Too Soon

Not going say we didn’t see it coming, especially after the Czech students’ trip was cancelled but here’s how the past week led to us being back in the U.S.  

We only had two classes that week: literature and tin whistle. We had just gotten back from Northern Ireland on Monday and had Tuesday off to recover after 5 days away from home. After an hour and a half of tin whistle lessons that sounded similar to a 4^th grade recorder class, we were getting ready to leave a bit early so we could eat lunch before heading to Scotland, our chosen destination for our free weekend. Jane Marie, one of the owners of Park Lodge, came into the classroom to tell us that Ireland schools and universities were shutting down. Unsure if we could get back into the country after Scotland on an American passport, we tried to get in contact with the American Embassy or our airline but to no avail. So, we chose to cancel the weekend with UNK close behind us, outright banning us from going. 

We had already called a taxi to take us into Galway to catch our bus to Dublin so we took advantage of it. We met a group of American students studying in Galway that were doing the same thing but had been confirmed that they were leaving the next day. Fearing the worst, we wandered around buying gifts for our families and friends as well as for ourselves. We hadn’t planned to be in Spiddal over the weekend so we went to Aldi’s to stock up on food. Following the announcement of Ireland’s schools closing, people started stocking up at the grocery stores too. While in line, Hannah had WiFi and received the email that we were to return home immediately. When we returned to the cottages, we all gathered together to discuss how we were getting home. After some convincing, UNK agreed to purchase our flights home. We celebrated this victory with a concert at Marta’s cottage by Dan and Marta. 

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On Friday, we went back to Galway to get Matthias, Lex’s friend. When we first arrived in Galway at the beginning of the trip, we had to wait about 1.5 hours for the bus from Galway to Spiddal so we ate lunch at An Pucan. It only felt right to close the trip in the same place; we even got the exact same table as the first time! One of the best Ireland dishes, in my opinion, is Atlantic Seafood Chowder. This dish consists of a variety of fresh fish such as halibut and salmon as well as scallops, potatoes, lobster, and seasonings in a thick, cream-based soup served with warm brown bread. Pair this was a Guinness and *chef’s kiss.* An Pucan’s was definitely the best version of this dish that I tried so I was happy to have a sense of closure surrounded by my closest friends and a happy belly. 

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At one time, we thought about taking one final day trip to the Cliffs of Moher, the Aran Islands, or Connemara National Park on Saturday. But when we received word that our flights had been booked for Sunday, we decided against that so we could clean our cottages and pack on Saturday. Additionally, most of these places chose to close in the lockdown. So, Saturday was spent slowly cleaning, packing, and just relishing our last couple hours at Park Lodge and in Spiddal. We had one final family lunch with a game of pterodactyl as well. I hadn’t spent all my euro yet so we walked to Spiddal to get final gifts. That evening, we had a potluck in the classroom with everyone’s extra foods and John Paul and Jane Marie came to eat with us. John Paul opened up the hotel’s bar and we partied away our final hours at Park Lodge music and dancing. For the past few weeks, Ron had wanted to go down to the beach in the dark so we all wandered down together to take in the crashing of the ocean waves one more time. Living right next to the ocean is something I’ll miss the most about Ireland. 

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We stayed up until 2:45 AM waiting for our bus taking us from Park Lodge to Dublin Airport. We were handed health forms while waiting to check our bags that I carried with me all the way back to Nebraska, no one ever asked me for it. We went through security and then went downstairs to do it again for U.S. Customs. The lines were absurdly long with everyone trying to get to the U.S. before the travel bans went into effect. After the second round of security, people were separated into two lines depending on if they had traveled outside of Ireland or hadn’t in the past 2 weeks. No one in our group had been outside Ireland in over a month so we all went in one line that moved fairly quickly through as they looked over our passports, asked a few questions, and moved us along. We moved onto our boarding area and loaded onto the plane. We then sat there for 3 hours on the tarmac as we waited for those in the second line. If you had been out of Ireland in the past 2 weeks, the CDC had to be called for each individual person to verify that their travel was cleared by the CDC. In the end, we had to leave 30 people behind. The flight was about 7 hours to Newark, New Jersey. Because our flight in Dublin was delayed so long, we missed our connecting flight to Omaha and waited about 6 hours there. I did a lot of walking around and around our terminal to keep my legs from falling off and to tire myself out after sitting/sleeping for 10+ hours. Our flight from Newark to Omaha was only 3 hours and I slept the whole time. We got into Omaha around 11:45 PM where we all said our goodbyes. It still felt surreal at that point that we were back in the U.S. and really saying goodbye to everyone. Nicole, Marta, Regan, Marissa, and I took a shuttle to a hotel where we stayed for the night before beginning our journey to Kearney. We dropped Nicole off the next day and I made it back to Maxwell around 7:45 PM. In total, it was 46 hours of travel to get back home. 

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Ireland didn’t have many cases, but country was shutting down and anything we would want to do was closed. Events were being cancelled left and right. They even cancelled all St. Patrick’s Day festivities. All public spaces, including bars, were limited to 50 people including staff. I felt particularly bad for Galway because this was supposed to be their year. They were one of two cities named the “European Capital of Culture” for 2020 but many of their events had already been cancelled due to weather and now because of a pandemic. 

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UNK is working hard to get all our classes online or completed in a way that will ensure we get credits for this semester. I began my two weeks of quarantine on Monday and report my temperature to West Central District Health and UNK twice a day. Though it absolutely broke my heart to leave Ireland, I’m trying to make the most of my time at home with arts and crafts, working out, reading, and going through my stuff to donate or sell when this all dies down. The Iceland gang even had a Netflix Party so we could continue having movie nights together and get through our list. I miss the ocean, the people, family dinners, walks on the Relic Road, and even the slugs. It’s devastating to have to leave so suddenly; we thought we had another month and a half to explore Ireland and grow the budding friendships within our group. 

Though we had to part early, Ireland will always be a place I call home. 

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