Day Fourteen: Slán Baile Átha Cliath

Well it had to end sometime, and today is the day. I managed to stay up until 1:30 am or so, and then slept until 7:30 am. Not ideal, but hopefully I’ll get back on EDT quickly if I just stay up this entire flight.

I got ready and packed everything up for one last time, then made a quick detour for the shops to fill the rest of my carryon with candy. As one does. I also needed to get a €2 coin for the parking lot, so there were other reasons aside from my unreasonable candy horde.

I got my bags and checked out of the hotel and then walked the block or so to the car and got ready for one last drive. For all that it’s way too big, I really did enjoy driving it. Having a backup camera really did make it a lot less obnoxious to park (and I got loads better at driving it after two weeks on the road). The car drop off was 45 min. away so I got on the road and stopped by a gas station right outside the airport to top off the tank before turning it in around 11 am.

Goodbye car. Thank you for only minimal drama.

The shuttle for the airport was already waiting so I was able to get right on, and in five minutes I was at the terminal. After two weeks on my own in relatively quiet little towns, walking into an international airport was full sensory overload. I checked my bag, chugged my entire bottle of water (it’s never a bad idea before a flight to overhydrate), and then went through security. My bag got flagged so I had to wait while they swabbed one of my candy bars. Yes, sir, there is just that much chocolate in this bag. American chocolate is crap.

I crammed everything back into my carry on and went through into the terminal waiting area, which in most non-US airports I have found are MASSIVE. Until your gate is ready you’re just able to sit, eat, and drink in an enormous galleria. I got some chicken tenders for lunch (Now is not the time for adventurous food, adventurous food time is over.) and then my Aer Lingus pass on my phone told me to go to the US Pre-clearance area. Because apparently, like Montreal, there is enough American traffic going through Dublin that there is a satellite customs station in Ireland. I Global Entry’d my way past the line and the customs dude just asked me if I had anything to declare (by name) before he just waved me on through. Creepy biometrics? Yes. Efficiency? Also yes.

I found a place to disembowel my carry on and fix it after security messed up my meticulously packed candy stash, and then located my gate. It was 12:45 pm and my flight isn’t set to leave until…4:10 pm. Well. I have cross stitching to work on and all my devices are loaded with audiobooks and movies. Might as well settle in.

I had paid a bit extra (again) for a seat closer to the front, which meant I was pretty much the last person to board the flight. However, I really enjoyed meeting my seatmates!

I’m not sleeping on the flight for time change reasons, but I’m really going to enjoy having all this space to spread out all my crap for the next 8 hours. I cross stitched, watched Derry Girls (it’s hilarious), and a couple of movies to stay awake the entire 8 hour flight. I really love flying Aer Lingus because their planes are so new and they have a really good tech setup (they have multiple outlets and USB charging ports, and you can even connect your Bluetooth headphones to the inflight entertainment system). Also, everyone gets a free beer or wine when the flight begins. I didn’t get either, but that seems like a really solid operating policy to calm any flying jitters for the entire plane…

I got back to DC at 7:30 pm and by 8 pm I was in my Lyft back home to pick up the munchkins from Ariel’s apartment.