Ireland (Days 1&2)
I am in Ireland!
I have not done much except take transportation, sleep, and eat. I took an overnight flight leaving at 10:30pm my time and landing 10:40am in Dublin, misjudged my reaction, and ended up getting "travel exhaustion." I felt overheated, overstimulated, foggy, and extra shaky (for those who don't know, I have a tremor and getting sick makes it 10x worse). That meant I couldn't hold anything or steady my body.
I made friends with my plane seat neighbor and we ended up exchanging numbers, though I doubt I'll ever see him again because I don't travel internationally very often.
I don't have many Dublin pictures. I took the bus from airport, drove around Dublin feeling sick, puked in a plastic bag, missed my stop, passed my hotel, then went back to the airport. From there I got a taxi and went to the hotel. By the time I got there I felt 100% again.
Everyone was very nice about it. A stranger gave me tissues and another asked if I was going to be ok or if I needed assistance.
Day 1, despite getting in so early, was spent taking care of my now-weak body and rehydrating. I felt like I got a good tour of the city by Airport Express Bus so when I go back to Dublin next week, I'll have my bearings. So it wasn't all bad.
This morning I woke, nibbled on some food, packed up, went back to sleep, then walked to the tram to get to Heuston station. There I got more food, then boarded a train to Kilkenny.
So far Ireland is beautiful and charming by air and by bus and by train.
In Kilkenny, I've slept, walked 3 miles, eaten, and scoped out the gift shops for tomorrow.
I am generally a low expense, low effort traveler. The most complex thing I'm doing on this trip is taking multiple forms of transportation. Otherwise the plan is to mostly walk around in total awe.
I take a trip every year on my birthday. The goal is to see an unfamiliar sky on the day I was born. It's not always so extravagant (one year I just went to another person's house whom I hadn't visited since they moved in) but this year I "impulsively" decided on Ireland. It wasn't really an impulse in the sense that I bought tickets 9 months ago, but it was a random decision. Ireland was never really on my bucket list.
It's cool, breezy, rainy, and perfect weather for wandering around staring at things. Despite the sickness up front my only complaint is the lack of AC or cooling devices in hotels. I think I could still probably run away here, though.