Good Morning Dublin!

Our WestJet flight from St.John’s was delightfully uneventful and got pretty quiet pretty fast.  Most of us got at least some sleep; I for one enjoyed at least a solid two hours which is already WAY better than CJ’13 🙂  The morning started off just right as I woke up not even 30 seconds before the coffee cart reached my seat.

As we descended through the clouds we were greeted with the emerald isle in all her glory; Ireland is a beautiful place!  The Dublin airport is MUCH larger than St, John’s, and was about as hectic and frantic as we imagined it would be.  Almost immediately after getting off our plane we had to clear Irish customs.  The customs agents were super courteous and even opened an extra lane just for the Scouts.  After a good hike we found our baggage and actually recovered all 33 bags quickly and easily.  So far so good…

Well for kids that were nervous about the hikes at the Haarlem Jamborette, worry no more as the hike through the Dublin airport was likely twice as long!  We managed to follow the signs to the tunnel to Terminal 2 (we arrived in Terminal 1).  We had to take the “lift” down a level to check in, before taking the “lift” up two levels for departures.  The Aer Lingus staff were awesome, and also waived the fees for our extra bags; gotta love traveling as a Scout!

By the time we finally arrived at security we were all soaked with sweat and about ready for a break.  We had to remove pretty much everything, place anything resembling a liquid in a clear plastic bag, remove our electronics, etc, etc before screening.  Eric was once again “randomly” selected as were more than half of us, lol!  When we finally gathered our belongings and redressed we continued on to the “Loop”.  Scouter Amanda and I dashed for the “Coffee Express” with our Scouts in tow, but were rewarded with a pretty “meh” coffee… it scratched the itch though, lol!  When we located our gate number we noticed a sign beside it warning of a 15min hike *sigh* and off we went.  We rode escalators, lifts, moving sidewalks, went up ramps, down ramps, winded here and there until we finally found gate 307A.

With our gate found we proceeded to our next priority: breakfast!  Gotta say, the breakfast selection was awesome, and we all walked away VERY satisfied.  Scouter Rhonda and I scored the best quiche of our lives, and the kids gobbled up the bacon, sausages and hashbrowns.  Paying was a bit of a struggle as I tried (in vein) to figure out which coin was a dime…

With full stomachs and sleepy but excited faces we lined up to board our flight to Paris after a 15min delay.  We taxied for what felt like driving to Gander until we finally parked and got to watch a Delta Air flight land right in front of us – pretty cool!  The Aer Lingus plane has a bit more character than our WestJet plane did and made all kinds of “interesting” noises during taxiing and take-off… but it got us off the ground, so no complaints 🙂

Passing now over the rest of the Atlantic Ocean we eagerly await meeting our tour guide “Carl” and beginning the next leg of our great adventure.

EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!!!!!!


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