About Last Night

I went walking.

Instead of my usual haunts around Limerick, one of my students took me out to a local river and we hiked along the path.  After it became muddy and I realized I was getting mud up to my knees, I enjoyed the view somewhat less.  However, it was pretty.    A wide, slow river.  Trees.  Wind in the trees.  No other people.  She lent me a hat, so I was actually sufficiently warm.  According to my pedometer (known for underestimating distances), it was something like a 5 mile hike.

After it grew dark, we hiked back (mud puddle avoidance in the dark is quite challenging) and she took me to a local pub for dinner.  I had a half pint of cider and an open-faced steak sandwich on locally made wholemeal wheat bread (excellent chance that the ingredients is a list of 3 things, all on my diet).  I felt very decadent, sampling the local fare.  The pub was obviously the neighborhood hangout.  There were children and families with elders having dinner.  The bar and walls were all lovely wood, and there was a soap playing on the TV over my head.  My guide told me that this, too, is very Irish.

Bleh.

Hate it here.  Hate everything.  Hate hotels.  Hate driving in Ireland.  Hate people who give the same directions 100 times a day and so blur over the (critical) details. 

Unpacking and trying to not attack the next three people I see.

Deep breaths

That's what the Hertz guy told me.  When he said it the third time, he had a panicked note in his voice.  Watching me implode was obviously not the high point of his afternoon.

The first Hertz guy said, "Go out the door and immediately turn right.  Walk until you see the blinking sign.  A Hertz bus will pick you up.  You can't miss it!  It is black and yellow."

Well, evidently, I could miss it.  And I did.  I later discovered that "immediately turn right" is really "walk across the street, then turn right".  I never saw a bus.  Any bus.  I now realize this is because they were impossible to see from where I was walking.  I spent 45 minutes walking through about 40F with high winds in airport clothing (i.e. not prepared to be outdoors -- no coat, no scarf, no gloves.  They were all packed.).  I only found the 2nd Hertz guy because I stopped to ask directions.  And ended up at the rental car return.  Not a place you pick up a car.

On the good side...  My local student's driving directions worked perfectly.  And my students' warnings from this past week about the 2Euro toll was critical.  I actually found the hotel.  I even managed to park and manhandle my luggage inside.  The place is beautiful.  More than 200 years old.  And I think I just sacrificed a kidney for internet access.  *sigh*

I am actually ok.  I ate something.  I'm mostly unpacked.  I'm now going to go hit up the concierge for places to walk.