On Saturday, my SuperValu delivery arrived as usual. Later in the day, my friend CJ and I had made plans to go to a floatation therapy spa as a birthday treat to ourselves (his birthday was ladt month and mine is this next week). However, CJ woke up with a cough, and out of an abundance of caution, we decided to cancel the booking (thankfully without being charged). I offered to pick up some provisions for CJ, an offer he appreciated and accepted. I set out in the early afternoon to the shopping district on the northside of the Liffey. The streets were packed with holiday shopping season in full swing. I ended up going to a Dunnes foodhall, which was much less busy than the large Tesco grocery store in the lower level of the Jervis Shopping Centre / Mall. I did my best to pick out items that CJ requested, texting him to confirm various choices. I headed back towards Temple Bar, dropping the bag of groceries off at CJ’s place on the way. For the rest of the day, I did chores around the apartment and also applied to a job opening at Trinity College Dublin — probably a long shot, but I figured it was worth trying regardless. In the evening, I ordered some Thai food for delivery and enjoyed a quiet evening at home watching TV.
Sunday morning I woke up early for a day trip out of Dublin. I was heading to County Leitrim, where S. (a guy who I’ve been dating over the last couple of months) lives. Since he had come into Dublin for our first two dates, it seemed only fair that I made the trip to him. I headed out the door around 8:40am, immediately caught a city bus that took me to the Connolly Train Station on the northside, then boarded a 9:05am train on the Sligo line. I hadn’t actually been on an Irish Rail inter-city train previously; I’ve only taken the commuter DART trains to destinations in the Dublin area. The train ride was just over 2 hours to Dromod, a small village between the towns of Longford and Carrick-on-Shannon, and the round-trip ticket cost €32. The train was fairly empty, with no one sitting in the immediate three other seats positioned around a table. I listened to an audiobook while watching the countryside roll by, scenes of green fields with cows and sheep, autumn foliage, and a few loughs / lakes.
S. met me at the Dromod train station in his car. We drove a few minutes into the village and had a late breakfast out at a local pub. In the afternoon, we drove about a 1/2 hour to Kilronan Castle, an upscale hotel where S. had booked us for their spa. In SF, I enjoyed going to the Kabuki Spa in Japantown a few times a year to relax in the hot pools and saunas. The last time was probably sometime in 2019, a few months before COVID-19 was to change the world. The Kilronan Castle spa was very nice, clean and modern with subdued mood lighting. There were a few other people in the spa, but we could rotate to different areas so that we always had plenty of space to ourselves. Swimsuits were required, but masks were not. After about 2 hours of enjoying the relaxing soaks and steam, we finished our time at the spa and then sat down for high tea in one of the hotel’s dining rooms. It was a lovely time and a special treat ahead of my birthday. When we left, it was already dark out. S. drove us back to Dromod, where we stopped at another local pub around the corner from his place to enjoy a couple of leisurely pints. It was a freshly renovated space, and quite lively on Sunday evening with families enjoying meals around tables and live music in a larger room in the back. It reminded me of the small village pubs I had experienced during my first trip to Ireland in 2007, very different from the urban feel of Dublin. Not surprisingly, a friend of S.’s family stopped by to say hello as they were leaving the pub. It felt quintessentially Ireland — small tight knit communities where everyone knows each other. By the time we finished up at the pub, there was about an hour left before my train back to Dublin. We drove to S.’s place and enjoyed watching some TV. He is a big fan of Strictly Come Dancing, the original UK ballroom competition series that has been running for 19 years and still going strong. We managed to see the dance-off of the week before it was time to head to the station. S. waited with me on the platform, surrounded by several students who must have been home visiting family over the weekend. The train was a little late, and much more crowded than in the morning —full of almost all young people. I settled back into my audible book for the trip back to Dublin after a very enjoyable day.
Until next time….
