Dublin - Croke Park Classic 2014

When I was still in the US planning my move to Europe, I decided to fit in the UCF game in Dublin into my plans. It would have cost too much to just visit Dublin from the US, but flights from Europe are much cheaper. With my job lined up, I had my start date set for the week just after the game, on a Wednesday to give me time to get back and have a day to get ready for the start of work. As usual, I have a Flickr album with pictures I took while I was in Dublin.

I flew from SXF to Dublin with Ryanair. Since I live close to Hauptbahnhof, I took a regional train to the airport.

Getting to see this station a lot now that I live here.

Train to the airport!

The station does have a nice view.

Regional train.

Walking from the station to the airport terminal.

Our plane arriving.

It's a bit intimidating, staring directly at a jet engine.

Boarding the jet. I already had my seat selected and just had a backpack with me, so no rush to be first.

Dublin airport decked out in UCF and Penn State colors.

Their signs welcomed us as well!

My room at Dublin City University. It was really cheap.

No Wifi, but you can put a deposit and rent an ethernet cable. Also, housekeeping left their shit in my room.

Hey, it's a bed!

Plain shower

No mixer taps here.

Actually fancier than my room at UCF. Though the mildew in the bathroom and the spider I later found wasn't nice. 

After arriving in Dublin and getting settled in (and drying off from the rain), I made my way downtown to get some food. I had a coupon for Uber and so I used it. It ended up being a cab driver anyways, and I got to sit in the left side of the car. It's weird being on that side and not driving.

Taking Uber into town. Loved seeing the UCF colors everywhere.

Official UCF "tailgate" bar.

The next day was game-day, and so I went back to the "Temple Bar" district where the official UCF bar "The Old Storehouse" was having the pre-game party.

Filled with UCF fans!

They had busses to bring you to the stadium, but I didn't want to wait forever in line and it wasn't that far of a walk, so I walked to Croke Park Stadium and took my seat. It's really the first game where I actually travelled to see UCF play (not counting the bowl game in St. Petersburg, FL).

About 30 minutes before the game.

The game was thrilling, but unfortunately UCF lost. The Penn State fans I met were all really nice, and we talked about how it was an exciting and close game.

The day after the game I went to see the free Riverdance event announced along the game. The event had some of the dancers from the show teaching how to do some of their dances. I was a bit tired from the previous days so I mainly watched, and it was interesting to see. Later, I did a free walking tour of Dublin and learned a lot about Irish history.

On the final day, I wandered around the city a bit. I went to the "Queen of Tarts" and had some breakfast. I also ordered a scone and was surprised at just how big it was.

Yeah, can't eat all that

Eventually it was time for my flight back to Berlin

For my friends at Lockheed Cape Canaveral, an omni building.

At the airport I grabbed a newspaper that had a whole section on the game. Great to see my school in international newspapers!

Some Irish cider and some food before the flight

Irish flight back to Berlin

On the flight, I saw my tour guide from the free walking tour. Turned out he was going to visit Berlin, and it was quite funny how we ended up on the same flight. About 2 months or so later I saw him at a bar I frequent in Berlin. It's certainly a small world!

In flight over Ireland

Circular rainbow!

After this trip I started my job in Berlin. This means that I wouldn't be travelling around Europe as much, but I still had time to do weekend trips here and there. I'll keep posting about those trips (I have a few now in my backlog), but I'll also be writing about life here in Berlin as an expat.