My Trip Overseas

If you know me well, you know I usually pack my bags a few hours before my flight. This was the case, but did pack the night before instead of Wednesday morning before my flight. On Wednesday, my splendid girlfriend Megan took the morning off of work to take me to the airport. We of course brought our puppy Lilah, who seems to think that everyone she sees, including every single stranger in the Tampa airport, is her best friend who she hasn’t seen in ages… Anyways, I get to the US Airways desk, and my passport wouldn’t scan properly, so it took forever to check in with the attendant. Meanwhile, Megan is trying to keep up with Lilah and make sure she didn’t potty on the carpet inside the airport. Since check-in was such a long process, I think the attendant let it slide that my bag was 7 lbs over the limit and didn’t charge me extra (so thanks to you Mr. US Airways Check-in guy).

My flight left from Tampa about 2pm (30 minutes late) in route to North Carolina, my first of three stops. Since we left Tampa late, I only had about 45 minutes in between my flights to de-board, change terminals and board my next flight. I got to my flight and was off to Philadelphia. Per usual, Philly was on a delay and we had to circle the airport for about an hour before we could land. At this point, I was starting to get a little tired of flying, but knowing I had a transatlantic flight coming up, I tried to keep high spirits.

While in Philly, I grabbed a quick slice of pizza and a drink. I think took Megan’s advice and bought one of those neck pillows everyone uses for flying. That was one of my best purchases of the trip, second only to the 3-day bus pas in Dublin, which you’ll hear about later. I called Megan at a payphone to let her know I was alright and then boarded the plane on time. I should also mention that I left my IPhone at home because I didn’t plan on using it in Europe and there was no sense in bringing it and risk loosing or breaking it. This was my first step to breaking out of my comfort zone of being totally in touch with everyone and everything in America.

We boarded the plane on time and pushed back from the gate about 8:45pm EST. I happened to sit next to another guy about my age from Australia named Kane. We started talking when we both shared in the relief that nobody had claimed seat 30E, which was right in the middle of the both of us. As any two men can relate, it could be a bit uncomfortable sitting next to another man for such a long period of time on an airplane in close quarters (especially since I am not the smallest of men). But having the open seat in between us meant a little extra room, a place to put our stuff, and the opportunity to have a great conversation.

Unfortunately, as soon as we started taxiing down the tarmac, the pilot informed us that we were number 32 for departure. There isn’t a whole lot to do with a one and a half hour delay on the plane besides have some good conversations with my new friend and try to convince the flight attendants to give us free booze wile we waited to depart (which we were unsuccessful at by the way). They were too interested in talking among themselves about whatever drama comes with being a flight attendant on a long tour. It was great to talk with Kane though because he seemed to be a ‘world traveler extraordinaire’ and has been all over the America’s, Europe and parts of the pacific.

The time on the airplane also gave me some time to think about the different scenarios of when I landed in Dublin. See, McKara and Tiffany were already in England the day before I left for Dublin. Our plan was for them to fly to Dublin the same morning I was arriving and meet at a bar inside the Dublin Airport. The plan was that when my plane landed at 8:30am Dublin local time, I would wait at this bar until they arrived after 9am. With the delay in Philly and not being able to contact them, this meant that I would get there an hour after them, instead of an hour before them. I knew them both from school and they are both in sororities, but I was not that close to either of them and feared what they would do when the got off the plane and couldn’t find me. Were they going to wait? Leave? Go wondering around the streets of Dublin looking for me? But I knew regardless of what happened, the hotel was under my name, so hopefully they would be smart enough to find their way to the hotel as a last resort.

My flight was an overnight zombie plane. About 20 minutes after takeoff everyone was asleep, me included. I remember Kane waking me up for the chicken dinner (which we got 2 servings of chicken since we sat in the last row of the plane). But after that, I had a full stomach and knew I needed to be ready to go when I landed, so I passed out again.

The next thing I know, Kane is waking me up for the arrival breakfast, for which we also received two egg sandwiches (thank you flight attendants). I also got to see some of the Irish islands on the way onto the mainland, with their steep cliffs and green rolling hills. As we got closer to the ground and the airport, I was watching a car drive on the road. I then began thinking, “On my god, he is on the wrong side of the road!” I then saw another car heading straight for him and thought they were going to crash. However, I quickly realized that in Europe, they drive on the left side of the road instead of the right… duh…