Travel

Humour - Travel

North Main Street

September 27, 2006 by 0 Comments

I had reason to drive to Cork city recently to a premises on North Main Street. Not knowing Cork that well, I sought the assistance of a map on the internet and started to look for North Main St. However, I just couldn’t find it and all the references in site search results were useless.

My 70 year old father happened to be in the room at the time and since he grew up in West County Waterford (not a million miles away from Cork), I decided to ask him if, by any chance, he happened to know where North Main Street in Cork was. Here is his reply…

….pause….stare at wall…pause…. “Er, um, No … but I know where North Main Street in Youghal is…”

Priceless (and useless) !!!

Travel

To Ryanair or not to Ryanair

September 27, 2006 by 4 Comments

I flew from Cork to Liverpool with Rynair for a weekend break recently and experienced two completely different journeys. My wife and I both took hand luggage only and the flight took off right on time. We were off the plane in a matter of seconds after it landed and sailed out of the arrivals hall in Liverpool, both extremely impressed with efficiency of the outward journey.

I have to hand it to Ryanair on this front. Fair enough, they won’t wait for you if you’re late for your flight but this certainly works in your favour when everyone is off the plane so quickly.

But of course, my enthusiasm was short-lived because the return journey was reall pain. Once again, we checked in with hand luggage only and made our way to the security gates. However, I was stopped and told that pretty much all of my toiletries would not be allowed on the plane because they contained liquids (even my toothpaste for God sake). My options were to have them throw it all away or to return to the check-in area and check my bag through. Well I wasn’t going to just throw away over €100 worth of stuff so I duly returned to the Ryanair check-in desk (escorted by security of course) only to discover that they now charge £7 per checked-in bag and that I had to go and queue at the other side of the airport to pay this and then return to the check-in desk to collect my boarding card!

Finally, as I walked back through the departure area, I decided to buy some Lockets for my impending sore throat only to be told they wouldn’t be allowed on the plane either because they too contain liquids. Mother of God, what’s the world coming to? The laughable part about it was that the lady told me if I waited and bought the Lockets inside the departure area, I’d have no problem bringing them on the plane. So, are we to believe that all products for sale inside this area have been vetted for suspicious contaminents down to every individual throat lozenge. I don’t think so!

By the way, the new terminal in Cork airport is very nice but the long term car park still needs a lot of work.