Day 2 - January 26th 2009 Dublin, Ireland

Overall the flight was marvelous although I didn’t sleep a wink. After touching down in Dublin I had to walk over to the transfers terminal where I didn’t have my second boarding pass so I had to walk all the way back down to the front desk and grab the pass as it was sitting right on the desk waiting for me. After passing through security a second time I immediately noticed the Guinness factory store and had to have a peek at all the draught inspired merchandise. I then proceeded onto my gate for the flight to Rome, where I recognized Ryan Cicciu, who I had spoken to previously and knew he was taking the same Aer Lingus flight I was on from Dublin to Rome. I walked over to sit and he noticed me and we introduced ourselves. I told him my travel mission to arrive in Dublin, have a Guinness at 5am and continue onto Rome. He approved so we both went up to the small pub and asked the barkeep if he was serving Guinness at the moment. He said of course their serving Guinness, where do you think you are?! We agreed wholeheartedly and asked for two delicious frothy pints. The barkeep also said he serves thousands of Guinness pints for breakfast and we were not surprised in the least. After sitting and chatting over the delicious thickness that is Guinness stout, we went back to the gate and got ready to board. This flight was very different from the flight from the US. It was totally packed full, no space to move, and during the flight we had some serious up and down rollercoaster turbulence. It was also the most culturally diverse flight I’ve been on in awhile. Heard no less than 5 languages being spoken around me. Ryan and I arrived safely in Rome and passed through customs without my fanfare, I don’t think the officer even looked hard at my passport. Much to our dismay, we learned that the chartered API bus meant to take us to rome had already left at 11am, we being about 30 mins late. But Ryan and I are still certain the papers say 12 noon. Regardless, we thought about taking il treno but instead bargained with a shuttle driver and got a ride for 15euro to the hotel. After meeting Christina the resident director we promptly went up to the hotel room, unpacking nothing and passed out. We awoke around 5pm to get ready to go to our first meeting. I walked downstairs with Ryan and met the other API students who were from the Rome program, as well as Toscania and 3 cities students. We had the meeting in another hotel down the street then went to Pomodoro rosso for an API sponsored meal and our first taste of fine italian ristorante cooking. Everything was delicious, obviously, and we left feeling satisfied and full. Our group split from our fearless resident directors to pursue a vino quest. We scored quickly at a nearby bar & pub where I was told to order first because I speak a bit more of the language. Everyone had their glass of vino rosso and we cin cin’d the safe travel and first night in our new city. That night I could not sleep well because I had already napped twice during the flight and later in the day so it was a bit of a rough sleep.