Ireland 2026, Day 1

I have mentioned before that we got many vaccinations two days before leaving for our trip to Ireland. I felt like dooky for days, including on our travel day. I wore a big old circle scarf for comfort, and so that I couldn't lose it on the plane. The sweating and shivering during the first leg of our trip were intense. One piece of happy news from that flight is that Air Canada's flight map still labels Lake Ontario as Lake Ontario. I wonder if American wordsmith Donald Trump will ground the airline until it changes that label.

We had a 4 hour layover in Montreal, two hours of which was spent in lines for various purposes. We stood in a line. Then we stood in another line that had to have one hundred people in it. The zig zag kinda line where you come face to face with the same people over and over as you turn a corner in the line. I was so cranky about seeing this one woman's very loud shirt. Yep. Angry about a shirt. We later stood in another line (maybe our third?), which was very slow. There were only two people inspecting the people in this line. , with people who were obviously there for reasons. One guy had a giant lute in a case. One woman had a billion pieces of luggage. There were lots of people with cats and dogs. And us. Two old people with minimal luggage.

Prior to our trip I had done my research and was VERY excited to learn that they have poutine in the United lounge. By the time we got there I did not care. I just wanted to sit. I ate chilaquiles and a latte.

We went kinda fancy style, but we were in separate pods and I could tell that mrguy wasn't happy with something. I wanted to help but we were separated by a window. This happened:

I watched Conan O'Brien's travel show, which is super cringe. And a Brett Goldstein standup. And a Singaporean drama called "A Good Child", which was super compelling -- about a drag  performer with a disapproving family and a mom with dementia. I love to watch the International lineup on long flights.

We took a Lyft from the airport to central Dublin. We'd arrived at rush hour, so it took a long time for us to get to the hotel. It was the first of many car trips in which we listened to 80s music. It's everywhere.