A hundred thousand welcomes to Ireland!!!
What happened to Christmas? It doesn’t seem like much of a holiday celebration when you spend the entire day in airports and aboard airplanes traveling across many different time zones. Due to said time zones, we arrived in Dublin this morning after what seems like 24-hours of traveling. We left home at 4am Christmas morning and landed in Dublin around 8:30am the following day.
Our first layover was in Dallas, which had snow, surprisingly. Barely just a dusting, but snow nonetheless. That stopover was only scheduled to be around 2 hours, but ended up being extended to 4. We were initially delayed an hour inside the terminal, then after we boarded the plane, we sat there for another hour. These waits had nothing to do with the snow but a flight attendant. For some reason the woman who was scheduled to be on our flight ended up being not qualified for that plane (???) and we had to wait for another plane to land and some other woman to come serve on ours. Oy. At least during that wait that allowed us access to the TVs so we could watch movies or other various programming.
Finally we made it to Chicago, layover number 2. This layover was supposed to be 4-hours, but due to the delay in Chicago it was going to be cut in half. We boarded the plane on time, but as we were waiting to leave it started to snow in Chicago and O’Hare is not as apt at de-icing as DIA. So we waited for about another hour or so on the plane. However, if the delay is due to getting our plane de-iced so it’s safe for flight, I am ok with that.
The flight across the Atlantic was packed tight like a can of sardines, but that’s what happens when you buy tickets in coach. I was successful, however, at convincing the nice woman with the aisle seat to trade for the window. She planned on taking a sleeping pill for the flight and upon seeing my pregnant state, and knowing how much I would need to get up, gladly played musical seats.Under normal, non-pregnant circumstances, spending 7-hours on a plane would not be that terrible. But seeing as I am pregnant, my knees did NOT like being bent and my body did NOT like being able to stretch out. Needless to say I am not looking forward to that return flight. But at least I did figure out a way to arrange the carry-on bag in such a manner I could straighten my legs mostly out under the seat in front of me. It’s a good thing I’m short.
Finally, we arrived in Dublin at an airport smaller than I pictured in my mind (think Burbank). Passing through customs was a breeze and I finally have a stamp in my passport. Yay! My friend Aaron picked us up and gave a us a quick tour of the area as he took us to the flat in which we are staying. This apartment (2-bedroom, 2-bath) belongs to friends of Aaron’s that are actually in the states right now. It is incredibly generous for them to let us use their home while they are away. And for all technicalities we are actually staying in Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Done Leary); across the street from a harbor on the Irish Sea. Rough I know, but someone’s gotta do it. 😉
Aaron actually dropped us off here so we can get settled and rest a bit before he and his wife, Katie, come pick us up for dinner with some of their friends. So perhaps I should do that. More later.