The day began before dawn in Moscow with the 4 a.m. wake-up calls. The White House deputy press secretary, Joe Lockhart, did not hear his and Air Force One took off without him. The rest of us staggered down for breakfast, which the staff at the Hotel National heroically provided at the ungodly hour.
On the empty road to the airport, some Russians could be seen waiting for buses to bring them to work at 5 a.m. - and you read that they don't get paid.
The press aircraft waiting for us is a British Airways DC 10. The British airline won the tender for the trip. Some US officials were surprised that Aer Lingus did not make a bid for the charter.
Maybe the idea of carrying around some 200 media prima donnas from Washington to Moscow to Belfast to Limerick and back to Washington was too much for the "friendly airline".
The sleep-starved hacks were easy to look after for the four-hour flight as, after a second breakfast, we snored our way across the steppes of Russia, the Baltic Sea and Scotland. We woke to see a magical Ulster morning, with Slieve Donard piercing the morning mists to the south and the rugged Antrim coastline to the north.
Then it was touchdown at Aldergrove and another fleet of buses to transport us to the press centre at Whitla Hall in Queen's University. There a third breakfast was consumed. Good food is always laid on but not alcohol.
Lockhart, who is soon to take over from Mike McCurry as President Clinton's spokesman, is not allowed to forget that he slept it out in Moscow and was lucky to get to Ireland at all on a White House support plane.
"I never slept it out," crowed McCurry. Lockhart took the ribbing in good form and issued a "statement" saying: "I take responsibility for my own actions. I deeply regret it. I'm dealing with the people I hurt the most. I'll have nothing further to say about it."
Very funny but maybe a little close to the bone if you're working for a President who is being badgered to apologise for the "hurt" he has caused over an "inappropriate" relationship.
The press corps scatters in "pools" to cover the fast-moving President at Stormont, the Waterside Hall in central Belfast, the Springvale educational village on the peace line, Omagh and Armagh. Each pool files a report for colleagues who are elsewhere.
A sample on the ride from the airport: "President Clinton got a spectacular pastoral view as his motorcade moved along the highroad - past cows, sheep and rolling hills of green grass. There were clusters of friendly onlookers along the route . . . no signs, a few American flags . . . one couple came down the driveway in bathrobes."
On the way to the Waterfront Hall, some media people are given a quick tour of the Falls Road, the Shankill and the oddly named "peace lines", with appropriate commentary on a divided city.
As the President and his entourage go by helicopter to Omagh, most of the media take to the buses again, this time to Armagh where the press centre is in the Royal School. Three locals in 18th-century costumes greet us at the steps bowing gracefully. Moscow seems very far away.
But the day is not over yet. There is more to be written about the "Gathering for Peace" in Armagh as night begins to fall. Descriptive powers are also falling. It has been nearly 20 hours since the wake-up call and there is still a bus to Dublin to take.