Friday morning was sad. I had many good byes to say, and didn't really want to say them. My mom was heading to Fargo for a relative's wedding, so she had to leave before I did. Then, Katelyn came over to say "adios". Luckily she brought me a present, which always cheers me up, and lovely homemade card that I will treasure.
(Katelyn is a bad influence.)
I left my house around one in order to make it to the MSP airport in time for my 3:35 pm flight to Chicago, where I would connect to Dublin. After an emotional goodbye with my dog, I was sad, but also very excited to leave.
Who would want to say goodbye to this face?
Byes to my dad and brother followed when I met Alex at the airport. There, we stood in the security line for a long time in front of a New Zealander who had a very decorative dread-locked beard. When we got to the gate, we found out that, of course, flights in and out of Chicago were being delayed because of rain. This meant that we got to sit on the plane for 45 minutes extra before taking off, but it also meant that we had to circle over Chicago before we were cleared for landing. We flew right over Northwestern's campus! It was pretty cool seeing it from the air.
After landing in Chicago, we had only a half hour to get to our other gate (which was luckily about 200 feet from the one we came in at) and eat some food. I had some delicious pizza that had sat under a heat lamp for probably about 3 hours. Next thing I knew, we were boarding.
Alex and I had been assigned seats directly in front of and behind one another. We were hoping that someone would switch with one of us so we could sit together. An Irishman with a very thick brogue said that he would do it, so we sat down and prepared for take-off.
Once we were in the air, we were served dinner, which was OK for plane food and shown the movie "17 again". I figured that I would rather peruse the SkyMall than listen to Zac Efron, but apparently the bald guy across the aisle from me found the movie very entertaining.
I will discuss all the things I found that I want in the SkyMall on another post.
After landing in Chicago, we had only a half hour to get to our other gate (which was luckily about 200 feet from the one we came in at) and eat some food. I had some delicious pizza that had sat under a heat lamp for probably about 3 hours. Next thing I knew, we were boarding.
Alex and I had been assigned seats directly in front of and behind one another. We were hoping that someone would switch with one of us so we could sit together. An Irishman with a very thick brogue said that he would do it, so we sat down and prepared for take-off.
Once we were in the air, we were served dinner, which was OK for plane food and shown the movie "17 again". I figured that I would rather peruse the SkyMall than listen to Zac Efron, but apparently the bald guy across the aisle from me found the movie very entertaining.
I will discuss all the things I found that I want in the SkyMall on another post.Meanwhile, the Irishman who had been supposed to sit next to Alex managed to drink about 7 drinks in two hours before the flight attendant cut him off. He honestly did not understand why she was refusing to serve. Him explaining that he wasn't even at have his tolerance in a thick accent that the woman couldn't understand was very entertaining. I noticed the girl sitting next to him (the girl I should have been next to) did not look to happy with her seatmate.
The plane played a few episodes of The Office, which made me very happy, but by the time WALL-E came on I had fallen asleep. Why do they always play the good movie when I want to sleep?
Next thing I knew, a fight attendant was barking "breakfast!" down the aisle. Warm croissants. I was so happy. I managed to keep my bleary eyes open for the rest of the flight. I got really excited as I looked out the window and saw the beauty of Ireland. I think we passed over five golf courses.
The Emerald Isle from the sky.
Once we landed in Ireland, it seemed like everything had turned green. They really really like the color. For example, Aer Lingus (an airline) had green planes. We ran into a bachelorette party coming into customs wearing green sequined cowboy hats. Etc.
Customs went fine for me, but Alex got stuck with a silly "alien" charge. Hopefully he can avoid it. We found our luggage and met up with a girl who is going to school with Alex so that the three of us could share a cab. This was going to be no easy feat with all of our luggage.
One thing about Europe that EVERYONE should agree with is that they kick America's butt in the fact that they have free luggage carts. These were indispensable while I was lugging four months worth of stuff (eight months between Alex and me) through crowded airports.
I know. I look ridiculously tired. That's because I got twenty minutes of actual sleep on the plane.
The plane played a few episodes of The Office, which made me very happy, but by the time WALL-E came on I had fallen asleep. Why do they always play the good movie when I want to sleep?
Next thing I knew, a fight attendant was barking "breakfast!" down the aisle. Warm croissants. I was so happy. I managed to keep my bleary eyes open for the rest of the flight. I got really excited as I looked out the window and saw the beauty of Ireland. I think we passed over five golf courses.
The Emerald Isle from the sky.
Once we landed in Ireland, it seemed like everything had turned green. They really really like the color. For example, Aer Lingus (an airline) had green planes. We ran into a bachelorette party coming into customs wearing green sequined cowboy hats. Etc.
Customs went fine for me, but Alex got stuck with a silly "alien" charge. Hopefully he can avoid it. We found our luggage and met up with a girl who is going to school with Alex so that the three of us could share a cab. This was going to be no easy feat with all of our luggage.
One thing about Europe that EVERYONE should agree with is that they kick America's butt in the fact that they have free luggage carts. These were indispensable while I was lugging four months worth of stuff (eight months between Alex and me) through crowded airports.
We got to Alex's apartment and met the guys he will be living with, all of whom are very cool. I tagged along as the guys went to check out their new city--but I will talk about that later.
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