In total, there were five of us going on the trip, but two of the boys had a group project they were working on, so they could only go for one day, while the other three of us stayed for two nights. Niels, my roommate Marte, and I left for Auckland bright and early on Wed, May 16th via bus and when we got to the city, it was rainy and cold... not a good way to start. Not quite ready for the weather to get us down, we walked to our hostel to drop off our luggage (it was still to early to check in) and got ready to do some shopping.
I was surprised by how small the city actually was. It only took us half the day before we had walked up and down the entire main strip, and there wasn't very much shopping to be done either. But we did find a random asian flea market type thing, where I saw this awesome stuffed animal, but sadly could not bring it home with me since I knew I wouldn't have room for it when I fly back to the States.
We decided that it was time to go back to find a bar to chill at for a bit. We walked back up from the harbor in the direction of our hostel and only passed by one bar! It wasn't quite the pub type that we were looking for, but we thought we might as well give it a shot as it didn't look like we'd be finding much else. I ordered a Guiness, and was horribly disappointed to find that my beer tasted rather skunky, yuck!
After only on drink, we were over it and decided to check in to our hostel. When we got there and checked in, we had to get our bags from the storage closet, which was behind another courtesy desk. The guy at the main desk told us to wait there and he'd be over to unlock the storage for us. We waited at the desk (which was literally just around the corner) for about 15 minutes and the guy still hadn't come by, so Marte went back to the main desk to ask if anyone was coming. When she came back she said that the guy was just sitting there eating a bag of chips and when she asked about our luggage he told her that he forgot. We finally got our bags and took our stuff up to our 6-person room, which already had two guys in it, and another person's luggage claiming the three bottom bunks. Not wanting to spend the evening in a room with strangers, we decided to go out for dinner and a movie.
We ended up going to Burger King and then finding whatever random movie was playing at the soonest hour, just to kill some time. The movie we ended up watching was Dark Shadows... most random movie ever, but outside there was a little movie set for a photo op.
If you don't see this movie, you're not missing anything. Sorry Tim Burton.
After the movie, we didn't feel quite like going back to the hostel, so we tried to find another bar, fingers crossed it would be a pub. We decided to ask the front desk for a recommendation, and found our old friend the chip guy still on shift. Marte approached the desk and asked if she could ask a question to which the guy replied "no." Thinking it was just some playful banter, she waited for the joke to end, but he continued to ignore her and began a conversation with the other guy behind the desk before returning his attention to the paying customer. We asked for a bar recommendation, preferably a pub or a dive, to which he feigned ignorance before pointing us to the club just downstairs. We had enough of the guy, so we decided to find something ourselves.
We got downstairs and turned the corner past the club, and found another club on the other side. The bouncer asked us for our ID, but I asked him if he knew of a pub nearby. Turns out, there was an Irish pub just around the corner.
When we got to Father Ted's it was like an oasis the the middle of a terrible desert. A wet and rainy concrete jungle of a desert that is. As soon as we got inside, it was packed, but we were able to find three seats at the bar. All the bartenders were actually from Ireland and spoke with the most awesome accents, and there was even a live band playing Irish folk music! It was the best atmosphere ever! Especially after the kind of day I had been having. Niels and I decided that we were gonna spend the entire day the next day at Father Ted's while the rest were celebrating their national day, starting with a proper Irish breakfast.
When we finally left the bar and returned to the hostel, we went straight to our room. The other guys were already sleeping, so we tried to keep quiet while we got ready for bed. As we were getting our stuff together, Marte pointed out to me that there was already a person asleep in the bed that I was just about to climb into! I didn't even notice. There were already four people sleeping in the room, and only two beds left!
Niels went down to the front desk to complain and was told that there was only supposed to be one other person in that room and that they would send security to deal with the problem. We waited in the hallway outside of the room for 15 minutes and no one came to aid us, so we went back downstairs to the front desk. The guy told us that security would come by in 5 minutes, but we told him we had already waited 15 minutes the last time he said they would only be 5. Finally, they offered to put us up in another room. After a less than glamourous day, we definitely intended to spend the day in the only pleasant place that Aukland had to offer (in my opinion).
I was half joking when I made the suggestion, but we ended up doing just that =) We even got to Father Ted's before the doors were opened and saw the same bartender from the night before finishing up his shift. Breakfast was AWESOME! And I even dared to try some black pudding, but just a nibble =P
And of course, don't forget the Guiness!
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