Recap: We are now on hour 4 of Sam and I’s journey. The four of us (Simone, Rebecca, Sam, and I) are currently riding on the LUAS back into town after a slight 20 minute setback of riding in the wrong direction. We narrowly got Sam back on board but we are getting closer to our pub food destination. You’ve made it this far, the end is in sight.
We are making our way into the City Centre with the assistance of the navigation app and when people with red or blue jerseys exit the tram—the jerseys represent the two teams playing in the Gaelic football match. So another 20 minutes pass and our surroundings are starting to look familiar so we are going to get off in the next couple stops. As our generation does, we are paying more attention to our phones then we are and we get off a few stops further than intended. As we all exit, each of us are deciding the best route to take next (quickest and fastest is preferable) on our phones.
Well… one of us isn’t because their phone is still on the LUAS! Simone realized that she left her phone on the LUAS and we all freeze for a second as we are stunned and take off in a mad haste after the LUAS. Sam, Rebecca, and I take off as we have on tennis shoes. Rebecca than turns back and tries to make sure that Simone isn’t just overlooking her phone and starts calling it. Sam heads back as well and I think I’m too far gone to turn back. I try to keep up with the tram as long as I can until as it is now travelling uphill (my absolute Achilles heel). I am starting to lose ground and the tram turns the corner about 300-400 feet ahead of me and I am thinking it has to stop soon to let other people off. Well, it does but I am way too late and it goes into a non-pedestrian area—the point of no return.
Now this is when I realize that my phone is ringing—Rebecca is calling me. But I am afraid of picking up international charges, I send it straight to voicemail and response with a text. I wait for them to walk the rest of the way to me and tell them I wasn’t able to grab the phone in time. Lucky for us, Rebecca was able to call Simone’s phone and a woman answered it. She got off at the next stop which turned out to be the last stop before we would’ve lost the phone forever—and also about 100 feet away from where we were standing. We thank the lady graciously for grabbing the phone and returning it to Simone and we think about how the luck of the Irish has been with us today.
Mind you, Sam and I are now on hour 5 of no eating and once again, further from our destination. We put on our map Drumcondra and start heading in that general direction. It is close to match time—about 1.5 hours until it starts. As we are walking through the City, it is pretty empty but we can see Croke Park to the North so we know we are getting closer. Pubs are standing room only which is what we are looking for but many places have stopped food sales because people just want to drink as they watch the match. At this point, we are just looking for somewhere to sit down and eat; forget about the match. Us four travel from pub to pub just looking at food menus and space for us to eat.
On our food voyage, we are immersed with the Dublin “Boys in Blue” fans (Dublin vs. Tyrone in All Ireland final match). *INSERT VIDEO* and come to the realization that all the pubs in this vicinity will be doing alcohol sales and standing room only. So we decide whatever restaurant that fits everyone’s needs—mainly two vegetarians. We finally decide on a place: Shouk. A small, fresh, authentic Mediterranean literal hole in the wall. A meal that gets its own blog J
We leave the restaurant and decide to catch the end of the match. After many unsuccessful attempts at finding a pub that can seat four, we stumble upon one with a large sectional couch with the match being projected onto the walls. Either the couch is too comfortable for us or we have the ‘itis’ because we all end of dozing off after about 10 minutes. It doesn’t last for long as there are a couple of rowdy fans—namely a screaming toddler—that gets us up. Anyways, we watch the gaelic game (once again confused as how scoring works) and realize that it is ending soon—Dubs with the lead!
Sam and I knew how packed it was when we passed through town, so we can only imagine what the streets were going to look like once people started filing out of the stadium. On top of that, after the home team won as well! We get ourselves together and realize it is time to call it a day (at 5 p.m.). The Trinity girls head back into the City Centre while Sam and I head back to DCU.
It has been a long, eventful day but one that was well-needed. What better way to begin our year here with 10 miles walked in a beautiful city getting lost with two other Victory Scholars, experiencing the hype of one of the Irish’s traditional games. I can honestly say I think I’m really going to like it here.
Fun fact: We encountered more international/foreign people when asking for directions than we did Irish people which demonstrates the amazing diversity Dublin has to offer.
