So this past weekend I went and visited Kelly in Cork. Let me just say right off the bat, I HATE RYANAIR. I understand it's cool you give really cheap flights and all but you suck.
First of all I had to fly out of Stansted which is just so inconvenient. Thank God I have paranoia and got there more than 2.5 hours early because I ended up being the victim of racial discrimination (My brother pointed that out after I was venting to him and eating my feelings away in the Starbucks terminal).
Anyway, I've flown out of Stansted before and I've never had a problem. My carryon suitcase came with an opaque liquids bag and I've been using that to fly with the entire time. This weekend, however, it was completely unacceptable. After waiting almost 20 minutes in a security line, they told me that little punch was too big and that I couldn't use it to hold my liquids. I would either have to throw out all my liquids and the bag, check my bag for 40 pounds, or be escorted with a security guard to buy 4 little baggies for 1 pound, and then wait back in security line again. I clearly choose the latter. I got my baggies, put my liquids in one of them, and waited in the long security line again. I put all my stuff through security and this time, both my suitcase AND my purse got pulled off to be searched. I stood there while all my stuff was spread out for the terminal to see. They went through everything, the pockets of my jeans and all my little bags. Clearly they found nothing illegal, but they pulled out my mascara and all of my lipstick and told me 'all of these were unnecessary, there were too many and I would have to make a choice'. WHAT? While they took my camera and phone to be taken in the back room to be scanned, they threw out half of my lipstick! This whole process took about an hour and a half and I was so upset and shaken after, I was so happy I had put a Ben's Cookie in my bag before I had left and thank GOD they hadn't taken that. After I boarded the plane, I of course got stuck next to the guy who bought 2 seats so that there would be one seat between him and the person he sat next too, so I didn't even need get to talk to someone cool.
I got to Cork and took a taxi who I think thought he was in 2Fast2Furious. I somehow arrived to Kelly's apartment alive, and stayed up til almost 2am talking. It was so nice seeing her..again! The next day when I woke up it was..snowing? what? But unlike Europe, we didn't let a little snow stop us in our tracks! We went to Blarney to explore Blarney Castle and kiss the Blarney stone. We had lunch at a pub where I had a baked potato and my first pint of Guinness. When we got back, we walked around Cork and explored their little city. They have a store called Pennys which is run by Primark (my favorite/most hated store in London?..) but its cheaper/on the Euro so it was awesome going in there. When we got back and then had dinner at this Spanish/Irish restaurant. After dinner, we went out with all the Americans/Marist kiddies studying in Cork and I was really shown a good old Irish time. We went to a club/pub/bar and danced/partied until our feet couldn't move anymore. The next morning I woke up with my first European headache (maybe from that Polish vodka?..) but it didn't matter because the day was gorgeous.
I got to the airport again just to avoid another disaster, and who knew that Ryanair said my bag was too heavy just by the lady picking up my carryon. They made me check my bag for 35 Euro so I was plenty pissed after being one of the first people on line to one of the last people on the plane. I got on the plane all mad but luckily found a window seat. This tall irish kid came and sat next to me and then a kid who looked younger than me who was in a pilot suit came and sat down in our isle as well. Turns out the irish guy next to me is a civil engineer who travels back and forth to Ireland just to hang out with his friends like twice a month, and the babyface next to him really WAS a pilot. Actually, he was a Ryanair pilot. He was 20 years old and had been flying Ryanair passenger flights for over a year and a half, and was proud to say he is a first c aptain. Makes me kind of question Ryanair even more?..
It was sad leaving Kelly because unlike muh who's going to be at Riverfest/band formal, she's not going to be back until May. I mean, she does have the ENTIRE month of April off where she's going to almost 20 countries all by herself.
Anywho, tomorrow we're visiting the Globe theatre for our British Life and Culture class, and then I have my first internship class (so, so riveting). Also I have exciting days of interning coming up, plus the London Eye on Tuesday. Why does London ever have to end?..
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