I got up at 8:30am to the sound of Allyn getting back in, "Did you pick up?" I sleepily asked in tandem with Adam, my mouth muffled by the pillow, "Yeah man...well...I got a fuckin' blowjob man...this girl was cute in like, a heavy set way. I went back to her place with her friends and we smoked all this hash and she just ripped my pants off...I'm not wasted...I'm just high." he said as he fell into bed, asleep. I got up to breakfast with Adam and conversed on American conspiracy theories of 9/11 and JFK and we then went downstairs to chill in the self-cater dining room so Gideon could eat his self-bought meal and we just chatted and did the daily crossword. Soon they left to head to the coast and I stuck around to read and prepare my bags to leave, as I would probably forego sleep that night in favour of just heading to the airport for my flight.
During th eday I simply lazed around reading and at one point held a small concert for the hostel guests with Salvo's guitar; to the applause of a large group of Italians, constantly requesting sons I'd never heard of from artists I've never heard of. At around 7:30pm I went down to the staff kitchen to hang with Anne-Cecile and her friend's brother whose name I've now unfortunately forgotten.
We sat there talking to the various staff members I had befriended and drinking red wine (Halim and Bordeaux) and eating peanuts and pistachios. After about an hour I got a text from the Americans saying they had returned from the coast and would be crashing until about 9pm. When the time rolled round I headed upstairs from the kitchen and turned on the light on the sleeping Americans, who were already waking up anyway. We talked for a while and Gideon went out to get a half-bottle of Jameson and 4 cokes and we shared the whiskey evently between the bottles and began drinking as we left the hostel, ready to hit the streets by 10pm. We finished our drinks on the way to getting some food as I expressed my pressing hunger at my not having had dinner and the fellows agreed and we his Supermac's - a cheaper, seemingly better version of McDonald's.
After eating and running into another group of Italians from our hostel drinking beer, cider and champagne on the street, we decided to head to Lannigan's to see Ross. When we got there, the place was quickly filling up and we quickly grabbed seats at the bar and ordered a round of Irish Car Bombs - "To 2008!" we toasted - followed by pints of Guiness - "To Ross!" this time. There were other travellers in the pub with balloons and Gideon, Adam and I slapped them around with the other, older group of celebrators as Allyn talked with Ross and the other bartenders.
By 11:30 the boys wanted to leave Lannigan's in search of that ever important Midnight Kiss - despite me being content to stay at Lannigan's, as this was noy my priority. They never got those kisses. We left the pub to find another where there would be more girls our age that the bots would try and pick up, but before we did Ross impored us to have a glass of champagne with him and so we did. We soon his the streets again and over the bridge to find that most pubs were closed due to their being full, "I wanna be in a pub for the countdown," I said, "I don't want to spend the new year moment on the street."
"I know, I agree." conceded the three and as the time approached we had still nto found a pub, "Okay," said Gideon, "If we don't find one in the next five minutes, we're running back to Lannigan's." and I nodded fiercely.
"I don't care where we are, really," Gideon had said earlier, "as long as I'm in your good company."
We soon began legging it back to Lannigan's when Allyn ducked into a club on our right. We all followed him, me noticing that not only did we not pay the cover charge as the entry person was absent, but it was an over 23's club and three quarters of us were under that age, but we ran in with no problems. Once in the club we ordered up another round of Irish Car Bombs and as the countdown began within the club, prompted by the DJ, we readied to dropin the shot on "ONE!" and yelled, "To 2009!" in toast and downed the drinks. During the countdown, as well, the song "The Final Countdown" began playing and we danced like mad loons, like the mad loons we were, we are. We left the pub wishing New Years to the entrance keeper of funds we hadn't paid and the guards and subsequently to any fool we cam upon on the street. We encountered groups of intoxicated men and women and anyone we saw we wish New Years wishes to, me extending the greeting, "Happy New Years from Sydney, Australia!" each time, which was always a good icebreaker is seemed. Once on the street another countdown began amongst the immense crowds herding in the streets of Dublin and across the main bridges and at, "ONE!"there were abundent cheers and the sounds of fireworks, but none could be seen as a result of heavy fog and cloud cover, "LIES! What are these invisible fireworks!" I shout and Adam choruses with, "Unbelievable!" We set foot for Lannigan's once more and are greeted by a smiling Ross once more and I also notice Actor Joe from my second night here and greet him. We order a round of pints and are also given free glasses of champagne by Ross, "The pints are on me too, boys." and he smiles and winks. We thank him and toast to him once more. The group of revellers from before were still there and so we conversed with, and subsequently danced with, them as the Pogues' "Fairytales of New York" came on. We also struck up conversations with 2 older Englishwomen who were at the bar, who were amazed we'd come so far just to spend New Years in Dublin. At around 1am the bar was closing and Ross seemed tired, so we left, thanking him repeatedly. We ended up running into a girl Allyn tried to pick up but missed as she began necking with some other Irish guy we just met on the street moments later.
