Welcome to Northern Ireland: Day 1

Good Evening from Dundrum, Northern Ireland,

We’ve arrived in Northern Ireland and oh what a journey it has been already. The last 36 hours have been some of the longest hours of my life. In fact, the last few days have been long. I was quite busy at the beginning of May studying for finals, turning over my duties as student body Vice-President and assuming my new duties as student body President, and bidding farewell to close friends who were graduating. All this activity left me little time to prepare for Ireland, let alone think about it, so that’s what I’ve been doing the last few days. After all, this is my first time out of the country and only a few days to actually prepare for the trip may not have been enough. I had to buy all my travel necessities, get a converter/adapter for electrical outlets, figure out how currency works here, etc. It was a lot to cram into a few days, but it doesn’t compare to the past 36 hours.

I left my home in Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA at 10:55am on Friday, March 28th for the bus stop at Goerke’s Corners. The bus took me straight to O’Hare International Airport where I checked-in and was informed that flights with service to Newark, NJ were delayed. Continental Airlines wanted to bump me to an earlier flight to ensure that I would make my connecting flight to Belfast. I was booked on a flight set to leave at 3:30pm. It left a little late and it was on the smallest plane ever (only 19 rows with 3 seats each row) but I got to Newark and had time to relax. Once arriving at Newark, I found two of the other Young Ambassadors, Ryan and Andrea from the Minneapolis chapter. I didn’t have a chance to meet the other Young Ambassadors until boarding the plane to Belfast and still I hadn’t met a few until after the flight landed in Belfast.

The flight to Belfast was quite long. I was seated in the exit row, which I thought to be awesome because of the extra room until I found out that the seats didn’t recline. That was a big bummer because it was quite difficult to sleep. The food was okay, we had chicken and rice for dinner and fruit and a croissant for breakfast. The best part was the personal tv screens in front of each person. I watched “Up in the Air” and played a few games of Bejeweled. I also watched a few episodes of CSI: NY.

After getting off the plane and going through customs is where the fun begins. Usually the Young Ambassadors fly into Dublin, which apparently has a lot less strict customs. Well, the customs in Belfast decided to detain us because apparently the rules just changed and ANY work whether paid or unpaid requires a Visa. Luckily, Tim was at the airport and the customs woman went and talked to him and he won, so we all got to get our passports stamped. We had to wait a good hour and a half, but it was great bonding time and we all got to know each other. When the lady came back to tell us whether we were staying or leaving, she said that we had to go home… she was joking, but only half of us could see her smiling and saying we were good to enter, so the other half was really worried that we’d have to return to the U.S. We finally got our passports stamped and left the airport. There was literally NO ONE in the rest of the airport, not even airport personnel. It was creepy.

(Picture of the back of the Dundrum cottages)

Then Tim met us and we took a bus to Dundrum to drop off our bags. The ride was a bit scary because we weren’t used to driving on the opposite side of the road. This was not to mention that the roads are much more narrow so it seemed like the speed limits were a bit too high for the roads, but we made it safely. Once in Dundrum we unpacked our bags from the van and then headed right to the Saint Patrick Centre in Downpatrick. While at the Saint Patrick Centre, we got a tour and learned a little bit about the Northern Irish culture and what we would be doing the next two weeks. We also had a bit of tea and sandwiches. Then we headed back to Dundrum and unpacked our luggage because only one of the cottages was available at the time. Since most people didn’t want to move their stuff, only three of us are in the other cottage for now until Megan arrives. I can’t complain though because it’s nice when it comes to the bathroom situation. There are three bathrooms in the cottages and only three of us, so it’s perfect. In my cottage, I share a room with Kacie who is from Pittsburgh, Ryan is in the room across the hall, and he’s from Minneapolis. After unpacking, we just hung out around the cottages for a while and relaxed. I took probably the best shower of my life and then we got ready for going back to the Saint Patrick Centre for the welcome Barbeque.

(Peace Garden Rocks)

At the Barbeque, we met a ton of locals who mostly had connections with the Saint Patrick Centre in some way or another. We also put our peace garden rocks in the peace garden and had some delicious food. Following the food, we mingled and got to talk to those at the Barbeque from Northern Ireland. Then we headed back home, relaxed, went to the pub down the street for a pint, and then went to bed. Overall, it was a great day, very eventful, but exhausting. Goodnight everyone! Crazy that it’s only 5:30pm in the USA.

(View of the Peace garden at the Saint Patrick Centre)