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We've been on some exciting holidays over the years - Iceland, the Azores and even Russia - but our destinations have all had one thing in common: they've been in Europe. When Tim was invited to teach an advanced course at an annual Esperanto summer school taking place in North Carolina this July, it gave us an opportunity to plan a holiday which would involve travelling to the USA and - for me - my first ever trip outside of Europe. It seemed like too good an opportunity to miss, especially as Tim was getting his flight to North Carolina covered as part of the arrangements for teaching the course. I got permission to work remotely for the first week while Tim is teaching and then for the next two weeks we're on holiday, with an ambitious itinerary of sightseeing planned. Planning the trip has been a logistical nightmare at times, with flights getting changed and cancelled right, left and centre. But finally, on Thursday this week, it was time to set off for the first leg of our journey: Birmingham to Dublin. It is obviously perfectly possible to fly directly to the USA from the UK, without first going to Ireland. The advantage of flying via Dublin, though, is that Dublin airport is one of a handful of airports around the world which has a facility called US Preclearance. That means that when you're flying to the USA from Dublin, you're able to pass through all the US security and border checks in Dublin airport before you get on your plane, meaning that when your flight arrives in the USA it's treated like a domestic arrival and you can just pick up your bags and walk straight out of the airport. That sounds like a much more attractive option to us that have to queue for potentially several hours in a US airport to go through immigration after we'd just got off a 7-hour flight. Tim had a Ryanair voucher from a cancelled trip in 2020, so we used that to book some cheap flights to Dublin from Birmingham on Thursday evening. Everything went fairly smoothly, the flight was slightly delayed but by less than an hour, which seems to count as a win these days, and we were getting off the plane in Dublin airport by around 9pm. Dublin airport is huge! Definitely one of the biggest airports we've been to recently. We walked down what felt like endless corridors before we eventually emerged in the baggage reclaim area to pick up our bags. We had another short walk ahead of us after that, to the hotel we were staying in for the night just outside the airport. The area around Dublin airport seems to be quite well set up with paths and cycle lanes, so it was straightforward to walk right out of the terminal and down the road towards our hotel, without having to mess around with a taxi. The hotel room wasn't anything special but it was fine for one night The main selling point was the location and the fact that there was a breakfast buffet starting at 06.30 the next morning. The next leg of our journey was to fly to Boston on Friday morning and although the flight wasn't until 11.30, we needed to make an early start. You're advised to be at the airport 3 hours before a transatlantic flight at the best of times - and these are definitely not the best of times. Dublin airport was recommending that people arrive 3.5 hours before their flights and to add an extra hour onto that if you intended to check in bags We were at the breakfast buffet bright and early the next morning and attempted to make the most of it, as we weren't sure when we would next get food. We had a short walk to the airport, where we found that even though it wasn't even 07.30 yet there were already huge queues in the Aer Lingus check-in area. We were directed to a specific queue for people who had downloaded the Verifly app, something which Aer Lingus had emailed us a couple of days previously and asked us to do. Verifly had required us to upload proof of our Covid vaccination status, which was then checked in advance, giving us a screen with a green tick which we could display as proof that we were allowed to fly. Theoretically, it made life easier. In practice, it turned out to not quite be the case. The Verifly queue moved exceptionally slowly, which wasn't a surprise because there was only one check-in desk which was staffed. The non-Verifly queue also moved slowly at first, but then started to move significantly quicker as more and more desks became staffed. We eventually made it up to two people checking in the Verifly queue, but we still moved at a snail's pace. There was an additional irritation in that whenever there was a passenger who needed special assistance or had some other sort of problem, a staff member was bringing them up to the front of the Verifly queue (with its two desks) rather than the non-Verifly queue (which now had five desks). It felt rather unfair. It was also a bit annoying that we were in this massive check-in queue in the first place. Ordinarily we would have checked in online and if we hadn't check in online, we could have used the Aer Lingus app or one of the many Aer Lingus check-in machines in the departures hall, then joined a short queue to drop bags. Unfortunately, none of those check-in methods are possible when you have a connecting flight, particularly when the connecting flight is with another airline. We had booked our entire journey through Aer Lingus but our second flight (from Boston to Raleigh) was being operated by an airline called JetBlue. Neither the app nor the online check-in could cope with this level of complication. We were keen