Nightmare Before Paris

'Twas the night before Paris, and everything was falling apart. We got back from the West, and everything was a whirlwind. I had to pack, check into our flight, and get everything ready to go to Paris the next day. My big plans for the night came crashing down very quickly when one of my travel buddies could not find their passport. This made it impossible to complete the verification steps for the airline, meaning that we could not get our boarding passes. We eventually found the passport, only it was in Dublin, not in Dungarvan. I checked us all into the flight, went to bed, and hoped for the best. 

It is a solid 12 hours later at this point, and we are getting on the bus. Everything is going according to plan, the bus was on time to pick us up and left promptly. We were going to take the bus to Dublin City Center, get the passport, then take a taxi to the airport, and finally be on our way to the airport. Only that plan was derailed the second we got stuck in traffic in Kilkenny. By this point we were not going to make it to our flight if we did not find a different way to get to the passport. Luckily, our bus driver was kind and told us the fastest way to get to Dublin City Center was the above ground train system. We ended up taking that to almost exactly where the passport was, getting the passport, and getting into the Uber within 5 minutes of getting off the train. This next part was incredibly stressful since we had an hour to get onto our flight and were still 30 minutes away from the airport. Our Uber driver was a godsend, and he got us there with 40 minutes until boarding for our flight ended. We sprinted through the airport, got our boarding passes, got through security, and were in line to board the flight in 22 minutes. 

Now you might think smooth sailing from there, but it was not. There was a medical emergency on the plane, which thankfully, everyone ended up okay. When we landed, customs was a breeze, and then we had to figure out how to get to the airbnb from the airport. We took a taxi, which ended up being expensive, but also the easiest thing at the time considering how tired we were. Then we got to the airbnb, that thing was terrifying. We heard gunshots and screaming all night long. Thankfully, two of our moms decided we shouldn't be dealing with that so they got us a hotel room for the rest of the trip. Which made everything much better. 

 

When I was reading through my poetry book after getting back from Paris I stumbled upon the poem "The Falling of the Leaves" that we read in a previous class. The sixth line of the poem states "and weary and worn are our sad souls now." This line resonated with me because of how exhausted and overwhelmed I felt following everything that led up to my trip to Paris. I felt that I was worn as thin as I could be without breaking, and even then it was a gamble. Everything worked out in the end, but before getting to the hotel I was falling apart because of the stress.