Barcelona to Dublin: BEWARE RYAN AIR!

When we were planning this trip, I knew I wanted to try to fit in 2 cities, so we really based our selections on what offered the cheapest and best flights to/from each city, the cost and availability of the flight between, and which cities we wanted to see the most. I had always wanted to visit Spain because I heard it was a beautiful coastal city that had great food. Done and done. Drew had always wanted to go to Ireland to embrace his Irish roots and meet some really old, drunk Irish men. We accomplished both with the 2 cities.

 Once again, I got us to the airport with 3 hours to spare. Someone is not a happy camper.

Ryan Air is known as a cheap airline in Europe, sometimes offering flights for 2 euros plus taxes. While we weren't that lucky, we did get a good deal on our flight. However, once the trip started getting closer, I began to receive almost an email a day talking about Ryan Air's baggage and boarding pass rules. You had to print out your own boarding pass and if you didn't, they would charge 40 euros to reprint it, and if you had to pay you could only pay cash. They also had strict weight limits and anything over 15kg (30 pounds) would be 1 euro a pound over! I have never been this intimidated by an airline!

 Baggage Nazi's

When we got to the airport, we began to see how serious they were. A woman and her son didn't have a printed boarding pass and she was screaming bloody murder about the cost to reprint. We saw people fork over a month's rent for their baggage. Luckily, our bags were both under the limit and I had already pre-paid to check 1 bag a piece for a lower cost.

We had a short 2.5 hour flight to Dublin, and when we arrived we checked into our hotel and immediately went in search of Guinness. I thought it might be an urban myth that the Irish love Guinness (kind of like Australians really don't drink Foster's) but I was wrong, EVERYONE drank it! They are really proud of it, so I obliged them.

My very first Guinness!

After a few Guinness's (Guinnessi?) we called it a night and booked a day trip to the Cliffs of Moher - more on that Monday!