Sunday – after an early rise due to my uncontrollable excitement the morning was very relaxed with some pancakes for breakfast followed by some last minute packing. Packing consisted of constantly finding Olive in my suitcase, she was an unsettled pup and was definitely keen on coming to Europe, the old saying I’ll fit in the suite case actually would have working and her puppy dog eyes were hard to say no to.

After a final check of passport money and clothes we headed off to pick up Grandma.

Grandma was ready and waiting with Sarah there to help her with last minute preparations.

Off we went to the airport, at check in we were hoping for a upgrade to be in business class with Grandma but they don’t just give these out anymore you have to pay for the privilege and we just couldn’t justify it, I would rather have the money to spend in Europe and I can hack cattle class for 30 hours I said to myself hopefully.

Once on the plane I was eager to settle in and see what movies were on offer. 17 hours went surprisingly quickly. Grandma had a great old time up in business class with a fully made bed and a large range of food to choose from, she did not take advantage of the range on offer (lobster was on the menu alongside lamb and other delicious options), she ordered two small sliders and went to bed.

Mum had a great sleep unlike myself who could not get comfortable to have more then a 30 minute doze. But landing was imminent and I was excited to explore uncharted territory.

Mum and Grandma had never been to an Arabic country and were surprised at how clean and peaceful it felt. It was a balmy 34 degrees in the middle of the night, with a forecasted 44 degrees to come in the day. Luckily we walked into the air conditioned airport with a few hours to explore, it was the size of a small city with a fully indoor train to travel from gates A, B and C to D, E and F.

We wondered around and then went to our gate where we were to board our second and final flight to Dublin.

The second flight went on for what felt like forever, again no sleep for me, I got a short 2 hours after taking a sleeping pill and that’s it.

I don’t thin Dublin airport has been updated since the 1960’s. It’s small and old. We went to customs were we were herded into two lines, one for EU passport holders and one for the rest. There were a total of 8 kiosks, 5 were attended and all were accepting EU passports. Nobody was there to let the rest of us in, we waiting and eventually someone showed up.

The three (tree) of us went up handed over our passports, the officer took a quick glance and said “have a nice visit” we said “is that it?” we got a smile and a nod and carried on and collected our bags. We went through the next doors expecting to get our bags scanned but no we were out and free to roam Ireland.

Security is surprisingly low. But I guess that’s the EU right, free travel and all that…

And so the adventure begins…