Wickets In Dublin

            Three days into my second trek back to Dublin and already a different kind of journey has begun to take shape. When I was here three years ago I was studying abroad, but mostly touring, confined to an itinerary with a set stipend each week along with due dates for writing assignments every few days. Looking back now this gave me the structure I most likely needed at the time, so I’m grateful we had some amazing professors guiding us along the way. However, having a premeditated itinerary can create many limitations. What if you enjoy one town more then another and would like to stay longer and go back? Maybe you meet a group of people and they give you more reason to stay in a certain location? Many of us can’t imagine traveling without a specific plan set in place. There’s just too many unknowns. You may feel you are not in control when you’re living day by day, and yet, this is the journey I’ve chosen for myself.

When living in the moment is the only thing that matters you feel more alive and more real because of it. Now I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy my study abroad just because I had calendar planned out for a few months, I made some of my best friends and did some of my best writing on these trips, but I am saying  that having plans did tie me down, and when you’re untethered there’s no feeling that compares. Conversations can go anywhere, along with your feet. Expectations go out the window (another key part to living a satisfying life) and you tend to be focused in the present and overall you begin to start living at your best.

Take my first day in Phoenix Park for example. While I was experiencing the park for the first time I was awed at the sheer amount of open space in such a dense city. I had the opportunity to nap outside on what most locals were calling the nicest day of the year. After being awakened from a dream into seemingly another dream I started pacing the rest of the park only to come across a soccer field in the far distance just across the street at the parks end. Naturally I began walking toward it and to my surprise it looked like nobody was playing. Out of the corner of my eye I ended up spotting a group of guys playing what looked like cricket. And cricket it was. There were five of them; one from Pakistan, one from Brazil and the other three from Iceland. The Icelandic folk met the Pakistani while he was traveling in Reykjavik. The Brazilian they had just met in Dublin.

The Crew

As soon as I snapped a quick photo, one of the very few on these first couple days, the ball I had just caught frozen in the air on my camera had rolled right to my foot. It was the most cliché introduction of my life; I picked up the ball, threw it back, and then I heard “Hey! You want to come pay with us!?” For the next two hours I spent my time learning how to hit and pitch a cricket ball (a little harder than it looks). Afterwards the fellas cracked a few pounders and we began explaining the different paths that brought us to Dublin. It was nice to spend some time with people with similar mindsets, who understood the rewards of travel and joys of being in a fresh space. Reh, the Pakistani orchestrator of the group, invited me to come watch his actual cricket match the upcoming Saturday and I told I’d definitely come if I was still in Dublin. We then went our separate ways and I checked into my hostel which continued to literally and metaphorically open the doors to adventure stories and instantaneous connections.

Some of the closest fellow travelers I spoke with included a couple graduates from the University of Wisconsin, a Turkish Erasmus student currently living in Czech Republic, a  future Brazilian lawyer, and a pair of fighting Illini twins from chi town. I also had the good fortune of meeting a fellow American student at a show that was being played by an American electronic/pop group the night before. This American was spending the summer in Dublin with her family and working for an organization whose goal it was to prevent and solve the homelessness problem in Dublin. With all these new connections I was also able to strengthen some old ones as a good friend from our JMU club soccer team was in the area for his study abroad. Meeting new people is always a good time but there’s nothing that compares to seeing good friends overseas. It’s like seeing a new side to old friends because neither of you have ever been in a similar space like this before together. It also helps when their second to last night in a five star hotel is your last night in a country without having made prior bookings. Robby, if you’re reading this, you’re the man! Currently I’m in Spain and the next post will have some first impressions on that country, the people and their culture (so far). Cheers!