Poor Ben~He gave us quite a fright this morning! We had packed up all of our bags to come home to Gdansk, and we had to be out of the little house we were staying at by 10:00, so the cleaning lady could come. The man who manages the apartment was so nice and said that the new tenants weren't going to be there until 3:00. He suggested that we leave our bags in a corner until we had to leave for the airport at 2:00 for our 5:00 flight. That worked out great.
So we hop on a bus to go to the City Centre to walk around and have lunch. We are pros at public transportation at this point. We take buses and trams all the time. We have not driven one time since we have left the US. So anyway, everyone is exiting the bus--Myles has Trey and Abbie at the front of the line and they get off. I am the last one off, Natalie is in front of me and Ben is in front of her. I did not see exactly what happened, and Ben is not exactly sure himself, but all of a sudden, there is Ben on the pavement face first, just laying there. We think he just stepped off wrong and missed the curb, but his hands were in his pockets! So his face took the blow.
Of course, everyone springs into action. The bus driver (a young guy--probably around 30) was very concerned, other passengers who had gotten off the bus were concerned, people walking by were concerned. It was quite a spectacle! I was sitting on the pavement with Ben and he was clearly hurt, though we couldn't immediately tell how badly. He was certainly dazed, but I would not say he was confused. We got him sitting up and he said he was ok. The bus driver finally went on his way after about a minute or two, and we found a bench for Ben to sit on so we could see if we were dealing with anything serious. We had him sit there for a few minutes and he insisted that he was ok. He hit the curb at the bridge of his nose, and his forehead, and somehow his knee was scraped up, too. He seemed ok, but his face was bloody and dirty.
We were right outside of the Trinity College campus. We walked onto the campus and there was a little security office there. I knocked and asked them if there was a restroom close by so he could get his face cleaned up. There were two guys in the office who told me to have him come in. I don't know if they were EMTs or what, but they sure appeared to know what they were doing. They asked him all kinds of questions, checked his pupils (the normal head injury stuff that we already did), gave us some antiseptic wipes, told him he was going to be bruised and ugly for a while and we went on our way. He has been absolutely fine, except that he looks like he was in a bar fight. His nose is swollen and I guess only time will tell if he gets a black eye or two out of it. We are so thankful that it turned out the way it did! Ben has named this event "A Super Epic Ben-Fail."
Well after that excitement we leisurely walked around downtown. We had lunch and found yet another bookstore. We were all packed up, so we had a strict "we're only looking" policy. We walked out with four new books. There are just so many good ones! After enjoying our time browsing, we went back to get our luggage. The man met us there and called a cab for us to go to the airport. While we were waiting for the taxi to arrive, we chit chatted with him. He couldn't have been any friendlier and I loved listening to the Irish Brogue.
I asked him if he was related to the woman who owns the flat. He said that she is his daughter and she is a screen writer who lives in New York most of the time. He went on to say that her significant other is an American actor. So I say, "Oh, anyone we might know?" He says, "Oh, I don't know. His name is Andrew McCarthy." Myles and I say in unison, "Andrew McCarthy?" He says that he was in a group known as the Brat Pack back in the 80s. We say, "Yeah, we know who he is!" How fun is that?! I knew that little house was too chic for us! That's our little brush with fame. And his daughter and Andrew are coming to Ireland in about three weeks. Guess where they stay when they are in Dublin?!
We are now back home in Gdansk. There is more snow here now than when we left. That's not what we had in mind...but at least we got a nice break from freezing winter for 10 days! Ben is fine and this blog was written with his approval.
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