24 May 2001: it was our first day in Dublin. We (Michelle, Mareike, Carola) decided to finish our photo task as quickly as possible. We trusted in the suggestions of both Christians who were sure the motive could only have been the house where Bram Stoker was born - Casino Marino. In order to find it we took a bus out of Dublin City - route 123 (a fatal mistake, as we realized later on!).

Trying to find the way back out of Marino we didn’t find the house as it actually wasn’t in Marino! We took the ‘City Centre’-bus. But in fact we drove along the coast: straight north. Suddenly we realized the bus stopped in Malahide, far away from Dublin! Each and every bus we took from then on was a last-stop-bus!! After a couple of hours we arrived in Sutton somewhere between here and nowhere. There we waited actually for about half an hour for a bus to take us ‘home’!

Route 32 seemed to be the best choice, but after a while sitting totally exhausted in that bus, our shocked eyes saw the sign for Howth even further out at the seaside! ‘Last stop!’, a nice voice said. Completely bewildered, we got off the bus. In near-panic, we banged on the now closed bus door. We asked the driver how to return to Dublin. Fortunately, he told us that he had previously given us wrong information and that if we waited five minutes, he would take us back to the city.

Within three-quarters of an hour we were back somewhere in Dublin (last stop!!), and fifteen minutes later we reached Avalon House, which never again looked so welcome to us!!!

Mareike Dax and Carola Schmale