Ireland: Farewell, Ireland!
We were on our way to Shannon while it was still pitch dark outside. I don’t think we were that far from the airport, but getting there in the dark was sort of bother. After all, when we first arrived, the sun was already up and we were too focused on figuring out the roadways. We eventually made it to the car rental place to drop off the POS they stuck us with and took the shuttle to the airport. We got there, checked in and got our boarding passes and still had a few hours to spare before our flight, as we figured it would take us some time to get through security and customs and such. We grabbed a bite to eat in the cafeteria, which was actually pretty good, albeit pricey, but it was a good opportunity to unload some foreign money. After passing through the security checkpoint, we stopped in the duty free shop. They really didn’t have anything of interest other than the same tourist money-takers that we had seen all over the country… but they did have a damn good price on Jameson, so I bought the maximum 2 liters I was allowed to bring back for a whole 20 euro, which was (after the conversion) about 10-15 dollars cheaper than it would be over here. Truth be told, you CAN tell a difference in the stuff bought here and the stuff bought there, and the stuff I brought back is much better. Just wish I could have brought back a barrel of Guinness, because it’s so so good over there.
We realized a little bit later than we should have that the line for customs was growing FAST, so we hurried up and hopped in line. It took us about an hour to get through that line, and it seems like everyone in the line was getting on the same plane as us because we all lined up again outside of our gate. We had to wait another 20 minutes or so in that line, but once we were on the plane we really didn’t have to sit there for more than 15 minutes before they started wrapping things up to get moving. We were in the air actually a few minutes before our scheduled departure time and we were over the ocean with no land in sight in about 10 minutes. About 30 minutes in to the flight, they started the movie “Poseidon”… which wasn’t that good, but was amusing enough to take our minds off of the airplane’s tight environment. After a quick meal, I fell asleep for a little bit, and woke up just in time to watch their second movie, “Nacho Libre”. It wasn’t that good, but again, was entertaining enough. When it finished, it kind of sucked to think that we still had about 4 hours of a flight ahead of us… but we were definitely over a portion of Canada by that point, I believe. I slept off and on for the remainder of the flight. Upon arrival in Atlanta, we went through more customs, grabbed another bite to eat, and sat trying to occupy ourselves for our 3 hour layover. Joe finally got to talk to Kristen for a while and Mom and Dad checked in with the relatives that were awaiting word of our safe arrival. I spent the time wishing that airport wireless internet was free. 
We boarded our plane for Cincinnati shortly after 4, and once again, we were in the air a few minutes before our scheduled time. Unlike the flight to Ireland from Atlanta, we didn’t have to wait 30 minutes in line for our turn to take off. There was a rough storm on the way to Cincinnati, so we actually had to fly up to Columbus then back down around the the back of the storm to Cincinnati, but by that point I had fallen asleep again. I definitely recommend a pair of noise-canceling headphones for a peaceful flight! Even if there was no music playing, I couldn’t even hear the sound of the engines!
We arrived in Cincy shortly before 6pm, I think. Mom and Dad dropped Joe and I off at our house and concluded the journey. It was all still pretty surreal at that point. It was the first time in my life that I had been out the country, and at one hand I STILL couldn’t believe it, while on the opposite hand it seemed like I had been over there forever. I can’t thank Mom and Dad enough for giving Joe and I the opportunity to go and everyone along the way who made the trip so fantastic.