It was time to leave Spain, I have had a great time in this gorgeous country but the time is right. I have taken my Spanish as far as I can, I was not going to improve much more without improving my vocabulary and it was time to experience a different country and a different culture. Ireland was beckoning and that was my next stop. I think I could have just stopped in Spain and spent the rest of my life there I enjoyed it so much but that would have been self defeating. I was travelling, learning and experiencing, I had to continue to do so. I will come back when my bank balance has recovered and my Spanish vocabulary is bigger. I hope I can catch up with the same people I met on this trip. I will greet them as old friends if I do.
The flight was late afternoon on Ryan Air from Seville to Dublin. I have heard a few stories about flying with Ryan Air, mainly horror about people not being allowed on the plane due to being overweight on their luggage, and the check-in queues closing 40 minutes before the flight regardless of whether there were people in the queue or not. I must say however that when I checked in online I was left in no doubt what was required; I had to check all the boxes saying that I was aware of the various terms and conditions about times and baggage limits, people can't say that they were not warned, well they could but they would be lying.
I had to catch the bus to the airport and find my way to the departure lounge. Once again I was early so I took advantage of the unstaffed check-in counter to weigh my backpack, on the conveyor 14.5 kilograms, half a kilo below the limit. When I left Australia I brought 2 towels, both old and crappy and probably due to for disposal anyway. My intention was to throw them out at the last hostel in Spain to lighten my baggage slightly as I knew I was close to the limit. I had also purchased a hoody for my daughter in Salamanca so I was pushing it even more. I'm not sure what the baggage would have weighed if I did not throw the towels out but I was having a personal gloat when I weighed in under the limit. My hand luggage easily fitted in the test box so there was no reason why I would have any issues.
Some people must just tick boxes without taking notice of what they are checking. One couple were refused board so they were very busy transferring check in luggage items into their already full hand luggage to get rid of a few kilos. The female changed here shoes to a pair of long boots. They had their luggage re-weighed and it was still 2.5 kilograms above the limit so of they went again to put on some more clothes and transfer other items to their hand luggage, I'm not sure if they succeeded or not, I did not notice them in the boarding queue but I wasn't really taking much notice. Quite a few people were having a whine about the restrictions on Ryan Air, I was so tempted to tell them to shut up or go to another airline but I bit my tongue, my trip cost just over 30 Euros, the next cheapest was 125 Euros. The terms and conditions are spelled out very clearly and reiterated when you do the online check in, if you follow those conditions then there is no problem, if you don't then you do have problems, if you don't like it pay 100 Euros extra and catch another airline, I have spoken.
I boarded the flight without hassle and grabbed a bottle of duty free Jameson for my Irish hosts. Once again on the boarding queue there where people whining about Ryan Air, shut up idiots. The flight was made interesting by a gorgeous 3 year old girl sitting next to me who was intent on having an adult conversation, happy to oblige. The pilot was Irish, I've always imagined Irish people as comedians or folk singers, never really pictured them as pilots before, it's funny how I have impressions about races or cultures and what they do for a living, Germans are engineers, French are avant garde circus performers, waiters or chefs, Japanese are electronic engineers, Canadians are mounted police and Poms are unemployed. Anyhow he got the plane off the ground and resisted the temptation to loop the loop or do a victory roll so he wasn't that much of a comedian.
The plane landed 30 minutes early due to strong tail winds. We got the famous Ryan Air fanfare and announcement that we were on another “on time” flight. Unfortunately for me it was not really an advantage to get there early as it meant another wait at an airport; I had a friend picking me up at the designated time so I was not getting anywhere any faster. On top of that my backpack was straight out on the carousel as soon as I got there so no waiting there either. There was time therefore for a coffee and a bit of food.
Jim and Maria were there about 20 minutes after I landed so the wait wasn't that long, compared with the waits I have had before boarding an aircraft. It was good to have someone meet me on arrival for a change. Jim and Maria were touring Australia on a work visa a few years ago and Jim worked with me at Grocon for about 3 months. I didn't expect him to take time off work to show me around but he did so which I am very grateful for. They live in a small town called Portadown which is south of Belfast in Northern Ireland, the drive took about 2 hours.
What started as a visit Maria's parents for a meet and greet finished at about 4.30 am with a lot of music and the unfortunate demise of the 'A' string on Jim's guitar when I was playing Wish You Were Here. No ones voice survived the night our vocal cords going the same way as the 'A' string it, was a lot of fun and the time seemed irrelevant. It didn't stop me getting up at 8.30 however, waking up early in the morning regardless of the time of night I go to bed is my blessing and curse.
