Welcome to Ireland!

After a long journey, I finally arrived in Ireland early Monday morning.

Here’s a few photos from the flight (nonstop to Ireland, with a snack, dinner, and a light breakfast served en route.)

Please note that all images were taken with a gen 4 iPod, as my sister currently has my camera, so there’s some graininess and blurriness to them. But, hey, vacation isn’t about perfection, it’s about having fun!

Obligatory selfie–pardon the poor lighting and my messy hair.

Prepping for takeoff! Boarding was around 7pm and as you can see, the sun’s setting as the guy directs the plane out of its parked position.

And we’re off! That blurry white dot’s the moon… A slender crescent that kept us company until it set.

Flying at night, looking down at the city, made me realize once again how large the world is. Every speck of light down there, every car, is at least one spark of human life on this planet–and this is just one small fraction of the world!

Most of the flight was at night, during which I could take no photos as my iPod’s camera couldn’t pick out the stars. It was a fun flight, though, and I saw some beautiful star formations in the clear air above the clouds. I also watched The Good Dinosaur and Pan, which were great movies (I hadn’t seen them before.) The former had me in tears, and the last one ended somewhat bittersweet, as it’s something of an imagined prequel to Peter Pan.

I also had a couple of inspirations during the flight, just little hints of ideas that might blossom into something some day. Always wonderful when that happens. No writing as the guy in front of me tilted back his seat, but that’s all right–I enjoyed two movies, a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory (one of my favorite tv shows), and the scenery outside the window.

Dawn was gorgeous, with the sun painting the clouds pink… You can see the start of a patch here. I took a short nap before we landed, after the light breakfast.

Touchdown! I thought I would be waiting for my grandfather, but it turns out he got up extra early to make it there so I wouldn’t have to. He’s so wonderful.

After stopping at a hotel for breakfast, we headed home.

At my grandfather’s house! The huge picture window is still there, which makes me so happy–it has a beautiful view of the backyard, the fields beyond, then the ocean…and beyond the bay are the Cliffs of Moher, our destination for Tuesday!

We went out for pizza for lunch, and had a lovely mussel dinner accompanied by brown bread and Irish butter. I cannot stress how good Irish butter and Irish brown bread are. And the cheese, too! From what my sister says, the sausage is also amazing, but I haven’t had any since I don’t eat meat (other than fish and shellfish.)

I took a brief nap in the afternoon, but otherwise managed to stay awake until about 10pm Irish time… Over 32 hours of almost no sleep. I slept well that night!