Baggage limits can't stop me...

Ireland, I am coming home...

Emily and I stayed up REALLLLLY late last night packing for our spontaneous trip to Ireland and London. It only took us about an hour to figure out where we wanted to go, book the flights, and find a hostel (We didn't think twice about any of it; we didn't have time!), but it took us MUCH longer than that to pack! We are using a very cheap airline service, Ryanair, to fly around Europe, and thus, cheap airlines give you less freedom with carry on baggage, and if you don't meet the requirements, you have to pay to check it. We both wanted to take our backpacks (By backpack, I mean a backpack that is used for hiking purposes or backpacking through Europe. I'm not talking about a normal, every day one that you'd take to class.), but our bags are MUCH larger than the bag restrictions. Also, the bags had to weigh 10 kgs (22 lbs), and we knew that there would be no way that we could meet that requirement. However, we did not want to pay to take them because it's pretty expensive once the currency conversion sets in. So what do two girls do that want to take a lot of stuff with them but don't want to pay? They get desperate and devise a plan to bend the rules a bit!

First, we picked out everything we wanted to take. Then, we went through stuff that we don't really need. We decided that we could go 5 days without conditioning our hair, and a blowdryer is not a necessity, so we left those behind. We also limited our clothing to one outfit a day, but we decided we'd wear the same thing on Saturday that we would on Sunday, and of course, we'd wear the same pair of jeans for a few days in a row. However, our bags were still too big and not everything would fit, so we got really desperate and decided that we don't REALLY need to change our socks and underwear every day; surely we can go two days in the same pair, right? Then, we used a tip that my dad gave me in Fayetville. Since my blanket wouldn't fit in my bag when we traveled to Spain, he told me that I could tell the airport people that my blanket was my shawl. With this tip in mind, our sleeping bags came out of our backpacks and soon became our shawls! We still needed a bit more room, though, so we put the final touches on our plan:




As the video shows, we took things out of our bag and shoved them into coats and coat pockets. This worked perfectly! We may have looked a few pounds heavier, but our bags zipped! We were still really over the weight limit, though, and our bags were MANY inches over the dimension requirements. I had a plan, though...

If you have carry-on luggage, they make you put it in a box to see if it fits and then weigh it when you get your tickets. Well, the lady didn't have to weigh my luggage or Emily's because I had Emily stand back with it while I got my ticket, and then we switched places. Thus, no weighing or inch checking was ever needed! We weren't out of the danger zone yet, though. We still had to make it through security and onto the plane. Security gave me a brilliant idea, though. They made us take our laptops out of bags when we went through the metal detectors. This made our bags look a LOT smaller and possibly even fit into the dimension requirements. With this in mind, we decided to slide our laptops under our coats as we boarded the plane so our bags appeared small and they didn't accuse us of having two carry-ons. It worked perfectly! We made it onto the plane, put our bags up, and didn't have to pay any ridiculous fees! We waved good-bye to Valencia and headed to London! Here's Valencia at night from the sky:


We may have gotten away with not paying for our bags on Ryanair, but they still got money from us! On most airlines they give you free drinks during the flight, right? Well, when the lady came around to ask what we wanted, we told her, and she gave it to us. Then, she told us how much we owed her. We ended up having to pay 1.60 euros (that's over $2!) for 120 ml of Pepsi! Seriously, crazy!! Oh well. You live and learn. And now I have learned to NOT get drinks on Ryanair! But I did learn how to get past the baggage restrictions of Ryanair, so take that, Ryanair! :)

Our plane ride from Valencia to London went very well. There were no delayed flights or air traffic to worry about like last week!! Plus, the plane was not crowded, and we were both able to sleep a bit. The jet was definitely much better than the prop plane we took from Barcelona to Valencia last week. :)

As for now, Emily and I are sitting in the London Stanford airport. We're actually on the ground because we have only been able to find one electrical plug (We're sharing it. I use my battery while hers charges and vice versa.), and there are people sitting in the seats next to it. So, here we are: blogging, instant messaging, and catching up on facebook. Our plane for Ireland departs at 6:20AM, and we just finalized the possibilities of what we may do while in Cork. Our possible plans include: seeing Blarney Castle and kissing the Blarney Stone (This is a definite!!), taking a tour of the Old Middleton Distillery and becoming a certified Irish whiskey taster (Seriously, they give you a certificate. Please admit that that would be a lovely decoration for our new apartment. And I'll be careful, Mom.), visiting St. Finbar's Cathedral (and possibly attending another mass! Catholicism, here I come. Okay, not really, but I haven't seen any First Church of Gods here!!), Blackrock Castle, see the Bells of Shandon, visit the city center (Supposedly there are a lot of neat markets and shops there.), go to an authentic Irish pub (another definite!), and possibly try to catch an Irish jig. Oh, and I would also like to kiss an Irish boy because wouldn't it be fun to say I did? Plus, I can say, "Kiss me! I'm Irish!" because it's partly true. We'll see about that one, though... ;-)

