Not much to say for this final travel day. With our Derry Girls Experience, Uisneach Fire Festival, and Killruddery House and Garden under our belts it was time to begin the journey home. We had packed up basically everything the night before and were up at 9am and ready to head downstairs by 9:30am to check out and see about breakfast. My stomach was feeling tight and upset, probably the stress of knowing it’s a travel day, and Jess had eaten a lot of the pasta and treats last night, so we just had a light breakfast of a bagel for her, hashbrowns for me, and orange juice. They had a fancy coffee machine (ya!) that made mocha’s (double ya!) so I made one of those in a to-go cup and we set off towards the carpark!
I had, the other day at Tesco, purchased a lint roller to try and clean up the floors of the car. There’s an extra charge for excessive dirt and debris and Jess and I had Lizzie Bennet-ed our way across a great deal of mud and lawn in our travels. I wasn’t willing to pay for or figure out how to work a gas station vacuum so a lint roller was my bright idea. And it worked! We got to the car, started rolling, and it got basically everything of the parts of the carpet we couldn’t lift and dump! Perfect! Nice and clean! Then off we set the 12-ish minute drive from the hotel to the Hertz Rent-A-Car return. It was a pleasant final drive and we had no trouble getting the car parked and returned. So far the bill seemed to reflect exactly what I was originally charged so I guess I did everything right!
We had to wait a little bit for the shuttle to the airport, but the guy driving made sure to ask who’d been waiting first as his shuttle only fit 12 people and everyone else would have to wait for the next one, though he said it was right behind him. We got loaded up and off we went back to Terminal 2 of the Dublin Airport. We got there at around 11:15am and our flight wasn’t until 2pm so we had plenty of time to sort ourselves out. We’d meant to get food and spend the last of our cash but neither of us were hungry so we ended up leaving with about 90 euro unspent. Not too bad, all things considered. We found our way through the shops to the US Precheck or whatever it’s called and discovered that there was where we had to dump all liquids, not at the initial TSA where we had chugged the whole bottle only to find out liquids were allowed in that part of the airport. We got through no trouble and were seated at our gate about an hour before boarding. Boarding was delayed by about 20 minutes but that was no bother as we sat and chatted. The wifi wouldn’t work on any of my devices for some reason, but c’est la vie.
My goodness, does AerLingus keep you FED on it’s flights! We boarded, got seated, and took off with no trouble and not long after a soft drink cart came around with juice, soda, and pretzel snacks. We got skipped at first, somehow, though neither Jess and I nor the two flight attendants could figure out how that happened, but we did eventually get our Fanta’s and two baggies of pretzels! After that came a hot drink cart with coffee and tea. We ordered one of each and the coffee was, as usual, awful, but I drank most of it anyway. A little under the halfway mark the dinner service came and we got the vegetarian penne and sweet and sour chicken meals. They both came with bread and butter, a small salad, custard, a tube of milk for some reason, and a sealed cup of water. A short time after that the attendants came around distributing ice cream! We each got one but then one fell off the cart and rolled right into Jessica’s foot so we ended up with one and half each! Not long after that they came round with hot cheese and sauce stuffed rolls, and finally did a final hot coffee and tea service! Unbelievable! So much food!
While we ate I watched first Saltburn because we’d laughed about the idea of watching that on a plane and I decided it would be fun to see for the first time that way, then I rewatched Pride and Prejudice, the Ghostbusters: Afterlife, an episode of Wheel of Time, and began a rewatch of Edge of Tomorrow as we landed safely in Orland. Jess mostly just listened to music, rewatching the odd episode of Wheel of Time throughout. The landing was smooth enough and the taxi as short as can be expected for MCO but soon enough we were off the plane, feeling the heat and humidity wafting through the boarding tunnel! Ah, to be back in Florida! We got off and headed first for a bathroom, obviously. While Jess waited for me an older man also waiting for someone asked about Jess’s sunburn, assuming she’d gotten it here in Florida and we were traveling back to somewhere else. Imagine his surprise when she said we’d got it in Ireland! As I and his wife emerged from the bathrooms he told Jess that he loved Ireland and actually knew and regularly visited Killruddery House and Gardens when he went! Small world!
We managed to get to the shuttle pickup just as a WallyPark shuttle disappeared out of sight so we had to wait for another, but not for too long. We were a little tired, as it was 11pm back in Ireland, but we got ourselves sorted and ready on the shuttle for the hours drive home. At the car all was well and after letting it air out for a hot second we were back on the road! I didn’t have any trouble readjusting to driving on the right, so that was good. Makes for a safer drive on the I-4! We made good time and were home by around 7:30pm, getting unpacked and settled in for a casual evening. Our sleep schedule was going to be off but we wanted to try and stay up until our usual Florida-time bedtime of 11pm or midnight. We kind of succeeded but we were mostly napping about the house before going to our actual bedrooms for bed.
And that was it! A week and a day of Ireland! I would say we had an absolutely marvelous time through and through! I’m a nervous traveler, not big on leaving my creature comforts and cozy corners, but this trip didn’t feel so very far from all of that! We made loose plans around things we really cared about, took it easy, prioritized what we really wanted, and gave ourselves plenty of downtime in between to recuperate. None of this “go, go, go”ing for us, that’s not our style at home or abroad. I’m so pleased with the way this trip turned out, that we got to do everything we wanted just as we wanted to do it. I am going to savour and remember this trip fondly for the rest of my life, going to remember how delighted and giddy and happy I was doing all these things we’d talked about for so long in these places we hand-picked to visit around our favourite shows and hobbies. But I’m the same kind of glad to be back in my house, not just because I love being home, but because being away is how we love our home. You can really only love your home and your comforts if they’re something you get to return to, somewhere you get to reflect in peace on the time you had to spend away from it. I keep thinking about that quote from Terry Pratchett’s The Light Fantastic: “The important thing about having lots of things to remember is that you’ve got to go somewhere afterwards where you can remember them, you see. You’ve got to stop. You haven’t really been anywhere until you’ve got back home.”
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