We made it! We're here. We're home. Finally! Bye bye Ireland, Hola Mexico! I was just getting to the point of despair trying to get everything in order for our move, when things finally started to come together.
But not without issues, and lots of bumps in the road.
Read on if you want to learn about our rocky road to paradise...

Lock, stock, and half a barrel

My friend Judith has helped a lot. She was really my rock throughout the whole ordeal. Wherever I was just standing, frozen, in a room, staring at the huge mess, scratching my head, not knowing where to start, she'd be hands on and just get started. She'd pick up stuff one by one, ask me where I wanted it to go: bring, maybe, send later, give away, dump. We quickly worked through whole mountains of stuff this way.
Without her, I would have been completely lost.

Yeah, I knew months ago that we were going. And months ago I had started to roam through things and gotten rid of some of it. But with a full time job, the household, a fairly reasonable (last) summer in Ireland, and kids that wanted attention too, I really didn't get as much done as I wanted. And as always, lots of it was last minute work.

When it came down to it, all I really wanted to bring was my kids, some clothes (I'm not a complete barbarian) and our memories. Meaning my photos - you know, the old fashioned ones...on paper, and videos.
I had planned to scan my photos, so I could throw some of them out (never photos of my kids though...I have this crazy thing. Can't do it. Even if I have 10 copies...)
Then I bought a video grabber so I could transfer my old camcorder videos to digital. And of course, scanner stopped working. Bought in July. Gave up in November. FUCK Epson!
The video grabber went great. Stopped when the video cassette stopped. No issue at all. However, unlike what the instructions told me: I needed two different cables to get video AND sound! And the night before, I happened to give all my cables to Judith to bring home. OK. SO. Now I still had to drag the old big camcorder with me, all the damn tapes, and all the photos. Mind you, not all the photos fit in our luggage. The VHS tapes had to be left behind, to be sent over, and I don't know what else.
On the bright side: Judith's daughter and her boyfriend will be sub letting my house in Ireland, so these things can still be sorted.
Lucky too because even though I've started 6 months ago to try to move the pets, it still hasn't happened (meaning, they're still there, hopefully to be sent over in December 😔). We would have had a HUGE problem if they weren't going to move in, because the only tickets I could buy were non-refundable and only changeable for a huge amount of money.
Oh, and then there was the pony. She is supposed to go to my daughter's friend, but that hasn't happened yet either... Arrrrghhhh!!!

Our trip...was a bit of a trip

Our flight was leaving at 5.15 a.m on the 18th of November.
I really didn't want to drive late at night, in order to have to rush to get there in time. We had to be at the airport by 3, I wanted to be there by 2. We left early enough, had some food along the way, and actually made it to the airport by 2. We didn't check in till 3.30 am.
They weren't in a rush at that desk at all...
I had booked with Condor air but our flight from Dublin to Frankfurt was with Lufthansa. I will never understand why it is impossible to get a direct flight from Ireland to Mexico, when Ireland is closer than any of the other countries you have to connect at. But hey, there's lots of things I don't understand these days...

When I booked, the lady told me specifically that we were lucky, because Lufthansa gave us the same baggage allowance as Condor. So I never gave it another thought, and didn't double check.
My bad. At the desk, we had a grumpy twenty something hostess, that never said a word other than "Passports". That is, until she looked behind me and asked where the rest of the passengers were. She had to see them all, and she had to weigh the hand luggage! Never in my whole life of travel have I ever had to weigh my hand luggage!
Anyway, after she weighed the check in luggage, she gave me the dirtiest look, and said: "I've been really nice about your luggage, because 3 out of 5 are over weight."
Uhmmm, no we weighed them, and they were all 25 kg.
Well, turns out the lady on the booking phone was telling me nonsense, because Lufthansa only allows 23 kg. Meaning, we were a total of 6 kg over weight. Whoopdiedoo. I'm lucky she didn't make me pay for excess baggage...
Then came the hand luggage. All but one were 2 kg over weight, because instead of Condor's 10 kg, Lufthansa only allowed 8 kg. Well screw me!
The grumpy girl threw me the dirtiest look she could give me, and said: They're too heavy. Me, fully prepared to dump some of it out, but then she said: "I will have to check them in. You can take personal items on board but if they're more than 1 kg., they will take them from you." WOW.
Well, we were still over weight there. Actually smuggled some stuff in, because my bag and my daughters bag were neither seen nor weighed. We brought them on board without issue...(even though the same hostess was standing at the gate when we boarded). I don't know. I've worked in hospitality and other service jobs in my life. But if I would have talked to customers the way this young grumpy one did, I would have been flat on my ass, and out the door!
Ok, and now this grumpy old mom is going to shut up about it...

