Internet glitches delay blog update for Day #3

Sorry for the delayed updates to the blog.  The web access at Killarney Court Hotel is spotty - even though it is supposed to be a wi-fi hotspot :(  I have lots of pictures and stories to share so stay tuned...

Day 2 - Dublin

2 long flights and 11 hours later we are in Dublin!  At first we were nervous because we didn't see our names at the pick-up area at the airport.  A lovely gentleman called the travel agency for us and let me talk to the agent.  Not long after, our driver, Phil, was there & we found out we were also picking up a lovely lady named Valerie who is 80+ years old and has been living in Johannesburgh, South Africa since 1952 -- she was taking a side trip from her mother's 103rd birthday in Essex, UK!  It was a lovely ride in to Dublin with all of us talking and laughing together.



Valerie, Tiffany, Lisa, & Rachel being picked up at Dublin Airport

 We got to the hotel before we could check in so we took a hop on/off bus tour of Dublin and then stopped to get fish & chips for lunch at a place called Beshoff on O'Connell Street.  We had been told on our tour that they did not repair the facades of buildings that were hit by bullets in the Civil War back in the early 1920's -- we could see 3 in the window surround at the restaurant.





Beshoff in Dublin



Cod & Chips



2 of 3 bullet holes at Beshoff

We drove through "Guiness-land" -- the area of Dublin where the Guiness factory is.  The Guiness family owns the whole area & have their own church and even their own power plant (just in case there is a power outage in Dublin -- the Guiness must be brewed!) 



Guiness tanks over the River Liffey



Guiness power plant

There is a lot of history in Dublin and we only got a small taste of it today. We will be ending our tour of Ireland in Dublin next week so I'm sure there will be more.





Day 1 - leaving SeaTac :)

Sitting at SeaTac Airport waiting for our plane. Got stopped at security because my camera charger looked like a taser on the xray machine :( The TSA agent was really nice and rescanned my electronics and then made sure I hadn't lost anything in the minor unpacking that we did. The biggest hassel was actually getting everything off/out & put into the bins at the security line. I felt like I was holding up the whole line -- and I was prepared! I guess I just don't fly enough to have an efficient routine.

Here's a couple pictures to get this blog really started -- these are just inside the security checkpoint. I'll add more later but for now I just want to make sure I can make good on my promise to have pictures for everyone :)

2 more sleeps and then off we go!

Just 2 more sleeps and then we get on a plane and fly off on our adventure!  Started packing today and thought it was too easy -- I was right...totally forgot my pajamas & swimsuit (for swimming in the pools not the ocean!).   I'm going to review my suitcase tomorrow and make sure it's packed correctly :)

Tomorrow I get to call the airline and find out if we can reserve the bulkhead seats if we check in online 24 hours early or if we actually have to do that at the airport.  If we can reserve them online, we have to be at the airport 2 hours before takeoff -- if not, we need to be there about 4 hours early.  I'm hoping for the former :)  We also have last-minute tasks to do tomorrow like load the software onto the laptop so we can download pictures from the cameras and shop for snacks to take with us on the plane.

I'm nervous and excited all at the same time.  Can't wait for Monday morning!

Last-minute details & shopping

Went shopping with Tiffany - got a laptop (planned - using it right now!) and new suitcase & camera (not planned but both were good deals & will make the trip more enjoyable!).   The most fun unplanned purchases were hats!  Lovely, 1930's era hats! We wore them out on Friday and got tons of compliments :)

Now all we have left are the details...wardrobe to take, banks to call so they don't cancel our cards, prescriptions to get hard-copies of, etc.  Tiffany is loaning me an iPod & is loading my CDs onto it this weekend so I will have music for the plane.

I can't believe how close we are to leaving.  I knew this last month was going to fly but I'm still surprised at how quickly it's gone and how much I still feel I have to do until we leave.  Rachel seems pretty calm (she says she's excited & I believe her - she just doesn't seem as frantic as I feel - lucky her!).  I saw a plane fly overhead this week and thought, "In two weeks, I'll be up there!"  Yikes!

The hardest part of all of this has been trying to coordinate my personal life and work life & actually get things done.  There has been soooooo much to do on both fronts - it's been a struggle; I hope I have managed to do a respectable job on both.

This week I plan to pick out my travel wardrobe, wear it to make sure I'll be comfortable and will be able to mix-n-match the maximum number of outfits with a minimum number of items.  Next week, I'll wash & pack them all so I am not up until midnight the last night doing laundry and wondering if I remembered to pack enough socks.  I must be mellowing with age, though...I have heard myself say (more than once), "If I forget something, I'm sure I can find it there."  I guess I am finally learning to loosen up a bit :)

Tiff & I had a discussion yesterday about our philosophy on this trip.  I am greatly interested in having a rudimentary grasp on Irish history before I go.  I'd like to be able to put what we see into context and I want to be able to strike up and carry on conversations with the Irish we meet on something more substantive that the weather or who has the more interesting accent.  That's why I am reading "Irish History for Dummies" - I'm up to the 1650s and it has been enlightening, such as the fact that Ulster - N. Ireland - was historically anti-England (and regularly kicked the English's butt in battle) until the end of the Elizabethan age when they started to support the Crown.  I want to see the areas in Dublin that were key in the civil war in the 1910s-20s.  Tiffany is trying NOT to do much research prior because she has a very strong internal idea/feeling about Ireland already and wants to be surprised by what she finds.  I want to be surprised, too, but I really want context.  It was an interesting conversation.

Travel documents have arrived!!!

Just received our travel documents via email today!  We are not travelling to Dublin through London via British Air  -- we are flying US Airways through Philadelphia.  Our flight is actually leaving at 11:15am rather than 6:30pm, but that means we land in Dublin at 8:50am and have the entire 1st day to do what we want!  Now I am glad I bought the Dublin travel guide -- I have a list of places there that I'd like to see and it looks like I'll get a chance to do just that!

We don't have seat assignments yet.  I had asked Camille at the Chamber to request window seats for us (sequential if possible) & emailed her again today to see if they can accommodate the request.  I hope so.  The other part of the itinerary that we'll need to plan for appropriately is that on the US legs of our journey, we will have to pay if we want to eat on the plane :(  At least the transatlantic portion has meals & snacks.

Tiffany & I are getting together in the next week or so to do our last-minute pre-trip shopping.  I'm getting sooooo excited!!! 

5 weeks and counting...

Rachel got her new passport in the mail last week (yay!) so we can officially leave the country!  I found my electricity current converter and plug adapters so we can use the electricity in Ireland without blowing anything up.  Now, I am on a quest to buy a laptop to take along.  If I don't, I'll be the only one in the hotel room at night without a way to update my blog without begging to use Rachel's or Tiffany's :)

Anyway, I need to start with the packing plan -- I have a coat, but I'm thinking I need new walking shoes (buy early and break in!!!) and pants.  I was thinking of just wearing skirts because they'd be easier, but who knows what the wind will be like?  Hate to pull a "Marilyn Monroe" in the Connemara or something.

I went to Half Price Books last week and bought Ireland For Dummies after about a 2-hour review of nearly every Ireland travel guide book in the place.  It has history and current culture and some good tips...not as many pretty pictures and no fold-out maps...but since I am not planning the itinerary on this trip, I am forgoing the "gotta see this" list and just trying to absorb as much about the country as possible before we leave.  Pronouncing the Irish language is still elusive for me...gotta work on that!

I'm scared of how fast September is going to go.  I just know that tomorrow I'll wake up and look at the calendar and find it's actually October 1st instead of September 1st!!!