Traveling to Dublin, Ireland

So I'm writing this a bit behind, but on Sunday July 10, I travelled to Dublin. This wasn't an easy trip - I left Sunday afternoon and arrived Monday around 10am. Not as bad when you count the layover, but horrible when you factor in that I didn't sleep on the planes much.

From Houston - Chicago

I didn't think I would hate a two hour flight so much in my life. Take-off was rough as we hit a bit of turbulence - I thought my Dramamine would help, but I was sadly mistaken. The anxiety of "We are going to fall" kept kicking in when I got the drop feeling. The drop feeling is the one similar to awful elevators that go up to a floor and drop a little when you reach the floor, or a roller coaster! I hate roller coasters, by the way. Anyway, after that wore off and I wasn't on the verge of crying, it was a relatively easy flight. I sat by a nice Indian couple, and when we landed it wasn't too bad. I wasn't expecting a landing, so the sudden noise and unbalance was shocking, but it was good.

From Chicago - Dublin

Dear lord was that layover tough. I called my parents and then Josh to say I landed okay, then I walked around for about 20 minutes trying to find information.. Once I stumbled upon a TSA Security guy, I asked about international flights and was directed to my flight. That line ... it was tough. I went to get my new boarding pass and since I switched terminals and I'm international I had to do security again and I only had an hour. It went by okay and I met up with a classmate, almost lost my passport and ID (they fell:(), and made it okay on the plane. It was probably the smoothest ride I have ever had, and my anxiety stayed in check, so all in all it was great.

In Dublin we waited to meet up with our group an were headed to meet with our travel coordinator and some of the others arriving on a plane from London. Unfortunately that plane was delayed, then it was delayed again. We ended up going to the bus with our coordinator and waiting probably another hour before we got them and left.

Sadly some of our classmates were delayed on flights, redirected, and I believe one or two lost their luggage. I packed my carry on with all my essentials just in case that happened!

We were supposed to do a small orientation, but we pushed it back because we were so late. We got into our rooms and went to a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant in city centre and learned to use the buses. It was a great dinner with a fabulous dessert. Afterwards we got groceries and went to bed. I don't recommend being awake that long.