I’ve been playing catch up on my posts because when I arrived yesterday, the WiFi wasn’t working. When I was at supper last night, I posted some quick things to Instagram, but the WordPress app requires a bit more attention than IG.

I talked to the owner of the place today. She didn’t know how to fix it, but said she’d reach out to the guy who had installed it. She warned me, though, that he might have gone to Dublin for the football match yesterday and might not be back. Not a biggie…I could survive a day or so without Internet, right?

Before I go further, let’s step back. Remember the story about the light switches in the hotel in Killarney? Well, it turns out that switches are very popular here, too. Now, I haven’t found a master control light switch here, but alllllllll of the outlets have switches. One for each plug. So for each outlet with two plug sockets, there are two switches. You have to turn the switch on in order for that socket to work. (I imagine it saves on electricity, which is a great idea!! It just takes a little getting used to.)

And remember the windows without screens? From what I have seen nobody uses them. I didn’t see them on other hotels (or any building for that matter) in Killarney or on buildings (homes or otherwise) on the bus trip. This place doesn’t have them, either. A Google search has revealed that it’s actually common across Europe not to have screens. Apparently they don’t have as many mosquitos as we do in North America. Who knew!!

Now, back to the Internet. I had, like you would, done the unplug-and-plug-it-back-in thing with the router. It powered up. My tablet said I was connected. But there was no Internet.

While I was talking to Siobhan, I noticed that something else was plugged into the other socket where the router was plugged in and that 2nd socket switch was turned off. I turned it on. It didn’t seem to make any difference, so Siobhan said she’d try to reach that guy and get back to me.

About half an hour later, I thought I’d give it a go again and ta da! It worked!! So…that was fixed.

A couple of other “How does that work?” things also happened:

1. The door to the deck off the master bedroom would not lock, no matter how much I tried to coax it. Siobhan told me the tricks about that via text. (It wasn’t a big security concern as it’s on the 2nd floor, but I thought she’d want to know. I also didn’t want to end up having it look like I had broken it.)

2. I wanted to roast a chicken, but could not get the oven to work. Mary, the caretaker, dropped by to see how I was doing, so I asked her about it. She had no clue, beyond someone must have flipped the switch on the wall (again with the switches!!! Seriously – invest in switches in Ireland) and reset the programming on the oven. It’s not a fancy oven…I have no idea what programming is involved, but in any event, she said I should reach out to Siobhan, which I did, and she walked me through that fix.

In addition to working out those little bugs, I went for a walk today once the mist and fog cleared a little and did some colouring, totally relaxing with the sounds of the ocean. (You will hear me talk about that a lot…it’s one of my favourite things in the world, so yeah…it will be a repeated theme on this trip!!)