WOW was Ireland an experience. I woke up Thursday morning, the day I was going to leave, and I had the stomach flu. So instead of going to class I slept, in hopes I might still make it to Ireland. I decided in that few hour period that I didn’t care how I felt I wasn’t going to miss Ireland. So as soon as the others got out of class we hopped on the next bus for the train station. On the bus however, I started throwing up. Thankfully a lady across from me had an extra plastic bag that she let me keep. I was so miserable the bus, train, plane, and another bus ride. When we finally got into Dublin I was starting to feel like maybe I might eat something and my friends decided that we would go to a nice restaurant. I started eating and about 10 bites later I decided it just wasn’t going t happen. So I spent 12 Euros on food that I didn’t eat. I wasn’t happy at all. It was still early though so the other girls wanted to go to a pub so they went and I went back to the hostel to sleep.
On Friday we woke up and hopped on a bus for 4 hours to Galway, it is on the west coast. It was a beautiful drive through the country. I actually enjoyed it, granted having the flu and being locked in a confined stop isn’t too comfortable. Once we got into Galway we were walking to the coast. On the way there a guy ran up to us and ask, “Would you play a game, I want my friends to guess where you are from.” SO Paula puts on a British accent and says, “We would love to play that game.” He brings his friends over and she says they have ten guesses, all in her accent. It took them 6 times before they guessed the United States. We were pretty proud because normally you can see an American coming from a mile away. We stuck around and talked to them and they offered us some beer. We told them no since it was Good Friday and we were fasting. They were atheist so we had to explain this to them. They asked us to say a modern prayer and we didn’t know what they meant by that so we asked them to explain. One of the guys goes, “You know, a prayer like, I love you F****** God. I know I am a F****** Bast*** but please forgive my F****** Soul.” We just looked at him, mouths open unsure of how to respond to that. People use profanity there like we use the love. After we got past that they were really nice, major druggies but nice. They offered to take us to a rave on Saturday night but we declined. O, and they also offered us horse tranquilizers. Very interesting people. Finally we got to continue our walk and it was incredibly beautiful. For dinner that night we went out for the typical fish and chips meal. It was so good and the fish was so fresh. On Saturday we walked around the town and talked to people we met on the streets. There were two guitar playing street performers and they were really good. They ended up being from The States and we sat and listened to them and talked for over an hour. We wondered in a book store and flipped through travel books, I looked through a USA travel book and looked through the Kansas section. It was TOTALLY wrong. It said Witchita is the best city to go visit and the largest city by far. I quote, “the tumbleweeds of Kansas City are a waste of time.” ~Crappy travel book. I guy over heard us talking about it and he started talking to us about politics, travel, the economy, ect. In the USA. Everyone there is so nice.
Saturday was Maggie’s Birthday so we took her out to lunch and after dinner we got her a desert. Then to really celebrate, after Easter Vigils Mass, we took her to a pub and we drank Guieness and Hard Cider and watched/listened to traditional Irish music. It was funny because just as we were getting ready to leave the song Fields of Athenry came on so we decided to stay. Just as we decided this to stay a guy came up and started talking to Paula. One of the things he said was, “You know there is only one F***ing field left in Athenry. They should have at least two so that the song made sense, it’s all supermarkets. And you know what else too…it’s not a traditional song, It’s only 20 F***ing years old!” He then went on to making up lyrics, “Low lie the aisles of Athenry, the pork and beans can be found in aisle three…” He was hilarious and we had a great time watching him hit on Paula. She gets all the boys, It’s those lips of hers. Gets ‘em every time.
Early Sunday morning we took a ferry to the Aran Islands. They were so beautiful. A typical Ireland postcard. Crystal clear, blue water, Green until the horizon and little stone fences everywhere. There is only a population of 800 people there if that tells you how small it is and everyone there is either a farmer or works in the travel industry. But just the same as before, everyone is really nice. After we checked into our hostel we went down the road and rented bikes. It’s the best way to see the island because you can only cover so much walking. We biked until we could bike no more. We saw stone buildings that were 1500 years old and we even got to check out an Irish football game. It is a mix between football, soccer, basketball, and rugby. It is a really fun game to watch but looked confusing to play. Only thing I need to remember is that like everything else in the UK the hand brakes on bikes are the opposite. I learned this the hard way because as I was going down a huge hill I could see Addie stopping in front of me because her foot was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I tried to break as fast as I could and you can picture the end result. The front tire locked up, the back of the bike flipped forward and I went flying through the air. My biggest fear was hitting the big rock fences but I managed to miss them. Although when I hit the ground I wasn’t sure if I was laughing or crying. I just laid there because it hurt so much but I was laughing because it was so insane/funny/ridiculous/comical/laughable. I’m sure I had to look like a total idiot. O well, it makes for a great story. On our way back to drop the bikes off we got to ride past a colony of seals, which were just chillin’ on the beach.
