I arrived at 6:30 AM after a longer-than expected flight (mention of headwinds spun my mind back to aircraft performance courses at VT), awake enough to ask the information desk for tickets, go to the Bus Eireann kiosk to purchase, and find the Adshel bus stop out on the curb.
Seven hours prior, stopover in Boston, I'd decided to spend the day in Sixmilebridge, so named for the bridge at the center of town, a near exact six miles from Limerick. We drove in the darkness as the bus driver and other passenger talked about Halloween. The other passenger was looking forward to giving out candy for about a half hour or so, then turning out the lights and closing the curtains - children clamoring for sweets were not going to separate her from her nightly soaps on the telly.
Others got on and off and then did I, round 8 AM while dawn still waited to get off at her stop. She did, eventually, and the sky brightened. I ate breakfast at the Centra and then wandered from the town center to the hostel, gave the door a ring, no answer, wandered miles outside of town until the path ended, turned back, gave the hostel a ring again, no answer, up the hill to the library for email, back to the hostel, ring, no, quitting, ringing the B&B this time, no, then coffee next door, inquiry, around back the B&B, found the caretaker, set my things down in Number 5.
Rest: a nap, some reading.
That night, off to one of the town pubs. A 7up for the unsettled stomach and a grand conversation with a local couple. Talk of Munster rugby and the American elections and Irish economy and what was I doing there? and music and more. They were off then and so was I, to bed as the caretaker practiced her accordion downstairs.
In the morning, a full Irish breakfast - my first full meal in country. Warm goodbyes to the kind, helpful caretaker of the B&B and off to the train station. Fan Taobh Thiar Den Line Seo.
Next, Galway.