Tag Archives: Charles De Gaulle

Apr19

My Irish Spring – The flights out (Saturday and Sunday)

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Wow… How long has it been since I’ve done an international trip? How much longer since I’ve gone international solo?

Let’s see. The last international trip was to Scotland, right before the Pandemic hit. When I had that really bad flu… right before the Pandemic. With COVID. That presents sort of like a flu. That I’ve somehow avoided getting, as if I’d already gotten it and gained an immunity… Okay we’re not going down that road the last time I went abroad was January 2020. Three years and change.

The last time I went on a solo international trip? Well, that’d be New Zealand, back in 2012. 11 years.

It’s high time I explored.


I got accepted to Trinity College’s MBA program back in November, and accepted the offer that same month… though I delayed admission until 2024, to give me some time to finish up in Oregon and save up a bit more money. While talking to the admissions officer though, I learned about a Business forum put on by Trinity in March – a perfect opportunity for me to stretch my international adventure legs and see if Dublin would make a good home for a year or three!

I planned, I packed, and I set off on my first solo international trip in over 10 years…

(Please note that these are my raw notes from the trip. I’m proofreading them for obvious mistakes… but they’re still short-hand. Because life is busy, and blogs don’t need to be perfectly edited.)


Saturday and Sunday, 04-March-2023 & 05-March-2023


Get up fairly early, lock down the house, and head into the city. Pine State Biscuits for breakfast, then hop on the plane! Note the different philosophies of travel clothing… some people dress down, completely comfortably in sweats, whereas others dress up, stylish, in glorious suits like they’re going to the theater. Interesting.



Flight to Seattle, super quick and easy. Barely worth mentioning.

Seattle = quick chicken fingers and relax, then on the plane!

Flight to Paris = long, but I sleep pretty well thankfully. Blankets, pillows… it’s not bad. Read a ton of my book, and enjoy the easy overnight. Helps that there’s an empty seat next to me!

Paris = surprisingly quick, just through a second security that takes ~5min, then wander a bit and grab some lunch… quiche and gnocchi bolognaise!



Flight to Dublin = quick, though full… so not as much room. Try not to sleep too much, to help set my internal clock to Dublin time. Soon enough, we’re landed.

Dublin = Land, super easy, customs doesn’t include a bag search and takes ~5min. Easy peasy. Grab a cab, get to the apartment… and check-in goes just as quickly.



Settle in for a bit, then go out for a wander. Walk around the North Side, then through Temple Bar. Find a small restaurant attached to a hotel and grab a very mild and stereotypical Guinness stew with a good red ale. Wander around Temple Bar, and appreciate the memories of similar college party streets from when I was at Northeastern. Then head home, quick shower, and sleep surprisingly well!



First Impressions on the city:
– Can’t tell if its because I’m in a party area, but I feel like people dress up more here… I’ve noticed this in other European cities before too.
– It’s small… no particularly tall buildings, and not even Trinity has anything over what looks like 5 stories. The tallest building in Dublin is 22 stories, whereas Portland is 40, and Boston is 60.

Jun8

Spring Break 2014 – Flying to and from France

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Friday, 16-May-2014

&

Monday, 26-May-2014

(Ed. Note: I find it interesting that the first story posted here, aside from the index, includes both the beginning and ending of the Spring Break.  Feels very Shakespearian of Ben, doesn’t it?)

 

On Friday, I left work early.

That’s not really a unique thing, to be honest… but that Friday saw me driving home a good bit earlier than I would normally be comfortable with… I feel bad leaving early most of the time, but since I had a flight leaving Logan, and going internationally, at 6:30, I felt justified in leaving a little bit after 12:00 hit.

2:00 saw me stepping into a cab that already had a passenger in it: my next door neighbor.  Turns out that he had also called for a cab ride, but that his was running late… so instead of waiting around twiddling his thumbs, he jumped in with me and we headed toward Government Center to get him to his daughter’s wedding.  See, he was supposed to be there around 12:30… but he made the mistake of trusting the MBTA to get him there.  That was not a good decision, since they decided to close the Alewife to Davis leg of the red line as he was sitting on the train.  They didn’t say that, of course… they just asked people to wait patiently for nearly an hour, from what he told me.  Then they decided to make it clear that the trains weren’t going to be running anytime soon.

So, he took a cab.

There’s a song, that a man named Mike Barret sings.  It’s called “Boston Cab”.  Some people may know it.  It goes like,

Boston Cab, what’s the deal?  

Who put you…. Behind the wheel?  

Learn the Language, learn to drive.  

Take a shower, and try to get me home alive!

I am not exaggerating on this.  He got pulled over, and was told that he wasn’t supposed to burn rubber, or hit the 40mph mark, on side streets that technically make up Harvard’s Campus.  Because he chose that route to get to Government Center.  Which is clearly not a standard route decision.

Somehow, we survived, and I even made it to the airport right around when I meant to; just in time to fight my way through security (Dreadlocks require a patdown, since they’re actually dense enough to foil Backstatter machines) and relax a bit before Erin arrived, and we boarded our flight to Dublin…

Leg one:

  • Terrifying cab ride – Check
  • Convincing the TSA that my dreadlocks do not constitute a weapon (not really, they just frisked me) – Check
  • Flight from Boston to Dublin, including a steak dinner – Check.  x2 double-check bonus, since the steak dinner came with a very good red wine.
  • Flight from Dublin to Marseilles, including a full Irish breakfast – check.  Only x1 bonus on this one though, since the breakfast didn’t have whisky.  Seriously… what Irish Breakfast doesn’t?!?!

 

 

On Monday, we took a cab again.

This time, it was in France, however… so it was bound to be a bit different than the previous ride.

This cab, was a French van.  Full-sized.  Which means that it was roughly the size of an old Subaru Forester. maybe a bit smaller than a Taurus station wagon.  Somehow, we fit all our gear into the back, and huddled inside, ready for the drive of our lives, as our cabby would undoubtedly tear through the streets of Paris like a madman…

And then, he didn’t.

The drive was actually quite simple, quite easy, and we were dropped directly at the door.  Though we did have to load and unload our own bags – turns out, an older gentleman like our cabby is not up for hauling an 80 lb bag of rope and metal into and out of a van.  That’s what strapping 20 year old guys like Daniel and I are for, right?

From there… we waited.

  • First in line, when the line to check our bags took nearly an hour and a half.
  • Next, for our plane to arrive… which it did, just over half an hour late.
  • Third, for our second plane to arrive in Dublin.  I guess there was a storm over Malta or something, wherever it had been flying from.  This one delayed us nearly two hours.
  • Lastly, at the baggage claim.  Remember that note about 80 lb bags?  Yeah… I guess luggage handlers don’t like them either, so they saved ’em for last.

Thankfully, waiting for Allison to meet us at the airport wasn’t a long one – she was there with her trusty Accord (roughly the same size as the French van, mind you) quick, and had us on the move back toward Boston before I even knew it.

Ohh, how were the flights?  On the way home, they were clean and simple, honestly.  I had a good Salmon dinner (with a nice white wine, I’d like to add), and everything was quite pleasant.  I worked my way through most of my pictures, read, and generally had a good time of it.  Didn’t have any good conversations, unfortunately, but c’est la vie.  Would I recommend Aer Lingus to my future-self?  My Past-self?  Even… other people?  Yes.  Yes I would.  And I’d definitely recommend ordering the meals ahead of time – they cost a bit of money, but not that much, for what you’re getting.  And seriously – Metal silverware makes eating so much better, compared to plastic.