Part I: Denver to Atlanta to New York to Dublin to Greece

Irish Pub
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The road (or air) to Greece was full of bumps and sleeplessness for me, but once we got there I knew it was worth it. The trip started with a stand-by flight to Atlanta, then another to New York, where we spent one night visiting good friends of ours, Brent and Cheryl, and their little boy Connor.

The next evening we flew out of La Guardia to Dublin--the worst flight I've personally ever had. I took an Ambien to help put me to sleep so I'd be feeling somewhat normal when we arrived in the GMT time zone. Andrew did too and he fell quickly asleep. Me, on the other hand, still could not sleep after a glass of wine and another pill. I blame the seating--we were in the center row of 3 rows of seats, and the center two seats in that 4 seat row. I could not get comfortable, I was worried about jetlag and the result was insomnia. I got sick as we landed, probably induced by all the crap in my bloodstream.

Had a Rough Flight
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We arrived in Dublin around 9:30 GMT and had a few hours to kill, so we took a cab into the City Centre and had breakfast at a pub off Grafton Street. It was delicious. We then walked around the heavily touristed area for about an hour, where I bought a few little touristy things, and we took another cab back to the airport with plenty of time to spare. I did all I could to stay awake.

I don't remember much of the flight from Dublin to Athens, except that it was a smaller plane and nothing was free--not even the sodas and waters. We landed in Athens about 9pm local time. By the time we got to our hotel it was nearly 10pm, but the rooftop restaurant was still open and we were able to enjoy a light supper, Greek wine and a perfect view of the Parthenon. Sleep that night was easy.