August 29th
It's hard to know what date to put on this journal entry. My travel day started Friday, August 29th, but it won't end until Saturday, August 30th. The night will be a bit short since there is a five-hour time difference between home and Ireland. Unfortunately, I do much better with a westbound time change, and this one is eastbound. Hopefully it won't take me too many days to get my body onto Ireland time!
Those nasty butterflies are gone. I started to feel like my normal traveling and biking self as soon as I left home. That's good.
Traffic wasn't too bad getting to the airport - but I did learn a new "back roads" way to the airport. I'm sure I'll make use of that at some point in the future. Many thanks to my taxi driver! I was very happy that I arrived at the airport early once I saw the check-in lines. It was actually pretty funny. Each new person would walk up to the snaky and very long line for the Aer Lingus flight to Dublin, ask if the line was for Dublin, then just groan and say "I thought we were early". Maybe we were all early and there was no line at all later on. But there was another reason to be glad I was early - the flight was overbooked. Maybe if this wasn't the start of my trip (and I didn't live in the Boston area) I wouldn't mind a free night in Boston - but somehow staying home for another night doesn't seem like the right start to my trip! No problem, I'm on the planned flight.
People's perceptions are funny too - I overheard a couple of older women in the next section of the line saying "all of these people can't be on our flight". And of course, all of us really were waiting for the same flight. Aer Lingus has two flights leaving at times somewhat close to each other (at least they were checking both in at the same time) - one to Dublin, and one to Shannon - but there were separate lines. It was a fairly large plane - an Airbus 330 with a seat configuration of 2 - 4 - 2, but when I saw our home for the night next to a 747, it looked pretty small.
I'm not used to waiting in line to check in for flights anymore. In fact, this is the first paper ticket I've had in years. I guess the long lines are what happens when everyone on the flight has to check in. No e-ticket kiosks, no one outside to take bags... It took an hour to check in and another half hour to get through security. I grabbed a slice of pizza for dinner - no airline food tonight - and now I'm just hanging out waiting for my flight. Not too long now...
It took me until almost the minute I walked out of my door to finally make the decision on what shoes I was wearing. My Chaco sandals - my usual choice - almost won out, but the temperatures in Ireland right now - at least the forecasted ones - made it seem like closed-toed shoes would be a better choice. Merrell slides won - closed toe, open heel, mesh upper, very comfy, can be worn with socks if needed. My feet are happy right now, and I assume they'll stay that way for the next two weeks. At one point I was talking to my mom on the phone and I was walking around the house with different shoes on each foot. She warned me not to walk out of the house like that - a good warning, because that would have been pretty easy to do this afternoon!
August 30th
It was an uneventful travel day - just very long. My flight arrived in Dublin about a half an hour late due to a gate hold in Boston, which is pretty normal for Logan Airport. Then... through customs, baggage claim, and off to find out where to find the bus to Belfast. I waited for the bus in a cool but sunny Dublin morning - 7 degrees Celsius when we landed, although it did warm up to a more reasonable temperature.
A flying pig at the Dublin airport. And yes, that's my bike in that suitcase sitting off to the left...
I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep on the plane, and probably another hour or so on the bus. Not quality sleep, but it was better than none at all. Tony met me at the bus station, and we drove to Belcoo, my home for the next two nights. After all that travel, it was another 3 hours in the car. I dozed off again for a bit, but by the time we got here I really felt like I was sleep-walking! After we got to the B&B, Tony and I sat and talked over cups of coffee and tea. Tony gave me a good map, and directions for each day of riding, and we discussed the options available on each day. The directions are very explicit with miles and turns, and the map shows me the details. He also told me where to find points of interest, shops, food, etc. Looks like a good plan, and all of the B&Bs I'm staying in are within walking distance of restaurants. That definitely meets with my approval.
I'm at the Bella Vista B&B here in Belcoo. My room is lovely, there's a lounge to sit in, and the house is right on a small lake. Devaina, my hostess, is doing a great job of making sure that I'm comfortable. Her parents usually run the B&B, but they're gone on what seems to be a well-deserved vacation. Devaina has stepped in like she's been the hostess here for her entire life - and who knows, maybe she has been helping out for years! She's two years out of University, and about to embark on getting her teaching certificate for secondary school French and Spanish.
Belcoo is just inside Northern Ireland. It's a short walk across a bridge into the Republic of Ireland. There are no border controls between the two countries, but the police station here in Belcoo looks like a fortress. Tony tells me that all of the police stations in Northern Ireland border towns look like this one.
I'm a bit money-challenged right now. Northern Ireland uses pounds sterling (after all, it is part of the UK), and the Republic of Ireland uses Euros. At one point this afternoon I picked up a few things (fruit and Powerade, couldn't find Gatorade) and I was trying to pull out the right coins. I quickly realized that at the very least I needed to get rid of my US change - it was just too hard with three currencies mixed in together. OK, OK, I'm tired, and that probably figured in to the mess too! And the smallest bill I've seen in either pounds or euros is a five, which means I have a lot of change to sort through. I think I have an extra little zippered mesh bag - I probably should use it to separate the two sets of coins. That should make my life a little easier.
As we were driving here I realized that I didn't know if the road signs were referring to miles or kilometers. It's a good thing I asked, although I probably would have figured in out eventually. Northern Ireland uses miles, and the Republic of Ireland uses kilometers. But Tony told me that the distances on many of the signs in the ROI are incorrect, and that if the sign is the type that is mounted on a single pole that I should probably ignore the direction too because it's likely that someone spun the sign around. This is going to be interesting...
I learned today that I shouldn't reply yes when asked if I wanted my coffee white! I figured white coffee was coffee with a bit of cream. Nope - it is half coffee, half milk. I guess that would have been a good choice if I liked lattes, but from here on I'll stick to black coffee or black tea. And it's a pleasure for me to be visiting a country that serves good tea.
The weather today was cool with blue sky changing to gray clouds changing to... well, I'm sure you get the picture!
