The Rocky Road To Dublin

I awoke Sunday morning, realizing that I was no longer in a hot, equatorial African country, but instead a cold, Northwest European one. It was a strange feeling, indeed. After breakfast (FYI Dad, it was alright), we packed our bags and walked to Euston Station, awaiting our train to Wales.

Trains in England are pretty decent. They should be, considering they invented the damn things! We rode a quasi-futuristic Virgin train (Richard Branson must own half of the UK) and it was a really great way to see the English countryside: gently rolling hills, fields of sheep and even a pair of deer! Every town on the way seemed to be the same: old brown brick houses with tiny backyards, church steeples rising above the sea of rooves and the odd factory. It must seem to be terribly boring to the average Brit, but I really dug it.

It got dark a little after 4PM. Considering it rises after 8AM and hangs low all day, giving it the impression of always being early morning or late afternoon, it's been quite a change from Ghana, in which the sun rises at 6AM, travels almost directly overhead and doesn't go down until after 5. By the time we changed trains and went into Wales, it was pitch black, save for some town lights and the odd illuminated Welsh sign (I didn't know you could spell "Flint" with two Fs).

After a curious delay involving a strike and donairs (definitely NOT traditional Welsh fare), we departed Holyhead on a high-speed ferry towards Dublin. And let me tell you, the Irish Sea is quite rough. People on the ship were periodically stumbling every 6 seconds from the waves and Maleaha herself was feeling pretty queasy after only 15 minutes. She spent the next two hours looking and feeling greener than the Emerald Isle itself. Suddenly a ferry across the sea didn't appear to be as romantic as I had hoped.

After 10, we arrived at Dublin Port. Anthony was there waiting for us and escorted us onto the bus towards downtown, where his apartment is. We walked down the Liffey, the river that splits the city in two - the prosperous South and the rougher North. Guess which side Anthony lives on? No matter, it's a nice place, with interesting roommates (French, German and Swiss - it's a freakin' UN conference in here) and it looks like Anthony has a pretty sweet deal here.

Anthony is an awesome tour guide as well. He showed us a bit of downtown and we got a pint of Guinness to celebrate before hitting the hay...