Location(s): Dublin, Anacotty Square, University of Limerick, Limerick
After a long but uneventful flight, in which we encountered easily miffed middle-aged women, surprisingly tasty ravioli, and overly attentive flight attendants, we landed in Dublin @4:23 am local time. After passing through customs in the blink of an eye, we located our luggage without incident, acquired some € and headed out into the chilly dawn. A lack of foreknowledge regarding our bus to Limerick led to a lively adventure across the airport to find it. Once said bus was located we were able to board, proudly paying with our spanking new euros, and toddled off to the next stop, where we changed buses like proper adults.
Pleased with ourselves, we settled in for the two-hour drive to the University of Limerick, where we would be meeting the lovely Sam.
It was only after exiting the bus, dragging our luggage onto the curb, and cheerily waving farewell to the driver that we realized we were in the wrong place. I suppose there are worse places to end up than the charming village of Anacotty at 9 am on a Wednesday, but it was not exactly where we intended to end up. Thus, after a long while of attempting to do it all ourselves, we surrendered and called Sam to bail us out. Turns out we were only a few miles off track, and a taxi was summoned to speed us to our destination.
Our lovely cabbie pointed out some of the key features of the University as we drove through, including an Olympic size pool which I am told is one of only two in Ireland. Sam told us that Olympians train there, but added the caveat that she may have made that up.
Once our gear was safely stowed in Sam's extremely nice on-campus apartment, she took us on a tour of the campus, and then into town for a delicious lunch and to acquire supplies. I was able to purchase the most beautiful 12-string guitar for only €200! It's sound easily matches or surpasses my much more expensive Martin guitar. The rest of the guitars were similarly priced, but no where near as high quality. I am in love with it. The woman running the store was a gregarious Irish lady who chatted us up and informed us of an exciting music festival in July that we hope to attend.
Now I'm typing this post as I attempt to stay awake to adjust to the time difference, which may account for any oddities in the above text. More to come! An excellent start to a trip that is already shaping up to be memorable and amazing.
^ Sir Lancelot and my new 12 string Tanglewood!
The unfortunately named, but extremely tasty cookies/biscuits that Sam introduced us to.
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