Monday, 31 July 2000

mokie: Earthrise seen from the moon (Default)
I couldn't see out the window, but after the way things had started I would've been too afraid to look anyway.

On my first trip to Ireland, I'd looked out to the first rays of dawn streaking over fields upon fields of vibrant green, with clusters of lights here and there, nestled like fireflies. I was afraid maybe this time it'd be blackened fields and the burning ruins of civilization below me...

The plane landed, and in one piece at that (so I have to give Aer Lingus a little credit). I grabbed my bag and high-tailed it out of there before the plane could explode. I should have known I'd never be that lucky.

It was the immigration man that got me, quite possibly the same one as last time. How long are you going to be here? Three months, sir. Who are you staying with? My boyfriend, sir. How much money do you have on you? Not much. (I don't like travelling with lots of money; it begs Fate to intervene.) But I have access to more--bank account and family to wire it and all that. How much money's in the bank account?

Huh? I don't know. (Really, I don't. I'm terrible about that kind of thing.) "Well I don't know how much money is in there." Really, he said that. So he stamped my passport, and told me to register with the police within 30 days to stay any longer. Whoa. There it is, in the passport--I have to register or else leave by August 31, 2000. Must be us damned Americans crossing the border and stealing Irish jobs!

Mark later told me that it was because of the two three-month visits within a year. Three years of this sort of thing, and you can claim residency, or something. I didn't know this at the time--I was just ready to grab my bags and flee before the immigration officer changed his mind.

You know what's coming up, don't you?

The baggage from both the earlier Newark flight--the one I took last year, and should have taken this year--and the Chicago flight were on the same belt, which was surrounded by a sea of swollen rectums.

Hint: when picking up luggage, it is not necessary to bring your spouse and/or kids to the belt with you. You and your trolley take up enough damned room without the whole family lined up there. If just half of the people lined up there had asked the wife to take the kids and stand elsewhere, a third of the belt would've been cleared for the people waiting behind them to step forward, grab their bags, and make room for other people. As it was, the crowd around the belt was five people deep, the baggage going around apparently belonged to the folks in back of the crowd, and the folks in front formed a nice human wall that not only kept the ones in back from clearing the belt, it kept them from seeing the belt.

Over 40 minutes, just getting my damned luggage.

All in all, the trip was a living hell.

It did have its good points, of course. A group of women also travelling from St. Louis to Dublin were very reassuring throughout the mess, though I didn't think to grab names so I could send them a nice letter. I got to see Mark's parents again when we briefly stopped by the family home, which was nice. I finally got to see Georgie, the Munki-Mobile, when Mark picked me up to drive home.

And a good, long, uneventful drive it was.

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mokie: Earthrise seen from the moon (Default)
mokie

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