Flight Status: CANCELLED

After three and a half hours of restless sleep, I woke up Sunday morning a little exhausted. But I got in the shower and got ready to go to the airport. Just as I finished blowdrying my hair and throwing all of my sheets and towels into an empty garbage bag I got the following gchat from Stacy: Our Flight Is Cancelled. My response was a feverish "WHAT?!?" And she quickly responded, "I'm not even kidding". Stacy Curry's travel luck strikes again. That and the Iceland volcano. Mr. Coleman was right, we should respect and fear its power. Stacy told me I should call the airline... which was a push in the right direction cause at that point, I was just staring blankly at my computer screen, not really processing. Problem #1: I had no phone credit left on my Irish cell phone, which made making phone calls impossible. Problem #2: The automatic "Top Up" wouldn't work, and customer service wasn't open for another hour. Solution: Skype. Yes, I skyped American Airlines with my free call that they give you. Success. Until I had to deal with the automated system, which at 6 am on little sleep, was about the LAST thing I wanted to deal with. After about 3290 menus, I finally reached an operator. She told me that the European Airline Authority and the never ending ash cloud had cancelled our flight. She then asked me if I could see it from the ground. My response was "No, the sky is perfectly clear, I feel like this is all a load of crap but what do I know". She told me that the earliest flight she could get me on was the Dublin to Chicago flight scheduled for Tuesday morning. Given that mother nature was the cause of the cancellation, I accepted this defeat and let my family know that I wouldn't be returning until Tuesday. I went downstairs to tell Stevie what was going on, since she was neither online nor had a cell phone. She was not pleased and set out to figure out her own arrangements. Next stop, Claire & Laura's to tell them that they would not need to say goodbye. Finally, I returned to my room, exhausted and disappointed. Figuring there was not much I could do, I fell asleep on my bed.

I woke up to a gchat from Claire at 10 am, asking if I was still here. I responded, yes, where else would I be? I told her I didn't know what Stevie & Stacy were doing and she responded "They left". I was in complete shock, still half asleep, so I went upstairs and talked it over. I was alone in Dublin with Claire & Laura's plans to leave the city in 30 minutes for an adventure around Ireland. Needless to say, I was a little upset. But determined to have the best attitude possible, I decided I was not going to sit in Dublin alone for the next 48 hours and pout about my cancelled flight, so I went back to my room, grabbed a toothbrush and a backpack and headed out with them on their adventure. Figure it out as I go.

We grabbed our stuff and headed out to say goodbye to Miss Matchett. Another tearful embrace and then we were on our way to the number 10, stopping at Centra so Laura could say goodbye to her one true love. We headed into Dublin, to the Busarus and got on a bus towards Cork. Like pros. I took the window seat and put in my ipod, to find perspective and to turn my frown upside down. I was definitely bummed to be missing the people at home who would only be home for a few days, as well as my best friend's bridal shower, but there's a lot in life you can not control. Volcanic Ash just happens to be one of those things. By the time we made it to Cashel and I had called my mom at the rest stop, I had a smile on my face. The expansive Irish countryside helped. A thousand shades of green. The sound of animals baaing and mooing. The abundant Irish sunshine.

We used our heritage cards to get into the Rock of Cashel for free. We explored the castle, navigated around the German tourists, and then found a patch of grass on the outskirts of the cemetery full of celtic crosses to sit and enjoy some homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies Claire & Grace had brought. The mountains and the endless fields and stone walls and animals grazing. Pure Ireland. I think we could have probably all sat there all day and enjoyed the scenery but we headed back down the hill, found a bathroom, and towards the bus stop.

I had about 6 euro in my pocket so I went to the ATM to withdraw money off my credit card, given that my checking account was about empty. "Can not complete the transaction". I tried two different machines. Hmm... this could be interesting. I returned to the others, who had found the bus stop and were perched on the sidewalk. Determining to get to the bottom of the mysterious money shortage, I called Chase, who told me that they would unfreeze my accounts which had been frozen due to the fact that I was using my card in Ireland. (Hello, Chase, I've been using it for 4 months in Ireland). We boarded the bus and headed to Cahir to see another castle.

The castle was closed when we arrived, so we set out to find another ATM and somewhere to have dinner. Once again, denied. This was beginning to get frustrating. So once again, I called Chase, talked to this quiet talker who I couldn't hear at all, and basically just hoped he figured out what I was trying to say. He said to wait five minutes to use it again so we went and found some place to eat. Slim pickings. Not in the mood to spend too much money, we found a little cafe and ordered greasy food. Cheeseburgers, chips. Not the best cuisine I've ever had, but it was food nonetheless. We returned to the ATM where I was finally able to withdraw money, found somewhere to sit, and sat in the sun waiting for the bus to come pick us up.

We arrived in Cork and found our way towards our hostel. As we were walking, backpacks on our backs, Laura's large mountain pack on hers, we were stopped by this older Irish man asking us where we were from. Chicago, Melbourne. He greeted us happily, told us to enjoy our time in Ireland, and walked away saying God Bless Chicago, God Bless Melbourne. I love the Irish. We found our hostel no problem and were greeted happily by another lovely Irish woman. She gave us the door code, we paid our rate, and she showed us around and gave us tips about Cork. Lovely. We checked our emails and just relaxed. I made friends with some people in the living room who were watching Friends. Hometowns: Minneapolis and Ames, IA. I love the Midwest. I also checked the airport website after hearing news about flights and the radio and found that all flights out of Dublin were pretty much cancelled. Looking not so hopeful.

We tried to find some dessert but couldn't so we just went back to our room and fell asleep. It had been an infinitely long day. But when it rains, you just gotta man up, grab an umbrella, and make the best out of what you have. And for me, that was another sunny day in Ireland.