Four O’Clock in The Morning

We've arrived. And we have pictures, though we've left them back at the Garnish B&B, so we'll have to add them tomorrow.

The plane ride was every bit as brutal and unforgiving as we'd feared, seeing as how we taxied in Chicago for an hour before take-off. With the time change, we left Chicago at six pm and landed at Shannon at 11am, so factoring in the seven hour time difference, the plane ride was... really long.

I was partly right on with the in-flight entertainment, as weird and unfunny British sitcoms were featured, as was Everybody Loves Raymond. I switched seats away from Al and Mike because two young parents wanted to sit together with their child, and because the stewardess claimed she'd make it worth my while. My reward was a small tin of Pringles and a smaller bottle of champagne. Potato chips and sweet, bubbly wine: Aer Lingus does it up right.

We decided to go without sleep, though both Al and I have had Kramer-naps. Mike, being only partially human, dares to drive on the left without a lick of sleep in the past 30 hours. His accuracy rate for driving on the left hovers at 89%. Sorry, town of Limerick!

Imelda Marcos Award for over-packing: Al, who brought multiple pairs of shoes. We're not certain yet how many of them are high-heeled.

Mike's Insane Quote of the Day: (in regards to an orange berry on a plate of scones) "That's a Japanese lantern! No, wait -- it's a tomatillo. "

Al's Obscure 80's Reference of the Day: "We're using knives and swords like the Krays!"

Round Round-up:

• 3 pre-check-in at O'Hare
• 2 post-check-in at O'Hare
• 1 mid-flight
• 1 Durty Nellie's in Bunratty -- spelling will be corrected later. (I'm calling you out, Denise!)
• 2 Thirsty Scholar in Cork city

(All rounds current to 12:51pm 3/31/06 Milwaukee time.)

More tomorrow. All in color!