Like the whole world wants to listen to me whine...NOT

[alliecat8]

My mother just called me to remind me that we leave for Ireland/Scotland 2 weeks from today and I haven't done enough to suit her. I can't defend myself because she's paying for the trip and my job is to do EVERYTHING else, which, because it's a self-drive tour, means getting the rental cars in both countries, figuring out money conversions for 2 countries, insurance, where to stay (are we REALLY supposed to call just one day in advance to the B&B's places we want to stay in? Sounds cracky to me). I'll need a list of tourist attractions and fields full of cows and sheep (because I want to just "happen" on an un-touristy stone circle and dance there under a full moon (there will be one on July 26th, while we're still in Ireland) and play with the faeries and Moon Goddesses. My mother will be blissfully unaware of this craic-headedness, of course.

Anyway, I'm stressed. The luau is one of my favorite things in the world and I've got 3 stories eating my brain that want to come out but first I have to finish the love meme, which takes me a long time since I tend to say a lot plus this year I'll only have a computer for half the trip (damn Ryanair) and before that I'll be packing and soothing my mother and if she'd hush up maybe I COULD plan the trip fast enough to suit her. I have a questions though:

Apparently Ryanair sucks sucks SUX!!! They charge for everything, even breathing. Seriously, they're even gonna charge for the breathing machine I have to carry because of my chronic pneumonia, according to my travel agent. She's a bitch who LOVES to give bad news. My husband, who has done most of my travel agent's job for her, says there's no other option from Ireland to Scotland by plane on July 21st, and the travel agent says that taking the ferry between the two countries is a nightmare. (I wanted to take the ferry because I like water and I hate to fly!) She says the waves are horrible and my mother and I will both be puking by the time we get to Scotland. Is this true, or is the travel agent getting kickbacks from Ryanair?

On a happier note, I LOVE all the love I got from the love meme, but I'm ashamed because it all says I'm such a positive person...and here I am bitching my head off. SO, here's a HAPPY for you: I got a beautiful postcard from my beautiful LJ darlin' siluria! It's from Yellowstone (so magnificent), and I haven't been there since I was 14. I want to go back but this world is too big to see it all twice (or even everything once) *sad sigh*. It sounds like siluria is having the trip of a lifetime and I am jealous, and it is just STUPID that I'll be so close to where she lives but I won't have time to come see her. Siluria, are you not coming to the GFG? Do I have to come and kidnap you in your sleep? I'm one big DUH when it comes to geography but if it can be done I'll do it!

It's HOT here. I hear it's cooler there. My mother keeps telling me that it'll be near freezing in the mornings and then very warm in the afternoons so I should pack accordingly, but then she tells me I can't pack hardly anything because Ryanair charges $40 (that's 30 English #'s, I think) for a 44# checked bag and an arm and a leg for any more than that, and only one small carry-on bag...there I go, bitching again. I am going to Ireland! I am going to get a green tattoo! I am going to Scotland! I'm going to meet more of my favorite flisters! I hope toestastegood et al. don't tattoo me in my sleep or if they do, it's something pretty. I am going to see the Highlands and lots of sheep and cows (so they tell me - they cause traffic jams - unlike the sheep and cows we rarely see here) and maybe a faerie and definitely a drunken Irishman. I'm re-learning Irish drinking songs...Toes, are the Scottish more well-behaved, or do they have songs for me, too?

Soon I can check this off my bucket list, and afterward I won't cry because it's over but smile because it happened!

Comments

[eponine119.livejournal.com]

The waves are pretty rough. I hear.
The Scottish are not more well behaved.
I've been slacking lately and would be very happy to do some planning for you, just say the word or we can discuss. I would call the B&Bs now. too early never hurt, too late on the other hand...

[alliecat8.livejournal.com]

Pfft, I think everybody is just making up ferry-tales. The scary kind.

I'm gonna tell toestastegood that you said that. ;) But I'm glad to hear it.

THANK YOU AGAIN for all the planning you've already done. Today I'm organizing everything, so we can really get things going tomtorow. Wait, WHY are you at pdx today? Stress makes me one confused flake, so I can't remember at all!

[alliecat8.livejournal.com]

p.s. I can't believe you're afraid I'm gonna run off with google while you're gone. He's not my type; yeah, he knows a lot of things, but he doesn't gossip or go to plays or talk about hair. So you have nothing to worry about! ♥

[eponine119.livejournal.com]

Not PDX the airport, I was lazy-typing, just PDX the city. For the theater. i'm home now, talk to me!

[adeline.livejournal.com]

AVOID RYANAIR LIKE THE PLAGUE OMG

They suck completely, and by far enough to ruin your mood for a couple of days. Listen, when I go back home eventually, after 12.5 hours in-flight to London, I could be home in just 50 minutes via RyanAir. Instead, I choose to spend an additional eight hours on overpriced trains... Worth it.