to speak to a staff member anyway, to double check that our bags were going to be transported all the way to Raleigh without us needing to pick them up and check them in again in Boston. In total we were in the check-in queue for around 90 minutes. Possibly slightly longer When we eventually made it to the front of the line, checking in was a pretty straight forward process. We were given boarding passes for both our flights and reassured that our bags would make it to Raleigh without our intervention. Next stop was security. The queue didn't seem too bad, at least, not compared to the queue for checking in, though there was a sign saying that there was a 25-minute wait. That was probably a fairly accurate reflection of the amount of time it took us to get through. Once we had reclaimed all our belongings, we went to check a departures board and found that the instruction for our flight was showing as "Go to US preclearance". We followed signs towards the designated area of the airport, where we joined yet another queue - this time for American security. The process was pretty similar to the Irish security, with the exception of the fact that everyone had to take off their shoes. Apart from that, it was pretty painless. Then it was time to join the final queue in this process: the queue for US passport control. This is the critical point at which the US border guards decide whether or not to let you into the country. It was a long queue, but moved fairly swiftly, and soon we found ourselves at the front. After showing our passports and boarding cards we had to have our photos taken, then give our fingerprints. This was the most complicated bit, getting the right fingers in the right place at the right time. And then that was it! Our passports were stamped (with a rather unimpressive stamp that just gave the date!) and we were through Overall the whole process was less painful than I had expected. We weren't asked any questions about where we were going, how long we were staying, what we were planning to do etc, which some of the information which I'd read online suggested we would be. The part of the airport which you get to once you have gone through the preclearance is pretty bleak; a fairly small holding area with a single WH Smiths and more people than seats. We queued for quite a while to buy some bottles of water, then managed to find a slightly quieter area where we could sit down. It was at this point that we realised that our flight - which was due to take off at 11.35 - was going to be delayed by around an hour An hour's delay wouldn't normally be the end of the world, but in this instance it was quite a problem because our connecting flight to Raleigh was due to depart from Boston 1 hour and 5 minutes after our scheduled arrival time. It seemed unlikely that we were now going to make that connection, but there was nothing we could do about it so we just settled down to wait. There was no explanation as to why the plane was delayed; just a vague statement about "operational reasons". After what seemed like a very long wait, we were eventually called for boarding. The plane was absolutely huge, eight seats across with two separate aisles. We had two seats within the middle block of four seats, so we were nowhere near a window. Originally we had been booked on a later flight to Boston, departing around 4pm in the afternoon, and we'd had a window seat booked on that flight. But we realised a month or so ago that the time of our connecting flight to Raleigh had been changed by JetBlue, so that it was now scheduled to depart before our flight from Dublin to Boston had even arrived. Frustratingly, neither Aer Lingus or JetBlue had thought it was necessary to notify us about that change, and I only found out by accident. After a long and expensive call to Aer Lingus, I eventually managed to sort it out and get us moved onto this earlier flight, which enabled us to make the connection, but by time I'd done that there weren't any good seats left on this plane. Never mind. The plane itself was actually really nice and definitely surpassed my expectations. Even though we were in the cheapest seats, there was significantly more leg room than we were used to from our normal Ryanair and EasyJet flights. Every seat came with a cushion and a free set of earphones, which we were able to plug into our seat and use to watch films or listen to music via the screen on the back of the seat in front of us. It seemed like it was going to be a pretty comfortable flight We also got served food, which was a definite bonus because we had worked up an appetite after all that queuing in Dublin airport. Shortly after take-off we were served a soft drink and a small bag of pretzels as a snack. Within an hour or so it was time for the main meal, for which we had a choice of chicken or pasta bolognese. We both went for the pasta bolognese, which was fine, and also came with a slice of bread and a tub of strawberry mousse for pudding. Later on, before we landed, we also got served a snack in the form of a wrap and a chocolate biscuit. It was a long flight - around 7 hours - and by the time we started getting close to Boston, I'd completely lost track of what time it was where. I think we ultimately landed some time around 3pm (Boston time) which would have been around 8pm (UK time). Our connecting flight appeared to have taken off on time, around 20 minutes ago. When we got off the plane we emerged into Terminal C of Boston airport, which is the terminal for domestic flights. Most of the flights departing from