Of course, Mom and Dad shouldn't worry too much because I'm not very kissable as of late. Spain has made me sort of gross. We don't shower daily at Lucia's; no one does. Oh, and I've also developed this habit of wearing the same stuff a lot without washing it because we haven't had easy access to a washing machine, and even if we did, they don't believe in dryers here, so we'd have to hang all of our stuff up outside of Lucia's on a clothes line. I also haven't shaved my legs in over a week (GROSS!!!!), and curly hair is becoming more and more regular. That'll all change (Well, maybe not the curly hair part. It's just so fast!) once we have an apartment that we can do what we want in. I'm still a firm believer of personal hygiene, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, and this week we had to forgo cleanliness in order to search for apartments and get everything else done. :)

When we return to London from Ireland, I'm not sure what we'll do here. I guess one thing we'll do is have a Scholars House first floor (Gen, Lisa, Sarah, and JT) reunion (plus Amanda Felt from third floor!), since they're going to let us stay with them for free! I definitely want to go on the London Eye and see Big Ben, but there are lots of possibilities in relation to what else we'll do. I'll be going to London with my parents and brother, though, so if I don't see it this week, I can see it then! Speaking of Mom, Dad, and Aaron, they will be here in SIX weeks!! That's not very far away! That's crazy! I'm really excited for them to get here and experience it with me. I miss my sweet little family! And, of course, after they leave, we have another very exciting thing to look forward to.. Ashley and Rachel are coming to visit for Spring Break!! How cool is that?! I can't wait! A little piece of MSU will be in Spain with us! We'll definitely miss Jess and everyone else, though, but thankfully we still have the internet to keep us connected!

Anyway, besides the traveling we've done today, the day was fairly boring. We went to lunch (at 10am. Why do Spaniards eat at such weird times??) with Alberto and Lucia at this little diner that Al's friend owns. Then, Lucia drove us into Valencia, where we put the deposit down on our apartment!! Ok, so that was exciting! We move in on Friday, and I can't wait to stop living out of a suitcase and finally unpack my bags! We didn't stay at the apartment long, though, and when we returned to Lucia's, we took a really long nap. It was a much needed nap after staying up so late packing! When we woke up (late, of course. Emily and I are so good at sleeping through alarms.), we ate dinner and headed to the airport..

And here we are now. In London. Waiting to go to Ireland. I'm really excited about this trip. Spain is fun, but I'm glad we are able to travel a bit before classes start on the 11th! I'm excited to see how other countries function. I just find Spain to be really amusing. It's different, but it's not necessarily bad. Just different. One thing that always makes me laugh is that there is bread served at EVERY meal, but no one ever eats it. It just sits there. If someone would just break the bread, I would eat it, but I feel awkward just diving in! Everyone also smokes here, which I'm not a fan of, but whatever! Oh, and it seems that everyone also has piercings here (well, if you're under 30!). Seriously, people my age either have their tongue pierced or their chin or something else.. I'm not really a fan, but it doesn't bother me much. They're just much more accepting of it here, which I guess is kind of cool.

I guess I should wrap this up soon. Our plane departs in about 3 hours. Cork, here we come! I am so excited! Ireland is the one place I've always wanted to go. My dad's side of the family is from there (hence the albino skin I have), which makes it that much more special. Of course, Mom's side is partly from London, so I guess I'll be celebrating a bit of that heritage, too, later on in the week! You can expect updates from the Emerald Isle! Until then, cheerio, mate!

P.S. I forgot to mention this last time, but Emily and I found a job in Valencia!! We're going to get paid 10 euro an hour ($15/hour!!) to speak our native tongue. This lady wants someone to help her 7 year old kid learn English, so she is going to pay us to talk to him in English for 1 hour a day, 2 days a week. Sounds like tough work, huh? :)

P.P.S. I love and miss you all!!

...I can see your rolling hills and fences made of stone.