5-30-10
Please note that these events took place on Sunday not today. I am aware that the blog is dating it on the day I post. Sorry if there is confusion.
So we left our story on the plane and this is where we now begin...
Michael and I planned to do nothing but sleep on the plane as we would wake up at 9am in Ireland. Michael, of course, fell fast asleep. I had a little trouble. After watching about an hour of TV I finally passed out. While I was waiting on the sleep fairy, the flight attendant came around with cards we had to turn in. The cards were "landing cards" that Ireland requires all passengers to fill out unless you have a UK passport. I got myself and sleeping beauty a card and promptly fell asleep. After about four hours of tossing and turning I was done with sleeping on plane. I had somehow missed the dinner service but I do recall someone asking me if I wanted meatballs. I only remember because the smell made me slightly nauseous. . But I was delightfully awakened by my husband to receive a breakfast tray. Bellies full, air travel almost complete, we needed to fill out the landing card before the trip was finished. You had to fill out these cards with a pen. Unfortunately due to the teeny tiny travel space I had, my normal purse pen was no longer in my purse. I asked two flight attendants for a pen to no avail. I ask you, if they want you to fill out the card in pen, why do they not give you a pen? Regardless, no need to panic, a friendly seat neighbor let us borrow his. Time to enter Ireland.
We passed easily through customs and the gate agents and followed the friendly airport signs to the scariest place on earth, the Car Rentals. To travel the places we wanted to go, this was the only option. We got our Fiat and had to figure out how it worked. Because they drive on the left side of the road, that means that you have to sit on the right side and look to the right before you turn right. Panic and anxiety are two words that come to mind when I recall our first few moments in the car. We had to get a Sim card for the phone and a road map for the directions so Michael programmed our new GPS to take us to the nearest mall. We successfully navigated the left side of the road and also the round-a-bouts to make it to the mall only to realize it is Sunday and they don't open until 12pm. So what to do until then? We had breakfast (which really feels like lunch to our bodies) at the local McDonalds. That is not an Irish restaurant folks. It was a good ole American Micky D's. The menu was somewhat different and the coffee was horrible but it was neat to eat there nonetheless.
After acquiring our booty, we traveled to our rental home for the first week of the trip in Kenmare, County Kerry. The roads started out easy enough to drive because they were two lane highways. Then they went down to two lane roads. Next they went to two lane suggestions. That means that the bigger car wins. It was like playing a game of chicken for two hours. Who will pull over first? Which car will make it? Did you hear any scraping? One of the guide books says to "edge over to the left. The vegetation will gently whisk your car but hardly ever scratches". Michael was gently whisking the crap out of our car. Not only was it unnatural to drive on the left, you also had to be a daredevil. The speed limit was posted at 120 KM/ hour. These roads were clearly not made for that speed. I am surprised we made it alive to the house. In addition, we were both falling asleep due to severe jet lag.
Finally we made it to the house. The views were beautiful. We stopped at a Grocery Store to pick up some daily needs and also to get dinner. We had to plan the evening carefully because we needed to keep busy in order to stay awake. We took showers, ate dinner, went on a walk, watched TV, and it was hard! Finally we made it to 9pm and we went to bed. It was still light outside when our eyes shut and it was light when we opened them 12 hours later. Needless to say, I felt very rested.
Day three is next with our first exploring adventure. Stay tuned in!
Have a blessed evening and thanks for reading my blog.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Ireland Trip DayOne
5-29-10
Today we left for our epic journey to a land far far away. In order to fill you all in on the details and also so we can manage to remember ourselves, I will be chronicling our journey for you. So today we left... at 5:00am the alarm went off and we got ready to go. My good friend,Christie Bailey, was kind enough to come and pick us up and drive us all the way to the airport. I tell ya, they don't make friends like that any more. We checked in and went through security with no issues at all, except for one very unpleasant lady that was in the wrong line of work. If you want to be employed as a security line agent,you should really not mind working with people. Now we are ready to embark on the first leg of our trip. You see, Michael and I cannot just fly directly to Ireland, because we are WAY too cheap. We instead fly to Philadelphia, PA.
At 10:30am, the first leg of our journey is complete. Michael and I are in Philly and we have several objectives. We would like to see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and eat a Philly cheese steak. We are very simple to please.
