Dublin is Crazy!

June 4th, Waking Up in Rush:


So happy to be out of Dublin.  The days have mixed together so much, its hard to keep track of them.  The first day in Dublin was horrendous - 5 am in an airport with hardly anyone around and my laptop wouldn't get power through the adapter :( I didn't remember the address to the campsite we were supposed to go to.  We decided to get the bikes out of their boxes and put them together to get out of the airport. We spent the next seven hours completely exhausted between riding our bikes and having no sleep.  The jet-lag was crazy. I twas as though we had flown into the future and everyone else's time was behind us.  This was fairly true because we were seven hours ahead of everyone at home.
Being only semi-conscious and after wandering the streets for a couple of hours (and attempting to ride our bikes but being on the wrong side of the road) we decided we either had to access the internet or find a camp area.  I knew in there wasn't camping in town but there should have been an easily accessible local internet cafe (Rick Steves said so! lol). Of course everyone we asked had no idea what we were talking about (either their accents were too thick or we just weren't making sense or both lol ) Around 3pm Dublin (and after setting up a tent in a local park and being told we had to take it down for our own safety) we found ourselves looking at the door of a hostel in the middle of City Centre, Dublin. Dublin International Hostel for 17 euros each  we could stay and use Wi-Fi for free and have free breakfast.  We were so tired from having about four hours of sleep in three days that we barely found the energy to drag all our shit up three flights of extensive stairs. We found our bed numbers , put sheets on them and collapsed for about 7 hours.  Rick would have been horrified because I totally forgot to lock everything up in my locker, but I was pretty out of it.
I woke up and took a shower around 10 pm Dublin time (3pm at home) and found Nate downstairs. From there we got online and ate some vending machine food (2 euros - $3) which was our first food for the day, we hadn't even remembered to eat we had been wandering around so much. We ended up using the internet til about 1am and then went back to bed and slept for another 5 hours lol.
Next morning we were up and around doing laundry and getting breakfast as well as talking to this guy named Oscar from Latvia (I thought he was cute, but Nate disagreed, obviously we do not have the same taste in men lol) Latvia btw is between Germany and Russia and I never knew it existed until that day.  He told us Rush was a cute beach village that was on the way to Belfast.  We had been asking about it because it had a campsite available.  I added him to Google chat so we could stay in touch ;)
check out was at eleven so we headed out slightly more prepared but knowing we were in desperate need of panniers (of course dad was right again :P).  Trying to find a bike shop and ones who address I actually had was nearly impossible as every Irish man woman or child seemed to have a different idea of where it was located.  "Go down to the right, than turn left and than right again"
"It's two lefts and then you see a park and take another right"
"Bicycles? A shop? I haven't heard of any around here."
One man who helped us beyond measure was on a bicycle himself and rode to O'Connell Street (the heart of Dublin)
"It's all in the attitude" he told us when we were too scared to ride directly on the streets between all the traffic.  Luckily, Dubliners (and Irish in general) are used to the random cyclist roving in and out of the lanes and they have learned to dodge them pretty well. His name was Kierran and he said to say hi to his people in Cork.
"Yes, there are many O'Keefes down there, many, many." He laughed.
I always thought I was feisty and full of gumption, but the Irish - they have plenty of attitude especially when it comes to crossing roads.  I'm sure I witnessed more traffic violations in our two days in Dublin than I have the whole rest of my life.  Traffic lights are more of guidelines really.  A red light only reminds you to look, but if the cars have a red light it doesn't matter what color yours is you can still go.  Dubliners in cars are used to dodging pedestrians and cyclists. I'm so glad I was on a bike, I'm sure I would have hit someone if I had been driving a car, never expecting them to pop out of a red light.  The Garda or police here don't care in the least, jaywalking is a concept no one has ever heard of.  It's the same in Rush, pedestrians can go when they like, just don't get hit lol.