Chapter 1, In which I complain a lot about travel agents, but more importantly, in which our trip begins.

Although it seemed like everyone from the US Passport Agency to the idiotic travel agent I used to plan the trip was working against us from ever getting to Ireland, finally the day came for the flight to start our honeymoon. We sat around the apartment anxiously until the cab was to arrive around 6pm. We kept hugging and kissing the cats until they knew something was definitely very, very wrong. We looked over our packing and continued to add books to the backpack that would never be read on the plane, but instead included with our luggage only to make things that much heavier to carry. Finally, I met our cab out in the parking lot, and with three worried sets of feline eyes staring and scarring their way into my memory for the next 10 days, we closed the door and headed on our way.

I've never been overseas before. I've never planned a trip before. To give myself some assurance that things would be managed properly, I went to a travel agent to handle all the bookings, flights, and so forth. Let me just say this: I would Never use a travel agent again, knowing what I know now, and even if I did, I would yank out every one of my nose hairs one at a time before using Quality Travel in Mclean, VA again. We booked a self drive tour of Ireland, meaning we paid for a rental car and a bunch of vouchers that could be used at various bed & breakfasts throughout the country. I won't even get into how pathetically slow and seemingly stupid the people at Quality Travel in Mclean, VA were throughout the planning process, but in the end they only had to do four things: 1. secure our flight to Shannon, Ireland from Washington Dulles, 2. secure a rental car at Shannon, 3. book our first night stay at a hotel near Shannon, and 4. book our flight back to Washington from Dublin. We arrived to the airport to find that our connecting flight from London, Heathrow to Shannon had never been reserved. We also learned our flight from Dublin to London at the end of our trip had never been confirmed, and thus not booked. We weren't booked at the hotel, and although we got our rental car with seemingly no problems, we were upgraded to a different car than expected, making me wonder if that aspect of the planning had been botched as well. So, basically, the travel agent did nothing correctly.

The good news, for all my bitching, is that all of the problems were fairly easily corrected and actually posed little to no problem for us at all. It was just frustrating, and not exactly a surprise from what Quality Travel in Mclean, VA had been pulling with me from the start.

But anyhow, after a two hour delay, we were on a flight to London. I fell asleep on the plane, and at some point in my slumber, Tuesday became Wednesday. And that is where the fun really begins...