IŽll never forget this very first morning of our Dublin
trip in Avalon House, our residence for the stay. After a refreshing,
light night (there was a big window above the chamber door), the air filled
with the sound of room doors slamming in the hallway from midnight until
six oŽclock in the morning, accompanied by the bawling and laughing young
guys from England living in the room next to us - obviously trying to
communicate with the help of Morse signals on the wall or something -
we woke up in a curious and anxious mood for what the day would be like.
First we needed to handle the fact of four girls trying to actually stand
in the rather tiny room without hitting each other or getting someone's
elbow in one's eye. But we got it all sorted out quite properly, so the
run to the showers could start. There were four showers and four toilets
for a whole bunch of boys and girls to share, so you can imagine the difficulty
to get a free one immediately, not to mention a clean one. The next step
was to find out how the temperature controller in the shower actually
works, which was rather annoying with a couple of strange people waiting
or rushing in front of your hopefully locked - and not broken - shower
door. Nevertheless, we got it all done very well.
After such an exhausting program in the morning we were all looking forward
to the promised -- and announced in the travellerŽs guide - "Continental
Breakfast". So when we came down to the dining hall I was so delighted
they had obviously made some lunch packages for us as well: a line of
filled paper bags were waiting to be grabbed. Unluckily I could not see
any other food around, so I slowly realized that the Continental Breakfast
actually had to be in that little paper bag... There was a muffin that
was obviously baked with salt instead of sugar, a very tasty fruit yogurt
(a German one, by the way) and a little orange drink-in-a-box. And, of
course, you could choose between strong and light coffee or tea. After
some days the big surprise happened when Cathy found out they also had
bananas in the early morning, so she always got a whole bunch for the
hungry group. Anyway, I have to admit that our first stop of the daily
sightseeing tour was inevitably at the bakery.
In spite of those rather funny moments at Avalon House we had a great
trip with a great group, and I am quite happy to have been part of it.
Nicole Canters
