Monday, July 30, 2012

High Ho! High Ho! Off to Ireland We Go!

The day had finally came after two years of fundraising and filling out loads of paperwork. At 11am, most of were on the road with our camping gear and clothing in tow. We stopped along the way for lunch, where most of us ended up meeting coincidentally.. The excitement started to hit me when we arrived at the airport. The group went up in 3's to check in and go through security. I was relieved when I found out that my bag wasn't over the 51 lb weight limit. As we boarded I watched the start of an amazing sunset. It got better as we reached 39,000 feet above altitude.
Before We Took off
The stewardess's fed us a choice of chicken, or beef on top of noodles. I always heard people say that airplane food was disgusting but I never really believed them. I found out quickly that disgusting was an understatement. Over cooked noodles, dry chicken, with some sauce and white stuff that looked like cheese wasn't appealing. Our first little bit of green Irish land was beautiful. I never saw so much green; even the pylons on the runway were bright green. The excitement grew on the airplane with applauses and a cheer that we were finally beginning our dream destination. After picking up our luggage, we met the girls that were picking us up at the airport. When we waited for more Canadians to come in, we explored and had to figure out how to use the toilets and bathroom taps before we did anything else. After a few tries we eventually figured it out.
Lush Irish Land
A long and tiring 2 and a half hour bus ride was ahead of us. Good time for a cat nap. When we arrived, we had a bit of a surprise. Instead of going to the scout hall across from the camp, we ended up at the campsite. It was a surprise, but were Girl Guides we handled it well, despite the 2 hours of sleep we had. We unloaded our gear, and had our first very warm welcome from three of the girls and a few of the leaders. The group of were ready to start our long awaited journey with many new adventures upon us. I couldn't wait to see what they had in store for us first!!!