We made it to London. I wish I could say we made it well, but we did make it.

My fears were realized when, on the way up into the air, the pressure started building in my ears and sinuses. It started to really hurt as I tried to get them to regulate, and then they regulated, and it hurt worse. I guess what happens is that the stuff clogging my sinuses squeezes its way into my ears when the pressure drops. Then, on the way down, the pressure increases but the stuff can't make it back out of my ears, leading to a painful pressure on my ear drum, and serious hearing difficulties.

But enough of the complaining! We got in to Heathrow, changed some money, grabbed our bags (which thankfully made it along with us) and went out to see about a taxi. A taxi from the airport to our hotel was going to cost 50 pounds. That's $100 in American. That's how much our tickets from Shannon, Ireland to London cost. In fact, that's MORE.

We decided to take the Tube, London's Underground. Two day-passes cost us 12.60 pounds. It was well worth the trouble of dragging our luggage up and down the stairs and walking two blocks to our hotel, The Royal Eagle.

The Royal Eagle is a decent enough place, with reasonable prices. Their reception staff, however, could use a little help. Despite the specific request made at the time of our reservation, they gave us a room with two twin beds. Separate Beds? We're on our honeymoon! We should at least sleep in the same bed.

They tried and tried, but their big bad computer system (the convenient excuse of all service workers) wouldn't let them switch. And all they had were double beds anyhow. We decided to push our beds together, just like Ozzie and Harriet probably did on their honeymoon.

I sit here in the room, typing away over the Internet access I paid for, digesting a large and very authentic Italian meal. It occurs to me that we are very lucky to have such spacious and reasonably-priced accommodations all over America. I've driven coast to coast, and many many places in-between, and I've never paid so much for such a small room. We were spoiled by our king-sized, canopy-bedded, luxurious hotel in Galway.

That's all for now. I need to nurse my aching ears and Medina needs to catch-up on the sleep I kept her from last night with all of my coughing and nose-blowing. We will be exploring London tomorrow, and there will be many pictures to come soon. I might as well get good use out of this $20 per day Internet access. :)

We're both feeling a little homesick today. It's hard to be sick away from home. It makes me miss all the comfortable and warm things our home provides. And it makes me miss my mom.

We're quite a way away from home now, but we'll enjoy the rest of the trip and see all of you soon. Until then, think of us fondly and leave plenty of comments here and on the pictures. It's nice to know when people are following along.

I have been sick the past couple of days, so updates from me would sound mostly like this: Coughed, slept, watched soccer, coughed, watched rugby, coughed, ate, slept. I'll spare you all the details of those exciting events.

I feel much better today. I just have some serious congestion to deal with. Hopefully the flight we're about to take to London won't lead to the same result as the last time I flew sick (dual serious ear infections).

Speaking about that flight, I'm sitting here blogging thanks to the wonderful free wireless connection in Shannon airport. This is the first time I've found free wireless in an airport, and it is wonderful. I think you'd have a lot fewer cases of air rage if you just let the passengers connect for free while they wait.

Ireland has been wonderful. I can definitely see us coming back here again. I'll write more about it later, but for now I'm going to pass the laptop over to
Medina to let her partake of some of this gloriously free Wi-Fi.

Today has been a very enjoyable day. We started out the day with breakfast at our hotel. Traditional Irish breakfast is not really my cup of tea so I've been sticking to the fried eggs, fresh ham and cheese, grapefruit segments and juice and/or hot tea. I've had grilled fish a couple times so this morning I thought I would try smoked salmon, but I quickly regretted that decision. Although one bite was all I could manage to choke down, I can say that I tried it.

After breakfast we hauled our butts up three flights of stairs to our room and packed our bags. We decided to call on the porter to drag our bags downstairs, but, to our credit, we did tip him.

We are scheduled to stay in Galway tonight, but before we left Killarney we wanted to drive around the Lakes of Killarney. Along the way we stopped to take in the scenery and take some pictures. It didn't take us long to make it up to the lakes and it was worth the drive. The view was breathtaking. We took lots of pictures, but pictures just can not capture the true beauty. There were mountains all around that dropped off into pristine lakes that reflected the trees around it, and the air was fresh and crisp despite the slight drizzle of rain. Because it is the off-season there weren't too many people around and that made the experience even better. On our way back into town we stopped at Torc Mountain, but decided against making the climb up to the top to see the waterfall. Once we were back in Killarney we decided to continue on to Galway by way of Limerick and Gort. We arrived in Galway around 3 pm. and found that our room had been upgraded to a suite. Our suite is sweet! It's gigantic and nearly the size of our entire house, but no complaints here.

Several times throughout our trip we've heard mention of Bank Holiday, but no one ever explained what it is. A quick check of Wikipedia cleared that up for us and as far as we can tell Halloween is celebrated during this holiday.