Now here is where the real stress of this trip kicked in. We had to wake up at 6:50 so we could take the 8:15 ferry off the island because the next one wasn’t until 12 and there would be no way of making our flight if we took it. We got down there and as we were walking down the pier a coast guard shows up and asks us if we were taking the ferry, when we said yes he just looks at us. We knew at that moment we had missed it. It had left at 7:00 am, we had checked it 3 times but even the coast guard said it wasn’t published, it is just known. As we were walking back to our hostel that we had just checked out of we ran into an Irishman who asked us if we were taking the ferry and when we told him everything, he just said, “Well, welcome to F***ing Ireland.” He seemed happy about the change.
So we get to the hostel to see how much new plane tickets would be. We found out that not only would we not get refunded for our tickets or put on standby but new tickets out would be 999 euros for 4 of us. So of course I could just watch my bank account drain.
We call up the airport that only flies private planes but they were closed so we decided just to walk there because by the time we would get there they would hopefully be open. It ended up being between a 2 and 3 mile walk. We ended up paying to have a private plane fly us off the island. But it was flying 15 min. later than we needed it to. We just took it though because it was one step closer to getting to Dublin. After we landed we hit the ground running for this taxi/bus to take us the 40 min trip into Galway. He ended up getting there in 30 min so now we are only 5 min behind the schedule. It was 11:35 and the last possible bus we could take to get us to Dublin in was at 11:30 but because we knew we had to at least try we ran to the bus station. Just as we were about a block away we saw the bus we needed pull away. I was about to start crying because I didn’t want to spend the extra 250 euro. We just hopped on the 12:30 bus figuring that if a miracle were to happen we might make it to the airport in time, but at the very least we would be in Dublin in the morning. When we get to the midpoint we are running 10 min behind schedule and at that point we knew that there was no way we could make our flight so we call our Resident Director and let her know what is going on and that we won’t be back in time for classes on Tuesday. We also start having her look into hostels in Dublin for us.
Soon though the bus started to pick up speed and we made it into Dublin at 4:00pm we have to be at the airport by 4:15 at the latest because we have to finish checking in at 4:20. We decide to go for it, we know it’s a 20 min taxi ride but anything that might save us 250 euro. We are the first ones out of the bus and we start running through the bus parking lot where we shouldn’t be because it is the shortest cut to the taxis. I fling open the taxi door and just say airport. I told him if he could get us there in 10 min we would give him a big tip. He was drive through bus lanes the whole way and doing some scary driving. He got us there in 11 min. So for a 20 euro taxi ride we paid 30 euro. Knowing we only had a matter of min we ran through the airport and we checked in at a weird desk that wasn’t ours because we didn’t have time to wait in line. We checked in with a matter of min. to spare. We were so relieved but as we are waiting to go through security we realize that our gate closes at 4:30. We start freaking out again. He get the security to let us cut and get through as fast as humanly possible and we just start booking it. We find though as we round the corner that our terminal is the farthest one away and that we should leave 10 min for walking. We yell F-that. And take off running. We are running down moving platforms cutting people off and just hoping we down fall. We get there and make it on the plane. It felt so surreal because we had every problem we possibly could but we managed to make it on the plan. As we land in Pisa the pilot lets us know that the next train out of Pisa and to Florence is 25. So once again we get off the plane running because not only do we have to get through customs we have to by train tickets and catch the shuttle to the train station. The same thing happens again we catch it with just min. to spare. Sitting there in complete shock and aw that we just made this we pray a chaplet of divine mercy.
But of course the day couldn’t end peacefully because our train gets into Florence late. Leaving 3 min away from catching the bus up to Settignano, where we live. The bus is about 2.5 blocks away so we just start running again. As we round the corner we see the 67 bus come out of nowhere and fly by, the next one isn’t for over an hour. Paula starts running in the middle of the street and has taxis honking at her, Maggie gets a rush of energy from somewhere because she just starts sprinting. She got on the bus and just blocked the doors until we could get on. I am pretty sure people were getting mad at her. As we get on our friend Elle, who was already on, stands up and says, “hi guys.” In a sweet little voice that made me want to kill her. She asked us what was wrong so we gave her the download for our day. But you know what, the day couldn’t have ended any other way. It seemed unbelievable that all that could go wrong but I guess that is why we have guardian angels. To make sure we are taken care of.