We made it to a club next to these Irish guys' hotel as they wanted to hang with us and inside Allyn needed me as a wingman so he could pick up a girl and he hated going solo; amused, I agreed. In this club we also - somehow - managed to avoid the money collector and got in free, saving another 10 Euros. Inside we ran into 2 girls, one of which Allyn wanted to pick up as I spoke to her friend, but we had to go get Gideon and Adam from outside, who had somehow lost the Irish guys.
Once back inside, they did have to pay the cover charge and we couldn't recover the original girls, so Allyn began hunting for another duo, whom he soon found in a couple of sisters from London, Allyn hitting on the younger of the two as I spoke (distracted) the elder, "Fuck drinks are expensive here," she said, "the pound is equal to the euro and a shot back home is 1 Pound and here it's 5 Euros, and this drink," she said holding up the drink, "was 8.70 Euros, where it'd be 3 Pounds back home!" We talked more on this sort of thing as I was interested to hear the differences as I had heard London to be quite expensive - and amongst this we lost Gideon and Adam again. This girl - Lucy - had a boyfriend who, for some reason or another, was not with her this eve, which I thought odd. I told her about Anna and how I wished she was there and Lucy thoughtthat sucked that we had to be so far apart. Turns out Amy - the younger sister - was also involved with someone, despite her overt flirtation with Allyn and the barkeep, "Do you want me to help you clean up?" she asked, grabbing the rag and wiping the counter. I suppressed a laugh and Allyn and I bid farewells to the girls in search of our comrades and a proper pub.
"So they both had boyfriends, those bitches!" he said.
"Not really. THey just wanted to meet people, too." I said back.
"I gues it's okay for you, and very smooth on bringing up your girl." I shrugged, it was a conversational topic. We soon ran into this Italian man with a guitar and I bothered him to play it and he handed it over, so I accosted the audience with "Wonderwall" and "Hallelujah" to uproarus, drunken applause. We then gained the company of an Aussie couple from Adelaide, the girl of which - Jane - tried to kiss me as I played guitar but I expertly maneuvered away. She did, however, catch me twice off guard, the first outside a pub when we were deciding where to go and I scolded her calmly telling her about Anna and then she did it again as they left our company, fascilitating my happiness to leave their company. I told her that that wasn't cool as I had already told her not to and had just been, in fact, on the phone to Anna, and she knew that. I walked back with Allyn to the hostel in a light huff. By the time I got back to the hostel it was 4:45am and I chatted with Allyn for some time before I got my bags and headed for the bus, wishing fond farewells to Allyn and his sleeping bretheren, "It's a shame we can't be everyday friends after this. I was discussing that with the others." he said and I nodded and smiled, "See you again soon." I said and went down to farewell the staff and hit the road for the last time to the bus stop, still swaying with drink. I soon got on the bus and ordered McDonald's breakfast at the airport waiting for my check-in to start - which I did expertly soberly despite the head full of liquor.
"Where're you headed?" asked a tall Asian man.
"Canada. For study." I said, concentrating on the words, holding my head sleepily.
"Oh, that's cool. I'm heading home to Chicago."
"Awesome."
"You in coach?"
"Yeah, you?"
"Well, I can get an upgrade to business. If you like, I could get you one too?" An alarm bell went off in my head and I didn't know what to say, "Umm...thanks...we'll see once I get to the check-in gate."
"Okay, cool. My name's JT."
"Jordan." and we shook hands. As I got to the security checkpoint, JT in front of me, he went through first and I waved him off and his suspicious offer of a free upgrade.
As I sat in the airport I was overcome with a sensation of anxiety and fear that this was my final leg of this trip. Once it was over, I was going to LIVE in another country for four months. The fact that I was tired, coming down off of drink and felt I had wronged Anna through no fault of my own didn't help and I called her and told her about everything and she soothed and calmed me. But things happen, life goes on.
I slept most of the eight and a half hour flight to Chicago and, after dealing with US customs and immigration, got onto my small charter plane to Montreal, which was not full and allowed me to not have a seat mate.
I was finally in the Great White North, I thought to myself as the planded landed in the -15 C cold, and who knows what awaits me here. And all I could pay attention to from the air was the lighly snow covered ground below.
- from the Journal, 31st December 2008 and 1st January 2009.
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