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
