Day 0: Start => Dublin

I thought we were doing really well this trip in terms of getting things done and leaving, but we left at almost 13:30 for our 15:00 flight. Made the flight just fine though.

We managed to pack just slightly more than our previous trips, though still same carry-on-able-size rolly suitcase + 2 backpacks. One of the backpacks (K's) is the same one we've used on our previous two trips, normal size. I upgraded the other backpack (mine) to a slightly larger 2500 cubic-in (41L) vs. my small 1550 cubic-in on previous trips. I stuffed the 1550 cubic-in one in the backpack so that we could still have a small backpack as our daypack. In retrospect, I probably could have tried to condense down to 1900 cubic-in, considering this larger size pack has all these gadgety things (and frame) that ends up making it 1.75 lbs heavier! The gadgety things are good for distributing the weight across the whole of the back (vs just shoulders), so I don't know...

K says I look like one of those backpacker traveler types with my backpack on =/

One of my main packing qualms this time was toiletries. Expect to run out and buy more as you go along. That sounds great and all, except that it doesn't help in our case. For example, shampoo -- I know from previous trips that we'll need about 10oz. for this whole trip. But the smallest size of shampoo is more than that, at least 14oz. It doesn't make sense for us to bring 4oz (like our other trips), to run out, go to the store, and buy a 14oz bottle to carry around on the rest of the trip! So, in the end I packed enough for the whole trip for those types of things. Toothpaste (and other similar items), on the other hand, only one tube. If we run out, I guess we'll pick up something that looks like toothpaste in the store. (Reminds of when we ran around Madrid searching for contact lens solution, which apparently is sold in pharmacies.)

Aer Lingus. The whole 'charge per checked-in' bag thing has reached the U.S. airlines, but weight limits for carry-ons have yet to. I read it in the Aer Lingus T&C before, but I had forgotten... the carry-on weight limit is 6 kg (~13+ lbs). The couple in the check-in line before us got unlucky... the airline rep told them their carry-ons were overweight and made them re-distribute their belongings between the carry-ons and checked luggage until they satisfied the limits. I had forgotten to weigh our carry-ons, so I thought 'uh oh'. But luckily, we got a nice airline rep. She had me weigh my carry-on, saw it was overweight (almost 10 kg!), but then asked if I had a laptop or photo equipment... when I said I had photo stuff and K's had his laptop, she let us go. She was being super-nice and understanding, and we didn't question it.

Food. Dinner and breakfast on board. For dinner, decent salmon (K said it's one of the better cooked salmon he's had), with mushy veges. Breakfast was fruit (I ate half of K's too), small danish, and some bread and cheese (we skipped the cheese).
(I have to post a picture later...)

K randomly ended up chatting with a couple of flight attendants again. This time it was two women, young-ish and apparently really wanting to get married soon. He came back to borrow my g1 to share with them a few of our wedding pictures (I stuck ~5 on the g1 to share with JO over lunch the other day). We still look young it seems -- they thought he was only 20.

(I say again because he ended up chatting with one of the flight attendants on our previous flight out, too. It was this really nice middle-aged Asian (Korean?) guy who said we looked cute and happy together (^-^'') and he had us separately answer this question about a cow, a horse, and a monkey, which supposedly reflected whether our future together would be a successful partnership. We passed (^o^) but the question was kind of random, IMO.)

We were pretty good on the flight this time -- didn't watch any movies and slept in and out during most of the flight. Landed 9am-ish.