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Old 06-07-2016, 03:08 PM   #4
SillyAnonymousPianist
between the waves
 
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Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: France
Posts: 104
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JUNE 4, 2016
Location : Ireland, then France
Exterior temperature : 22°C then 12°C
Weather : Very nice (for Ireland), then sh!tty

Then next day, was checkout and time to go back :
All good things must come to an end !

Oh and before I get to the end of the story :
Do remember I still was lacking LOTS of sleep time...

Kildare => Dublin/Heuston station





On the way from the train station to the city center on foot, because having a stroll along the river with super weather is super nice.

Took this picture below because of a conversation we had while drinking the other night.
Made me think about it...




A few hundreds meters later...
And DO remember this flying animal here on the ramp because I'm pretty certain "HE" knows... (more on this soon...)




I then reached the city center, back to the street where the shuttles and buses to the airport are.

I was feeling lightweight...
Happy...

MP3 player was playing you-know-who on repeat, of course...
Great day, sunny, having a stroll... Living the dream...

Definitely happy ! Definitely feeling lightweight...

Lightweight...

Yeah lightweight...
...Literally !


WAIT !!!



WAIT !!!

WHERE.

IS.

MY.

LUGGAGE ?!?


To anyone looking for a definition of :
#AwayWithTheFairies
Well... You just witnessed one... Sort of...

OR...

You want to know what :
MOR-TI-FIED

means ?

Well : look no further...

Took a tram all the way from Henry pedestrian street back to Heuston train station ("-Heuston : I have a problem !") to ask customer service :
Nope, didn't forget it in the train it seems...

I paused... And tried to think... What was in there that I... LOST... ?!?
Let's try to remember and make a list :
  • Set of underwear and socks for june 1 (not a big deal)
  • Set of underwear and socks for june 2 (oh well)
  • Set of underwear and socks for june 3 (will have to buy some more though)
  • Toothpaste, toohbrush and anti-perspirant (I can buy those again...)
  • A shirt I liked even though 3 sizes too big now (I'll survive...)
  • A new pair of trousers I wore once (not a big deal)
  • The "Rose & Briar" CD of "Ye Vagabonds" (DRAT ! Well I can still buy one from their website later...)
  • USB chargers, converters, current transformers (oh well...)
  • My phone charger (now THAT is a problem since my old clap-phone is from the nineties and I'm never going to find something to charge my phone or it's going to cost and arm and a leg. Well it's going to cost me less to get a new phone : about time though)
  • My tablet charger (tested home : I can recharge it from the PC : so not really a loss)
  • Several USB cables and stuff (oh well...)
  • My ticket to the Riverbanks gig (THAT hurts, I felt super sad when I realized that !!!)
  • Something that will be left undescribed but was a gift from my brother last X-Mas (OUCH ! OH SH!T !!! NOOOOES !!! )
  • The cabin luggage itself and the lock on it (See if I care...)

Well apart from the gig ticket and a gift from my brother that I *really* didn't want to loose, there was nothing else of real value OR that I can't buy/order again, I mean nothing else of sentimental value...

BESIDES :

That *excessive* amount of "contraband" that I smuggled on the way in ?
It actually saved my favorite pair of shoes (not that I have that many to begin with) since I couldn't bring them because not enough room in my luggage :
SO THERE'S THAT !
(Realized that later on but at the time I can tell you I wasn't feeling proud AT ALL !)

Oh and now that I think about it, the item that wasn't delivered on time, that I thus didn't bring and thus didn't get autographed : well that item got saved too, sort of !

Anyway, I then took the same path along the river from Heuston station to O'Connel bridge to try to spot my luggage.
Already in my clouded mind there were images of a bomb squad placing a detonation container over my luggage and Lisa's Riverbanks gig ticket being turned into countless confetti alongside my brother's gift...

My heart bounced when I saw all the Garda and their van not too far from the wooden bridge pathway I had been accross, stopped to take that pic with the pidgeon, and most likely forgot to pick my luggage back up after I took the picture...

MOR-TI-FIED...

