September 3–9, 2008, Number 199
Hello Everyone!
Europe continues to enchant me by the day, so much has happened since I have last written. Scotland is AMAZING! It is everything you would think it to be and more, but before we get into how much I love it here I will tell you of the trip over.
We got to the airport with plenty of time but with one major problem. When flying Ryanair, the cheapest airline by along shot, you are only allowed 15 kg of weight in your checked luggage and 10 kg of weight on your carry on. Have I mentioned how much shopping I did while in Europe? I feel like it was adequately mentioned so that you know the amount of stuff I gained while traveling. To reiterate, it was a lot. I knew that they would be weighing my checked bag so I threw every heavy thing I owned along with all of the glass that I had bought at the glass factory into my carry-ons. This consequently made my carry-ons approximately 20 pounds each. It literally felt like my arms were coming out of socket as I went through the airport. And this is after the hour long completely cramped bus ride over. I was confident that it would all work out though. When my checked bag was weighted in it was 17.2 kg. Not good for me, needless to say. Trying to be a good guy, the attendant asked me to throw my carry-on on top of the bag so he could see if I could pull some of its contents out. I conveniently only placed one of my carry-ons on the scale since he only asked for one. Luckily I chose the lighter of the two; unfortunately it was still 10.2 kg. Which meant I would have to pay for the extra weight, which totaled 750 krowns. Once again the conversion was sadly to about 50 USD.
I went to go pay for it so that they would place my bag on the plane, and my only option was to use my emergency only credit card that my mom had gotten for me. The good news was I hadn’t used it up until this moment. The bad news was because I hadn’t used it up until this moment the card company thought it was stolen and declined it. So I was forced to use 50 of the 100 dollars I had left in my account. We snuck my carry-ons on board without anyone questioning the weight of the two of them thank goodness and had a fairly successful flight to Dublin. Once in Dublin we made our way immediately to the Hostel to deposit the bricks that I was carrying for carry-ons. The hostel was only 40 USD and in order to have some money to spend I went to use my emergency credit card again. Unfortunately the credit card company only became more convinced that some one had stolen the card since it was used at both Prague in the morning and Dublin, Ireland in the afternoon. Needless to say I had to use my card again leaving me $10 in my account and a useless card. In order to counter act my lack of Euro I traded in all currency I had on me, krowns and USD along with the Great Britain Pound. I got the equivalent of about 8 Euros. Fortunately there was a deal on at the hostel, Burger and a Beer 5 euro. That was most definitely my dinner. Jim wanted to go see the city and hit every museum possible and I told him point blank, “ I will do anything that is free.” So for the afternoon we split up. I read my book in St. Stephens square my favorite spot in the city, that we found the last time we were there. I also toured Trinity College, a beautiful college that has all the charms of the old college that it is.
We spent the night in watching a movie, which turned out great. Quite the low key and inexpensive night that I had been hoping for. It was the next morning that things got interesting. I refused to pay again for the luggage, but knew that I had no means of paying for it if I had to. So being the brilliant college student I like to think I am I piled on 4 tank tops, 3 t shirts, 1 sweatshirt and two coats. This was accompanied by a pair of shorts, leggings, jeans rolled to be Capri’s and then covered with sweatpants. Not my best look. Well to be honest I looked like a sausage, roaming around the city with my bags, not actually able to put my arms down because I have on so many layers, that I feel like the little boy from a Christmas Story.
After getting lost and not being able to find my bus, a man who I can only describe as an angel sent me in the right direction with his pocket change since no girl should be around Dublin with only 3 Euro to her name. From there it was smooth sailing. I made it in plenty of time to the airport, got through every line easily. The only hitch came as we loaded the plane for Edinburgh. I was in line behind the best looking man I had seen yet to date on my trip, which wasn’t saying a whole lot since I didn’t see any remotely good looking men. Of course on the day I see him is the day that I feel and look like a stuffed sausage due to the sheer amount of clothes I have on. Needless to say I didn’t even try to introduce myself. At that point there was no point.
We got to Edinburgh quickly and smoothly and my parents were coming in immediately after me, so I ran to change out of the 20 layers I had on. Finally in real humans clothing I greeted my parents in a much awaited reunion. I can’t tell you how happy I was to see them, and my brother Daniel. I knew I had missed them but not how much until that moment. From there we went straight to the hotel and then made our way into the city. I finally had some fish and chips from England and as much as I love Joey’s and there fish there was no comparison. It was the best I had ever had, no contest. Immediately after that there was no doubt that we were going to bed in order to sleep off the travel, they needed it obviously more than I did. Tomorrow we are hitting Scotland; I can’t wait. I haven’t seen much yet, but what I have seen is beautiful and it helps that I have my family with me. Talk to you soon!!
- Laurilee
- Michigan Technological University
- 1400 Townsend Drive, Houghton, MI 49931-1295
- 906-487-1885