After showering and packing last minute things, I made my way to the lobby to wait for my parents. I was greeted by a VERY intoxicated guy, who gave me a kiss on each cheek before being escorted to a waiting taxi by his also very intoxicated fried. The friend came back in and was like "Want to come have a drink with us?" I was like "Uh, it's 5 in the morning." He explained that they hadn't stopped the night before as it was a wedding reception. And I was like "Ah, so it was you having a good time outside of my window." My parents showed up and he continued to try to get us to go with him to drink instead of returning to America. Crazy Irish men...
Mel helped us load all our suitcases in the van and then drove us to Shannon Airport. We hugged and thanked him and then checked in for our flights. The security line was short - other than the Army Airborne soldiers that were flying through Shannon to get to the middle east, there weren't that many people there yet.
We went to the duty free shop, got some breakfast and then had only a few minutes to relax before they boarded our plane.
Other than a brief moment on the plane when I thought something was seriously wrong with me, our flights from Shannon to London and then from London to DC went well with little turbulence and were on schedule. My medical emergency consisted of being awoken from my nap on the plane with a feeling in my stomach like I was nervous. I was like that's weird, why would I suddenly be sickeningly nervous? And then it's like I could feel the feeling go from my stomach, travel up my body and into my head. I got tunnel vision, buzzing in my ears and I thought for sure I was going to pass out. It all passed within a couple of minutes, but of course my WebMD searching self was all "OMG I'm having an embolism!!" When, let's be real, it was probably a gas bubble reacting to the pressure. So, moral of the story, don't read WebMD, you'll go in thinking "paper cut" and come out thinking "skin cancer."
Anyways, the trip to Ireland was fun, beautiful and good family bonding time. It was definitely a different experience for me, after having traveled around much of Europe. In Italy, you can go to one city (Rome) and see about 20 different things and be there for a whole week. In Ireland, part of the lure is the countryside and the landscape, and cities only have 1 or 2 "landmarks" to see. But, I can't wait to go back. I'm thinking it'll be awhile cause I'd like to take my children back (they'll have Irish roots on both sides) to see where their ancestors come from. And hopefully, I'll know more details about our ancestry once we go back.
And here's a final map of the overall route we took. Maybe next time we'll be able to get up into Northern Ireland.
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