"-Hi hmmm, excuse me officer, is this about some forgotten luggage on the side perhaps ?"
He looked at me like... I mean... Well... Eeeeer...
"-No no... This is just an ID check, what about this... Luggage ?"
And he pulled a notebook and a pen...
"-Ok soooooo here's the thing, I'm foreign, and... I mean I'm super tired... And well... I lost my luggage... I don't remember where !"
He looked at me and I sort of felt he was pondering if it was perhaps a good idea to call a psychiatrist's team with a secure cushion-stuffed van and the loooooong sleeve shirt that goes with it.
I swear...

Turns out he just asked me what was inside the luggage, my address, phone number, email, etc...

MOR-TI-FIED...



Still I went on along the river trying to see if I could spot my luggage somewhere...
Up to O'Connel bridge : nothing...
From that bridge to Henry Street : nothing...

In Henry street I got stopped by a joyous grandpa with a beaming smile.
He started telling me about Jesus and several other related topics/people/things.
He was so small, a little "bent" on top of that. But he was joyful, smiling and well : nice and kind...
Normally these (sorry about this) "kind" of people I tend to brush away with a :
"Sorry I don't believe in these crap, have a good-day, bye..."
But at that time I didn't, I mean he was so friendly and he felt so genuine, I didn't have the heart...
So I told him about my luggage... Long story short : before he... "let go" of me, he told me that for sure the Lord knew where my luggage was.

Yeeeeah... Okay...
But "HE" isn't very talkative with me right now, I thought, as I waved goodbye...

Sigh...

Fast-forward to getting at the airport very early so that nothing else of the sort would happen to me.
After security and while inside the duty-free zone I felt the "urge" to get a souvenir to replace the loss of the gig ticket.
Yeah... Something to cling to...

So here's Craig the sheep, I thought he/she was cute.
(Also it's only when I got back home that I realized the dang thing didn't "meeeeeeeh" when turned upside down but instead was under the snow : I can live with that, cute too...)


Then... Oh geez... When I think about it...

After the gate, I didn't see anything of the sort that would look like my departure area.
So I asked and well, guess what... I had taken the wrong gate door number.
"-You have to exit ! Totally... Then go through security again, then to your gate, oh and if I were you i'd hurry..."

It felt an eternity trying to find the exit.
On the panel my gate door number had the sentence "Last call" next to it...
It felt an eternity finding back the security area.
I felt HEARTBROKEN when the boarding pass was showing red at security.
Then relieved when finally the guy checked my ID again and let me go through.
I ran and ran and ran through what seemed a path that was actually stretching bigger as I ran, like in a freaking NIGHTMARE !
HEARTBROKEN again when at the boarding gate it was written in BIG HUGE RED LETTERS and there was noone around :

CLOSED

MOR-TI-FIED...

The plane was already gone ???

No it wasn't, and the guy at the boarding gate showed up from behind a counter and signaled at my terrified face :
"-C'mere !"

He was checking my boarding pass and ID, I must still have looked terrified, or in absolute anguish, or whatever :
"-Relax !" he said as he pointed to the gate.

Did he just say... Did he... What ?

I boarded the plane, door closed behind me, all passengers were looking at me... Like... I mean... Well...

MOR-TI-FIED...



Plane took off, I was slowly realizing it was the end of my nice little 3 day trip to Ireland.
It's always a bit sad when you come to the end of a vacation.
That said there's something that NEVER gets old :




Plane landed in BVA on time : 10pm.
Because it was late, because of the strikes, because of the flood, and because she likes me, and so that I don't end up sleeping in the street because I couldn't get a train back to my home, my mom came to fetch me.

When I told her about almost missing the return plane, about my luggage still somewhere in Dublin she looked at me with a tender smile, slowly shaking her head :
"-What are we gonna do with you ?"
"-Heard that before..."
I said...

She laughed...
I laughed...
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"Just keep swimming." - That's what she said...

Last edited by SillyAnonymousPianist; 06-28-2018 at 11:13 PM. Reason: (correcting broken link for images)
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