We just returned from our 1st
ever trip to Ireland. It was a long
time coming as we’ve been planning on going for years, but this year finally
was the year. It was
bittersweet, however, since our Irish Dad just passed away this past June. He knew we had the trip planned and was very
excited for us to be going, since he himself never got to travel there.
And, we felt our Dad lending his
usual loving, helping hand in things the whole week. For example…….
My sister missed her connecting
flight in London, but by some miracle was able to get rebooked on another
flight to Dublin, even though they told her that flight was sold out. She was only 2 hours late in meeting me in Dublin…..thanks, Dad!
When we checked into the hotel,
they had upgraded us to a Jr. Suite. It
was bigger and nicer than the 1st 4 places I lived in as a young,
married person……thanks, Dad!
Her luggage was lost and the
airline told her they had no record of it once she connected through
Washington, DC. All her research
paperwork for our trip was in her luggage, as well as all her clothes and most
importantly, her hair care products!
But, at 2 in the morning, she received a text from the airline saying
her luggage had been found and was now at the front desk of our hotel….thanks,
Dad!
The weather this past summer in
Ireland has been a record year for rain, yet for the 6 days we were there, we
only had ½ day of rain……thanks, Dad!
We easily found the church of
some of our ancestors, which is still an active Catholic parish. It was unlocked and when we walked in, there
were bottles of holy water at the back of the church, as if they had been
filled and were just waiting for us to
walk in and collect 2…….thanks, Dad!
One day, as we sat in our rental
car at the side of the road, detoured by road construction and completely lost,
a woman named Eva came walking down the road out of nowhere and guided us
successfully around the road construction to the next town on our
itinerary…..thanks, Dad!
Driving on the interstate in the
middle of nowhere there suddenly appeared an unmanned tollbooth. We dug through our belongings for Euro coins
and came up with only $1.80. Guess what
the exact amount of money that was necessary at this tollbooth was? You guessed it, $1.80. Thanks, Dad!
A beautiful rainbow at the end
of the day, which ended right at the edge of our hotel……thanks, Dad!
The whole country felt friendly
and almost familiar to us. Never once
did we feel like strangers or outsiders.
We were welcomed everywhere we went and made several new friends. I would urge anyone who has the least bit of
Irish blood in his or her family tree to visit this country. And even if you don’t, you should add
visiting Ireland to your bucket list.
My sister and I flew from
different parts of the U.S. to Ireland separately, drove our own rental car (remember they drive on the wrong side
of the road & on the wrong side of the car. And, ok, my sister did all the driving!) planned our own
itinerary, drank Hennessey, ate some pretty suspicious-looking food, picked
hotels in towns we’ve never heard of and did this all on our own. Some people think we were really brave for
doing it this way………..
We’ll write about the
differences of being brave today vs. being a brave Irish person way back when,
in next month’s blog. There’s NO
comparison!
