So Long, Farewell!

On 8th October 2011 we boarded a plane headed back to the States for good. We had spent 5 years on the Emerald Isle. Well, actually, 4 years 9 months and 16 days which is also 1727 total days. That was a lot of days to be away from out families and miss out on birthdays, funerals, holidays and other celebrations.

We saw most of Europe. It is easier to count the countries we did not make it to. At the time of our departure I was 32 years old and had been to 32 countries. In the year 2011 I went to 12 different countries in 12 months. It was a busy final year in Europe.

Of course I had to keep traveling once I got home, but that is for some other place and time to tell those stories. So this wraps up our Operation Dublin.....thanks to all that have read this over the years! Raibh maith agat as léamh! Slán!

(The purple countries are the places Ben and I went together and Red are the ones that Mariah went to on her own)

As inspired by Dr. Seuss

One door, two door, red door, blue door.
Black door, blue door, old door, new door.
Big door, dinky door, purple door, pinky door.
Dirty door, clean door, yellow door, green door.
Fancy door, Orange door, black door, strange door.
Brown door, faulti door, white door, multi door.
Say! What a lot of doors there are.

The history behind the brightly painted colourful doors is that after the death of Queen Victoria, England ordered the citizens of Ireland (which was still under British rule at the time) to paint all of their doors black in mourning of the queen. The Irish rebelled and painted their doors bright colors, and the tradition has stuck.

But I like this story even better: Women were tired of their husbands going in the wrong doors when they were drunk, going up the wrong stairs, into the wrong bedroom and sleeping with the wrong woman so they painted the doors different colours to help them distinguish between them.

It may seem like I may be a little obsessed with doors, but they are all different, and each on has great personal touches. Even the door hardware is beautiful and interesting. They have knockers, clangers, pullers, glangers, huge doorknobs, and my favorite of all; Lion Headed Door Knocker!

Final Goodbyes

With our last week coming to a close it was time for final goodbyes. Along with some of those goodbyes were great gifts, like Dublin jumpers, friendship shamrocks and announcements of pregnancies. Three of them! We treated Sean and Celia to our favourite Korean dinner place where they told us they were expecting their own little bundle of joy! We were so excited for them! So come April 2012 their little one should make its first appearance to the world. Vinny drove me home one last time and let me know that him and his wife were expecting in March.

I also got to have a great dinner of fried chicken with Catherine and Edell at one of our favourite pop-up restaurants Cracked Bird. Yummy. It was great to get together one last time. Ruth was not able to make it since she got a job in Bristol and had started that day. Which was fantastic news!

Although it sucked working on 4 days a week from a pay standpoint, I loved working a 4 day week. One thing I will miss terribly was my nearly weekly coffee get togethers with Paul either in City Centre or out at the sea. I took it for granted that I could talk a stroll next to the sea anytime I wanted. I will also miss my chats with Paul.

With our time off, I also made Ben do all the touristy things I had left to do. We did the creepy wax museum. Good for a bit of history, but all wax museums creep me out. I keep expecting them to move and walk towards me. We also managed to do the Viking Boat tour in the pouring rain. We even wore the viking hats! We ‘ROAR’ed at the poor passerbyers, scaring a few Italian women. I felt bad about that one. The best part was when our DUKS went into the water in the Grand Canal Basin to see all the buildings there from a different point of view.

Ben has his own leaving party and lunch with his co-workers from his office. We got to pop in one last time so I could say goodbye to his team. His office was always cooler looking than mine!

I had one last meal with my Polish girls where I showed off my extensive vocabulary of a whole 8 Polish words. The word for yummy of course was the most relevant since Ania made another awesome meal! We shared a few bottles of wine with Daria, Ania and myself and had great chats late into the night.

I also hit up Cathy’s daughter’s, Lily Rose, first birthday. She is only a few weeks younger than Abe so it was great to see her and all her little one year old friends to try and gauge the size and development of the nephew I had yet to meet. I was the only one there not pregnant, with my child, or pregnant with my children. It was unlike any party I had ever been to, I was just glad there was some wine there since there was a lot of little babies!

Our final dinner was with Tori and Andrew along with his brother and a surprise visit with Tori’s friend Sue. It was a nice Cuban dinner. I know that is was not a forever goodbye since hoepfully we will see them down in LA.

I will miss my girls! I will miss my buddies! I will miss Ireland! Don’t worry, I did not see it all while I was there, so I will be back to see more. And to see some of those babies due in 2012! It may take me a while, but I will make it back.