Ireland 2012 Trip Journal

13-MAY,2012- Day 1 of Ireland trip Mandy and I were super excited for this new adventure because neither one of us ever thought we would get to travel someplace like Ireland. However, there was also some fear mixed in with a bit of sadness. This was Mandy's first time leaving the boys and the longest plane ride either of us had ever taken. Not to mention it was our first time traveling internationally. And holy cow was it a long flight. Mandy swears they were the smallest and most cramped seats we'd ever had on a flight. And the movies they played were either horrible (Larry Crowne) or we had already seen them (We Bought a Zoo and MI3: Ghost Protocol). Neither one of us got any real sleep and the 10.5 hour flight seemed to never want to end. But it did.

We landed in France about 11am frog time. Walking into Charles Degaul Airport's Dutyy Free area was like shopping at the Caesar's Palace mall in Las Vegas; Chanel, Prada, Hermes, Armani, and a bunch of other places we don't shop all had large stores in the airport. Our connecting gate was close to where we departed So we had abou an hour and some change to wait for the flight to Dublin. I can't remember ever being that tired, and sleep just wouldn't come for us. UGH!

We finally boarded our flight to Dublin only to find out it was delayed.They were pumping techno pop music throughout the plane which actually made the delay even worse. Finally, we took off, and Mandy and I both slept until we landed. But the sleep made us even more tired.

We met the driver at the baggage claim and he taxied us from Dublin to Galway, about another 2 hours, so we napped a little more and saw some Irish country side. It was the first notice by us of why they call this place the Emerald Isle; it was very very green!

Once we finally got to our hotel, my boss and his wife just happened to be in the lobby when we were checking in, so we made plans for dinner, headed up to the room and then headed out to City Centre which is a part of Galway about 1/4 mile from the hotel. It's small streets and alley ways with shops of all kinds, restaurants, and pubs. We went to McDonough's for fish and chips. They were probably the best we've ever had. I wish I wouldn't have been so tired so we could've enjoyed it a bit more. After dinner, we stolled the streets of Galway and eventually made our way to a pub with a Gaelic name I cannot spell or say. We all had a pint of Guiness, the national drink of Ireland, and chatted with some Galway locals who asked all kinds of questions about U.S. politics. We bailed out after 1 drink and headed back to the hotel at which we immediately went upstairs to our room and passed out. A deeper sleep I don't think I've ever had! All in all, day 1 in Ireland was good, although a bit of a pain due to how tired we were.