I met the nicest people. On my flight from Rome, Italy to Dublin, Ireland, I ended up sitting next to a woman from Poland named Margaret. She appeared to be about 20 years-old and when I made a comment about her youth, she corrected me and told me everyone thought she was young, but she was actually 36.

For the next few hours we had the most interesting conversation. I learned about Poland and Ireland and some of her personal life experiences. We talked economics, family, careers, politics, health care, and exchanged emails addresses. She was very nice and shared her sweater with me on the flight as it was pretty chilly. We lost track of one another in customs, but I hope to hear from her sometime in the future.

Speaking of customs, I had no problem since I wasn’t transporting drugs and didn’t buy anything of much value during the trip. As a matter of fact, it was probably a little too easy and that may be why some travelers choose to smuggle things.

Once in Dublin, I took a taxi to the Ardmore Hotel, however Hotels.com had promised a free shuttle, I found out they were mistaken, so I had a $35 taxi ride. When I made my reservation however, I made sure the hotel was near a Dublin bus line, so after checking in and taking a nap, I took the bus downtown.

Since Bill, Asa and I had spent two days in the Cathedral and Temple Bar area, visiting Dublin Castle, the Guinness Storehouse and taking a city bus tour of the sites, I felt comfortable striking out on my own; it was light until nearly midnight so being out felt safe without the darkness of night.

I got off the bus near Trinity College and walked up crowded Grafton Street and spent several hours in St. Stephens Green (1663) and the Iveagh Gardens (1865) near the Grand Canal. There were lots and lots of people in the parks in various states of leisure.

I ended up at a restaurant called Cafe en Seine where I enjoyed a complimentary pint of Guinness with my chicken pie. It was a mansion long ago and had been converted into a unique restaurant/bar.

After dinner, I walked around a little more and then took the bus back to the Ardmore Hotel, a very nice hotel with very nice desk staff. The taxi ride to the airport the next morning was pleasant as the taxi drivers are quite talkative and friendly, sharing their opinions on the state of the world.

I visited with a teacher and her family from Florida while waiting to board the Delta plane and learned some of the news of interest about Florida. Incidentally, Delta was a nice way to fly to Europe; they kept us fed, comfortable and entertained.

I had managed to make the weight limit on my baggage and didn’t have much in my carry-on. After checking one bag, I was passing through the airport and was offered complimentary samples of Jameson Irish whiskey. Well, I don’t usually drink shots of whiskey and never before noon, but this was a special day and I was going to be flying over the ocean for the next eight hours so I made an exception and sampled one, then another, and decided I should surprise Bill with a bottle unavailable in the States.

On my way to the checkout stand, another lady presented me with two more samples of an Irish liqueur, Coole Swan, also unavailable in the States and quite tasty. I picked up a bottle of that also.

Now my carry-on bag was suddenly quite heavy. What was I thinking? That’s what four shots will do at 10 a.m. when you are a long way from home.

I boarded the plane around 11 and soon struck up a conversation with a nice lady named Cornelia, who has an upscale mobile dog grooming business for the wealthy dogs in San Jose, California. We enjoyed visiting and exchanging stories about our experiences in Ireland.

In the meantime, I watched three movies in a row on the plane and we shared our opinions with one another about the movie plots. We landed in Atlanta eight hours later and we both had several hours to kill so we sought out an airport bar for a snack and a margarita before saying good-bye.

I flew on to Omaha, landing at 8:30 p.m. When I got off the plane, there was no one in the airport and I was temporarily confused, thinking I had flown to the Lincoln airport by mistake. The airport seemed so small and empty in comparison with the international airports we had frequented the last month. It was eerily empty and I wondered what happened to Bill; he is always early or at least on time. Where could he be? I thought okay, maybe he is waiting in the car out front. No, not there. So I went back in and used a pay phone ( I had been without a cell phone for a month and it felt great) and tried calling his cell, then our home, no answer. HMMMM. I sat on a bench in front of the terminal and waited, and waited, and read my book.

Finally, at 9:15, when I was about to go in and call Asa or my in-laws for help, who should coming walking out of the terminal but Bill. He was at the other gate (which also had a flight come in from Atlanta) and was visiting with people he knew from the area while he waited for me. Needless to say, it was not so surprising that after all the travel around Europe, we would lose one another finally in Omaha....

So this could be my final travel story, but I have one more, and then I promise I’ll stay home.