Ireland 2003 Log 2

We woke up just in time for breakfast service at about 9:30am Frankfurt time, that would be 1:30am at home. A few hours later, we arrived in Frankfurt with an hour and a half before our 1:45pm flight to Dublin. We scoped out the terminal and found the proper line to get our next boarding passes. For some reason, Daniel & I did not get checked in for both flights while Mom & Erik did. The line took nearly an hour to get through, but otherwise the transfer was fairly relaxed. Another 2-hour flight (and almost 2 hour nap) brought us to Dublin at 4:0pm, just 15 hours after departure from Portland. So if it took 15 hours to travel and we went forward 8 hours, than that means we lost 7 hours of our day—no wonder it feels like I missed Friday altogether. Customs was unlike any other time that I had traveled. With the free travel among European Union countries, most passengers simply held up their passport and walked on by. We were one of three groups that had non-EU passports and had to wait in a very short line. The passport control agent opened our passports and noticed that I was born in Oklahoma—whereupon he began singing “OKLAHOMA” to me. He asked how long we were staying, stamped our passports, and we were off. Strangely enough, our bags were never searched. They are obviously a lot less stringent with security than the U.S. We took the hotel shuttle and checked in. Using our Priority Club card and making early reservations saved us about half on the room rates, costing us just under 100 Euros each. We went to our rooms to wait for Dad to arrive. I think we all fell asleep again and woke up just before 8:00pm when Dad knocked on our door. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant this evening. The food wasn’t that good, no matter how hungry I thought I was. The salad consisted of mostly toppings, a tiny bit of lettuce, and a shitload of dressing. Back to the room to watch some TV & try to get my body on the right time schedule.