In addition, Michael found this quaint little joint that was labled "Market East" on the map and we will go there too. So...we board the train, yes a real train, and take off for downtown Philly. There is a man that comes through the cars of the trains and gives you this little ticket that he punches out. You pay him and then put your ticket on the little slot on the chair in front of you. Soooo cool!!! The sights of Philly were not all that exciting but apparently we were in the right place for partying because the US soccer team was playing a World Cup game that very same day!!! Lots of fun on the train. Meanwhile Michael and I are trying to figure out why people were so spirited.
Our first stop on the journey toke us to the food mecca, I mean the Market East. It is SOOOOOO awesome. They have everything you would ever want in a Farmer's Market/bakery/arts and crafts fair. Michael and I drooled over the smells and food but didn't buy anything. As a bonus, I found $5 on the floor. I asked around but no one claimed it. Score $5 for me :) Now we are getting hungry so we travel on to the original Philly cheese steak place. We walked several blocks to find this particular store and when I say several, I mean 12. It's a good thing that decided to pack light for this trip. We both only have little carry-ons. The cheese steak was excellent, we ate outside. The place was called Campo's and was so busy that we really ate outside because there was nowhere else to sit. The city was buzzing with excitement about the game and on the walk back towards the center of town we passed the following things: Dole fruit juice stand giving out free samples, a guy playing the guitar, a drumline-where the bass drum had only one head and lots of duct tape, a man with two pythons draped over his body-one albino (we could've had our picture taken with him...), a stage with a man shouting in a microphone about how Jesus was a member of the KKK (he had several very well built body guards), and lots of people going to the soccer game.
Finally we make it to Independence Hall. We snap our pictures and look at it in awe. We also see the Liberty Bell from behind glass. We can't go inside because we have our luggage but we got close. As a bonus we also got to see the land where Ben Franklin's house used to be. It was torn down but they have a very neat museum there and you can see the foundations of his old house. After all the excitement we sit on a bench and contemplate what to do next. We still have several hours to kill before the next leg of the trip. As we sit and wonder, we remember all those wonderful goods at the Market (remember it is 12 blocks away?). Neither of us will say we want to go because it is kind of far but we are interested. We leave it to the flip of a coin. Heads-we get cookies, Tails-we head for the train. Heads it was and we started walking. The cookies were totally worth it. If you are ever in Philadelphia, go to the Market East!!!
Now for the second leg of our journey. We are not in Ireland yet. We have to hop on the subway, to take us to the Regional Rail. Then we take the Regional Rail to Trenton, NJ. Then we switch trains to take a NJ transit train to Newark, NJ. We then transfer to an Air Train which should conveniently whisk us over to the airport. That last train didn't work but it was alright with us because we figured, "What's a little more walking?" It wasn't really far to our gate. There were some other people thought that were extremely distraught that the train didn't work. There was this British guy that was complaining so badly I thought he might have an anxiety attach right there on the platform. He kept saying that the service was so terrible it was "shocking". This now becomes the fun word for our trip. We were laughing so hard at this guy. Everything we now see is "shocking"--please add a British accent for the full effect.
We are finally at the Newark Airport and we are waiting on our 10:00pm flight to Shannon Ireland. The anticipation is great and not without some airport entertainment. First we see a lovely display of foreigners not knowing our customs as a mother takes her two year old and holds him over the trash can to pee. Yes he thought that seeing his wee wee go in the trash can was hilarious. I did not. We also watched in horror/mysticism as a plane bound for New Delhi was almost crashed by the people trying to get on it. They were continually announcing for the people to "back 5 feet away from the door". We thought someone was going to get crushed. Finally we get on the plane and embark on the final leg of the journey, sort of--more story later.
It is time to sleep on the plane because when we land it will be 9am in Ireland. So goodnight for now, more stories to come.
Have a blessed evening and thanks for reading my blog.
Today we left for our epic journey to a land far far away. In order to fill you all in on the details and also so we can manage to remember ourselves, I will be chronicling our journey for you. So today we left... at 5:00am the alarm went off and we got ready to go. My good friend,Christie Bailey, was kind enough to come and pick us up and drive us all the way to the airport. I tell ya, they don't make friends like that any more. We checked in and went through security with no issues at all, except for one very unpleasant lady that was in the wrong line of work. If you want to be employed as a security line agent,you should really not mind working with people. Now we are ready to embark on the first leg of our trip. You see, Michael and I cannot just fly directly to Ireland, because we are WAY too cheap. We instead fly to Philadelphia, PA.
