Testing out RyanAir

Our $27 flight from England to Ireland arrived on time and really wasn't as bad as we had expected. (*For future low budget traveler: RyanAir can save you loads of money if you're trying to get from point to point within Europe and book ages in advance with online discounts.) Through the company I work for back in the States, I was able to get us an amazing price to hire a car for the next 3 days. It was mid-day Monday and the plan was to start in Dublin drive clear across the country, while hitting every castle and cottage we could find and catch our scheduled flight out of Shannon to Paris mid-day Thursday!

Angie Driving our Rent a car

For those of you who have never visited Ireland, like England they prefer to drive on the left hand side of the road. Mix that in with about a million round-a-bouts (round-a-bout: a large island in the middle of an intersection, you circle around to make turns rather then stopping at traffic lights, which tell you when to go.) and not giving pedestrians the right a way, you pretty much feel like your learning to drive all over again. Angie being 23 was the only person in our group able to drive the car under the Budget Car Rental contract. And I was so proud of her she did an amazing job! The whole group was pretty tense on our drive from the Dublin airport into the city, but we made it! We couldn't find parking on the street so we drove into the Mall parking lot. Where I was able to call my friend Michael Maloney. He was a kid I had studied with in high school on an Irish study abroad, who was now living in Ireland and said he'd be able to put us up for the night. So seeing this wasn't my first trip to Ireland, it was actually my 3rd, I knew what to expect. But I'm sure my friends really felt they had arrived into good ol Ireland being there at the Mall.

RyanAir Flight

After getting sorted and all settled in, we cruised into Dublin city, to see the sites and have a pint at the famous Temple Bar.

The Team at Temple Bar