Today was a travel day. After getting (most of) my work done at work, I was dropped off at the airport by my parents.

I had been to Europe many times before, but this was a first – one with my new wife, Sharon. This was our honeymoon trip, just three months after our wedding. Sharon, being a school librarian, had limited time off and Summer was really best, especially for the weather for Ireland.
The night before I had tried to check in with the United Airlines app, but was unable to do so because the app seemed not to accept images of my passport. It was an ongoing thing with my camera and apps. I’m still having trouble scanning checks for online banking.
We checked in at a United Airline Kiosk without problems. Security was a breeze with almost no one in front of us at the TSA line. We had several minutes before the flight. We passed by a Wendy’s and Nathan’s Famous Hotdogs. We both decided we were not hungry. But later on I regretted not eating there. I was checking the Nathan’s Hot Dogs’ website and saw some good food I should have tried.
The flight to Chicago was delayed on takeoff for about 20 minutes because Chicago ground control was limiting the landings of the flights. We did not find out about this until we were on the plane waiting for take off. I began to do time management in my mind trying to determine if this delay would cause us to miss the flight to Dublin. It is a bit aggravating being at the mercy of Chicago ground control after having boarded the plane. All we could do was just wait.We experienced some turbulence while on the flight, but Sharon stayed cool as a cucumber according to her fit bit heart rate of 80bpm. Although she did squeeze my hand during the turbulence.
Normally when you land on a domestic flight in O’Hare you have to change to terminal 5 to connect to your international flight. With this scenario you have to ride a sky train to the terminal 5 and have to go through TSA screening again. However when we landed on this particular flight I learned through a United Airlines text that our flight to Dublin was not in terminal 5, but instead in terminal 1 concourse c, gate C20. This meant that we could walk to it from our arrival gate to our connecting flight without having to go through security again. This made all the difference in the world. I don’t know what the planners of Chicago O’Hare were thinking when they built terminal 5, but it seems so silly to have to go through security multiple times.
We ate at a pizza place near our gate. It was a express pizza place with premade pizzas. The checkout lady, an African American lady took our order with 2 Fantas, but started fixing 2 HiC Lemonades from the drink dispenser. I pointed it out to her and she was a bit frustrated at herself for making the mistake, but still offered great customer service due to the mistake. I told her just to give me the HiC Lemonades so that she would not have to pour the other one out. I feel like we need to give retail and food service workers a break as their jobs are tough. She seemed glad that I took the lemonade.
The pizza was initially good, but lost its luster after the 3rd piece. Sharon must have thought the same thing as me and gave me her 4th piece. I was getting stuffed and ate most of my 4th piece and Sharon’s 4th piece, but I decided to just throw the rest away.
After boarding we sat on the ground for an extraordinary time. I later found out it had been caused by the Chicago ground handling crew and we would be about 20 minutes late.
When planning our flight we chose the last row and an aisle and window seat, hoping that no one would get the middle seat and we could have the entire row to ourselves. I had checked on available seats beforehand and saw that a seat was filled between us. Sure enough when we got to our row, there sat someone’s personal items (a book on serial killers) in the middle seat. Thankfully our fellow traveler agreed to take the aisle seat so Sharon and I could sit together.
I should probably preface that I never can get a good sleep on airplanes. This time was no different, but primarily it was due to the temperature of the airplane being slightly high enough to be uncomfortable (maybe around 74F). So no sleep for me.
On the plane I watched part of “They Shall Not Grow Old” – a colorized WW2 documentary. What was intriguing to me was that the British soldiers had to wear the same uniform day in and out constantly in the war. Lice and gangrene developed because of this. I never knew about this hardship.
I also watched “Mid90s,” a coming of age move produced by Jonah Hill. I was about skateboarders in the mid 1990s. The problem was that it promoted what seemingly every secular movie these days promotes – underage drinking, smoking, cursing…and underage sex. I figure these movie directors could come up with something different for shock value and instead actually tell the story. This movie would have never gotten made had Jonah Hill not be involved with the production.
After seemingly forever we arrived in Dublin. We breezed through Irish customs. The customs official was intrigued about where we had planned on going.
Finding the bus to Galway was a bit more difficult. The directions to the buses were mainly for the Bus Eireann buses, not for Citylink or GoBus which do the transfers from Dublin to Galway. After a while I found my way to the appropriate area for the Citylink and GoBus. GoBus departs to Galway at the quarter til the hour while Citylink departs a quarter after the hour. Our plane arrived late therefore the GoBus 11:45AM option was not available (bus had already left). So I found the Citylink bus; paid the Russian sounding driver 42 Euros and Sharon and I were on our way to Galway.
On the way it was decided that we should check into the room and let Sharon shower and rest while I got snacks, talked to the Bus Eireann office about Leap Cards, and got the Aran Island Ferry tickets.
We found our way to Eyre Square Townhouse and there was no one attending to the check in counter. We tried calling the number associated with it but our American phones would not dial out. I asked a passerby to call and he was kind enough to call and hand me the phone to explain the situation. The front desk attendant walked from the next door restaurant (which is apparently associated with the hotel) and helped us check in.
Our room at Eyre Square Townhouse is typical European variety. That is – small and somewhat cramped – or cozy depending on your perspective. Our hotel attendant was nice enough to carry our bags up the stairs (no elevator) to our room.
I left Sharon at the hotel and went to get our Aran Island Ferry tickets. I found we should be at the loading area right at 9:15AM on Saturday. If we get there earlier the bus might not be there. It takes 15 minutes to load and then the bus leaves at 9:30AM.
Next was to the grocery store which was conveniently located next to the Aran Island Ferry ticket office. It was more of a convenience store rather than a full fledged grocery store. I had forgotten to empty out my backpack, so I had limited room for groceries. The store would have charged me for a bag. I got some cookies and drinks. I mistakenly got carbonated water for Sharon’s CPAP.
I had trouble finding the Bus Eireann office, near the train station. I walked down some wrong streets. After I found it the Bus Eireann gave some good information about discounts using the Leap Card in Galway (special of 1 Euro during July; and 5% off our Doolin to Ennis journey if we paid with a Leap card.I made it back to the room and was able to convince Sharon to go to Galway Cathedral. It was built in 1965 on the grounds of an old jail. Which reminds me that the property had seen hopelessness and was now seeing hopefulness. The Cathedral was very nice and included some wonderful contemporary stained glass windows. We had sat down to rest, but a loud booming organ playing forced us to leave.Sharon and I walked back to the hotel. I got a 14 inch pizza, 2 drinks, and garlic bread for 12.99 EUROS – a great deal for us for supper from Classico Pizza and Pasta – within walking distance of our hotel.
Sharon and I then settled in for a marathon of “The Chaser” – a British game show where contestants try to match wits with another so called genius.
Tomorrow we rent a car to Cong and an Abby. I’m not sure how to handle driving on the wrong side of the road.