Dublin, Ireland--Day 1 and a half

I got back from a 5 day trip to Ireland a few weeks ago, but I've been so busy since that I haven't been able to post. I went with my friend, N. because her mom couldn't go and I'm so glad I decided to go!

We left on Valentine's Day out of JFK airport and flew Delta airlines. Checking in was a PITA because they didn't have all of the booths filled and people were being obnoxious. When we finally got up to the desk to check in, we were told the flight was overbooked and that we didn't have an assigned seat. Wonderful.

We make it safely through security and to our gate, and the Delta guy at our desk tells us that they'll call our name for our seat assignments. We're both starving, so we go to get a sandwich. We went back to the gate and just as we sit down they announce that they're boarding in 10 minutes. That's great, but we don't have seats!!!! We run up to the desk and the guy that we just talked to 15 minutes before is wondering why we look so scared. Umm, maybe because we don't have seats?! The idiot had the tickets right there and never called our names.

So we get on the plane and I'm excited because I have a window. I like my arm room and I like to be able to put my leg in the aisle. So N is in the middle seat and the window seat person hasn't come yet, so I'm thinking maybe it will be empty. WRONG! This girl that looks like she's going to hurl any second comes stumbling down the aisle and stops at my arm. She wants to know if she can sit on the end because she's not feeling well. How about you sit somewhere else because you're not feeling well?!

Being the pushover I am, I scooted over and ended up in the middle seat. Thank god N is small because sick girl kept pushing over in my seat and I had to lean half way in N's seat to be comfy. There were 2 good things about the flight though: free booze and in-seat TV's with free movies and games.

We arrived at Dublin Airport at 5:30am on Sunday the 15th; 2 hours ahead of schedule. We take a bus to the hotel and have to cram in with all of our luggage. The stop before our hotel an older woman gets on with a little cart and stands right in front of us. The bus stops at our stop and I tell her we need to get off. She moves her cart sideways and tells me to squeeze through; not likely lady. I have a huge piece of luggage that is bigger than you and there's no way I'm getting through. After numerous attempts, she realizes that she needs to move completely out of the way, except now all of the people that wanted to get on the bus have gotten on and blocked the exit. It takes another 5 minutes before they actually realize that they have to move, but it's only because they got forcibly pushed out of the door.

We trek up to the hotel and are told by the front desk clerk that they are fully booked--see a pattern here?! They tell us that we can't check into our room until 2pm. It is now 7:45am and I haven't slept in forever. So we leave our bags with them, grab our umbrellas and head out into Dublin city.