I’m finally turning the corner on the horrific cold I brought back with me from Ireland, although I woke up this morning with a still-deep cough and feeling run down. Fell asleep on the couch for two hours after walking the dog.
Now that I have one post-Covid trip under my belt and I’m feeling better, I’m chomping at the bit to get back on the road again. First thing I am considering is a seven day writers retreat in Bolinas right before the election — in fact it ends on Monday the 4th of November. The theme of the retreat is learning how to cope in difficult times and the leader promises teaching us some skills with how to deal with the possibility of a Trump win.
Being in Ireland and off the grid was truly a much needed vacation from the everpresent Trump mayhem. Although I did have my phone — which friends used to inform me via text that Trump had been found guilty in the hush money case — it was delightful on the train to Galway reading paper copies of The Irish Times and The Guardian and only coming across one picture of the former guy in each publication. When we returned to Dublin, the Uber driver taking us back to the hotel from the Budget car rental agency in the south of the city, pointed out a man in a major city center roundabout leaning against his motorcyle and waving a ginormous Trump banner. The driver said he is a constant in that location. You could tell that at first he was feeling us out to see how we felt about Trump and when we made our disdain clear he said he’s just a big bully. Oh, if that were only what we had to deal with!
I have to honestly say I would have been challenged doing this trip on my own. Even in small Northern Ireland towns like Ballycastle, technology is everywhere. I had a really difficult time figuring out how to use my phone to make calls; checking in to Airbnbs came with complex (to me) instructions on how to locate and use keys; and figuring out how to tip people when I wanted to add it on to the bill because neither of us had much cash. Then there was the driving on the other side of the road, something I couldn’t even imagine succeeding at so my daughter did all of the driving. I had a hard enough time as it was figuring out which way to look when crossing an intersection as a pedestrian.
Usually when I return from a trip I feel a sense of excitement about coming home and reconnect as soon as we hit the Golden Gate Bridge with how absolutely gorgeous my neck of the woods is. But this time it was different. It wasn’t a long enough trip. We were only gone eight days. My therapist asked me the other day what my favorite memory will be and I couldn’t come up with one. I loved every part of it. I feel cheated that I was so sick upon reentry because I missed out on that wonderful week after experience when you think back and recall what you were doing on this particular day last week. Right now (I’m writing this on Tuesday) I have to say that two weeks ago on this day we were driving south of Galway, picking up smoked salmon for our picnic lunch, stopping off at an Irish chocolate factory, and visiting a sheep herding farm in the middle of nowhere to watch as border collies put on a spectaular show. The day was rich with threatening clouds, there were a few showers. When we returned to Galway, we ordered a gluten free pizza to go, made a green salad and watched Netflix. Were in bed by 9.
I’m thinking now that I may do the writers retreat at the end of November and then consider doing a yoga retreat again. I feel like my days of solo travel are over.
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