Dublin, New Years 2007

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On our way back to Portugal after Christmas we stopped over in Dublin for a few nights. Plane tickets from Detroit to Lisbon were fairly expensive (it was cheaper to fly to Dublin and then take a budget airline to Portugal, or at least it should have been… more on that later) and anyway we were happy to have an excuse to take another little trip. In Dublin we met up with our friend Megan, which was fun because she had studied abroad there in college and still had some friends there. We were also joined for a couple of nights by George and Richard, friends from the states who were spending Christmas with their mom in the UK.

Jason and I had been to an AIESEC conference together in Ireland in 1999, and we decided to stay in the same hostel we’d stayed in seven years ago. Not much had changed other than the addition of wireless internet, and I’m pretty sure there were some spots under my bunk bed that hadn’t been cleaned since the last time we were there. But anyway, the location was great and it suited our purposes just fine.

We spent the first couple of days checking out some tourist sights, including the Chester Beatty Museum, which was really well done, free, and had the added bonus of a really good and affordable restaurant and café. Nights were mostly spent at Messrs Maguire, a pub that we’d been to in 1999 and that Megan had hung out at when she studied there, and that was conveniently right around the corner from our hostel. I think Guinness really does taste better in Ireland.

On New Years Eve, we had a nice Indian dinner at Megan’s friend Paul’s apartment, and then headed to a party with some of their friends. We had a great time, toasted the new year with champagne, and met some really nice, really funny people.

The only negative part of the whole trip was the flight back to Porto on Ryanair. The airline kind of has a bad reputation but we’d flown them before so we thought we knew what to expect. Unfortunately, they had lowered the check luggage weight limit from 20 to 15 kilos per person, and they charge 8 euros per extra kilo plus 10 euros per bag you check, so by the time we were done paying all of our extra charges we had negated any savings from flying a budget airline, and could have flown a real airline and gotten food onboard as well. Anyway, now we know and we’re going to try to avoid flying them on any of our future trips.

On a more positive note, we’re happy to be back in Portugal. After so much rain in the fall, we’ve had a full week of sunny, 60 degree weather, which seems particularly nice after having been in the cold north for the last few weeks! We’re finishing up our first semester right now, with exams at the end of the month, and looking forward to all of our visitors coming between now and May, starting with my mom and her friend Cathy early next month.

- Lindsay

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