Tuesday, June 22, 2017

Our plane landed in Dublin about 10:00 am.  

We proceeded to immigration where they took the arrival card I had filled out on board, asked me how long I was staying, and that was it. I walked a few feet further where I saw a sign that said for those non Europeans with nothing to claim in customs purchases, you could go through the green line. So I went through the green line and ended up in the Arrival Hall. That was all there was to it!

Dhany Rodriguez had said he would meet me, and within a few minutes we found each other. After I bought a SIM card and got some Euros out of the ATM, we went outside to a beautiful Irish day. Waiting there to drive us was the fellowship coordinator in Balbriggan, Figueiredo Dula. We took a photo to commemorate the event. 

Dhany said I could sit in the front seat so I proceeded to try to climb into the driver's seat.  HA HA. They had signs all over the airport staying "In Ireland we drive on the left," but that didn't translate to me that in Ireland the passenger seat is the driver's seat or vice versa. We all laughed about that. Dhany and Figueiredo drove me to the apartment in Laytown where I would be staying. I had arranged the stay through the HomeStay Web site. They came in and met Linda, my hostess, and had her take a couple of pictures of us together and they were off.  This was the only time I actually got to meet Dhany, but he was behind the scenes the rest of our visit, arranging the fellowships, writing to me every day to check on me. I was sorry I didn't have more time to visit with him, but our schedules just didn't work out for that.

After they left, in one way I was so very, very tired, I wanted to go to bed, but I hated to miss anything since I had already missed an entire 24 hours. So, after taking a shower and freshening up, I joined Linda, my hostess, for a ride to local shopping center.We then went to the beach and just sat and looked at the Irish Sea. She even took me to a pub to have a Guinness so I could say I had done so. 

When we were back to her house, she fixed me supper, which was above and beyond the call of duty. After this I was nodding off and said, "I'm so sorry I must go to bed now," and I fell asleep until about 11:30 p.m. It was unusually warm for Ireland so I opened the window but when I did, it set off the alarm which woke us both up so we went down and had a cup of tea and a nice visit at midnight. She fixed me a ham sandwich, again above and beyond the call of duty, and I went back upstairs to finish my blog and fell sleep about 5 a.m. 

The day was not eventful in terms of the amount of things that I did, but it was very enjoyable. I got to see the Irish Sea which was a goal. And I met a new friend.