Day 23: Home Again, and Reflections on a Wonderful Journey

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Like the troopers we are, we were up and out of the hostel by 8:30, and into a cab to the airport for our 11:30 flight. This cab was only 17 euros, compared to the 30 it cost from the airport - I think it must have been because it was a Saturday morning and there was therefore less traffic to fight. Our cab driver was enamoured with Canada and was eager to hear anything we could tell him. He told us he’d wanted to go to Canada ever since he’d seen a documentary with a grizzly bear catching fish out of a stream using his paws. We encouraged him to come over and answered his questions about distances between cities (when he got the answer “Days” to questions about how long it would take to drive from one place to another, he was flabbergasted. It was great).

At the airport, we discovered that our flight was delayed by an hour, apparently because the flight in from Canada had been delayed. Momentary panic set in, because we had a connection to make, but I had allowed plenty of connection time booking our tickets so I needn’t have worried. I did worry though - that’s just how I am okay, I can’t help it. We had some insanely priced yet mediocre sandwiches and I bought a cute sheep necklace that I’d been seeing all over the place and had liked, but hadn’t bought for some reason. Both of us were so tired, we were able to fall asleep on the short flight to Shannon (and we gave the man in the row next to us reason to chuckle as the landing jolted us awake) where we had to deplane and wait for a half hour before re-boarding for our long flight back home. We were able to get a fair bit of sleep on the way back though, and in accordance with the laws of travel, the trip home went much faster than the one there.

Some final thoughts: Jenn and I were perfect travelling partners - we were hungry at the same times, sleepy at the same times, wanted to do the same things at the same times…you get the idea. I wouldn’t have wanted to go anywhere else, with anyone else.

I’m already thinking about another Irish adventure - this time I’d like to take in an area we didn’t see much of: the north and northwest. Derry, Donegal, Fermanagh, Sligo, Mayo…sounds like heaven to me.

Finally, during our 3 weeks, we traversed through 21 of 32 counties, stayed in 6 hostels, 3 Bed and Breakfasts and 1 castle, went out on the town 13 nights, met dozens of new friends, took hundreds of pictures, and made thousands of memories. I love Ireland, and I’ll definitely be back.

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Comments

[Jenn]

me too!
Your write-up of the trip is perfect, I don't know how many times I laughed out loud. Awwww, I miss Ireland so much. Let's go back right now.