Nothing is perfect!

Every good adventure has to have good times and bad. Well the start to this Cork adventure was probably the worst of my entire trip. Please bear with me as I set the scene… In Dublin a tragedy occurred that I did not mention; my cell phone ceased to function for reasons unknown which meant that now I did not only not know the time for flights and trains but also that I wasn’t able to call my friends in Cork to let them know what time I would be coming. (A pay phone also wouldn’t have worked because their numbers, of course, were saved in my phone.)

So I arrived in Cork at about 7:30, a little earlier than I expected and I knew the general direction that I needed to go to find my friend’s apartment and also the name of the complex. How hard can it be to find a large pink apartment complex? Well for me it proved to be about as difficult as dressing a screaming two year old in a pink tutu that is two sizes too small! (I imagine that would be difficult because I have never tried it.) Anyway, I wandered up and down the quay and surrounding area looking for the building. I asked about 10 people if they knew where it was (one was able to tell me to walk that way), rang at 2-3 different buildings that looked like they had potential to be correct (they weren’t) and finally stopped at an internet store to get my friends phone numbers off my facebook and tried to call them and also asked the store clerk if she could try for me in case I was doing something wrong. Turns out neither of us could get the numbers to work. (Later I realized that one of them had an extra number… but still don’t know what happened to the second.)

Now just to review… I am in Cork, with no phone and numbers that don’t work… I have a general idea of the building I am looking for but not the actual address or the number of the apartment. Bad planning on my part, YES I learned my lesson. Anyway, so I finally found a store clerk who knew where the apartment was after I walked another half hour following the strangers advice of “that way”. So I made it to the apartment building.

Next hurdle to overcome; I didn’t know what number was my friend’s apartment. So I rang at the reception, no answer so what other option did I have but to try another number. Well on my 4th try someone came to the door to let me in. Now I was in the apartment but still didn’t know which number I needed. I don’t know why but the number 23 suddenly stuck out in my head so I walked up the stairs and found door number 23 and knocked… no answer so then I knocked at 22 and an Irish man came out. I told him I had the wrong room and that I was looking for 2 of my friends… He told me there were American girls staying in number 21 across the hall. So I thanked him and tried that door and he was right, but they weren’t the right American girls. But they were able to help me. I told the girl that answered the people I was looking for and she called one of her roommates Lara who happened to be in my friend’s apartment for dinner. I finally knew what number (19) and was on my way I met Ellen in the stairway and the whole ordeal was over! Let’s just say I learned a lot about having a backup plan.

p.s. in case you are wondering about the picture I though a door was appropriate because if I basically had to knock on every door in Cork to find the right place!