Day 1: The Journey Begins

Our Irish Honeymoon began on December 29, 2008. Kristy and I were already packed and ready to go in the morning, despite our plane not departing Chicago until 6:30 PM. After some final confirmations for our flight, hotel and rental car and a failed attempt at a haircut for me, we set off for Chicago. Kristy's sister Sarah had stayed with us the night before and drove down to Chicago with us and her and her boyfriend gave us a ride to O'Hare.

After arriving at O'Hare, we were glad to have checked into our flight online. We checked our bags and walked towards our gate. After less than an hour, we boarded the plane and watched in awe as each passenger had a personal screen and the ability to watch movies, television shows and play games on their own. We buckled in and readied ourselves for takeoff after having explored the electronic possibilities.

After leveling off, the flight Aer Lingus flight crew distributed our dinners. I had beef ravioli, and Kristy got a vegetarian dinner that had vegetables and tofu. We both thought the food was very good, especially considering that we had it on an airplane.

Kristy and I wanted to sleep as much as possible on the plane, but knew sleep was at least a few hours off. So, we watched Steve Carell in "Get Smart" simultaneously by pushing the play buttons at the exact same time. During the movie, we took Dramamine to help us sleep. However, it did not work as there was a crying baby that insisted on keeping us awake. I, however, true to form when medicated, got a bit antsy and agitated.

So, during the entire 8-hour flight, neither of us slept at all. To make matters worse, the time change meant that we landed in Dublin at 8:00 AM on December 30. Prior to landing, we saw our first Irish sunrise... sort off. We saw the sunrise slowly over the horizon. Then, however, as we landed we descended into pitch black darkness. There was such thick cloud cover over the entire island that, none of the light got to ground level.

We landed in Dublin without incident, got our bags and waited for our bus that went directly to our hotel in Tallaght, in southern Dublin. The bus ride allowed us to see some of Dublin and observe Irish drivers. Mostly though, it allowed us to rest a little.

After 45-minutes, we arrived at our hotel, the Glas Haus. It was before 11:00 AM, but we decided to see if we could check in or at least check in our luggage. Our room was ready and we were allowed to check in, which may not have been the best option, because of the bed in the room.

An embarrassing aside: in the room, our first problem was getting a light to turn on which was accomplished by putting a room key in a slot by the door that turned on the electricity for the room. Additionally, other lights were plugged into outlets that needed to be turned on individually. I have never felt that my education had failed me, until it took me more than 10-minutes to turn on the lights in a hotel room.

To return: Being able to check into the hotel room may not have been the best option because of the bed and our exhaustion. We decided to take a nap. However, there was no alarm clock and I discovered that my watch battery was dying. This meant that we had no way of determining a time to get up. We fell asleep and awoke many hours later, at around 2:00 PM. After this we headed into the city.