This is another test of the Google cert system! If this had been the actual test, I'd be a lot more panicked! 

This is a test, and it won't be here long! I'm working on my Google Educator certification. :)

Ireland!

Hello! Welcome! Dia dhuit! 

So about a year ago, Dean and I began plotting our 20th anniversary. Me, I was all for going to Vegas and renewing our vows zombie-style, a'la Shaun of the Dead. I even have a cricket bat!

And then Dean suggests Ireland. Well, now. The man gets 1,000 points right there for having utterly brilliant ideas. So Ireland it was, and I began the planning! I researched several travel agencies, flights, and a priest to do the vow renewal...everything we needed, and before long we had it all arranged. I'll do a post later about how I did arrangements, but let's jump into day one of the trip!

Day 1 

After a week of last minute arrangements, we were grateful to let my mother drive us to the airport. We left ourselves several hours of leeway, as neither of us had experience with international flights. Turns out we had plenty of extra time, but I'm grateful for that. We headed down to the international area of Austin Bergstrom and decided to eat at a little place called the 'Saxon Pub'. Skip it. Eat at Salt Lick back in the regular area. Not awful, but Salt Lick is just that much better.

So. The flight. British Airways, flight 190 nonstop from Austin to London. If one can afford to upgrade seats, I recommend this. We did not as it was double the airfare, and so into economy we went. Many airlines have international economy in rows of 8 across. Not so, British Airways! We were 9 across, crammed in like sardines. The seats were my size. Let that sink in for a moment. I'm only 5'2" and fit into airline seats quite well. Dean is 10" taller than me and has linebacker shoulders. He was also in a window seat, which curved in and gave him even less room. We had intended to sleep on the flight over, but this just didn't happen. The plane was hot, crowded, and just all around unpleasant. The food was good, but there wasn't enough room for us to both eat at the same time. We had to take turns. Try to eat while gluing your elbows to your ribs. Trust me. It doesn't work. The movie selection was good too, and I watched both 'Into the Woods' and 'Mamma Mia', which fed into my Meryl Streep fondness and childhood ABBA fixation. Dean did not have this option, as the sound on his movie screen was kaputt. Let's just say that by the time we got to London, neither of us was exactly in top shape. The Dreamliner, it ain't.

Look! We're really in London!

But we made it to London! Customs isn't too awful, and there's a shorter line for immigrations if you're transferring to another domestic flight. Turns out that means Ireland too...including the Republic of Ireland. The one glitch was we had no 'UK card'. If you fly into the UK and they ask if you need a 'UK card', just say yes and fill it out. It's for non-citizens entering the country. This includes if you're going to Ireland evidently. Really, has anyone told the UK that Ireland is an independent republic yet? I think they missed the memo.

Heathrow - OHMYGOODNESSBIGCROWDED. Also, the British are very fond of their lines and clearly quite proud of them. They also do not post flight gates until an hour (or less) before the flight leaves. We found a shop and snagged sandwiches and chips, but the best part was that bottle of Evian. I had no idea just how dehydrated I was, until I realized I'd been almost incoherent. A liter of water later, and my brain started working again. I will forever take an empty water bottle to the airport now to fill there. 

Finally we made it onto our plane from London to Dublin, which had far more room and was more relaxed than the first leg of the trip. Getting through Irish customs was short and sweet, and now our passports have both UK and Irish stamps! 

Our rental car from Hertz was a VW Polo, a tiny little red thing with a standard transmission. The young man at the rental counter was an absolute sweetheart, and very understanding when I returned the first GPS he gave us. It worked fine...in German. While I speak enough to get by, there's no way I can understand it at GPS speed in a foreign country, nope. Dean was the official driver, poor man. Yes, in Ireland everyone drives on the left. The steering wheel is on the right, and the gear shift is in the middle, which requires left-handed shifting. Considering we'd been awake for 30 hours at this point, I think the frequent 'THUMP THUMP THUMP' of Dean hitting the road guide bumps on the right was entirely understandable. So on the road we got, driving from Dublin to Kilkenny, about an hour and a half drive. All road signs in Ireland are bilingual in both Irish and in English. The first Irish word I learned (that I didn't already know) was 'Amach' - Exit. 

Ireland smells strongly of hay, cows, and sheep. It smells green and alive, and a very different sort of earthy from the Texas dirt to which we're accustomed. The countryside, and most of Ireland is countryside, is intensely green and lush, patchworked by stone fences and herds of cattle and sheep. Dublin is a big city like many, but get outside of it, and it's instant fairy tale! 

We made it to Kilkenny by about 5pm local time. Our first stop was the Mena House B&B. Oh, I wish we'd had two nights there! It was wonderful! The proprietor is Kathleen

Molloy, and she's incredibly friendly and helpful. She let us settle in to an absolutely lovely room with a gorgeous garden view, then spent a good 45 minutes chatting with us and going over multiple maps of Kilkenny and Ireland at large and giving us some really sound advice of things to do and see. Then she packed us off to the pub about a 10 minutes walk down the street. 

At this point, we're going on about 35 hours awake. I'm not sure how we made it to the pub, but it was worth it. Evidently they roll up the streets in Ireland on Sunday evenings, but it was really pleasant, bright and sunny even in the evening. Dinner was fish and chips in a pub that was like something out of a movie, a pint of ale, and soccer on the television. It was all wonderful, if a little surreal through the lens of serious jetlag. 

One of the B&Bs in Kilkenny. Yes, really.

We somehow made it back to the B&B. By this point, it's about 8pm, and Dean was done. He was asleep almost right away. I decided to have a cup of tea and take it down to the back garden to read a while. This was the perfect ending to the day! Until I realized that the door I came out was locked and had no handle. Oops. I finally managed to get out a side gate that only locked from the back, let myself in the front of the house, then went back into the garden, leaving the door open this time, locked the back gate, then back upstairs. Despite it still being no later than 9pm and still bright daylight outside, I was out within minutes.

But I got a cup of tea out of the deal!