My Liberation from Ireland

I wandered around the gaff I had just spent the last year of my life in with a knot in my throat. That sick feeling you get right before you start crying. You know the one that gives you away when you try to speak. What a jerk like. My eyes were little pools yet amazingly enough had not overflown. To be so sad leaving was not something I expected after having spent the last year of my life down the darkest hole I had ever been in. I don’t know when the depression started. Maybe I caught it from the accident? But sure, that would mean I had it when I got there.  That would mean that the people whom have come to mean so much in my life never really got to meet me. They met shadow Mandie, someone I had created and projected up to ground level from my deep dark hole.

The funny thing is when you’re the one doing the leaving it’s not the same. There is a little bit of guilt that goes along with leaving. Just imagine cute little old Irish ladies and the amount of guilt they can throw around without any effort. Unreal like. I was half guilted back into returning before I had even left. I joked it was going to be my last day Tuesday, then I was leaving never to be heard from again. But as the days clicked closer to me leaving there was something that was becoming very apparent to me. I was going to have to return.

In all seriousness like, there really is no place like Ireland.

There is so much that has been left unsaid about my time in Ireland. Many laughs and stories I have not yet shared. Now just does not feel like the time to catch you up. Tompers is pushing to look forward and live in the now. One day the stories will come to light, like the one about the night Cilly-B & I played rock, paper, scissors for yer man with the sexy voice. 

Neglect 101

Nothing is happening. What is going on?! Tompers is still kicking it buried deep in travel books changing his mind from wanting to live in Berlin, to Prague, to Cyprus on a daily basis with no cares in the world on how such things can be achieved. Me, I'm trying to save as much money as physically possible to fund the little furballs dreams.

Exit plan is in the works. I am leaving Ireland in the new year. I know I keep pushing the dates back it's just so hard to save any sort of money here. I have come to terms with the fact we will have to find work along the way to make this work. We're also going to have to get over to Eastern Europe as quickly as possible as things are much cheaper over there. Everything always works out and it will this time too! But the first week of January is forsure. I'm just trying to decide it I want to go to Scotland first or fly straight to Belgium.

France is in the works for October. Flights have been booked and now it's just a matter of figure out the logistics for when were are there. I want to do it as cheap as possible so it doesn't take too big of a dent out of my leaving funds. However it's France, it's going to cost a fortune. C'est la vie.

I just keep hoping to get a cheque from ICBC reimbursing my medical expenses. I haven't seen anything from them in so long. I emailed to find out what was going on, but shockingly no one has gotten back to me yet. Maybe I hired a lawyer too soon. I didn't think it would affect being reimbursed for expenses they are meant to cover. This whole thing is a daily stress on me and its a big part of what is changing my plans for the future. Also being in constant pain isn't exactly a good time. Now that I'm nearing the one year anniversary of my accident I'm realizing it's time I come to terms with the fact I may never get better.

Well now hasn't this been a downer.. jaysus. Sorry I'll try to fill it with butterflies, rainbows and lollies next time! My life really isn't that depressing! I promise.

The More You Know

As I spent the day researching and sorting out different travel plans and formulating what it is I am going to do with my 215 days left on the other side of the pond, I realized something...

I have not spent nearly enough time travelling on this trip. Looks like there is going to have to be a Euro trip part two. I also realized that stressing about what I'm going to do once I leave Ireland is silly because as we know things always fall into place for me and the T-Man.

Being off work for a couple of weeks thanks to my back I started stressing about money. Making €10/hour doesn't really leave a lot of space for saving. As I have been on proper pain medication daily for the past month or so I have not been drinking, which I thought would be saving me heaps of money but turns out attending physio twice a week is about the same amount I was spending on alcohol. Feeling the desire to tighten my purse strings and really curtail my spending I had set about a plan. No spending, that way I could save as much as possible.. Then I realized I'm not even working full time hours thanks to my stupid back, and the frustration, overwhelming feelings and anxiety set in.

Then Tompers reminded me embrace where I am, to not stress so much about money. If I don't do anything in an attempt to save money what is the point in living? Also there are so many places we still want to go and need to go before leaving Ireland for good. Normally my solution would be to get a second job buckle down and really save, then do everything when I leave. Unfortunately I am physically unable to do that so I'm going to have to compromise and do a little traveling, cross some more things off the ol' bucket list and save what I can.

It turns out I am rather skilled at finding the cheapest flights, the inexpensive but nice hostels, and the most cost efficient way of getting around foreign places. I'm not sure if its from the past couple years of travelling or if some of it is thanks to my love of research. But I feel like I have found something I am passionate about... I absolutely LOVE trip planning...

Go Pretty Horsey Go!!

I would tell you that I am not a gambler. It's not because I think gambling is bad, or I'm concerned that I would become addicted to it. It's because I don't like taking chances on something when you know statistically the house always wins in the end, cause if they didn't the would be no such thing as Vegas. Tompers also pointed out to me I really don't like participating in things I can't win. (Or at least have a good chance at winning)

However I woke up this morning and I thought to myself today would be a great day to bet on some horses. Ireland has finally captured me.

Thursday my friends arrived all the way from sunny beautiful British Columbia, Being the gracious host that I am I wanted my friends to have the real Irish experience, I managed to snag us tickets to the Races! Well the legend I work with during the days got me the tickets. For those of you not in the know, the Galway Races are kind of a big deal. Don't worry I really had no idea until I was out there! 

This Irish experience I had planned for my friends naturally needed to include some Poitín, which we managed to choke back a shot each before heading out to the track. 

Being a novice gambler and really knowing nothing about horses at all I chose my horses by their jockeys outfits, seemed like a reasonable way to bet. I also only placed a maximum of €5 on each of the races. To some this seems silly, but I still got very excited seeing all the horseys coming around the final bend of the track and racing towards the finish. I also managed to pick a winner 4 out of 7 races (the 7th race we just all put a fiver on a different horse, TamTam won that one, still unsure how much she won... Should probably get that sorted today) 

It was amazing how just before the race would start suddenly there would be a flood of people filling the stands, the energy was electric. I now understand how people can spend a day at the tracks. When I was at work and the races were on the tele they seemed so far apart from each other and I thought it was odd that there was so much time in between each race, but when you're there that time disappears at a rapid rate.

What an experience. Tompers is beyond upset that I left him at home, but who knew what we were getting into. Today I'll let him pick some horses.

Crossing things off the bucket list that were never on there in the first place. #lifegoals

Under 48

How do I even begin to describe Copenhagen? This remarkable city left a huge impact on me. Having spent less than 48 hours there I feel robbed of all the experiences I could have had, and therefore I must return.
I just did not have enough time to do everything Tompers wanted to do. Everyone kept telling me Copenhagen is expensive, pack your wallet... but I didn't find it any more expensive than Dublin. Europe is expensive you just have to figure out where to go if you want to save money. The city is so clean it's unreal. I did not see a single piece of trash anywhere, like the people actually care enough not to litter or there are magic fairies that come along and clean it up so fast it has barely touched the ground.
I am at a loss as how to further write about this experience, it was far to short to really even call it an experience. I'm glad I didn't jump the gun booking a bunch of weekend trips into Europe. I'm definitely doing a three night minimum from now on.. Also early morning arrivals are crucial. Lesson learned.