Flew into Dublin early on Sunday morning. The plane was full of elders gathering up for their tours. I was sitting next to a husband and wife couple probably in their seventies. He had hearing aids in both ears, she had a medical bracelet with a medical highlights presumably on the skin facing portion of it.
As the night set it during our flight they remained alert, curious, asking those around them questions.
Hearing them talk about their lives was incredible. She was trained as a teacher but never really got the chance to practice due to a really bad case of vertigo. She did say that learning about history was more fun than teaching it. He was a programmer who too did not get to spend too many years (programming the paper cards?). They never had any kids. As disability & unemployment turned into retirement, they've continued to work on their bucket travel list and traveled extensively around the world. Two months a year they live in Florida where they love going to the Disney parks. Interesting angle on the live well-lived. Food for thought on the choices we are making. I've got to say though we really love what we had chosen to do and that includes travel.
Arriving to Dublin I had several tasks to accomplish before meeting up with Romiks whose flight was arriving in an hour after mine landed. I had to get some money from the ATM, buy sim cards for all, find out what terminal they were landing at and stand there with the sign. Several ATMs spit out my card indicating that there was something wrong with it. The three stores I went to ran out of sim card stock. Not a good start. Fortunately Romiks were landing at the same terminal. The bad news is that they had already landed and should have been coming out any minute. So I wrote up the sign and positioned myself in front of the doors and started waiting.
Connected w. Dan in Vilnius - he & kids were leaving to meet up with us in 4 hours. The magic of the free internet wifi! He reassured me that he had some cash in euro but could not get the ATM to work either. As I waited I stayed on the line waiting (without results) for someone from the bank to pick up. The magic on non-24-hour service and downtimes. Romik skyped me that they are waiting for their luggage. Soon they all came out as well and we went to look for the cab.
Cab dispatcher outside sized us up and suggested to wait for a few minutes for a van to come up. To our feeble proposal to take two cabs he replied that we don't want to be paying twice. And pointed to the waiting area. :)
After we checked in, we located the nearest breakfast place, Ann's Bakery with fantastic looking pastries, got nourished, and walked around all day. During our walks we were able to get the cash from the ATM machine, and get the sim cards so the day went on really well.
Dan and the kids flew in in the evening and joined us for more walks and dinner.
As the night set it during our flight they remained alert, curious, asking those around them questions.
Hearing them talk about their lives was incredible. She was trained as a teacher but never really got the chance to practice due to a really bad case of vertigo. She did say that learning about history was more fun than teaching it. He was a programmer who too did not get to spend too many years (programming the paper cards?). They never had any kids. As disability & unemployment turned into retirement, they've continued to work on their bucket travel list and traveled extensively around the world. Two months a year they live in Florida where they love going to the Disney parks. Interesting angle on the live well-lived. Food for thought on the choices we are making. I've got to say though we really love what we had chosen to do and that includes travel.
Arriving to Dublin I had several tasks to accomplish before meeting up with Romiks whose flight was arriving in an hour after mine landed. I had to get some money from the ATM, buy sim cards for all, find out what terminal they were landing at and stand there with the sign. Several ATMs spit out my card indicating that there was something wrong with it. The three stores I went to ran out of sim card stock. Not a good start. Fortunately Romiks were landing at the same terminal. The bad news is that they had already landed and should have been coming out any minute. So I wrote up the sign and positioned myself in front of the doors and started waiting.
Connected w. Dan in Vilnius - he & kids were leaving to meet up with us in 4 hours. The magic of the free internet wifi! He reassured me that he had some cash in euro but could not get the ATM to work either. As I waited I stayed on the line waiting (without results) for someone from the bank to pick up. The magic on non-24-hour service and downtimes. Romik skyped me that they are waiting for their luggage. Soon they all came out as well and we went to look for the cab.
Cab dispatcher outside sized us up and suggested to wait for a few minutes for a van to come up. To our feeble proposal to take two cabs he replied that we don't want to be paying twice. And pointed to the waiting area. :)After we checked in, we located the nearest breakfast place, Ann's Bakery with fantastic looking pastries, got nourished, and walked around all day. During our walks we were able to get the cash from the ATM machine, and get the sim cards so the day went on really well.
Dan and the kids flew in in the evening and joined us for more walks and dinner.
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