this terminal seemed to be operated by JetBlue, so we managed to find a JetBlue helpdesk without too much difficulty and explained our predicament to the lady behind the desk. The good news was that there was one more JetBlue flight scheduled to go to Raleigh that day at 18.11 and she attempted to book us on to that. There was a bit of a technical hitch, because the computer was saying that we had to pay taxes on the new flight when we shouldn't have needed to, so she had to call her supervisor to try and sort it out. That meant we had a bit of a wait standing around while she waited for an answer and dealt with other people in the queue. But, after 15 minutes or so, we had good news: we were booked onto the new flight and given brand new boarding passes The only slightly odd thing about them was that they didn't have allocated seat numbers. Armed with our new boarding passes, we set out to explore Boston airport. First impressions was that it was big! Everything seemed very spacious and there was definitely a much better people to seats ratio than there had been in Dublin. We found the toilets (or rather, restrooms!) and they were enormous; the ladies was so big that I initially struggled to locate the sinks when I came out of the cubicle The toilets themselves were very odd. First of all, the doors on the cubicles were tiny, with huge gaps between both the door and the ceiling and the door and the floor. The gaps were so big that if I'd accidentally managed to lock myself in, I would have been able to get down on my hands and knees and crawl out. Secondly, the toilet bowls were full of water. When I first entered a cubicle and saw it, I assumed the toilet was blocked and broken in some way. Then I realised that they all looked like that It turns out that when you flush them, all the water gets sucked away - a bit like in a train toilet - and then it fills back up really high again. We had a stroll around the airport, initially looking for the baggage reclaim area to double check that our bags hadn't accidentally been offloaded in Boston. It turned out that we couldn't get to it without passing through a point that we wouldn't be able to return from, so we just had to hope for the best. I was feeling hungry by this point, as the meal on the plane hadn't been huge, so we found a restaurant and ordered burger and chips. It seemed quite fitting for our first meal in the USA When it was time to pay for the meal, we had our first encounter with the tipping system. The waitress brought us our bill, then we gave her our credit card to pay. We weren't quite sure what happened next, but it turned out we had to wait for her to bring us a printed receipt, which showed the total amount for the meal and then had a space for us to write the amount we wanted to tip, the ultimate total including the tip, and then add a signature. The signature is apparently important to make sure the restaurant is authorised to take the full amount off our card. We've been told that we need to tip a minimum of 15%, but preferably 20%, at restaurants where a waiter serves you at the table. It certainly adds on to the price of a meal! We just had time for a coffee in the airport Starbucks (where you don't have to tip!) before it was time to head to our gate. But when we arrived at the gate, we were in for a disappointment. Our flight to Raleigh, which had been due to depart at 18.11, was now not expected to take off until 20.43 The problem seemed to be that the pilot needed to fly the plane was on another flight, which was delayed in arriving at Boston. After such a long day of travelling it was frustrating to have another delay. But the JetBlue staff were really good at making announcements to keep us in the loop about what was happening and the Starbucks coffee did a good job at keeping us awake! It was also a nice comfortable airport to wait in. There were plenty of seats, good air conditioning and lots of water machines where you could refill your bottles for free Eventually the pilot arrived and we were able to board the plane. Tim had been to speak to an employee at the gate who had allocated us seats in row 2, so we were near the front of the plane and this time even had a window This was a much smaller plane, with only two seats on each side of the single aisle, but again it seemed much more spacious that the planes we were used to. We took off and had a view out across Boston. I think there would actually have been lots of great views during this flight if we'd been travelling during the daytime. We flew for about two hours, down the eastern coast of the USA and then inwards towards Raleigh. Unfortunately, it was soon too dark to see much. It was some time between 10 and 11pm by the time we finally landed in Raleigh. That meant it was between 3 and 4am back in the UK! Amazingly, we were still awake. That Starbucks coffee really was strong! We'd succeeded in making it to our destination, but there was still a question about whether our bags would have done the same. We made our way to the baggage reclaim area and waited with bated breath to see whether they would come off the carousel. I was shivering while we waited; the air conditioning in the airport meant that it was absolutely freezing! I was thrilled when we saw first one, then a second familiar-looking bag dropping on to the baggage carousel Now all that remained was to find the airport hotel that we were staying at for our first night. Luckily, this part of the trip was straightforward because a friend had volunteered to come and pick us up. He soon arrived (in an enormous car!) and we were on our way to the hotel, which wasn't very far away from the airport. If we hadn't had a lift, I suspect we would have needed a taxi; I got the impression that the area around this airport wasn't quite as walkable as the area around the airport in Dublin. We checked in to the hotel and located our room. It was quite spacious, with a living room... ...and separate bedroom area. It was about 23.30 by this point - 04.30 in the UK - so we were definitely ready to sleep! By the time I woke up around 8am the next morning I was absolutely starving, which perhaps wasn't surprising given that it was already lunchtime back at home. I was excited to see what an American breakfast buffet would be like. It turned out to be... slightly odd! I started with a glass of apple juice, which tasted more like sugary water than anything which would be recognisable as apple juice elsewhere. There was a selection of multi-coloured cereal, which we decided to pass on, and quite a limited selection of hot food. There were some small omelettes, chipolata-like sausages (which were very tasty) and something resembling roast potatoes. There was also a waffle machine, which I don't think we would have worked out how to use in a million years if we hadn't had an American on hand to demonstrate The hotel was very well air-conditioned, but as soon as we stepped outside we realised that it was already boiling hot and very humid. The hotel had a large American flag outside! We piled into the car with some other Esperantists to travel towards William Peace University in Raleigh, where the Esperanto course will be taking place this week. It was only about 20 minutes away. Once we arrived, we had a tour of the university, which is set in some really beautiful grounds. There are squirrels running around everywhere and all sorts of birds which we don't recognise. The main building of the university is quite grand. We soon spotted a large American flag, as well as what we think must be the state flag of North Carolina. There are some beautiful flowers in the grounds as well. I was reassured to see that no guns are allowed at the university! And that there's a severe weather shelter, if we happen to get struck by a tornado This is the building that we're staying in. The exterior is impressive, but it's a student hall of residence so the rooms are a little bit less impressive inside. Our room is quite well equipped, with two beds and desks, plus rocking chairs to sit in while we work, and yet again there's amazing air conditioning which makes it feel ice cold. But the beds are strange; really high off the ground. Apparently it's so that the students can save space and have a chest of drawers under the bed. But climbing into a bed this high is quite a challenge! We unpacked, then went out for a meal with the other Esperanto teachers at a nearby restaurant. While I had another burger, Tim opted for something more adventurous: a Philly cheesesteak. It was really nice! Tim had a meeting to attend after lunch, so I decided to go out and explore a bit of Raleigh. I didn't know what to expect from the city, not having been able to find any guidebooks to North Carolina, but I was soon pleasantly surprised. I found myself walking down a street with beautiful wooden buildings that seemed almost Scandinavian in style. Raleigh is the capital of North Carolina and so there are also plenty of buildings which look pretty official. This building is the State Capitol, which was built in 1840. The war memorial in front of it is for those who died in the Second World War. Around the side there's then a separate memorial for the Vietnam War. This statue commemorates the three US presidents who have come from North Carolina. And I've got no idea who this statue was of, but it looked important judging by the flags Overall there was a lot more greenery in the city than I expected. There were some modern buildings too, though. It was about 35 degrees outside, so even in the shade it felt boiling. This impressive-looking building was next to a McDonalds, so I popped in for an iced coffee. I couldn't believe either how large or how sugary the coffee turned out to be! Also how cheap - it was something like $1.60 for a coffee that was almost bigger than I could drink. Refreshed by the coffee, I walked back towards the university, this time taking a slightly different route. I found a street which was full of the most wonderful wooden houses. There were so many different shapes, sizes and colours. When I got back to the university I was so hot that I had to have a shower to cool off. By the time I'd done that, Tim was out of his meeting so we went out for a walk together so that he could see a bit of Raleigh too We found some more amazing houses... ...including the mansion of the governor of North Carolina. I showed Tim the state capitol. And also the McDonalds, where we had another cold drink. Tim tried an iced tea, which was supposed to be "unsweetened" but had so much sugar in it that we could almost chew it We had to throw half of it away in the end! Then we walked back to the university, past all the impressive houses again. In the evening we ate with the Esperantists, having takeaway from a Middle Eastern restaurant. Tim and I had a type of chicken wraps, which were huge. It was still warm enough that we could sit outside eating and drinking until well after it was dark. We got tired pretty early, still getting used to the time difference, so retired to our room for a night of trying not to fall out of the very high beds