Dinner tonight was more yummy pub food from Flaherty's. Jackson had a cheeseburger and chips (fries) and I had a tuna melt panini also with chips and garlic mayo, which is basically like ranch dressing. Then it was back to our room to relax for the night. Tomorrow we go exploring.

Saturday, October 28

We went down early for another good breakfast. I had the pancakes, which were not even close to pancakes. Luckily, there were plenty of other items on the buffet to suplement the crepe-ish pancakes. After breakfast, we went out to the local mall/outlet center to do a little shopping. We found some nice souvenirs to bring back.

I should note something here about the weather. Yes, it is rainy. Yes, it is cloudy. But overall, it has been very nice. It has not rained hard enough to stop us from going out, and the temperature has been very nice the entire time.

But if you listened to the locals, you'd think we'd entered a new ice age over here. Maybe they think that America is all sunshine and warm weather, but many people have apologized about the cold temps. Not only that, but every single building seems to maintain a 75F internal temp. We go out in a long sleeve shirt and a rain jacket, and both of us are sweating up a storm within five minutes. I thought they kept their houses cold and wore sweaters! Anyhow, people must think we are Eskimos, because everywhere we've gone, we are down to our t-shirts and still sweating, and they are all bundled-up in their sweaters.

Back to the trip: After the trip to the mall, we stopped in at the pharmacy to get some cough medicine for yours truly. The bug that was sneaking-up on me the day before got me in a headlock this day. We went back up to the room where I swigged the syrup and rested. Medina hit the streets for a little more shopping, and brought dinner back to the room.

I was feeling better by the time she got back, so we ate, had tea, and went out for a walk. We saw quite a bit of the town, and did a little more souvenir shopping. After that, I was ready to sleep. So we uploaded a few more pictures and hit the hay.

Here's a link to shutterfly where you can view an album of wedding pictures posted by Michelle Bucayu.

Friday, October 27

Another day of driving. We left the hotel after breakfast, and headed off to Killarney. We decided to take a side-trip through Cork and up to Blarney to see the Castle. Medina found a local guy in a gas station who was willing to point us to a good place to eat in Cork, and after following him for a mile or so, he left us at the Silver Inn, which was great. More good food. We have yet to be disappointed. And then on to Blarney!

It was a bit difficult navigating our way up there, but once we got there it was completely worth it. We didn’t bother kissing the rock, as we don’t believe in luck and have both heard that the locals spit on it when nobody’s around.

The castle and castle grounds were beautiful. We got lots of nice pictures, and had a fine time. Conversely, we had a hell of a time navigating back through Cork. But soon enough we were on the N22 to Killarney. We pulled up to the hotel and climbed the stairs to our third floor room at the Killarney Royal. (The elevator is broken.) Aside from the broken lift, this is a very nice place. The room is very comfy, and right in the middle of town.

We walked out in search of a meal and after reading several menus, landed at another nice pub with great food. We stuffed ourselves once again, and had a couple of pints to wash it all down. Medina made friends with an Irish baby at the table next to ours.

I have felt a bit of a chest cold coming on all day, and it really started to bother me this night. I don’t know if it’s the damp air or what, but I’m doing a lot of coughing. I hope it clears-up and doesn’t develop into a full-blown nastiness.

We stopped at a small convenience store on the way back to the hotel, and grabbed a handful of local candy bars. Cadbury is huge over here. Who knew they did anything other than Easter?

Back up the stairs to the hotel room, and I imported a bunch more pictures. I also wrote all of these blog posts going back to the wedding day. I have been a bad blogger, and I feel much better after catching-up. The Internet connection only exists in the lobby, so I’ll post all of this blogginess in the morning. Goodnight Speed Racers!

Thursday, October 26

On to Waterford!

We packed our bags in the morning, after another excellent traditional Irish breakfast. We hailed a cab and headed south, towards the Hertz rental car, where our biggest challenge was waiting for us. I have never driven on the wrong side of the road on purpose, and trying to master that, along with shifting the manual transmission with my left hand, made for an interesting trip to Waterford.

Medina was scared to death a couple of times, as I came a little too close to curbs and parked cars on her side. But she was patient with me and I managed to get the hang of it before too long.

We stopped for a lunch at a place called The Long Man, and it was great. So far, we have had excellent meals everywhere. We were warned that the food might not be great, but we have done well so far.

We pulled into Waterford with time enough to check in and drive up to the crystal factory in time to catch the last tour of the day. It was interesting to see how they do their work, but neither Medina nor I care much for crystal, so we didn’t buy anything.

He went back to the hotel and headed out for a little walking around in town. We found another good pub with great food. We had a few pints with the locals and headed back out for some more walking. On the way back to the hotel, we heard what sounded like some very good opera singing to our untrained ears. As we walked further, we found that there was an older gentleman, clearly drunk, sitting on a stoop, belting out some of the most beautiful singing we’d ever heard. We got a video of that, and if it’s any good, we’ll post it.

