Ireland Vacation Series--Day 1 & 2

I've decided to write a day-by-day description of what happened on our recent vacation to Ireland. This is purely meant as documentation for my family, but I would be more than happy for all of you who read my blog to follow along. I don't want to forget the fun, excitement, and pure beauty of that country. Here it goes:

Day 1--February 6th, 2010

John and I were dropped off at the airport by my dad, and we began our journey at 9:25am with a flight to Dallas/Ft. Worth. After a 2 hour layover there, we continued our flight and landed in Chicago, IL around 3pm. The special Irish airline, Aer Lingus, departed Chicago around 6:30pm our time. The flight was pretty uneventful. We did get to watch movies and play Sudoku puzzles on our own personal televisions built in to the headrests in front of us. Sleep was a no-go. Everything was too new and exciting! :)

Day 2--February 7, 2010

We arrived in Dublin, Ireland around 10am (their time, which is 6 hours ahead of CST). To say that John and I were exhausted from no sleep was an understatement. We made our way through customs and out to the car rental spot with no trouble. We ended up with a Fiat Punto (it was black and oh so TINY) as our car. It was a standard as well, so clearly John had to do all of the driving. I'm terrible with standards!
John had to learn to drive on the left side of the road while sitting on the right side of the car. Adding the standard transmission in to that mess was hysterical. He did so well though. I was the official navigator with just the map from the car rental joint as my only clue as to where in the world (or Ireland) we were going. Dublin is the capital, and it's in the Republic. I was amazed at the scenery. Everything was SO GREEN. The cars there are super tiny, and the streets are all narrow and very winding. We were able to make it to the hotel without getting lost too many times. Their road signs are ridiculous--either terribly hard to read or nonexistent. We stayed in the Ritz Carlton Powerscourt, which was the most amazing and beautiful hotel I have ever seen. We were spoiled rotten--there was even a flat panel television built in to the bathroom mirror so I could watch my shows while I bathed at night. Heehee
After checking in, dumping our luggage in the middle of the room, taking pics of our surroundings, and removing our shoes, we passed out in the gigantic, comfy king sized bed.

Seriously, we basically slept the entire 1st day away. We woke up some time around 8pm that night...starving. Not having changed our dollars into euros yet, we were forced to order room service. I got a delicious pizza, and John ordered an Irish burger. Both were super yummy, but definitely NOT worth the price we had to pay for the stupid room service. Alas, our bellies were full, and we passed out again. The next thing I knew, it was around 10am Monday morning.

To be continued...

~Mel