It’s 5am Sunday morning as I write this and I am just wide awake. I managed to stay up until about 10pm Saturday which is 4am Dublin time and only slept for just over 5 hours. After rolling around and trying to get back to sleep for a while, I just decided I needed to get up and do some writing. At least a 6 hour time change isn’t as bad as a 15 hour time change (Australia), so I am pretty sure in a couple days I will be back on central time.
I haven’t written a MIMM post in a while so I thought today would be a good day to link back up.
So Wednesday evening, my last night in Barcelona, my stomach was just unhappy and yet I drank a mojito anyway (that probably didn’t help). Wednesday night sleeping was rough because my roommates left early in the morning (2am!!) for their flight and my stomach was keeping me from sleeping. I’m not sure of the cause but I wasn’t sure about the Barcelona water even though labeled safe. I mostly drank bottled at least and I think my immune system was just weakening from my poor eating and I probably caught something. It seemed to progress from sneezing, sore throat and then to my stomach. I also walked nearly 40,000 steps on Tuesday, the most ever in a day for me and my body ached (a combo of tiredness and being sick).
Thursday I had a plane to catch to Dublin. I ate some oatmeal as that is usually fine on my stomach, but still multiple trips to the bathroom before leaving my hostel. After breakfast I didn’t eat until making it to my hostel in Dublin, so I went about 8 hours or so without eating. Nothing looked appetizing at the airport and I wanted to make it through my flight. Luckily it wasn’t too bad of a flight and podcasts helped me to pass the time.
My hotel in Dublin had an amazing view right in the center city area. It was also next to a grocery store with more American foods than I had seen in a while. It was so nice to be in a city where signs were in English again and the Dublin people were all very nice just like people had told me.
My stop in Dublin was just under 48 hours and I will tell you cereal was probably half of what I ate there. I also continued to buy bottled water even though the Dublin water is safe to drink, I wanted bottled because of my stomach.
I knew I was tired so I relaxed Thursday afternoon in the hostel watching Mother’s Day on Netflix (the person next to me on the plane ride was watching it and I recognized some actresses and realized I never saw it). Eating cereal and rice cakes and watching a movie for a bit was great.
I decided to sign up for a dinner and a show that happened to be across the street from my hostel. I wasn’t sure about the dinner part, but I also didn’t want to totally miss out on an Irish experience. I picked over the dinner and the chicken was good. I’m sure I would have enjoyed it more if I was feeling better. My body still ached and sitting for a while didn’t help. Finally the show began and I really loved the music and the Irish dancers. I left a little early though so I could get to bed.
Friday morning I had a walking tour at 11am, so I took the morning to rest. I slept until about 8 and then just pulled out my laptop to catch up on youtube videos while I munched on cereal in bed. I was actually glad I bought cereal because my hostel served breakfast but they closed off the kitchen so if you wanted to make your own breakfast, that wasn’t an option which I didn’t like that.
The rest on Friday was definitely needed and by the time of my walking tour I was feeling a bit better. My body finally didn’t ache which was good. I met a couple girls on the tour and we ended up chatting in between our tour stops. Our tour guide was so funny. Definitely would recommend Next City Tours.
At the end of the tour I ended up tagging along with the two girls thinking we would find lunch (though I was still unsure about my stomach). The girls ended up tagging along with some other guys and eventually we found ourselves at a pub around 2pm. We chatted away for a while and I said bye shortly after 3. The pub didn’t have much food and I don’t drink beer so I hadn’t eaten since breakfast yet again.
I then checked out a dessert place I passed Thursday evening and picked up a cookie. They had vegan ice cream which I realized shortly after ordering my cookie. I know cookies are probably not the best option for “lunch” after being sick, but I still wanted it.
I thought about how I should eat some real food, but instead walked back to some of the tour stops to check out inside tours. Unfortunately it was about 4 by this time and the guided tours were sold out, so I just took some more photos and also checked out Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. While walking I found this place called Chopped and got a BLT wrap.
I ate it back at the hostel as the first actual meal, besides breakfast, since Wednesday basically. After a bit more walking, I took the rest of the evening to relax and pack my bag for the last time.
I was up early Saturday morning, around 6:30am, since my other roommate was getting up early for a tour anyway. I polished off the box of cereal and got ready to leave. It was nice to have energy again and my stomach was finally getting better.
I caught the 8am bus to the airport and made it through security and US pre check by 9:30. I had plenty of down time at the airport which was better than when I felt I was cutting it close in Barcelona. We boarded around 10:40am and I was seated in an aisle and the last row right next to the bathroom which I was kinda happy about just in case. Luckily my stomach was good the whole 8 hour flight so I think this bug is pretty much gone.
I watched 3 movies I hadn’t seen on the flight, La La Land, Storks and Jackie. All very different and all pretty good. La La Land honestly didn’t impress me that much though.
We landed around 2pm Chicago time so I had plenty of the day left. I was so happy to take my US phone out of airplane mode for the first time in 4 months and start texting people. #itsthelittlethings
Once I got home, I unpacked, started laundry, ate some homemade baked beans my dad made and headed to Whole Foods with my mom. It was wonderful to be back at Whole Foods and of course we picked up about 10 items not originally on the list. I can’t wait to get back to cooking and baking, especially after food has been so unappetizing for the last few days.
I had a long list of things to get done and I think that is what kept me up until 10pm even though I barely slept on the plane. I sorted my currencies and made an interesting comparison.
I need to start writing a list of all the things I need to do so I don’t forget items as quickly plans are coming together, but I think I will give myself about 2 weeks in Chicago before I start my drive to move to Binghamton, NY. Can’t wait to catch up with friends around home and in between work on job searching, which will probably be a little easier with my US phone number working again.
I know the stomach bug thing is not very marvelous, but seeing a bit of Dublin sites was fun and I was happy the plane ride home went smoothly. Also ironically I think I lost those 5 pounds I wrote about in this post, thanks to the stomach bug at the end.
I am happy to be back in a familiar town, my childhood town, and just meet up with friends while I have this time and in between working on adulting like taxes that I delayed and getting an oil change for my car and of course job searching…not so fun stuff but after all the time off and being so free, I am somewhat ready for more of a schedule and routine again.
Do you enjoy routine or being spontaneous?
I’m definitely more of a planner and routine person, but with the travel, I sat back and relaxed about it. I think because I had more time with not working, it was easier to do that, but when working and having more responsibilities it feels more comfortable to have a plan.
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