Rail Users Ireland Forum - Blog from american girl starting university in maynooth including travels

http:// http://ksadventuresinlife.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/murphys-law-because-why-would-my-first-trip-abroad-be-easy/

Came across this blog from an american attending maynooth university including her trek over from Chicago including her train journey to maynooth. Its an interesting read! Well interesting from the point of few of someone not from Dublin trying to get around. Here's an extract from the blog.

Quote:

I headed out to find the buses. This is where Murphy’s Law really stared to kick me in the butt. They guy at the bus station told me that I’d need to take the 16 bus to Drumcondra Station and then take a train to Maynooth…which would cost me about 6 Euro in total (a lot cheaper than the €50 a taxi would have cost).

At this point I had been awake for 24 straight hours with out eating any significant food for several hours. I pushed my luggage cart down to where he pointed, but I ended up going down a curve instead of sticking straight ahead and took a detour back to where I needed. I bought my ticket, struggled to put all my stuff on the bus and took a seat. This bus didn’t announce or post what the stops were, so I tried to keep an eye out for the station. After not seeing it for a while, I asked the lady next to me how far it was and she replied that I had just missed it. That’s find I thought, I’ll just get off and walk back… Four stops later I actually managed to get off the bus with all of my stuff.

I then dragged my stuff through the streets of Dublin, dropping things in mud and stopping every now and then (pulling 100 lbs of luggage is tough work!!). Finally a man asked me if I need some help so I asked him to point me to the station…it was down another 4 blocks and across the street. I had already gone about 5 at this point. But eventually I made it to the station and bought my ticket for the next train to Maynooth (I had arrived just as the current train did), which was in 16 minutes, at this point it was 3:15 p.m. I was informed to go up the elevator, across the bridge and over to the other side and take the elevator down. I did this, but when I got to the second elevator, it wouldn’t go down, or even close for that matter, with or without my luggage inside. I went all the way back and told the attendant, who then graciously helped me carry my stuff up two flights of stairs.

I made my way to the platform and waited for the train. Once on board, it took about half an hour to get to Maynooth, but at this point, the residence office was closed as they were everyday at 4 p.m. Another fun fact, my phone was going to die any minute, and my Kindle was at 40 percent. From the train station there were two ways to leave, up the stairs, and out and up a hill. I took the later as I couldn’t manage stairs on my own. I struggled up the hill and turned toward what I thought looked like the University.

I made my way down the street slowly. I came to a bus stopped and asked how to get there, but all I could get was “down the street and left I think,” so that’s where I headed.

Every so often my suitcases would get stuck or try to tumble over into puddles. At one point the contents of my purse spilled all over the walkway and I hurried to gather them all. I pulled my suitcase a bit and checked to make sure there was nothing left on the ground. After more walking I found some signs about Maynooth, pointing various directions, but by this point I was near exhaustion.