Happy New Year!
The first day of 2009 started off with a bang and didn't let up.
In the last hour of 2008, I sat down to a huge dinner with Heiko, Antonio, and Antonio's friends from Almería. I had worked on my homework and packing of my bags up until 11:00pm and quickly changed into dress clothes to be ready to go out. In the living room, I helped with the picking and dividing of grapes until piles of 12. Following Spanish tradition, at midnight we would eat them to bring good luck and prosperity for the New Year. The TV was blasting with the New Year's ceremonies in Madrid and we had a great time talking and enjoying the tasty meal. At midnight we all got up from the table and followed the instructions on the screen to eat the grapes. With that we had officially welcomed in 2009! Outside we saw the fireworks and could here the celebrations of all of the people at the house parties in the neighboring apartments. After finishing dinner and getting ready we left the apartment to head to "Mae West" Granada's best club where we would be participating in the New Year's festivities.
Walking the 10 blocks or so down to the club, the streets were filled with people dressed to the nines. We showed our entrance ticket that we had bought the week before and entered the club that was decorated for the New Year and filled with hundreds of other people. We all received goodie-bags and then proceeded to dance and mingle. The time flew by as before I knew it was 8:00am in the morning. I said goodbye to Heiko and Antonio who were still having fun and went back to my apartment, tired, to grab my backpack and head to the bus station where I would catch my 9:00am bus to Malaga. Fortunately, I was able to catch bus 33 to the bus station instead of having to walk the 4 km or taking a taxi. Looking through the bus window out on Gran Via, I saw dozens of people in suits and dresses heading back home after a full night of partying. Once on my bus to Malaga, I fell immediately to sleep for the 1 hour and a half bus ride.
After taking the tram to the Malaga airport, I still had a lot of time before my flight boarded. As such is the ridiculous of Ryanair it was cheaper for me to book two separate flights than one flight on another airline. I would be flying to Dublin from Malaga on one flight and then flying from Dublin to Prague on another at 4am. My friend Jonathan Garvey was already in Dublin and we had plans to meet up once I arrived. His phone wasn't working as I tried to call him at the airport, but I had the address of his hostel and would figure out how to get in contact with him once the time came.
I checked into my flight and was able to get my blatantly oversized carryon past the Ryanair booking desk. After going through security, I had a breakfast/lunch at the airport and then got in line to board for my flight. Since Ryanair doesn't assign seats, I was one of the first in line and able to get a seat near the front. I was able to sleep an hour on the plane but most of the flight I just listened to music and read for Teoría del Estado.
In Dublin with another fresh green Ireland passport stamp in my passport, tired, but with a slight second win, I went immediately to the "Airbus" station and purchased a 24 hour ticket to head into the city. Dublin was the first "outside of Spain, European city" that I had returned too and more or less had an idea of where everything was located.
On the bus, I looked at the map, trying to figure out a good spot where I could meet up with Jon. His phone was still dead. I decided to head in the direction of Temple Bar where at least I knew where I was and look for an internet cafe. I found the directions to Jon's hostel at an internet cafe and headed across the river trying to find the street signs. As luck would have it, I saw Jon walking on the other side of the street. He was looking for me. We walked back to his hostel so I could drop off my backpack.
Entering the hostel, I was immediately impressed and thought it one of the best hostels I'd been in. There was no problem with me coming in as a guest and everyone was up talking, socializing and cooking in the kitchen. Maybe it was just New Years, but the hostel had a fantastic ambiance. In the kitchen we saw Mark, our other friend from the UCEAP program who had traveled with Jon to Dublin for New Years. He would be flying back to Granada the next day. We helped Mark make dinner and met some really cool kids from France and Holland. Three girls from Holland, in particular, were very cool and we ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the night.
I had originally wanted to take a nap, but after laying on Jon's hostel bed for 20 minutes I decided to make the most of my time in Dublin and went back down stairs to begin what would be an amazingly social and fun night.
The Dutch girls, Jon, Mark, and I decided to go to the Temple Bar area. We actually went back to Temple Bar on Temple Bar where although it was crowded, and the same band from when I was there in November was playing, we ended up having a fantastic time. There were people there from all over the world. I ordered one obligatory Guinness and set about socializing. I met some fun students from Norway, Brasil and France and spoke in Spanish with a group of students from Madrid. We stayed until the bar closed at 3:00am and then went back to the hostel so Jon and I could catch the bus back to the airport for our check in time at 4:00am. After exchanging facebook info with the Dutch girls and French guys, Jon and I said goodbye and headed to the airport to begin our next adventure.
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