Ryanair sucks....Euro 2006(05.22.06)

This is an email correspondence between my dad and I:
Sent: Monday, May 22, 2006 3:04 AM
Subject: RE: While in Italy
We're still having a good time. We're waiting on a taxi right now to take us to the airport for our flight to Bari. You were right Dad, it's freaking cold and rainy! I should have packed more long sleeved shirts! I'll get a phone card and give you guys a call hopefully today or tomorrow. I talked to Josh and he sounds sad but okay. Guess what he told me?! We have a new baby duck!! Only one of the eggs hatched and Josh has been so good and built a little pen for it and the big ducks. Figures, huh? Well, I'm going for now but I promise to call soon!!
Love you sooooo much and thanks for the Italian message!!

From: <"Dad">
To: "Carrie-Anne Taylor"
Subject: While in Italy
Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 17:50:34 -0600
Una ultima cosa Carrie-Anne, non si dimentica di provare lo
spumone in Italia! S, sono affamato. La congettura I dovrebbe andare
fa il pranzo: ) Dad e Kathie di amore
******************************
One last thing Carrie-Anne,
don't forget to sample the spumone in Italy!
Yes, I am hungry. Guess I should go make dinner : )
Love Dad and Kathie

***************************************************
***************************************************

Monday morning (May 22, 2006) we woke up, checked out of the hostel, ate some breakfast, and took a long cab ride to Stansted Airport just outside of London. Our taxi driver was exactly what you would want a British cabbie in London to be. We had no idea what he was saying but we had a great time talking to him. Speaking English to the English is not quite as easy as you might expect. And while I'm thinking about this, during our travels through Italy and France, people would hear Emily and I talking and the first question they always asked us was if we were English. Our program director in France explained to us that when a foreign speaking person hears English words being spoken, they're not going to be able to determine any accent, only understand that the words are in English. And England being more likely to them than America, they assume English first. Just like Germans, French, Italians all have regional dialects and accents that are very distinctive to them, we would only be able to determine the language being spoken. I just thought that was really interesting because British and American accents seem so notably different to us.

Anyway, so the cabbie dropped us off at the airport and even let Emily take a picture of him holding Paolo's Yoda (I should probably explain that one). Paolo had a little stuffed Yoda sitting in the cup holder of his truck and Emily "borrowed" it without him seeing so that she could take pictures of Yoda in various places and with various people on our trip. She surprised him with a Yoda photo album when we got home. She got some really funny and unique pictures out of it. I think Yoda's in some of my pictures so when you see him, now you'll know why. Anyway, the cabbie was London's only saving grace as far a we were concerned. He saved our diminishing opinion of London. Once we got to the airport, we had a 5 hour wait until our Ryanair flight to Bari, Italy. We actually had a pretty good time hanging out in the airport. They had a smoking section and a cafe which was really all we needed as a backdrop for amusing ourselves and making fun of people.

About an hour or so before boarding, we were able to get in line to check our luggage. Did you know there's a baggage weight limit on some airlines? What? Did you know you have to pay 2 English pounds (about $4)/kilogram over that weight limit? What?? We had to hoist our suitcases onto their scale and Emily and I's suitcases were both over the weight limit. What?!? At this point the lady at the counter turned mean and didn't like us because we kept saying, "What?!...What??!!" So we had to unpack and repack our suitcases in the middle of the airport, took out the heavy things and stuffed and draped them into and over our already heavy, overstuffed carry-ons so that now it REALLY sucked that we had all this crap and I suddenly had backpackers-envy. We got back in line and reweighed, and I was close enough that they let mine go through. Emily, however, just couldn't get her's any lighter (I know she reshuffled all of her stuff at least once more but it was still too heavy) and the mean British lady at the counter wasn't going to give in, so she ended up having to pay 16 lbs ($32) just to get her suitcase on the plane....so immediately we hated London again. And in London's defense, I'm sure it's a really great place, the queen is no doubt a charming woman, I'm a big fan of British comedy and the BBC, obviously we were just in the mean people/everything's going to be as hard as possible section of the city.

Finally we boarded the plane, but it was very loud and smelly and cramped and hot and the guy sitting in front of us smelled like a dead ostrich..., well, he stunk. I guess what I'm summing up here is that our London/Ryanair experience was rather miserable. We tried really hard to be positive and just be happy that we were finally starting our big trip together, but really we just had a hard time getting through London. (And as you'll see, it won't be the last.)

So I'll end this entry with us on the Ryanair flight from Stansted, London to Bari, Italy. What's in store for the American girls on their big adventure? Stay tuned!