At 10:30am, the first leg of our journey is complete. Michael and I are in Philly and we have several objectives. We would like to see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and eat a Philly cheese steak. We are very simple to please.
In addition, Michael found this quaint little joint that was labled "Market East" on the map and we will go there too. So...we board the train, yes a real train, and take off for downtown Philly. There is a man that comes through the cars of the trains and gives you this little ticket that he punches out. You pay him and then put your ticket on the little slot on the chair in front of you. Soooo cool!!! The sights of Philly were not all that exciting but apparently we were in the right place for partying because the US soccer team was playing a World Cup game that very same day!!! Lots of fun on the train. Meanwhile Michael and I are trying to figure out why people were so spirited.
Our first stop on the journey toke us to the food mecca, I mean the Market East. It is SOOOOOO awesome. They have everything you would ever want in a Farmer's Market/bakery/arts and crafts fair. Michael and I drooled over the smells and food but didn't buy anything. As a bonus, I found $5 on the floor. I asked around but no one claimed it. Score $5 for me :) Now we are getting hungry so we travel on to the original Philly cheese steak place. We walked several blocks to find this particular store and when I say several, I mean 12. It's a good thing that decided to pack light for this trip. We both only have little carry-ons. The cheese steak was excellent, we ate outside. The place was called Campo's and was so busy that we really ate outside because there was nowhere else to sit. The city was buzzing with excitement about the game and on the walk back towards the center of town we passed the following things: Dole fruit juice stand giving out free samples, a guy playing the guitar, a drumline-where the bass drum had only one head and lots of duct tape, a man with two pythons draped over his body-one albino (we could've had our picture taken with him...), a stage with a man shouting in a microphone about how Jesus was a member of the KKK (he had several very well built body guards), and lots of people going to the soccer game.
Finally we make it to Independence Hall. We snap our pictures and look at it in awe. We also see the Liberty Bell from behind glass. We can't go inside because we have our luggage but we got close. As a bonus we also got to see the land where Ben Franklin's house used to be. It was torn down but they have a very neat museum there and you can see the foundations of his old house. After all the excitement we sit on a bench and contemplate what to do next. We still have several hours to kill before the next leg of the trip. As we sit and wonder, we remember all those wonderful goods at the Market (remember it is 12 blocks away?). Neither of us will say we want to go because it is kind of far but we are interested. We leave it to the flip of a coin. Heads-we get cookies, Tails-we head for the train. Heads it was and we started walking. The cookies were totally worth it. If you are ever in Philadelphia, go to the Market East!!!
Now for the second leg of our journey. We are not in Ireland yet. We have to hop on the subway, to take us to the Regional Rail. Then we take the Regional Rail to Trenton, NJ. Then we switch trains to take a NJ transit train to Newark, NJ. We then transfer to an Air Train which should conveniently whisk us over to the airport. That last train didn't work but it was alright with us because we figured, "What's a little more walking?" It wasn't really far to our gate. There were some other people thought that were extremely distraught that the train didn't work. There was this British guy that was complaining so badly I thought he might have an anxiety attach right there on the platform. He kept saying that the service was so terrible it was "shocking". This now becomes the fun word for our trip. We were laughing so hard at this guy. Everything we now see is "shocking"--please add a British accent for the full effect.
We are finally at the Newark Airport and we are waiting on our 10:00pm flight to Shannon Ireland. The anticipation is great and not without some airport entertainment. First we see a lovely display of foreigners not knowing our customs as a mother takes her two year old and holds him over the trash can to pee. Yes he thought that seeing his wee wee go in the trash can was hilarious. I did not. We also watched in horror/mysticism as a plane bound for New Delhi was almost crashed by the people trying to get on it. They were continually announcing for the people to "back 5 feet away from the door". We thought someone was going to get crushed. Finally we get on the plane and embark on the final leg of the journey, sort of--more story later.
It is time to sleep on the plane because when we land it will be 9am in Ireland. So goodnight for now, more stories to come.
Have a blessed evening and thanks for reading my blog.
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