A warm welcome in Germany during our transit

source

Finally we were on the plane. Only two short hours after take off, we had our short 1 hour 25 minute stopover in Frankfurt, Germany. We arrived exactly on time - what else did we expect from a German airline? - and without a worry in the world we slowly made our way to the gate from which our plane to Cancun would leave. I had booked us seats a bit better than economy, but not as good as business class. More legroom, more choice in food, better drinks, better entertainment, and we were boarding just a little earlier than the rest of the economy class. Or so we thought.
Right after I handed our boarding passes to the young man behind the counter, he asked me: "English or German". English or German, I replied. How long we were staying in Mexico. "None of your fucking business" I thought. "Six months" I said... Without even one glance at me, he then said: "OK, will you stand over there please." Pointing at the other side of the desk, while he gestured the next person in line to move towards him.
WTF?!?!!! Not another word from him or anyone for a while. After almost everyone had walked past us, he then moved to the other side of the desk and asked: "So you're going to Mexico for 6 months?" I nodded. "And don't your children need to go to school?" Again, none of your fucking business!!! But I replied: "No, they're homeschooled."
He then raised one eye-brow in a way only a chosen few, and Dwayne Johnson can, and at this point I really had to push back the urge to punch him in the face. Power trip on a stick. Asshole. I started to explain that we came from Ireland and that it's completely legal to homeschool there. He then asked for proof. And I told him that he could look it up online, and that I didn't need proof to show I was allowed to educate my children at home. All the while I wanted to scream: "They're MY fucking children and I educate them the way I see fit, and no power trippy steroid filled fuck face has any fucking say in it!!!" Meanwhile, I listened to the conversation he had with his 3 male colleagues, in German, already forgotten I had mentioned I spoke German too... "Where is their daddy?" He said to them, in German. OMFG!!! At this point I just wanted to lie and tell him: Uhm, sorry, their daddy died. But I kept my mouth shut, in total shock. He then added, to his colleagues, in German: "I'll put their luggage on red, yeah?" All three of them agreed...
He then gestured us to wait on the side of the desk. Again.
Really, who fucking hires these assholes? Do they get hired because they are just that?

Minutes went by, meanwhile we were the only ones left at the gate, and then one of the three colleagues comes from behind the desk, dressed in Condor airlines desk job uniform, stands in front of me, flips a (sort of badge) my way really quickly, and says these epic words: "I'm Mehmet blah-dee-blah, I'm with HOMELAND (fucking) Security for the (fucking) United States of America and I'd like to ask you some questions...Here we fucking go! Homeland security for the USA my ASS!!! Yeah, they really hire some dimwit testosterone filled German with half-ass English to sit at an airline gate desk. What? Undercover in Condor airlines uniform? What a fucking joke! Anyway, he asked me the same questions as his colleague before. Why aren't the kids in school? (already answered you asshole) Where is their father? (I have sole custody of my kids) I should show proof (well, asshole, they all carry my name, that should tell you enough). He then asked if we had any intentions of visiting the US (absolutely NOT I said exactly that). Trust me, no intentions, whatsoever.
If we had ever been to the US. Yup. My eldest and I. If we had any relations in the US. Yup. My eldest's donor and his family lived there. Where was her father? In PRISON! And I actually wanted to say: "Look up why, and maybe you'll understand why I don't have to ask his permission." OH, and besides: She's 19 years old so....
Then came the kicker. He had the nerve to ask me if we were vaccinated! Well, news flash: Mexico doesn't require vaccines, the airline doesn't require them! So why the hell do you need to know? Any way, I don't care, it's not a secret. But you don't have the right to ask. At all. But NO, we are not vaccinated. Nor do we intend to. He said OK. (WTF?!?)
He then took our passports. Pulled the kids' ones through a scanner (obviously an Amber alert one...why not do that right away I wonder?)
From the time the first asshole put us aside, until this asshole finally ok'd us to board, my heart was beating in my chest as if it would do a double flip and jump right out.
WHAT a damn trip!
But yeah, it was done. We were on. We had just experienced what it felt like when normal little boys get too much power, and decide that they hate women, so they're going to show them who's boss. FUCK these kinds of men. UGH. (not all men, I know not all men are like that). Mommas, please raise your boys not to be like those men. Horrible human beings...

Finally, paradise...

After that ordeal, it didn't take long before we lifted off. Away from Europe and towards our new future.
The flight was easy. The trip from Cancun to our apartment was easy. Once we got the key and saw the place, everything was forgotten.
A new life, a new start. And with this kind of view from our place, what else would we want? To be continued...