It Was 7 Years Ago Today

 Seven years ago today, we landed in Ireland. It’s hard to believe it’s been 7 years already! When we got here, we had no idea where we’d end up. We knew we’d have to start somewhere and that we wanted to live in the west, so we just chose the Galway area because that’s where Bill’s grandmother was born—he got his citizenship as a result. We booked a B&B in Oranmore for a week, hired a taxi service to meet us at Shannon Airport and bring us there, and that was it. We had three suitcases and three backpacks, which contained all of the possessions we had decided to keep. Everything else we’d given away or sold. We had also read a book about moving to Ireland, which gave us a huge amount of useful information and we’d been spending a lot of time on daft.ie, a site that lists rental properties. We knew that almost all rentals come completely furnished, right down to plates and teaspoons, so we wouldn’t have to worry about acquiring much of anything.

We arrived on a Thursday in the early afternoon. We dropped our bags at the B&B and went into the small town to explore a little and have some lunch. The next day, we went to the local Tesco and bought a cheapo, non-smart, pay-as-you-go mobile phone, which we still have. We’d seen a place on  Daft that we were interested in and Bill called the number given, but had to leave a message at the letting agent’s office. He also sent an email to which we got no reply. By Friday afternoon, I was non-functional, with a severe headache, chills, and nausea—a typical response for me the day after long flights. I was fine by the middle of the night, so Saturday morning, we had breakfast, went to the local store to buy food for the day, and hunkered down in our room, laptops humming. Bill scoured Daft for suitable places and when he found one, I would find information about the town/village it was in to see if it would work. Our needs were few—grocery store and bus service. Sometimes, places didn’t have these things and we moved on. We also didn’t understand at the time the way the listings worked. For example, they would list a few place names and then a town. The first names were townlands, which often didn’t appear on the maps, so some of these places were not actually in the towns listed, but in nearby townlands. Since we had no plans to get a vehicle, those weren’t options for us. I kept a list of the ones that looked promising and by the end of the day, we had several possibilities. We noticed that the same letting agent Bill had contacted the day before had a few listings in Ballinrobe, Co Mayo. All of them looked like good possibilities, so we decided it was a good idea to start with her. We developed a plan and felt pretty good about where things stood. There was nothing we could do on Sunday, so we just walked round town and enjoyed ourselves.

On Monday morning, our plan was to take the bus into Galway City, but Joe from the B&B was going there anyway and he offered us a ride, dropping us off at the Tourist Information Centre. We went in there where it was quiet, and I called the letting agent, having rehearsed what I was going to say over the previous day. When I heard the beep, I launched, ‘Hello, my name is Shari Burke and my husband and I have just arrived in Ireland and are looking for a place to rent quickly. We noticed you have a few listings in Ballinrobe and we’re quite sure at least one of them would work for us, so if you could call me back so we could set up a time to view them, I’m quite certain we would rent one of them.’ Then I heard the beep that said I’d gone on too long and I had to call back and leave another message with my contact information. Since she had not responded to Bill’s messages about the other place, I wanted to impress upon her that we were serious and it could be worth her while to get back to us. This seems to have worked, because she called back within the hour, asking if we could come the following day and be at her office at a particular time—she was busy but would squeeze us in. We had to go back to the tourist centre to check bus schedules, but it turned out we could get to Ballinrobe a couple hours before the time of the appointment and we would have 45 minutes to look at the places and whatever else before getting the bus back. 

I was pretty excited Tuesday morning. We had our breakfast, took the bus into Galway, walked around a little there and hung out in Eyre Square until it was time to get the bus to Ballinrobe. Once there, we walked around, ate some lunch, found the places we’d be viewing, and went to the office to wait for the letting agent. She rushed in and seemed a bit taken aback at what our situation was, but off we went to look at the first place and then the second, which was just on the corner. We didn’t bother looking at the third place, but said we’d take the second one. The first place was nice, too, but the apartment was easier in some ways for newbies. Then we dashed back to her office at the end of the street and she filled out some paperwork and gave us a receipt for the deposit we gave her, telling us she’d contact the owner and get in touch to let us know if he would rent to us. We were done in a bit less than the 45 minutes we had and went to wait for the bus.

By late Wednesday afternoon, we had not heard from her and I spent a fair bt of time trying to make contact. Our week at the B&B was up the following day and while we could have booked for another week, we really didn’t want to. Not that it wasn’t comfortable, but the monthly rent for the apartment was the same cost as a week there. Plus, we wanted to get settled and we needed to know if we would have to keep looking. Finally, I got her on the phone. Then the signal dropped. I got her again. She laughed and said, ‘Oh yeah, I was supposed to call you. You can move in whenever you want.’ ‘Great,’ I replied, ‘Tomorrow it shall be. What time?’ She was surprised again, but gave us a time. The next morning, we had breakfast and said good-bye to Rose, the B&B lady, who gave me a beautiful crystal candleholder as a 'welcome to Ireland' gift. Joe drove us to Ballinrobe and waited while we signed the lease and paid the first month’s rent. We all went to the apartment. The letting agent let us in, gave us a key, and dashed off. Joe tried to ask her questions, which she didn’t really answer before she ran off. He showed us how to use the immersion water heater (on a timer) and the electric storage heat. Then he left and there we were in our first home in Ireland. After a while, we walked halfway down the street and bought some food, sheets, towels, and pillows. We brought them upstairs and that was that. We were moved in.

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