Land of the Leprechaun

Jim has fallen in love and is leaving me, for Ireland.

The beginning of our journey to Ireland was extremely off-putting.  We booked our flight with Ryan air and received an email reminding us that we HAD to check in online and print up our own boarding passes. So the night before, at our London hotel, we attempted to do just that.  Jim managed to check in and receive his boarding pass via email - which he then printed off.  I tried checking in about seven times on three different computers but never received any confirmation, nor did I get a boarding pass. So I decided to just get it done the next morning at the airport.

When we arrived at the Ryan Air service desk and explained that their website would not allow me to check in or give me a boarding pass, she told us that there would be a thirty-Pound (about $60) fee to have her print off my boarding pass. We explained the situation again but she claimed to be unable to do anything about it.  She then told us that there would be yet another fee for her to check me in, since I hadn't done it.

"But it's a problem with your website - why I am paying for your company's errors?" I inquired.  She quickly responded, "you can go talk to the customer service desk."

So we trekked over to the service desk only to be told what we already knew - that Jim was checked in and had printed his boarding pass.  Anyways, to make a long and depressing story short, it ended up costing me seventy pounds ($140) to have them check me in and print off my boarding pass.  I won't lie...I cried a little.  That's criminal.  And we had to pay $40 each to check a bag.  So all in all, the trip from Paris to Dublin cost us roughly $900!!!!

After some fuming and ranting, we let it go in order to just enjoy the fact that we were now in Ireland. And it's great here!  Jim keeps saying that he feels right at home - must be the Irish blood running through his veins.  But then again, like Anthony the bartender at O'Brien's said, "everyone has a relative in Ireland."

Bartender Anthony.

He belongs here!

Because it's St. Patrick's Day tomorrow the festivities are in full swing.  There are carnival rides set up in the street and people in green everywhere.  Tomorrow should be a bit of a mess (or so we're told) but we're going to brave it and head downtown to partake in the party.  After that, we'll make our way to Killarney!