I am currently at the Bergamo airport in Italy waiting to go to Dublin. I was excited to go to Dublin for the colder weather, see my friend Kevin and just be with English speakers. But holy toledo Batman, it is freezing in this airport. Did you know there are online reviews about sleeping in airports? Like if they are open 24 hours, the types of chairs, etc. Anyway, they did not mention that this airport was freezing. I look like a fool right now with how I'm dressed by the way. And let's not forget that I have a cough that the cold is making worse. And it's 3 in the morning and I want to sleep! But it's too cold. I think its to discourage people like me to sleep in the airport.
On my way to the airport, I ended up running into 2 girls and a guy. One of the girls was Italian who spoke really good English and was able to translate for us that the bus stop that said "airport" was not the right now we were waiting at but should go around the corner to the other bus stop. The other girl was from Amsterdam complaining (in a really nice way) about Italians and Americans that go to Amsterdam to party and was like "hi, there are other things to do in Amsterdam." She was on her way to Portugal to go blow off some steam. The guy was a Moroccan Italian guy just going back to Morocco to take care of some things. Together, the 4 of us stayed together and survived the night in that freezing airport. Luckily, it didn't take forever and we were able to get on our flights and be on our way. Once on the plane, in the slightly warmer temperature, I closed my eyes and promptly fell asleep. I flew RyanAir which is really cheap, but poorly laid out signs and a million instructions that you have to read to avoid being charged. They charge for drinks on the plane even. Anyway, as I was sleeping, I kept waking up to announcements about things that were irrelevant to me since I was not planning on spending any money.
Anyway, I arrived safe and sound on what felt like the shortest flight of my life since I slept almost the entire trip. I flew into a small airport called Knock and went through "customs" of where a dog sniffed me. However, because I am not an resident of the EU, I was questioned more thoroughly before they stamped my passport. Right after that, I met my friend Kevin right outside the door and together we walked into the cloudy, rainy, windy Irish weather. It was so nice to just not be sweating as soon as I walked outside, or even being inside of a building. Whew.
Anyway, went to breakfast since I hadn't eaten anything since the night before. He then took me on a mini tour of a bunch of the little towns in his county. Kevin lives in the county of Mayo in the north west of Ireland. So on the way to his place, we stopped or passed through little towns like Castlebar, Foxford, (which is not known for their foxes, or their Fords) Westport and Ballina. All the signs here are in English and Irish (which is Gaelic but none Irish people call it Gaelic apparently). Kevin's closest town is Belmullet and he lives in a little village called Glenamoy. The house is super quaint with fireplaces on and wooden floors. I really like the house and the feel of the house, it just feels really welcoming. After lunch, we went for a drive down to the beach which he does not live far from, but unfortunately too cold and windy to walk around and enjoy it properly.
We also drove around to little known places that only if you were local would you know about. Kevin took me to this monument for this Irish Children's story called the Children of Lir which was super depressing. He has this book "Things you didn't know about Ireland" or something like that and "A Brief History of Ireland" in his car that we used as additional information for whatever we went to go see. Anyway, the Children of Lir story is about this man and woman (I think king and queen and can't remember but oh well) who had three kids. The woman died and so the man built a special bond with the kids. Natural progression. Anyway, soon he meets this woman and they marry. This woman was a witch and was jealous of the bond that the father had with the kids so she turned them into swans. They were to live 300 years in one location, 300 in another and 300 in the final location. Then they were turned back into humans and it had to be a monk to transform them back. BUT I was thinking, oh then they could go and live normal lives but nope, they are old, and wrinkly and haggard and die! You know, because they are 900 years old. WHAT THE EFF!? That is so depressing. It's a fairy tale, they don't even have the chance to have a normal life in a fairy tale? Anyway, in the 90s, there was an architect who designed a monument representing the Children of Lir. Kevin described it as "something that was put together with old bits of metal". Yes, I did agree but it also looked like a manger with animal stalls. (Pictures to come.)
Anyway, because of the wind, and I didn't really care what we did, we had an early night by eating dinner and watching Friends and 30 Rock. What a great ending to a nice relaxing day right?
Lemon out!
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