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Since Caroline's birthday is on April 7th, we had decided to go away to celebrate it. Dublin was the first city we had ever visited together, and we had not really made much of that trip, since we were together also in the company of a whole bunch of students expecting us to spend our time collecting for charity - as is the usual order of the day on a university RAG raid. Although we had failed to collect much money on this trip, despite having the able assistance of Alistair, a friend of mind from school, we had also failed to do any sight-seeing, having given up on finding the Guinness Brewery and having found the so-called oldest-pub-in-Ireland instead.
This new opportunity to visit Dublin was something I wanted to make the most of. Therefore, I sorted out some flights and accommodation, discovering that we could stay in the Shelbourne at an expedia.co.uk "special rate" and that we could even afford to spend an extra night in Dublin for the same price as original aim of 4 nights, owing to the increased discount in air fares if we returned on Tuesday, rather than Monday.
Ryan Air is a low-cost, cheap and cheerful airline who fly from, among other airports, Teesside. We've heard mixed reports about Ryan Air's service, and the item of most concern, as we packed the suitcase, was their draconian policy on excess baggage. It's 15 kg per person OR ELSE. "Else" in this case is a £4 per kilo surcharge... a charge that we felt to be undesirable, especially on a service chosen in order to save money on the journey. Having decided that our aggregate 30kg of baggage allowance was probably more than enough for a 5 night stay, the bags were packed and we were ready to depart.
10 April 2002
Ashley Frieze