The Journey Begins

My European adventure began very turbulently. With only a one hour layover in Washington, Dad and I knew we would be cutting our flight to Dublin close, but when our flight leaving Kansas City was delayed by an hour and a half we realized that until then, we had no idea what "cutting it close" really meant. Midnight rounded out day one with us running full speed through the Washington airport screaming "Dublin?!? Dublin?!" to every flight attendant who could bear to look at our desperate faces. After storming the airplane at the last possible second with every annoyed face glaring at us stragglers, we finally found seats on opposite sides of the plane. (I somehow still managed to score a window seat!) United actually waited around another 20 minutes before take off so that our luggage could make the flight too. This was something we didn't piece together until our extreme optimism at the Dublin luggage claim actually paid off. "It's here, It's really here!!" we screamed with glee as our black bags bounced lazily down the conveyor belt.

Westbrook House Sign

After arriving in Dublin we had 5 hours worth of bus rides ahead of us before we could arrive in Ennis, the town that our bike tour started in. A few minutes into the bus ride I began to feel carsick and popped 2 Dramamine. I warn you all - Dramamine makes you tired and taking 2 will make you feel absolutely insane. I remember nothing of this bus ride other than getting extremely annoyed that the public bathrooms in parts of Europe apparently require you to pay a small entrance fee. I gave up and fell back asleep with a full bladder. Oh Dramamine.

Westbrook House

At 5:00 p.m. Dublin time, after nearly 15 hours of continuous traveling, we arrived in Ennis. The company we choose for our bike tour, "Cycling Safaris" made all of our hotel arrangements for us and we found our way to the "Westbrook House" a small hostel that provided us with all we had dreamt of, beds and a hot shower. Despite being absolutely exhausted, our stomachs pushed us on and we meandered, slowly, to the City Square. The part of town our hostel was in wasn't exactly spectacular so we weren't expecting anything fancy from the town whose only promise was to provide us with our bikes, I'm pleased to say we were wrong.

Downtown Ennis

The bridge into Ennis, Ireland

After crossing the river that runs down the middle of town, we turned right and were shocked at what we saw. Downtown Ennis made me feel as though I had stepped straight into Diagon Alley, Harry Potter style. Dozens of shops in old, narrow buildings were all squeezed together and painted a huge variety of bright colors. Wooden signs advertising pubs with authentic Irish music were down every cobblestoned alley. The Irish accents were ringing in my ears and the smell of lamb filled my nostrils. Dad and I exchanged smiles, " We did good," he said.

Cheers Daddio!

Knowing that we needed a Guinness in our stomachs ASAP we turned into the nearest pub and ordered dinner, potatoes duh! With full stomachs we headed back to our room to rest up, knowing that the start of our bike ride would require plenty of energy. Just how much energy we would soon find out.