When in Ireland ...

Do as the Irish ...

My day in Dublin actually turned out to be quite productive. Got what I needed doing in the office done, and also went to lunch with two work collegues, Catherine and Paddy. (Yes, I know a real Irishman called Paddy).

Left the office at 3pm and had the 2nd most boring cab driver in Ireland take me to the airport. Now whenever I get a cab in Dublin, I always make the point of mentioning my parents lived there for 3 years, and also asking if we're going the M50 or Malahide Road way to Dublin .. When I first went over, I got an unwanted guided tour which nearly cleared me out of my Euros, so have learnt my lesson.

As for the cab driver, once he discovered I worked for a bank then he wanted to talk economic crisis ... Me telling him that I don't actually have anything to do with the finance side of things, I look after the computers, didn't stop him - he carried on regardless. In between economic crisis, he'd give me a potted history of where we were - have to admit some of it was interesting especially as he took me a route to the airport I'd never travelled before, and it did get him off the subject of banks.

So, Dublin Airport. Yesterday due to the diverse route taken by the cab driver, we missed the sign that greets you as soon as you enter the airport. The sign to the morgue .. Always good for nervous flyers. Though of course the cab driver had an opinion on why the morgue is so well signposted, something to do with the amount of ex-pat Irish being flown home to Ireland when they've died so they can be buried in the home land.

I was on a RyanAir flight, which bearing in mind RyanAir is an Irish airline, you'd expect their planes would be relatively simple to get to. No ... RyanAir are positioned as far away from the security checks as possible, and requires a 10 minute hike to get to the departure gates.

RyanAir also charge you for everything. Checking in at the airport as opposed to online, that'll be 6euros. Want priority boarding, another 2euros please. More than one bag, prepare to remortage your house. As for on the plane itself, I'm surprised the stewardesses don't pass a hat around once they've done the safety demonstration. Tea, coffee, drinks, all chargable (As opposed to my BA flight out where I had a nice sandwich and drink, for free!). To be fair we did land early at Stansted, and to celebrate RyanAir play a fanfare over the planes tannoy to celebrate this momentous occasion - unfortunately they didn't take into account the snow at Stansted and the 45 minutes we spent sat on the runway waiting for somewhere to park the 'plane...

And when we did get off the 'plane ... SNOW!