Ireland Day One: the getting there part

Today was a long day.  I mean a really long day. 

When I got up this morning I was really excited. 

The big trip I had been waiting for was finally here! 

I couldn’t wait to see all the places we had read about 

and experience all the things that people like Joyce and Yeats had known.

  

We met at the clock tower with all our bags 

and headed over to the St. Louis airport. 

Everything went smoothly and it was almost relaxing.

 Then we got to Chicago (for more on the Chicago airport see Day 9)

 and waited in the airport for our flight. 

Then we waited some more for our flight. 

I wasn’t quite as giddily excited, just ready to be in Ireland.

*photo via

   I started reading the book 

I had checked out from the library: 

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, 

who also wrote The Time Traveler’s Wife

(Stay tuned for a review of the book on Day 9). 

Then, after a five hour date with O’Hare,

 we finally boarded our plane to Dublin.

 Can I just say Aer Lingus is awesome?

 Because it is. 

First of all the wings had clovers on them which I found a tad bit ironic.

 We also had our own personal TVs

 with choices for movies, TV shows, music, and games.

 I don’t know about you,

 but I can easily watch movies for seven hours.

 Let’s just say I did not sleep very much on the plane

 (not that I would have anyways—

I’m a definite curler upper when it comes to sleeping).

*image via

 First, I watched Adam,

 starring Hugh Dancy as a man with Asperger’s Syndrome

 who starts getting to know his new neighbor Beth (Rose Byrne).

  I thought it was a really good movie,

 especially if you like Indie movies. 

It’s a little slow, but extremely heartfelt 

and not your typical romantic comedy either.

*image via

Then I watched Post Grad, starring Alexis Bledel.

 To be honest I only watched it because I adore Gilmore Girls,

 but it ended up being better than I expected.

 It’s a definite feel good cheesy romantic comedy, 

but then again what would the world be without the occasional cheese. 

I just hope I’m not that dysfunctional when I graduate college. 

Then finally, as we got closer and closer to Ireland

 I spotted a beautiful sunrise right outside the window.

  Excuse the lovely “through the plane window” pictures,

 but honestly what is a trip without them.

 The sunrise was the perfect start to what would be an amazing experience.

  It was as if Ireland was giving us its own special welcome. 

We could also see what I thought was the Irish coastline

 and the excitement began to build again.

 I was really there, in Ireland! 

The Highlight of Today:

How awesome are paper tickets?

 I haven’t had paper tickets in so long

 and it was actually really cool to carry them around

 and have them to save. 

I scanned them in just so you can share

 in their non electronic simplicity.