"We aren't in Kansas anymore"

Hey everyone! The first post from (London)Derry, Northern Ireland!!!!! I'm currently sitting in my home for the next 3 and a half weeks, and I must say, I love it! It's gorgeous and surprisingly spacious... But that might just be because I've been cramped up in airplane after airplane after airplane after bus (but more on that later).

So we all met up at Cleveland Hopkins International around 2. Since all of us are paranoid, we decided to check bag weights at the airport. I had the second lowest at 37 lbs, which is surprising because we're going to two countries. The flight from Cleveland to Chicago was really smooth, and we stayed up above the clouds for most of the flight (more on that later). Chicago to London was smooth as well, just really long at around 7.5 hours. Landing in London was an interesting experience, and our flight to Dublin was smooth. Pretty much, all the flights went smooth and only had about 30 mins total of delays.

For most of the flights, we were above the clouds, which I loved. It looked like a scene from all those winter movies with a lot of snow and mountains everywhere. There was one point I thought we got lost and we were up in Greenland/Iceland. It was just a breathtaking scene.

I think the funniest/most embarrassing part of the travel was on the flight from Chicago to London. They came over and offered dinner for us, which ended up being Chessy Pasta and salad and a roll. I also got a little bottle of VAL wine, which is a white wine from Spain (not that I'm a wine connoisseur or anything, but I thought it was pretty dry). So I ate, and I went to give my tray to the Flight Attendant and I hit the little bottle with the tray, knocking it all over my pants. Yup, half a bottle of wine all over my pants. Quite embarrassing.

It didn't really hit me that I was leaving the United States until after we took off from Chicago. I looked out the window (of course, make the tall guy sit next to the window with no leg room) and all I saw was flatness and lights and then all the Skyscrapers of the Chicago Skyline. Talk about a way to leave.

Since we were over the clouds the whole trip to London, we didn't really see the ground until about 15 minutes till landing. And of course the first thing I noticed from the sky was that the cars drove on the opposite side of the road than United States. It was weird, I looked down at the roadway and it just clicked in my head that that was different. I don't even want to know what else is going to do that to me.

Going through Heathrow Airport was interesting. First, one lady was running up the down escalator, which was funny to see in real life. Second, I was wearing my "Just Do It. Pittsburgh." shirt and the security guard (with a very clear British Accent) says "Pittsburgh? As in the Pittsburgh Steelers?". Priceless. Steeler Nation really is everywhere.

I don't think it has really hit me that I'm actually sitting, actually LIVING in Ireland right now. My guess is that it'll hit me tomorrow when I wake up and go outside and not wake up in little ole Berea Ohio. Hopefully it's not raining tomorrow so that I can take some pictures of the Cottage and the view from my room (hint: it's a  beautiful cathedral). The plan is to get groceries and necessities tomorrow, seeing as we had Domino's for dinner.

What can I say? Somethings never change.

Plane to London

The (London)Derry group!