an interesting journey.

The Flight

miniature plane food

Greetings from Ireland! Never did I think that travelling could be such an ordeal. I always heard stories but never fully grasped the experience until 2:45p.m. on June 9, 2011; 2:45 being two hours later than we were supposed to depart. apparently i don't have the natural travelers anxiety that other's obtain, because even though we were now scheduled to land at 730 and my connection flight left at 720, i was just kicking it, throwing back a shot glass of sprite while munching on some microscopic peanuts and completely fascinated by the flight tracker on the back of our seats. about 20 minutes before we landed, i was reassured by my flight attendant that another fella and i were the only one's on the connection so they were letting us exit first as well as taking care of our luggage. SO SWEET. he also gave me another snack.. but i'm pretty sure it was more for the fact that i look twelve in my "flying clothes" than the fact that our flights were late. anywho, the other fella and i made it off the plane with 10 minutes to walk across Boston airport (shy of an own city in itself) and check through customs. luckily he knew were he was going and we made it in the knick of time. i was beyond excited when i found complementary pillows, blankets, headphones, a personal tv with free on demand tv, movies, and music, as well as a game console built in the seat. as if that wasn't enough to make me giddy, there was no one seated to my left, right, in front, or behind me. at first i was a tad offended, but then i rejoiced in the fact that i could sleep like i was in a queen size bed while catching up on my shows. however, as entertaining as free tv and movies were, i was more entertained by the 75 year old man that could barely stand, let alone carry his own luggage, who threw back smirnoff shots with his wife like he was taking his daily box of medicine (which he wife did provide him with shortly after). At around 6am, after a 6 hour time change and never seeing the sunset, i assumed my body was incredibly confused but decided not to worry. all i had to do was go through customs, get my bag and i could take a bus to my hostel and cozy up in a warm bed. customs was wonderful, very friendly in fact. so friendly that i almost didn't notice the fact that my baggage did not arrive with us. too bad i flew out from new orleans, where it is 98 degrees on a cool day into a city where it was 45 and raining, completely prepared with a pair of sweatpants and a ponytail holder. after chatting with baggage people for 2 or 3 hours, i decided to wait for the other people since i had waited so long already... but no, katie didn't realize how exhausted she was and passed out on some chairs where everyone shuffled by without notice. 

From Shannon to Galway

"graffiti" in Galway

thankfully, my last buddy arrive late due to his layovers. after quickly fleeing Shannon airport, we finally made it to Galway, Ireland on our little bus, confused by the different road sides, etc. Dear America, Ireland is just a tad beautiful. we toured the city for a few hours seeing everything from street performers belting out zombie by the cranberries to a woman who carved jewelry out of bones.  while others visited pubs i decided i should take a nap, considering the clothing i was provided with (a peacoat on top of a men's large tee, mens black sweatpants and toms) made the homeless men start tossing me euros. i love the fact that i can leave the windows open to get air. 45 degrees. fantastic. i passed out around 630. when i woke up and the sun was shining in my face, i thought i was asleep for a few minutes.. nope. it was 945pm. the sun doesn't set till almost 10 here. as i write this, the sun is actually rising.. it's only 4am. i'm hoping my body adjusts, considering my head thinks it's still 10pm. 

Stay Updated!

I can tell this month will be incredibly long without my friends and family with me but i know it will be worth every second. since Patrick Hodges and I vowed to get the full experience and not stay too attached at home, we decided to not use facebook while we're here and only update through blogs. I will update it as much as possible with everything going on. I hope all of you have a fantastic June and I'll see you in July!

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

Be Blessed in Jesus' Name,

                             Katie Joy