September 4th: First Day in Dublin, Ireland

The main reason I went to Ireland for the EUCARPIA forge grass conference.  The conference officially started on September 4th at 7pm with drinks and hors d'oeuvres.  So myself and four my colleagues from work took the 8am plane from Copenhagen to Dublin. All five of us assumed that since we were leaving early on a Sunday morning that the airport would not be that busy.  Personally I am always a little nervous about missing a flight, so the day before I went to work and checked in online and printed off my boarding pass.

After a relaxing train ride to the airport we were shocked to see the airport was packed. While everyone else in my group had to go to those check in machines to check in and print off their boarding pass, I decided to get into line to check in our luggage.  And I was so glad that I did because the line snaked back and forth while also snaking down the hall. There had to be over 500 people waiting line this line to drop off their luggage. Once everyone printed off their boarding pass they joined me in the line. We all agreed that was crazy to see the airport this busy. We were lucky that the line did move quite quickly.  So we were all able to drop off our luggage, get through security, and even have enough time to get some pastries before we needed to board our flight.

Looking at the number of people waiting to board the flight I knew it would be a full flight and looking at my ticket I knew I would be sitting near the rear of the plane. Once I found my seat I noticed I was siting next to the window and right next to the engine, and there was a young child sitting behind me.  Once I sat down I was dreading the flight because it would be loud and annoying. Suddenly I realized I packed my earplugs in my bag. The lady next of me must of thought I was crazy as I quickly grabbed by bag under neath the seat in front of me and urgently searched my bag.  I found my ear plugs and put them in before the pilot started the engines.  I loved those earplugs, not only was the flight not that bad. I was actually able to get a little sleep during the flight, even with a crying child behind me and the engine roaring next to me.

Once we landed in Dublin at 9 am the five us climbed into a big van taxi and started off to your hotel.  Once the driver started driving, I noticed something odd. He was driving on the left side!! It was about a 20 minute drive to the hotel and the entire time the voice in my head was screaming: 'Ahhhh we are on the wrong side of the road.'

After getting to the hotel, our rooms were not ready yet so we dropped off our luggage and went of to find a restaurant open so that we could get some food.  We were not that far from the Temple Bar, which is a few blocks of tourist restaurants and shops.  The five of us found a small cafe open and most of us decided to have a traditional Irish breakfast.

Picture taken of Temple Bar in the distance. Temple Bar is a tourist and historical area of Dublin.

The streets of Temple Bar, right now it is pretty empty. But during the night these streets are filled with people.

The traditional Irish breakfast looked yummy and really unhealthy.  I got one fried egg, two sausage links, a slice of ham, white and black pudding with a sweet ketchup sauce.  I never heard of black or white pudding so I was interested in trying it.  And it tasted like a type of sausage with a unique spice and the texture was soft but it still kept its shape.   While eating the black and white pudding I made the mistake of asking what was in it. After learning what was in the black and white pudding, I just could not bring myself to eat any more of it. And for the rest of the trip I did not eat black and white pudding.

After eating breakfast we broke into two groups, T and B went back to hotel to meet S (who is from Ireland and is one of my supervisors at work) so that they could get their tickets to an Irish hurling game. Then C, A and I decided that since we are in Ireland, we must get some Guinness and the best for that was the Guinness Storehouse and Museum.

We started walking from the Temple Bar to the Guinness storehouse which is a 20 minute walk. We walked past Christ Church, and stopped to take pictures and video.

Christ Church, Dublin, Ireland - The building was amazing.

This was the chapter house of the Augustinian canons whose priory was at Christ Church from 1163 to 1537 AD.

C and A thought it was a little odd that I was all excited to see a large church in the city. I had to explain these types of buildings are not common in the United States at all. The only building that could even live up to the Christ Church or St. Patrick's Cathedral is the National Cathedral in Washington D.C.  Seeing large churches or old historic buildings in between all the modern roads and buildings is just normal for C and A.  We kept walking and after a nice 20 minute walk through Dublin, seeing many more beautiful and historic buildings we made our way to the Guinness Storehouse.

Note: Even though the video says 0:00 for the time, it does work. Just click on the play button.