Traveling Solo

Jake left today Originally this trip was my graduation present to myself via sponsorship of my late grandfather, and I even intended on traveling by myself to see the world… this was before Jake.

So when I started planning the trip, I wanted to go for as long as possible. Apple could give me as much as a month off so I took it, Jake could only get three weeks off, so I thought, cool, I will have a week by myself which is what I would’ve done anyway. Well, things ended up a bit differently. Jake and I had such an amazing three weeks together, it was hard to see him go, even harder than I expected.

Well he left in the morning for his flight, my flight wasn’t until the evening so I thought I’d hangout at the hostel and soak up all the wifi I could get. I was able to fully update the blog, which was great. Then I started to get bored, finding things to do online and starting to feel lonely. It was a little tough, but I figured it was because he just left and when I get to Barcelona I will start over and everything will be fine. So then it came time to head to the airport. I had given myself just enough time so I made my first attempt using the cheapest route possible, the public bus, which would’ve taken about an hour. But after 25 mins of waiting, it still hadn’t shown (even though three should have passed in that time according to the sign) and I didn’t want to risk it so I went for the direct bus. I wasn’t exactly sure where to meet it, so I started scrambling. They guy at the hostel had assured me that I would make it and everything would be ok after giving me the directions. But of course I got a bit lost, but Dubliners really are very kind when you ask for directions. Finally I get there, after watching one drive off I waited impatiently for the next one. Then when I got on I real panicked because the clock on the bus was showing an hour later than the one on my watch. I mean, I know Dublin had a different time than Italy, but I could’ve sworn I changed it, and looking at my phone wasn’t helping because I was manually changing that time as well and I had it on the 24-hour clock to coincide with the rest of the clocks in Europe. I was really sweating bullets, not to mention we were stuck in rush-hour traffic going to airport, yes i started crying. When we finally got to the airport, I RAN to find the RyanAir check in desk. As I was checking in I asked her if I would make my flight, she said “of course, you have like 2 hours, you’re fine”. I was like, wait, what? What time is it? She said it was 6:30 and my flight didn’t leave until 8:40. Thank God, the time on the bus was wrong! Phew, I went outside to have a cigarette and calm down a bit, and at that point I had no choice but to laugh. I went am grabbed a sandwich and a beer and wait for my flight.

But let me just say, Dublin really does have the nicest airport! The lines for security were the shortest I had ever seen, even getting there the time I did. The whole airport was clean, and the prices were totally reasonable! And from my research, they tend to have the cheapest flights, I total recommend them! Step one was accomplished, now off to Barcelona!