As you may or may not know, Troy and I did not travel to Ireland together. As he was going primarily for work purposes, IKEA flew him out to Dublin on an Air Canada flight from Ottawa to Toronto, from Toronto to London (UK) and from London to Dublin. His return flight, also on Air Canada, was the same route back. When I tried to book my flight to Dublin on Air Canada, I was told that this same flight would cost me $6600. So that was out of the question. Instead, I opted for a less expensive, more direct route: Ottawa to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to Dublin. Same route to come back home again. This meant that we had two different flights to catch on our way back on Sunday morning.
My flight was the earlier of the two to depart, at 11:00 a.m. Troy's would leave an hour later. Figuring that we would need time to be at the airport three hours before our international flights, and factoring in the time required to shower and get ready, have breakfast and get to the airport, I requested a 6:00 a.m. wake-up call. Ouch!
When the call came, I asked Troy to get ready first so that I could steal a few more minutes of sleep. Then, I also got ready and we went to the dining hall for breakfast. Troy's farewell meal in Ireland was the traditional Irish fry, while I had yogurt, fruit salad and hot porridge.
We left the hotel a little behind schedule, at 7:45 a.m., hoping to catch the next shuttle bus to the airport, which was scheduled to arrive within 20 minutes. Lo and behold, a cab driver saw us with our bags, pulled up near us and asked if we wanted a lift to the airport for 22 euros. We jumped on the chance, and promptly made our way to our destination. We chatted with the cabman on our way, and he pointed out to us the house that Bram Stoker lived in when he wrote Dracula in 1897. He also talked about the housing bubble in Ireland, and showed us properties that were once worth up to 1.3 million euros before the recession, and are now worth about half that amount. The Irish are dreading the future now with the austerity programmes the government has proposed to cover the costs of the 50 billion euro bank bailouts.
We got to the airport around 8:15 a.m., and I hugged Troy and wished him a good flight home. I rushed through the area where I had to deposit my luggage and through security, then made my way to the desk to get my taxes back. (Non-EU country residents are entitled to get back the taxes they paid in Ireland, so I had to bring my forms to the appropriate desk.) It turns out that I had two different types of forms, so I had to wait in both long lines to see the respective attendants. By that time, it was 9:30 a.m., and I had to rush to make sure that I could make my boarding time, which was 9:30 a.m., on account of us having to get through American immigration here in Dublin. So I joined the impossibly long line for immigration and was finally let through around 10:00 a.m. I was then able to board my flight fairly quickly.
We left Dublin airport on our way to Philadelphia with a slight delay, but nothing too dramatic -- something like 20 minutes, maybe. I started reading the book club book, The Book of Secrets by M. G. Vassanji. I was exhausted, so I slept about an hour, then returned to my book and made very good progress during my 7-hour flight to the United States. Our two inflight movies were duds (the one about summer camp with the likes of David Spade, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, etc., and the live-action "Marmaduke"), and I can honestly say that lunch was a strong contender for my worst meal of 2010 (mushy tortellini pasta, but when I burped later, it tasted like the plastic container it was served in...)
It was 2:05 p.m. local time when I saw that we were starting our descent into Philadelphia, and I realized then that my 3:04 p.m. boarding time for the flight to Ottawa was going to be very tight. Our flight had been delayed about 40 minutes on account of the stronger than anticipated winds. We landed ten minutes later, and I rushed to do everything I had to do to get onto my flight: I had to locate my luggage on the caroussel and place it onto the next conveyor belt for my flight, go through security again, go through customs again, take a shuttle to my terminal, and then run to my gate. To make things worse, the lines for security and customs were exceedingly long.
I finally reached my gate at 3:35 p.m., roughly the time the flight was scheduled to depart. However, I was able to board. I couldn't believe that I had actually made it! It turns out that one passenger didn't have the appropriate documentation to board our flight, so they had to take out all the luggage from the plane to remove his bags, and then reload all the luggage back again. This gave me time to make my flight.
Around 4:30 p.m., our flight left Philadelphia with close to one hour's delay, and I settled in to continue reading my book, which I almost finished by the time we arrived in Canada about 90 minutes later. On the way, I was subjected to a loud-talking American man with a heavy southern drawl, talking about his reading a biography of Ronald Reagan: "I didn't know that Reagan had been a union leader for five years! But after that, he saw the light and came around." I bristled, but then sought comfort in the thought "Ronald Wilson Reagan, 666". LOL
So I got through Canadian Customs without a hitch and my luggage was among the first to arrive. I was able to exchange the few remaining euros for Canadian dollars and got into a cab that got me home around 7:00 p.m. My cats were really excited to see me again, so that was a pleasant welcome home.
When I next checked my e-mails, I discovered that Troy did not have it that good: he missed his connecting flight in London, on account of his flight from Dublin being delayed. He was on stand-by for the next available flight to Ottawa, but couldn't make any on Sunday, so he had to stay overnight in a tiny room at the Holiday Inn near the airport (at £144 a night, or close to $233 Canadian). He was finally confirmed on a direct flight to Ottawa for 1:00 p.m. local time, and arrived in Ottawa at 3:23 p.m. yesterday, after a seven-hour flight. I was glad to hear he made it home safely.
And so our trip to Ireland is now officially over. I can't believe how quickly it went by, but at the same time we made sure that our limited time there was jam-packed with things we wanted to see and do. We never made it outside of the capital city (except for that one short jaunt to Powerscourt, just outside the city limits), but Troy had me promise him that we would return one day soon to see Ireland in all its glory. I was only too happy to oblige, and I reminded him that the prerequisite for us to return would be that we keep seeing each other. ;-)
I never expected to find such a warm and friendly people, such great food, wonderful music, and an easy and relaxed atmosphere. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Ireland. I resolved that when I came back to Canada, I would find time to do the things I have always wanted to do but cannot on account of my sticking to routines. The main resolution was to start writing again, no doubt partly due to the James Joyce immersion, and the fact that Ireland has such a rich literary tradition (including producing four Nobel laureates for literature -- Shaw, Beckett, Yeats and Heany -- more than any other country in the world). Troy also encountered some travel-related soul-searching and at one point exclaimed that he felt he was wasting his life on matters most trivial and mundane when he could be enjoying life more! I was able to reassure him that what he is doing is still vitally important.
But such is the wonder of travel, that it shakes up our very foundations and allows us to explore other possibilities. And this is one important reason why I like to travel so much. It offers me new vistas and reminds me that anything is possible if we truly want to make it happen.
Slainte,
M.
No comments:
Post a Comment