Airlines we took:
JetBlue - took this to Boston, not a bad flight, I'm not a fan of small planes but it was on time and comfortable and the stranger I was next to wasn't a bad seat companion so no complaints.
Aer Lingus - wonderful! It was so fun starting off our trip with an Irish airline. They didn't have the best assortment of movies to watch, but they did have music albums which was so much better. The flight was 6 hours to Dublin and 7 hours back to the states. It was pretty comfortable though and I really don't have any complaints.
RyanAir - very interesting. RyanAir is Europe's budget airline so all of our flights were under $100, some only being the equivalent of 20 US Dollars! This is possible though because drinks aren't served, there are a lot of ads, and the seats are pretty cramped, but hey you get what you pay for and it honestly wasn't as bad as I anticipated.
American - Oh my gosh. Horrible. This was our last flight home from JFK to DCA and it was only supposed to be a 45 minute flight. Just kidding! It was delayed 2 hours while we were sitting on the plane, it was so uncomfortable. And to top it all off, the person next to me started off our trip by eating his chips off his dinner with his tongue. Like, plate up to the face licking up chips. I mean, REALLY!? You can't pick those up with your fingers? So awful. I was already severely sleep deprived from trying to sleep in Dublin Airport the night before and was going on 24 hours in airports so this was just not a fun cherry on top. Thankfully we finally landed at DCA though and I don't think I've ever been happier to be alive and on the ground.
Airport Struggles:
DCA to Logan and Logan to Dublin: Nothing too eventful, though sleeping on a plane on an aisle seat next to a strange man is never easy.
Dublin to London: After getting to the airport and getting ready to go through security we went to Departures and were told we were in the right line by more than one worker. Then after going through security we realized we still had our shared carryon bag (mostly empty bag we brought for whatever we bought in Europe since our backpacks were stuffed to the brim). So, Meagan went and asked some workers and apparently we were in the completely wrong terminal... well great. So, they actually escorted us backwards through security so we could go check it in the right place and make our way to the right terminal. So, that was fun going through security twice, but hey it was an experience.
London to Barcelona: So this was a fun day. As we were checking our shared carryon at the RyanAir desk I handed the woman at the desk my passport and boarding pass and what happens, but she manages to drop my passport through the floor in a little slit next to the conveyer belt. So in a few seconds, my life was dropped into the depths of the airport in a foreign country. It took 20 minutes too for them to get workers to come and take apart the conveyer belt to get my passport. I can't even begin to imagine what would have happened had it been lost. THEN, I was the lucky winner of a random security check, so that was a lot of fun as well...
Barcelona to Edinburgh: I actually had my passport questioned leaving Barcelona. I've always said I look nothing like my picture on official documents and this time it proved true. The police officer asked me if the picture was really me and then had another officer look at it and then requested my boarding pass to compare. It was pretty funny actually, but a little weird.
Edinburgh to Dublin: We were in the biggest rush through security and the airport on this leg of the trip but ended up getting there in perfect time. Once on the flight, I was in the last row of the plane and was supposed to get the window seat only to find some American girl had already taken it. Umm okay. If you know me well, you know I'm not confrontational. So, I just sucked it up and was like "whatever" and took the aisle seat instead. Then another girl sat in the middle seat and decided the plane ride was a great time to paint her nails... umm pretty sure you're not supposed to do that. So that was fabulous as well.
Dublin to NYC: Leading up to this flight was an experience. We got into the airport from Edinburgh at 9pm and our flight to NYC was at 10:50am the next day. So, we along with many others had the great pleasure of sleeping in a cafe in the airport. It was so uncomfortable, but at least there were cushiony chairs. Funny story, the next morning I was still asleep at 6am and a security officer came up to Meagan and said "the airport is open for business so your friend needs to get herself together..." well thank you sir, I'm sorry I was too poor to enjoy a bed like you last night. Anyhow, after 12 hours overnight in the Dublin airport we finally got on our Aer Lingus flight out. We had acquired my cousin-in-law's brother's skateboard in Dublin so we also had the adventure of checking it in an Ikea bag that the baggage people wrapped up in a bunch of tape. I'll be honest, I felt pretty cool carrying around a skateboard at the airport. Then once on the flight we were asked to move seats across the plane so a family could sit together (not a problem at all) and after we moved a flight attendant came up to us and said how sweet we were for moving and thanked us and asked us if he could get us some free drinks with our lunch for our trouble. So we both ended up getting 2 Heinekens which was pretty cool!
NYC to DCA: Horror flight. See above description of the flight, I can only re-live it so many times.
Well there you go! Our 8 flights throughout the US and Europe. It's nice to know I'm mostly over my flight anxiety, but if I can go awhile without getting on another flight anytime soon that'd be great too.
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