10/10 or, as they note it in Europe: 10/10

Here is what 5:07am looks like:

As you can plainly see, not much to look at. Nor can I claim I was very good company, as anyone who knows me will realize this was my first glimpse of 5am in a long, long time. Matt came along, bless his heart, all the way to London Heathrow.

Cultural Difference #3: US airports are designed to make you aware of their vastness. Heathrow is a huge airport, but all I saw of it that day was Terminal One, and it seemed no larger than Burbank or Akron/Canton airports. And Belfast airport actually is tiny.

Finding Dave was easy. I'd only ever seen two blurry photos of him, yet he was immediately recognizable. He gave me the driving tour of Belfast, through clouds of variously-colored uniformed schoolchildren and pointing out political murals and which streets were dominated by which factions of The Troubles. We both rated meeting in person as about a 5 out of 10 for Weirdness, but by evening that strangeness had evaporated and we continued our uncannily long list of Things We Have In Common through the rest of a lovely visit.