In reality, our trip was rather uneventful. Vladan was extremely confused from the beginning of the morning. He was confused why our friend, Ally, was driving my car. He was even more confused when she took us to the airport. "But we aren't going anywhere. We don't have vacation until August. Right, Daddy?" We just smiled and led everyone inside. The lady checking us in made the comment, "So, I need to see your passports because it looks like you are going somewhere fun!" We had managed to keep the secret without even telling her it was a secret. :) All three kids got super excited when they saw our plane was going to New York. Vladan kept talking about all the things we were going to do in New York City (go in taxis, see skyscrapers, eat in restaurants, etc). Once our plane landed and we found our next gate, I pulled my camera to get his reaction when he found out where we were really going. I had been thinking about this for weeks. So, I went through a few hints to try to get him to guess. Once he figured it out, I said, "So, Vladan, we are all going to Ireland." He kind of half grinned (like he was humoring me) and said, "Oh, ok, so we aren't staying in NY?" I just kind of stared at him and turned the video off. Bill said, "I thought you would be excited Vladan." and then (after I turned the camera off) kind of jumped and said, "YES!" But still, I think he was just humoring us.
We had a five hour layover but, thankfully, it didn't seem nearly that long. I do have to say that the last couple hours made me more and more excited. You see, the longer we waited, more and more people started sitting down in the waiting area.....more and more Irish people.....with their amazing Irish accents and their lovely demeanors. I'm sure they were just as excited to get home as I was to visit their homeland. The sweetest family sat across from us and they were incredibly kind to our children....candy is always appreciated. :) The funny thing is that they ended up being only about 2 rows ahead of us on the plane.
The ride was only 6 hours or so. That might seem like a long time, but our adoption trips saw us on planes for nearly 9 hours for the long flight. Somehow, 6 hours didn't seem bad at all. Our only real problem was that Bill's and Katie's on board TV didn't work. Katie's wasn't a big deal because she didn't really want to watch anything anyway. Bill and I ended up switching seats about half way through. Although I know that TV isn't necessary, it does help to pass the time. I do have to say that Aer Lingus does have pretty good food. The main dishes were shepherds pie or chicken and rice. The shepherds pie was incredible!! Fuad and Katie had chicken and rice and both gobbled it so it must have been delicious too. They served muffins and juice just a few hours later. Vladan was the only one of the kids that was awake, and he was psyched to get to eat again. (He is always excited to eat!) He didn't sleep at all on the plane so by the time we got to our hotel, he had been up for over 20 hours and wasn't even grumpy....pretty impressive for an 11 year old!
The last hour or so of the flight, I kept watching the map screen. It made my heart race seeing the plane getting closer and closer. When we got really close, the plane started descending. We broke though the thick cloud cover and I got my first view of Ireland (I got a couple pictures which is amazing because my hands were shaking from excitement). I just couldn't believe that we were finally in the place that I had dreamed of for years!
5:30am is an interesting time to arrive in another country, especially if you are staying at a hotel. Our hotel's check in time is 2pm. They said they would do their best to get us in quickly but suggested we walk around for a while. Having three tired children (and one tired Mama) makes for an interesting walk. Nothing was open because it was so early so we literally just walked around. A little over an hour later, we went back to the hotel to grab some breakfast. Can I just say that I love Irish food?? I was able to get a full Irish breakfast (eggs, potatoes, beans, black and white puddings and bread....ok, I had a bit of a chocolate croissant, but I'm on vacation!) Having a full belly made us all even more tired. I will spare you the boring details of our taking a bit of a nap in the lounge of the hotel. :) The hotel was great though and was able to get us into our room a little before 1pm. The only thing on the agenda at that moment was everyone resting for a couple hours. It just had to be done! :) The next post will talk about our time after that rest. No, we didn't waste the rest of our first day in the Emerald Isle.
(I will be adding pictures as soon as I can. I forgot that the computer I brought does not have an SD port and we forgot to bring an SD/USB converter. I have a ton of pictures that I want to share!)