That put the raps on our time in Waterford. It wasn’t our favorite town so far, but that has a lot to do with the hotel, which was not quite up to snuff. They had really warm rooms, with no ac, and internet access which sat behind a ridiculous firewall, blocking most of the sites we wanted to visit.

Wednesday, October 25

The second day in Dublin was much better than the first, despite raining all day. We walked all over the place, seeing all the big sights. Another of Darren’s excellent arrangements was a hop-on hop-off bus tour of the city. We walked when we wanted and rode when we wanted. And the end result was a very pleasant tour of the town.

We explored the Temple Bar area, caught the bus at Trinity College, saw Dublin Castle, walked to the Guinness brewery, rode the bus out to Phoenix park and over to the National Museum. We had a nice walk around there and then hopped back on the bus, which dropped us right in front of our hotel (The Gresham) on O’Connell Street.

After drying out for a bit, and resting our weary feet, we walked back down into the Temple Bar area for some food. We ended up at a very nice little pub called The Auld Dubliner. The food was great, and there was a group of musicians sitting a few tables over. They played one instrumental tune which sounded very familiar, so I went over to ask what it was. To my ear, it sounded a lot like a bluegrass tune called “Whiskey Before Breakfast” but one of the guys said theirs was called “Contradiction Reel”. As I was about to walk away, that same guy corrected himself. It’s real name is “Concertina Reel.” I think I liked the first one better. We walked back to the hotel after our meal, and relaxed there for the remainder of the evening.

Tuesday, October 24

We arrived in Dublin at 8:25am local time. Thank goodness our luggage made the trip with us. We weren’t so lucky the last time we went through Chicago. After we picked up our luggage and made our way through the passport check (we got our first stamps!), we went out to the reception area where our driver was waiting.

Our travel agent Darren took very good care of us, and made very good arrangements, which took a lot of the stress out of the trip. Having a ride from the airport to the hotel was a huge help. Unfortunately, we got to the hotel hours before we could get into our room. As such, we got some of the worst Burger King breakfast we’ve ever had, and crashed on a couch in the lobby.

When we finally got into the room at 3:00pm, we both went to sleep and slept until late that night. We walked down to a local Take-Away (fast food place) and got some greasy chicken, bringing it back to the room to eat. And that was the end of our first day in Dublin.

Monday, October 23

We ran a few errands Monday morning, and picked-up the dogs from the kennel, where they had been for the weekend. As we got back to the house, our friend Carrie was there. She graciously offered to watch the dogs and the house while we are on our honeymoon, and in addition, she also offered to take us to the airport.

Our flight left Louisville on time at 4:30pm and arrived ahead of schedule in Chicago. We had a decent layover and managed to eat a nice dinner in O’Haire before leaving for Dublin.

The flight to Dublin took about 7.5 hours, and was relatively smooth. We were hoping to get some sleep, but that didn’t work out too well. There were plenty of open seats, so we could stretch out a bit, but neither of us got much sleep at all.

Saturday, October 21

WEDDING DAY!!!!!

We really never even imagined this day would come. When we got engaged, we set the day so far in the future that it was hard to believe it would ever be real. Well, it was here, and real.

We started things early in the morning, meeting the rental company at Bowman field to get the chairs set-up. There was a slight complication with the lattice we requested, and we sat around waiting for that to be fixed for quite a while. But once it was done, everything looked wonderful. It was starting to look more and more real.

After that, Medina went off to get her hair and makeup done, and I went to the FOP to tie-up a few loose ends. We didn’t have much to do, but it was good to check on everything to make sure it was right. We wouldn’t see it again until after the ceremony.

The next stop for me was home, to get dressed. Now it is real. It is very, very real. I kept waiting for the anxiety or nervousness to hit me, and I thought that it would definitely be there when I was getting dressed. Strangely enough, it wasn’t. I dressed, gathered the last few things to take to Bowman field, and put our overnight bags in the Element.

When I got to Bowman Field, the first person I saw was Mike B. He already had the camera rolling. I headed in and did a bunch of standing, waiting and greeting. One of the many things I was looking forward to about this day was getting to see so many people all at once. I got to see a lot of people before the ceremony, and the hour or two before the ceremony flew by.

The quick passage of time was a recurring theme that evening. It seemed like five minutes passed between the time I left the house, dressed in my tux, an the time I walked out into the atrium of the terminal building and saw Medina walk down the aisle. She was absolutely breathtaking. The ceremony was done in a flash. I think Sharon timed it at 17 minutes. I cannot personally account for any of those but three.

I really enjoyed standing outside after the ceremony and saying hello to everyone. Like I said, seeing everyone was one of the best parts of this whole deal. We headed back in and took 178543 pictures. My teeth dried out completely.

