Last Day in Ireland

We woke up and went down to a quaint little breakfast with our little catholic irish woman; there were china tea cups and saucers with a little bowl of frosted flakes laid out for us. She also gave us toast and orange juice. When I looked up in the little dining area, I saw a picture with three slots in it, one for a pope, another for a pope, and one for JFK. It was delightful. We went back to our rooms for a little while (our bus didn't leave until 11:30) and just chatted. I am so thrilled with the group I went with, they are such great girls (in fact, when I got back and woke up Monday morning, I was having withdrawals and needed to see them all.)

Suffice it to say, we were glad to get out of Limmerick and walked anxiously to the bus station. We weren't sure which bus was ours, so we went up to the train office and were greeted by a bunch of Irish men. When we asked them which bus was going to the Shannon Airport, Camille was grabbed by the shoulder and serenaded with "Don't leave us, don't leave us!" At which point, said serenader grabbed me by the cheek and asked where I'd gotten my fine features (i responded timidly by saying they were genetic . . . bahahaha.) He was just so funny, but then one of the other men turned to us and said "Don't worry about him, he's a gay." Don't ask me if he was being serious because I don't exactly know.

Hooray, on the bus! It was another lovely drive. We had gotten on the express bus and were given ample time at old shannon airport. We relaxed, checked in, waltzed around, and in the waiting area by the gates, there were hundreds of US military soldiers; they were on their way home from Iraq. We didn't really talk to any of them, but I saw one female soldier in the bathroom putting on makeup and fixing her hair. It was really cool.

We loaded and I slept for most of this trip as well (i was in the middle, missing out on the countryside/ocean anyway) and we landed in about an hour and half, but there we lost an hour coming back to Paris, so it was about 5:00 when we landed. We made it back onto the bus that took us toward Paris and were greeted by more beautiful people, who weren't as congenial.

When we got back to the metro, Kirsten and I noticed how we very naturally averted back to our stony-faced, fast-paced parisian selves. We made it home, had a little dinner, and drifted off.

We loved Ireland. I loved Ireland. It's been over a week, and we're all still reminiscing.