Our flights were pretty rough. We flew from Seattle to London, then on to Dublin. We spent over 14 hours traveling, which is just a long time to fill when you're stuck in small places.

British Airways is basically American Airlines. They don't even have automated kiosks, even in the little connecting part of Heathrow.

I got frustrated in Heathrow because it felt really dehumanizing. I think a lot of that came from how automated and iconographic it was, which is a pretty standard thing for places designed to handle lots of people from all over the world. That would have been fine on its own, but we were given 4 different and conflicting sets of directions on how to get through customs for our connecting flight. Going to Mexico was easier in a lot of ways. I honestly felt like I spoke the "language" better in Mexico in terms of common expectations about how things like signage and customs work.

Heathrow is also a mall just as much as it is an airport. They did have lots of places giving out free samples of booze. We got to try the summer solstice Hendricks gin in Heathrow. We both liked it, but the sample guy mixed it with tonic which we both thought was a waste.

When we got on our connecting flight to Dublin, they loaded us all on the plane and then announced that it had been too foggy in Dublin for any planes to land all day and that we were going to have to wait on the tarmac for the fog to clear. We got held hostage on that plane for longer than we were actually in the air. The flight was bumpy but otherwise pleasant.

Our first major culture shock came from people openly discussing politics with us right away. Our cab driver was an older woman who was the picture of an Irish Catholic conservative, and she told us how much she loved Donald Trump as a president. She talked about the evils of Brazilian immigrants and the dangers of IVF. At the time our internal clocks were still set to 3 AM, and we didn't feel like having a real conversation so we just did our best not to engage.

Our concierge also asked us straightaway if we were Republicans or Democrats. Again, it was 3 AM in our minds so I didn't feel like asking how much he knew about classical liberalism vs. libertarianism or talking about how Left vs. Right really doesn't describe my politics. We said we were Democrats. He cracked a "Build the Wall" joke. Given the context it was pretty funny.

Our concierge was basically Irish Nate. We got along with him pretty well, and he spent a solid 10 minutes giving us tips on out of the way things to do in Dublin, cracking Nate jokes the whole time in an Irish accent.

After an extremely hard nap we took some showers in a surprisingly nice shower. The shower stall was tiny but the water pressure was perfect and the water came up to temperature almost instantly.

Refreshed, we started our usual death march around to see what was what, and found the No Name Bar that Irish Nate recommended. We had an entire room almost to ourselves to drink beer and check in with friends back home during their lunchtime. We did some people watching out the little window which was really fun. Susan thinks the fashion here is a bit more relaxed than London, but I'm constantly feeling under dressed everywhere we go. Susan brought her usual A game, so at least she looks amazing.

After getting our requisite Guinesses, we went to The Hairy Lemon, which despite all appearances to the contrary was not a total tourist bar. The food was amazing and the fish and chips was a screaming deal for how much fish it was. I got a gin and tonic with rosemary and grapefruit that I think I'll try making at home some time.

At this point we were very tired and a bit tipsy so we headed back to our hotel and crashed. All told, a pretty successful first day.