As I crammed Medina and her dress into the car, a woman who seemed to be slightly drunk came up and gushed over how beautiful Medina was, and how lucky I was to have married the most beautiful bride, EVER! I didn’t disagree with her point, but she needs to work on her delivery.

On the way to the reception, our photographer Kendra called to tell us she was stuck in a traffic jam, having taken the wrong interstate! Luckily, she made it before too long. But as she was out on I-64 somewhere, we made our entrance to the reception. It was a blur of handshakes, flashbulbs, hugs and congratulations until we were able to sit, eat, and catch our breath.

We enlisted my aunt Mary to cut the cake for us, and managed not to cram the cake down each other’s throats before toasting and having our first dance. Again, everything was moving so quickly and there was so much happening, that it all seems a blur looking back at it. We had a great time dancing and visiting with everyone. We had such a good time in fact, that we closed the place down. We were the last to leave.

Instead of just heading home after all of that, we pampered ourselves a bit and headed to the Brown Hotel. They parked our car for us, took our bags up to the room, and had chocolate covered strawberries and champagne waiting for us. It was very fancy indeed. We enjoyed it very much and then crashed very hard and slept like rocks.

A nice breakfast in the morning, and then we were home to pack and clean the house. We were to leave for Ireland on Monday afternoon, so we didn’t have much time to rest.

Let’s go back a few days, and catch-up with where we are.

Friday, October 20
The day before the wedding:

This was the first day in which felt like a wedding was happening. We had been planning for months, but I took off from work this day, so it felt different.

We spent the majority of the morning decorating the FOP lodge, in preparation for the reception. Things were going well until we got around to putting the chair covers on the chairs. Some fit well, some not so well. A call to the rental company, and that problem was solved. The decorating went well, and by the time I left, the place was transformed.

After the decorating was done, we went to Bowman Field for the rehearsal. Everyone was there, and I definitely got a feel for how it would be on the wedding night. We zipped through the rehearsal, and got quickly on to the restaurant for the dinner. We crammed the Pope room to capacity, and ate enough to cover St. Peter’s square. It was a blast having everyone there, and I was glad to see my dad and Medina’s parents enjoying conversation throughout dinner.

Well, we did it! We're married! The wedding was amazing and was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. It was so nice to see everyone having a good time together. We were having so much fun and didn't want the night to end.

As you can imagine, we were exhausted by the end of the night so after arriving at The Brown Hotel and ordering in room service, we crashed hard. Sunday and Monday were spent cleaning our house and packing for our trip.

My friend, Carrie, is staying at our house with the dogs while we're away and she was gracious enough to give us a ride to the airport on Monday afternoon. Our flight to Dublin left Louisville at 4:30 pm with a 3 hour layover in Chicago. The flight from Chicago to Dublin lasted 7 hours and fortunately the flight was not full so we were able to move around and stretch out a bit. After 2 meals and not much sleep we arrived in Dublin around 9:00 a.m. local time.

Our travel agent arranged a driver to take us to our hotel and just as we expected, he was very warm and friendly. As we slowly made our way through traffic, we got to know the driver a little better. He told us about his wife of 34 years and his children. His daughter is a computer engineer in Dublin and sadly enough, his 25 year old son passed away suddenly just three weeks ago. After suffering the loss of 2 major people in our lives, Jackson and I could relate to his grief. On a brighter note, the driver was very happy to hear that we were newlyweds on our honeymoon, " a happy time amidst the sadness".

When we arrived at The Gresham Hotel we found that we could not get into our room until 3pm. With no energy and a 5 hour wait ahead of us we resorted to sleeping like bums in the hotel lobby. Finally 3pm arrived and once again, we crashed hard. And just like that, our first day in Ireland is over.

As you might imagine, we've been astoundingly busy the past couple of weeks. We have planned and done most things in advance, but it is down to the wire; leaving little time to rest. With the wedding just around the corner, I suppose people will be getting into town soon. It feels a bit like we've been in a hole, cut off from the outside world. It will be a shock to see everyone there on Saturday.

Unfortunately, we had a little problem with our gift registry. Medina got a call today about a package which was from Bed, Bath & Beyond and was addressed to our old address! I guess that we forgot to change the address associated with our registry. As a result, Medina has been scrambling this morning to talk with BB&B and UPS, to see to it that the packages get to us. However, if anything gets sent back, rest assured that it wasn't sent back by us! I hope this doesn't cause any problems for anyone, but if it does, just let us know and we'll try and get it straightened out.

So, the wedding is in TWO DAYS, and we're extremely excited. Everything is falling together as planned, and we can't wait to see everyone. Check back with the website, because we will be posting updates and pictures from Ireland and London.

See you soon.

In case anyone is wondering, there is not a dress code for the wedding, but "dressy casual" would be appropriate attire. Use your own discretion and dress comfortably, but no jeans please.