What Is An Expat?

Frankfurt:

I don’t recall whether or not I ate on the flight. I know many meals were served. Was nonetheless hungry when we went wheels down in Frankfurt. We all part ways. Chester lives in Frankfurt, so I get his number, since I will overnight in Frankfurt on the way back. Ken and I both have flights in the same general area of the airport, so we go off looking for lunch. I’m starting to come alive again, at least for a while. I buy a digital camera since my last broken one still hadn’t shown back up from the repair place before I left. I’d hate to document this all and have no pictures. This is actually funny for a couple of reasons, but all things in their time…

We change some money. The Euro is not very impressive as currency. All the denominations are different sizes, so they don’t fold neatly in your pocket – damnit I like to fold things and that just messes it all up. Can’t find the Euro symbol, so I’m just going to substitute $ for now. $1 and $2 are coins, and they also have $.50, $.20, $.10, $.05, $.02, and $.01 coins. The last two are virtually useless. It’s very easy to get, and grow, a pocketful of change.

We find a McDonald’s. Haven’t had that for a long time. It sucks. Of course, wasn’t feeling the greatest around that time, so maybe it was just me. Half of it winds up in the trash.

Well…Frankfurt airport. Whoopee-doo! It’s not that interesting. Soon enough I am on yet another bird headed further west. I sleep fitfully on this short flight. Later I look down, and what do I see?

The sea! Inasmuch as I hope not to land on it, it is good to see it again. I see the departing coast of England or Scotland, and before too long the Irish coast appears. I watch little boats wandering to and fro. I am happy.

Dublin:

After an informative ride into town where the driver suggested several places to go and pointed out a good many things on the way in, I get to the hotel. It’s a great location right in the thick of things, right on the edge of the Temple Bar area. I head inside. And this fight’s goin’ vertical boys! Let’s see, it’s up 4 floors worth of steep steps. What’s the first thing I see? A spiral staircase about a foot wide. I’m in the attic room apparently. I had a door out onto the roof as well as a skylight.

You can see the River Liffey there, which cuts Dublin into it’s north and south halves. There are several bridges spanning it, more so in the downtown area.

Intending to nap a bit – you know, an hour or two, I hit the rack at 4:30PM or so, waking back up at 9:30PM. I roll over and it’s 3AM. I get up around 7ish the next morning. Apparently 5 hours is enough for jetlag to be a problem. I don’t suppose hitting it pretty hard helped matters much either. No matter how much you get, sleep on a plane ain’t worth a crap, neither…