IRISH YOU WERE HERE!!

I will start this post with the last thing I quoted on my previous post. ”Well, that did not go as planned”.

I arrive in Dublin and find the right bus to my hostel. I have to walk a few blocks to get there from the bus stop and of course there is a slight, drizzly rain, typical of Ireland this time of year.

I turn a corner and see the sign Kinlay House Hostel and I stop dead in my tracks and recheck the name and then look at the photo I have on my phone. Same name, very different photo. I walk into the lobby and it gets worse. The bright, clean, cheery, photo looks nothing like this run down, dirty, beat up, entrance I am standing in. The bright blue in the photos is a dull blue, with a layer of grease and dirt and chipped every where. Did I mention the rubbish all around both outside and inside?

I check in and go up to my room which houses 6 bunk beds- 5 are taken by young men, well boys in my eyes. One each from Hungary, Chile, Portugal, Germany and Morrocco. It is obvious by the smell that someone needs to wash their socks and/or underwear. They glare at me as I take my place in the bottom bunk #6 and their faces say it all -“Oh great, we finally get a female in the room and it is our grandmother”. And I reply “ Yes, it is boys, now get these towels off the floor and hang them up, you there, boy from Germany, across from my bed, put your shoes under the bed and out of the small aisle, so I don’t trip on them every time I get up.

The Chileans girlfriend calls each night around 2:00 AM to see if he is in bed, and he forgets to put his phone on silence and is generally a little too drunk to hear it or answer the phone. I of course remind him of this the next day. He smiles and apoloziges, but I see the eyes roll.

Sorry, but I am not only jet lagged, no sleep for almost 22 hours, but I am coming down with the worse head cold I have had in years. Complete with runny nose, watery eyes, sore throat, fever, headache and I just want to sleep.

The “free breakfast” is instant coffee or tea and your choice of a bowl of corn flakes or white toast with butter and jam. Can it get any worse?

YES! the bathroom is down two long hall ways through two doors and across a staircase. That is the Unisex one which seems to be only men every time I go in. The only female bathroom is on another floor – but sometimes I make the effort and climb the stairs to use it to avoid the urine rings around the toilet floor in the unisex bath. But I am too tired and too sick to care or make any other arrangements – just let me sleep.

I am thankful that all of my previous experiences in Hostels have been positive. I have honestly never had a bad experience staying in hostels. I am chalking it up to a bad day knowing things will get better. My life motto is “It all turns out in the end” keeps me going. After all I am in Ireland, home of “Irish Luck,” 4 leaf clovers and lucky leprechauns.

At some point I do manage to crawl to a restaurant next door and order the Irish Stew. I have no idea what the extra brown sauce packet is for, I cannot imagine putting any more brown sauce on this stew. It is filling, mostly potatoes, but I have no taste and little appetite, it will have to do for now.

While eating I meet two young women, in their late 20’s staying at my hostel. One is from Denmark and the other is from Hong Kong. They met 5 years ago in a hostel in South Korea and became instant friends. They like doing the same things when they travel and have been meeting up each holiday to travel together. I complain about the hostel to them and they assure me that they have absolutely stayed in worse hostel. It really did not make me feel any better!

YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE, BUT IF YOU DO IT RIGHT, ONCE IS ENOUGH!!

AND IT IS NEVER TO LATE TO START LIVING IT RIGHT!