It's A Question Of Whether We're Going To Go Forward Into The Future Or Back Into The Past

I have done it! I've arrived in the county of my ancestors! It was no small conquest. I was about to pass out from exhaustion before I arrived...

The plane landed in Philadelphia at 7:30pm and the woman sitting next to me said "well, that was uneventful." Ahuuuh... I'm not exactly sure what she was expecting but I for one am glad it was uneventful.

I took the shuttle bus from terminal F to terminal A (this is when I hung up on you, Nonny lol) and then proceeded to walk all the way to the other side of the airport to get to gate 22. I sat there for about 45-50 minutes and then began the boarding process. (I got a window seat in both flights btw.) I was storing my carry-on in the overhead compartment and the guy on the end (a little older than myself) helped. Well... then it falls out and almost hits a lady in the head. O_O I was like.. umm ok, I'll just put it under the seat. No, no, he HAS to put it back for me. Ok, fine. He shuts it in this time. Anyway, the guy in the middle came over, who was my age, and was from Oakland, but moved from Ireland at age 11. He was pretty nice. I talked to him for a bit then tried to sleep.

The key word in that sentence is 'tried'. If I put my head against the window it was cold and vibrated too much. If I didn't put my head on anything I couldn't fall asleep. If I put my head down on the tray with the pillow then I was bent over too much. Also, my arms fell asleep cuz I put them under my cheek to raise my head a little.

So... I hardly got any sleep at all.

Then the plane landed at 8:30am Ireland time. I got my bags and trotted along to the exit. I had no idea where the bus stop was so I stopped at the little window for bus questions. The girl there informed me that they didn't pick up from the airport and that I had to go to the bus station... ok great... where's that?

Take the 747 bus, she says, it's the green buses. Okey dokey, easy enough... 6 euros later I'm sitting on another shuttle bus. Half an hour after that I arrive at the bus station in Dublin and only had to wait 5-10 minutes for my bus. Good timing if I do say so myself!

The bus is comfy. I got a window seat to enjoy the scenery. Then this Irish girl asks if she can sit next to me. Sure, no problemo. Then I catch the sent of alcohol. If that wasn't enough confirmation of her drunken state, she gets a phone call and she's like "oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to leave you like that! I don't know what happened? Did I go to the loo and just not come back? I was supposed to catch the 8am bus. I'm so F***ked. Well, I'm f***cked anyway, but I'm on my way back now..." blah blah - I stopped listening and ended up falling asleep.

This was not any more comfortable that the plane, mind you, so the amount of sleep I got wasn't worth mentioning.

Anyway - I got to Longford Rail Station with no real problems at all. The woman behind the counter called me a cab and said to wait inside, the driver would come in to get me. (And this is where I learned I was saying Ballymahon completely wrong... it sounds like BallymahAn.) Sure enough, five minutes later an older gentleman comes inside and grabs my suitcase.

He was pleasant enough. He was in NYC awhile back... went to a couple Irish bars there, lol. (He stayed in Queens, Batman!) I asked him what I should do in Ballymahon and he laughed, hahaha... hmmm... not comforting. When we get into town he's like "this is it... here's the town."

Think the town of Westmoreland and you've about summed this place up.

So, I checked in... very nice rooms, btw. The comforter is so thick and heavy that you can move around all you want and not mess it up. Awesome. I need to find me one of these at home. I unpacked everything I'd need. I put the clothes I'll use until Thursday into the shelf-cubey things and put all my shower stuff in the bathroom.

I finished all this at about 2pm and crawled into bed like a zombie. I just wanted to take a nap for a couple hours but ended up sleeping until 6pm. Ooops. I took a shower and got dressed. I tried to dry my hair but I couldn't figure out why the hair dryer wouldn't work with the plug converter. After I toweled dried my hair I found out you have to flip a little switch to turn on the outlet. Weird.

I went downstairs and ordered some seaseme chicken. I was honestly too tired to be hungry but I knew I had to eat. After that I went back up to my room (room 204) and went back to sleep until 11 because of all the music. I went downstairs again and there was a band playing and lots of people. So I ordered a coke and watched the band play 2 songs. (Both American songs that I don't remember.) I remember doing that last bit but it's all a slight fog because I was so tired. Back to bed I went.

Day 1 : Completed


Here's a photo of the sunrise from the plane...