Travel Days: Edinburgh to Abu Dhabi

The trip started with the first hop rather than the long haul: Edinburgh to Dublin. It was the practical beginning of the journey, the day when the packing and planning finally turned into getting ourselves to an airport and moving.

After the flight, Dublin became the first stop of the trip. We had dinner at Coppinger Restaurant, which gave the day a proper ending instead of letting it be only airport queues and travel logistics.

The next day was the longer travel handoff: Dublin first, then the airport, then the flight onward to Abu Dhabi. After the small first hop, this was where the trip started to feel like the real long-distance version of itself.

In Abu Dhabi, we had a couple of drinks in the Etihad lounge for about an hour. By then the travel was catching up with us: it was getting late against our body clocks, and the lounge felt less like a destination than a pause before the final push toward Japan.