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May 2000

Ireland

Jvi
2004-09-14 12:08:27

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We left Chicago for London on the 8:10PM flight on Wednesday, May 1, 2000. We were traveling with our friends, Ed and Leslie --- (that's them with us on the right). We changed planes at Heathrow in London and flew Air Lingus to Dublin. At Heathrow we had to go from Terminal 4 to Terminal 1 by bus and then walk forever to the gates they had allocated to Air Lingus. We had booked through British Airways to get the frequent flyer miles. We did not fill out landing cards as we were "in transit" and did not plan on leaving the airport in London. We were surprised during our walk to the gate to find that we had to fill out a landing card to get by a security checkpoint. I imagine that the English government does this to keep track of people going to Ireland because it is so simple to get in Northern Ireland from the Republic.

While we were waiting we struck up a conversation with two Irish girls who were returning home after a year traveling the globe. They were listening to the four of us talk about a book that I had read in preparation for the trip to Ireland. The title is "Around Ireland With a Fridge" and tells the story of Tony Hawks bet that he could hitchhike around Ireland in less than 30 days while carrying a fridge. I believe it is a must read for anyone planning a trip to the Irish Countryside. We booked two nights in Dublin and and a car for 11 days and then had a travel plan to go around Ireland, along the coast, in a counterclockwise direction. We planned to stop in B&Bs but did not book any in advance. B&Bs are everywhere and we never had a problem. Here is a small map of Ireland with our route.

One question I often get is how much did we pay for airplane tickets and I usually say that if you are happy with your ticket, then you got a good price. It depends a lot on when you buy the ticket and how flexible you are and then, later, how many other people decide to go. We paid $720 each roundtrip from Chicago to Heathrow ...