Welcome to Ireland

I am writing this entry from a hostel in Dublin after about two hours in Ireland. The weather is, shockingly, rainy, and it's rather chilly too - a high of about 64 degrees, versus 94 in Philly.

My journey to Ireland was pretty stressful since I had never left the US, traveled anywhere alone, or been on a plane alone. In fact, my plane experience was limited to a high school orchestra trip where the parents and teachers did everything, so essentially I had no idea what was going on. Impressively, I managed to avoid any major mistakes when boarding the plane and I was actually beginning to think that this whole process would be easy. I learned the error of my ways shortly after, when despite my efforts I could not work the video player. Then, I failed to learn how to recline my chair. Don't even ask. Anyway, that turned out to be for the best because the older Irish woman seated next to me and a muscular Irish man sitting behind her got into a fight because she wanted to recline her chair and he kept shoving it back upright. Then, the flight attendant (also Irish) yelled at them and told them to act like adults. (As much as tourists emphasize the Irish friendliness, it seems like the Irish temper cannot be ignored.) Afterwards, the man switched seats so that he was behind me, so I guess it's good that I couldn't figure out where the lever was.

The plane flight was otherwise as good as six hours in a confined space could be. As I was leaving JFK Airport I had a great view of NYC and of the Atlantic. Looking over the ocean from a low altitude, I saw a lot of white splashes and gray shapes, which I realized were probably sharks after seeing hours of similar footage on Shark Week. It was pretty scary but also amazing. The view from the plane was great at sunset and also when they turned the lights off at around 10pm. Since we were over the Atlantic, it was pitch black and you could see the stars incredibly clearly. The plane food was surprisingly good and we got to Dublin a bit early.

The long immigration line and the part where I couldn't find the baggage claim aren't very interesting. I finally had all my things together and I was ready to leave the airport, but I was completely parched after the 3 oz servings of water they give you on the plane. Spotting a soda machine, I thought it would be easy enough to get a drink. But no! The machine did not have a slot for paper bills. It took me several minutes to realize that you are supposed to use the €1 coins. After that, I tried to get a drink but it said everything was unavailable, even though you could see through the glass that they had the soda. Finally, I got a Fanta and some change. I promptly dropped the Fanta (it had a very oddly shaped bottle!) so that when I opened it, it sprayed all over me. And the worst part was that after all that work, it wasn't even cold!

Also, did I mention that it is raining?

It's not exactly an auspicious start, I admit, but it'll make the inevitable future mistakes seem a lot less stupid. Besides, it could've been worse - the plane might've crashed over the Atlantic and I would've slowly died of hypothermia before sharks ripped me apart. Anyway, I'm sure it will be very exciting once I get an opportunity to nap or sleep. Until then, I will attempt to entertain you with my terrible and completely unfounded observations about Ireland. I've only been here for three hours, so don't expect anything profound or accurate.

So far, the strangest things about Ireland are:

The Euro - they have €1 coins and €2 coins, and people actually use them! Plus all the denominations of paper money are different sizes, which means the more valuable ones don't really fit in my wallet. Euros aren't really bad, but they do annoy me because all my money is now automatically 1/3 less valuable.

Junk food - I'll admit this is based on extremely limited observation, but it appears that Ireland has a Pringles obsession. They sold the little cans on the plane for €2 (which seems ridiculous) and there is a vending machine exclusively for Pringles in the hostel. Weird, right? But it's even stranger when you consider that Ireland is supposedly known for its potatoes, and Pringles suck.
Also, there is a lot of Fanta. It seems rather popular.
What keeps confusing me, though, is how different soda bottles and candy wrappers look here, even when they are for a product like 7-up or Kit-Kats that you can get in the US.

CNN - with British accents, and cricket, but scarily similar otherwise.

Humorous image of the day: The Irish hipster sitting in front of me who watched 17 Again (the movie with Zac Efron). Also, the girl (I think she was American) who was drinking Guinness when the flight attendants handed out the breakfast orange juice.