Unlike the first longest day, which was really two days with a four- or five- hour night thing, this really was a long day. We got up at 6:45, which is really 1:45am, EDT. Our conveyance was to pick us up at 7:30 to take us on the two-hour drive to Shannon, which would get us there exactly two hours before our flight, which is what the airlines recommend. As stated earlier, I thought actually leaving the airport in the first place was a mistake.

Sure enough, 7:30 comes around and no van. The thing shows up about fifteen, twenty minutes late. We also discover that the same van is taking Jill to Kerry airport. Great. If we have to get to Kerry airport before we go to Shannon, we should have left at a much more reasonable hour. Like three in the morning.

So while I was waiting, I was watching Sky News. It's rather good. For the Americans reading this, Sky News is like CNN Headline News, just not headache-inducing. They also have the coolest weather report graphics. The UK folks reading this know what I'm talking about. They make The Weather Channel look like a Ray Harryhausen film.

Sky News is a bit odd. One of the things they do in the morning is review the first page of all the UK newspapers, including the Sun and the Mirror. As this isn't news to the UK readers, I'll try to relate it to the North American crowd. A photo of the cover of the Wall Street Journal's first page goes up on the screen. "Today's Wall Street Journal features an article on the instability of the Mexican Peso and a major story about a predicted adjustment to the prime rate. Over on the National Enquirer, we have a story about Tom Cruise being enraged about a sex video that purportedly features Nicole Kidman. There is also a large photo of Britney Spears on the cover," the newsreader would say in serious tones.

Aside from that, Sky News is rather neat.

Oh, we arrived at Shannon at 9:42.

When you get your boarding pass in the States, they only ask you two questions ("Did anyone give you anything to take on the plane?" and "Have your bags been with you at all times since you packed them?"). It's almost as if the Americans just want you get you on the plane and out of their airport.

In Ireland, they asked me about ten or twenty questions. Things like which city I packed my bags in, and at what time they were packed. I had to show my passport and boarding pass to about a dozen different people before I boarded the plane. It was a bit of a hassle, but seemed to be a bit more secure than flying from America.

So we were upstairs in the cafeteria when a general announcement was, well, announced, saying that the immigration desks for our flight are now ready to take everyone on our flight, so we should proceed IMMEDIATELY to the immigration lounge. We nearly sprinted out of the cafeteria and through security and the duty-free shop (which was huge and I wish we had a chance to stop there, but we had to get to the immigration lines IMMEDIATELY). And we go through the immigration desks to a featureless part of the airport where we wait for about an hour hearing more pleas for people on our flight to proceed through immigraion IMMEDIATELY every five minutes. I'm a bit miffed about the urgency in those announcements. We went through so fast, we didn't get a chance to locate the VAT refund desks, so we're going to have to mail those in to get our ten dollars back. Stupid IMMEDIATELY announcements.

And no, we couldn't go back out to the duty-free/lounge area, because we already went through Immigration.

On the flight, we got to watch two movies in pan-and-scan format with mono sound, edited for airline viewing, on VHS, displayed on six-inch screens that weren't calibrated correctly. The first movie was Spy Kids, a movie that was rather charming. I think I'd like to add it to my DVD collection. The wedding scene at the beginning just totally cracked me up. (Is it me, or do all of Danny Elfman's songs sound the same?)

The second movie they showed was Heartbreakers, a movie I wanted to see when it came out. Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt play a mom and daughter con woman team. However, it soon became apparent that this was a soulless version of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. The first half of the movie was a rather unfunny comedy. If you have to watch a pan-and-scan airline edit of a movie on VHS tape, I'd go with Spy Kids.

Back in Newark, we passed through customs, but had to go through the Agriculture section because had spent the last week walking amidst flocks of wild mountain sheep, not to mention trodding on their, um, number twos, which cover the mountainsides of Ireland. We saw a group of hard-working Agriculture Officers cleaning someone's shoes (complete with shoe dip, spraying, and scrubbing). We were excited at the prospect. Our hiking boots were coated with mud. Free cleaning! Alas, after x-raying our luggage again, we were off, free to spread Foot-and-Mouth throughout the United States.

Oh -- Tamara had an apple in her bag she didn't eat. She had to surrender that at the desk.

Anyway, we're back home now. Hi.

-FP