P.S. I had a fantastic time with my family, but since they are the bulk of my readers I think, I'm also going to spend a little time mentioning the bit of an adventure I had the day after they left for home. I'm now snug in my uncle's flat in Austria, but before that, I had one empty day in County Dublin. Here's what happened.
So I left them in the airport feeling loved but also very alone again, and set to moping on a bench thinking about waiting for their flight to take off before I ventured off to find my B&B. I ran into a friend on her way to Prague, which was exciting, and then finally pulled myself over to the bus station where the sketchy email address I sent my credit card information to had directed me to go. I just missed the last shuttle that would have taken me where I wanted to go, so I lingered around a bit, didn't think about going to mass at the steps away conveniently located chapel, and almost missed the next shuttle a half hour later because I didn't realize which one I was looking for. But I made it, and was dropped off almost immediately at the wrong side of the road from the Glenmore House B&B. I'd struggled a lot to find a good place to stay- a hostel in the center of the city would have been cheap, but I'd have needed to pay almost the difference in a taxi fee because my flight the next morning left before buses were up and running, so I settled on that. It was a lovely little place, and my room was comfortable, clean and private, but without wireless internet capabilities, so that was a big shame.
The no wifi deeply cut into my plans of getting work done and catching up on my writing and well overdue skype calls. Instead,
I slumped around missing my family, then dragged myself to the nearby town of
Swords, which was a bit of a walk but the weather was lovely. It was a small
residential area, truly a suburb of Dublin, something I've been away from these
several months, hopping around to cities or beautiful tourist country towns but
not getting to see the hohum average life, and I quite enjoyed it. I walked
down their main street, stumbled upon two castles in my unsuccessful search for
mass, one of which was most definitely haunted, stuck mostly on one winding
path that I knew I only had to turn around on to find my way back, but diverted
a few times for the castles and also to eat my supper of Chinese takeaway on a
hill on the side of the highway. The Chinese food, by the way, was my first in Ireland
and definitely different: it came with fries (chips), and felt like was based
on the same recipes as restaurants back home but made with whatever ingredients (read: cabbage and prawns) they happened to have on hand. They also didn't know
what soy sauce was, seemingly confusing it with the ‘soya milk’ my lactose
intolerant sister was given all week, and when they did offer sweet and sour,
it turned out to be basically the same thing as what most of Ireland considers
ketchup. I’m also certain the workers were not Chinese, though the store
advertised itself as such, because she wrote down my order in what looked like
Korean.
That's a really brief description of the adventures of the afternoon, but it was quite a contrast to the previous week of all included stress free travel. I hiked towards an unknown town following traffic signs and a tower in the distance, tramped around an old graveyard and got stared down by a grey tomcat, and drank Fanta with my takeout meal next to a busy road (safe up high on a grassy slope though) probably only because I knew it'd be fun to write about someday. Other than that, I enjoyed just slipping into a suburb without a tour bus and pretending to be Irish by not speaking, and getting a glimpse of what is probably the equivalent to my hometown but here in Ireland.
When I met my uncle in Austria we were talking about how he travels all the time for work and wishes he had more time in Vienna, whereas I've always wanted to get away and see the world. Our discussion led towards the point of always wanting what you don't have, which seems true with how different my Fasting and Feasting post was from the Touring and Trekking ones I've just done now. I try very hard to be happy with where I am, and if not, to change something, but it definitely takes a lot of work and practice.
Updates on Spring/Summer Break Austria coming soon! Guten nacht.
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