures :) So here's from inside the airport looking at MOUNTAINS!!!!I get on the 16a bus that takes me to my hostel and when I arrive there it's 10a Dublin time (which means 5a Michigan time). By the way, the bus system is insane, actually all the roads and drivers are, but the buses don't announce which stop you're at nor do they have a map on the wall showing which stops are which. And when I asked someone how do you know where to get off, the answer was, "You just know." I was lucky enough that I seen my hostel coming up so I was prepared, but I feel bad for those people who's stop is not as easy to point out as mine was.

I get to Avalon House and I could check in, but I wasn't allowed to have a key to the room until 2p, actual check in time, so inside the hostel is a coffee/sandwich/baked goods shop and I went over there to catch up on eating. I got a mocha which the barrista made very pretty as you can see and some pasta salad which was delicious!!So after that I was going to try and adventure to the Vodafone store to get a prepaid, but the guy at the counter explained that "prepay phones" haven't really made it to Ireland yet, but I could check out the store and gave me a map. He said it was like a 5 min. walk from the hostel, so I set out to find it. Well, since I was SO tired I ended up going the wrong direction and didn't feel like trying again, not to mention I didn't want to walk any further having two blisters on my feet, so I sat in the lobby where there are computers with free wifi and checked my Facebook haha.

Finally at 2p I was able to check in, I was SOOOOOO excited to get to my room to sleep!!! Walk up to the room and open the door and there's two beds. I thought I booked the room with one, but I guess not lol. Oh well, I just put my suitcase on the other one :) But the best part is the bathroom is in the room! Most hostels have a shared bathroom, but I got lucky finding Avalon House and the private suites have their own.

Here's the view from my room of Aungier St. Sorry about the really crappy white balance of the one below, but I just uploaded all of these straight out of my point and shoot. But this is what their electrical outlets look like.

I got all settled in and got to take a 3hr nap before I met with the model to do the photo shoot. He was really fun to work with, we were cracking up the entire time because he was embarrassed to pose while people were walking by and I kept thinking I was going to get run over because crazy drivers drive on the sidewalks and park there!! So we talked about all the differences from Europe and America and whatnot. It was dark by the time we started shooting so I don't have that many photos, but from what I was seeing on the camera I liked. I might post a couple later in the week, but for now I am going to bed. It's 9p here, so it's only 4p for most of you reading this. And I've more or less been awake for 32hrs, minus my 3hr nap, so it is WAY past my bedtime!! lol.

Tomorrow I get to meet up with the Dublin Roller Girls in the evening, so I'm excited to meet them and see how their practices go.

Good night!