I’m not looking forward to the day (or the re-telling of it) – we have to move to our next pre-booked hotel in Galway and return the rental car. I want nothing more than to lie in bed. I don’t feel like vomiting anymore, but I still don’t feel well.

There’s no sightseeing today – just driving from A to B.

Thankfully Chris drops me at the hotel when we get to Galway, and then goes to return the car. Unfortunately, we are early, and our room is not ready for a few hours. We sit and wait, feeling miserable. By this time, Chris is not feeling very good either.

It’s a beautiful, comfortable room with a good bathroom. I’m thankful for that because we don’t leave the hotel again until our late checkout the next day. Chris has chosen the hotel for convenience because of its proximity to both the rental car place and the train station. We are both very grateful for that given that we are now both sick.

We have a train to Dublin the next day.

We are both disappointed. We had imagined we’d go and hear some live music while we were in Galway and wander around the city, not lie in bed sleeping. I try to remember some of the beautiful places we’ve already seen on our trip to distract myself.

We still both feel quite horrible the next day and if I was home, I wouldn’t dream of going out (probably not of bed, never mind the house). On top of feeling sick, I feel guilty. I don’t want to infect anyone. I feel caught between a rock and a hard place. I don’t want to leave our room and get anyone else sick, but we need to move to Dublin – our flight leaves from there in a couple of days. I realize the pandemic has made me hyper-vigilant about going out when you are sick. I’m judging myself harshly about this, and it adds to my misery. I also realize, there are times people don’t have the choice to just stay home and the fact that I can (most of the time) means I am privileged.

We get to Dublin. We find Covid tests (which are thankfully negative). We go to bed.

Not the best day.

I’m almost finished with my Ireland Travel Stories – just one more to go! That means I’m almost at my goal of posting 8 times in a month to complete my level 4 Innovative Planning project for Toastmasters. This was a difficult blog to write and share. I wouldn’t normally share it (because who wants to read about someone else being sick) but I need to post 8 blogs and couldn’t think of anything else to share about our trip. So here it is. The reality of life. Travel is not all easy and fun.