Ireland/China 2025, continuing (08)

[aadler]

Eighth day in Ireland – June 18 Wednesday

Up according to our standard schedule, and Roni arrived just after I finished showering and dressing. Down to breakfast, then returned to the room.

With most of the day to prepare, we weren’t in a huge hurry to get ready to depart, doing bits of packing now and then. I led a family Rosary entirely so I could pack away the Rosaries I’d brought (I have four small boxes of them, each with seven Rosaries and a couple of chaplets, I could easily get by with only one but I wanted to show Amber all the pretties I’d collected). I had naïvely thought we would leave Ireland at least a trifle lighter than we arrived, since Susan had brought a framed cross-stitch for Roni and Conal … but Roni crocheted a couple of blankets for Amber and the yet-to-arrive new grandchild, so somehow I was supposed to find more room in the suitcases even though Susan already had enough gifts there to completely fill one. (And then there was the electric heating pad we’d got to help her deal with her pain issues.) Not fun.

Because of our early morning flight tomorrow, we’d need to take one of the last trains to Dublin, then stay overnight at the airport. I’d gone down to the front desk previously, and arranged for a taxi to pick us up at 7:00PM. Then we went down to an early dinner, to make sure we would be able to leave on time this evening …

… and ran into an unanticipated problem. In the hotel restaurant, neither my AmEx nor my bank debit card would go through. (The AmEx probably got charged to its limit, I’d posted a direct payment to it from my bank but don’t know when that payment was scheduled to go through.) I made a deal with the cashier, he paid the dinner bill himself and then I gave him the equivalent amount in U.S. currency. I found that I’d received an email from my bank about a ‘suspicious transaction’, and they wanted to know if that was me. I confirmed that it was, so theoretically we ought to be good again. I was concerned, though, about whether we’d be able to pay a taxi until I could get to a place to convert more dollars to Euros.

When I expressed this concern, the hotel itself quickly made arrangements for us. The Brazilian restaurant person I mentioned our first day here? he volunteered to drive us directly to the train station, and did so once we’d cleared our room 90 minutes later. Then he helped carry our bags inside the station while I pushed Susan in her chair.

At the station itself, one of the rail workers sought us out to see if we would need help, and when our train arrived we were put on first, with three of them pushing Susan and carting luggage for us.

Train departed pretty much exactly 8:20PM; with stops along the way, we arrived Heuston Station at 11:00PM. A train worker — also from Brazil! — got us off the train and steered our big luggage outside while I pushed Susan’s wheelchair with one hand and rolled a carry-on bag with the other, while she held the smaller carry-on in her lap.

Our Brazilian helper found a taxi for us … but before I got in, I made sure the driver understood: we might be able to pay by card, but if not I’d have to use American cash. He agreed. Like the driver that took us away from the Waterford station eight days ago, he was African, and he and Susan talked steadily on the 35-minute drive to the airport. My debit card did work, but after he got a trolley for our suitcases and pushed them till he found a place (and he went a ways to find it!) where Susan and I could remain for the next 4-5 hours, I gave him a $20 tip. He really had gone above and beyond.

After that, we just settled in to wait.