Travel Day

Over the years, Viv has become an expert on "hurry up and wait" - a good skill to have.

During our "hurry up" parts, I think of Border Collies herding and even as we maneuver through security at Newark Airport, I giggle to myself because I want to say, "Walk on."

Come Bye = left

Away = right

Lie down = stop

Walk on =  go straight

That'll do = well, we've all know this one.

Newark is a straightforward airport that's easy to navigate and we arrived early enough that there was barely any waiting at security. 

Security lines

Waiting at the gate

USA was scheduled to play England in the semifinals of the World Cup so we arrived at the airport nice and early - my big plan was to watch the match in the waiting area.

Cristi to nice man at the Aer Lingus counter: "Hi! There's a World Cup match on and I'm wondering if we can switch from the news channel to watch the semifinal."
Nice man at the Aer Lingus counter to Cristi: "We have no control over the screens. Maybe because we'd watch, too."

Sigh.

Twitter was the only source of up-to-the-second updates and as we walked toward the plane door, I saw that USA won. Whoop!

Chicky Wicky ready to take flight

Spoiler Alert: this is the last time I felt rested.

Fast forward through a half dozen episodes of The Big Bang Theory and too few episodes of Derry Girls and we arrive in Dublin!

Come Bye = left

Away = right

Lie down = stop

Walk on =  go straight

That'll do.

The plane arrived so early that our big plan to feed the birds at St. Stephen Green, then visit the playground was put on hold. Note that we are masters of the impromptu bed.

Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Okay, okay, okay. I don't care that it's too early -- let's go! If we wait any longer, we'll both fall asleep.

Hi. We are the only people awake in Dublin right now.

Let's window shop for a...."LOOK! IT'S THE NEW BOOK!"
And the shop is closed.

Tick-tock. Tick-tock...hang on a sec...I think I know this girl walking toward us...is it?...Could it be?...YES! It's my former student Sara who is doing really cool graduate work on ancient fake dice!

Things I brought Sara: Cheez-Its for her and a bag of bread for the birds.

Um, Viv? That bread is for - oh, never mind.

The second all the bread was gone, we walked over to the playground, a walk we could do in our sleep because we've been there so often.

At this point, I felt like
via GIPHY



Quick! Hie thee hence to Connolly Station!

Chicky Wicky the Travel Chicken was the only one awake.

And then finally

the place I love dearly

Queen's University Belfast

We arrived before our room was ready, but good things had always happened at the Wellington Park Hotel (like our friend Chris introducing Viv to chicken goujons) so I held out hope we'd be able to sleep sooner than later. Viv settled into a sofa, I got a soda to try to sugar my way through jet lag, and a lovely man came over from the front desk and said if we'd take a different room, we could -- WHY WAS HE STILL TALKING WHILE I WAS ROLLING A SUITCASE TO THE ELEVATOR, CALLING, "What floor??"