[alliecat8.livejournal.com]

OMG, you're scaring me. It sounds like Oceanic. Can you tell me WHY it sux so bad? Everybody on the boards I looked at today hates it, too, but I didn't get any solid reasons besides all the extra charges. Wow, it sounds like you reallyreallyREALLY hate it. This friend of my mother's who is trying to be our travel agent (he's a retired one but I believe he always depended on his wife to know the ropes, and she's been in Colorado with a sick daughter and a new grandbaby), he booked us on Ryanair without discussing it with me and now he's got my mother convinced that it's the most convenient thing to do and my mother is so scared of doing the wrong thing that she won't consider anything else. It sounds to me like Ryanair is the most inconvenient thing of all, though. She won't go on the ferry because she doesn't want her mood ruined, she doesn't want to consider changing our travel plans again because it will ruin our mood, she's pretending that Leonard knows what he's doing (when he had us booked on Delta: Atlanta to Dublin for $2500 each, and said that was the best deal out there, and my husband went right to to one of the flight sites he watches and changed out Delta flight to a much more convenient Birmingham to Dublin flight, with much better hours, for $900 less. Leonard never said a word about it; I guess he was embarrassed. But if we can plan the trip better than he can, he needs to get out of my way and stop brainwashing my mother. If we MUST go on Ryanair because the time's too close to change it now, I'll just tell myself over and over that it's only a 50 minute flight. But we'll have to leave a bunch of our stuff locked away in Dublin! And Scotland is where I wanted to have the pretty clothes! I'm ranting, I'm sorry. I'll shut up now. But if you're close enough to Scotland, why don't you come along?

[adeline.livejournal.com]

I may have slightly overdramatized, but not by much. ;)

The planes themselves are tiny and cramped and, most of the time, seats aren't assigned to passengers so it's a first-come, first-serve kerfuffle when boarding. Also the inside of the plane is navy and BRIGHT NEON YELLOW. (With ads on the sides of overhead compartments - it's like spam pop-ups irl and you can't close the window, lol.)

The service is horrible and dishonest. They once charged me about $300 excess baggage even though I'd booked in advance an extra checked-in bag for a $60 fee. (I suspect this was because I was younger then. *shakes fist*) Of course, the baggage allowance is ridiculously small to begin with.

Overall it's just really uncomfortable.

The one upside, I'll say, is out of about 7-8 times flying with them, the most delay I've ever experienced was 45-50 minutes. Not a bad record for a low-cost company.

I'm quite a ways from Scotland at the moment (Missouri) but it would have been a pleasure!

[elliotsmelliot.livejournal.com]

I went to Ireland when I was 8. I have memories of my mother getting very seasick on the ferry. She had a pill to help her but dropped it on the table where there was some water and so it began to dissolve and she licked it off the table. So maybe flying is the better deal.

Good luck! It is impossible to plan for everything, but you have an adventurous spirit. I'm sure you will just roll with it and have an amazing time.

[alliecat8.livejournal.com]

I'll bet your mom has not-so-good memories of that ride, too! Poor thing, she must've been really sick. I accidentally read that to my mom when I was reading her this thread (it's mostly about Ryanair, which is hated so much by my flist that it reminds me of the first days of Ana Lucia, when she was abusing our Sawyer)! Now Mom is more determined than ever to fly, because she gets motion sickness when we're only driving to the mall! I told her it's just mind over matter it's totally all in her head, but she's being stubborn for the first time in her life.

I love adventures as long as I remember to just roll with them, and that's a great way to put it. I need to remember that even the bad stuff, the catastrophies (like breaking my ankle in Atlanta and not realizing it until got to NYC and Megan and I met up with elise_509 and filmgeekchic, and I started falling down all over NYC. Everybody was nice about it - even the New Yorkers! - but it was ridiculous, and I had to hold onto Megan until we got a cab - and I was worried about what people would think and she said, this is New York, baby, who cares? - and took me to a doctor) and the strange stuff (remember Curt and the dogs and the baby and the ankle bracelet fiasco?). Yeah, those were adventures. I'm glad some of them involve you. :)

Now, I know you were hoping to go to the GFG/Elf Meet at one time. PLEASE GO! I'd love to see you again and you'd be the only person there that I know. If I had money I'd give it to you, but in lieu of that I'll do your hair and we'll work on the fairy-tale book! I tried to copy your icon but mine came out quite messier. But the sentiment is there - I hope you can read it!

[elliotsmelliot.livejournal.com]

I would love to go to the GFG in Europe. It is more of a matter of time than money. I have too many work related deadline to travel again until 2011. But I know you will have an amazing time!

However if you were to show up and drag me, I couldn't resist your charm!

[ellel.livejournal.com]

Planning a trip with your family can be stressing,but there are some internet sites that I find very helpful(and I travel a lot):

Tripadvisor
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g186591-Ireland-Vacations.html

Virtual Tourist:
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Ireland/TravelGuide-Ireland.html

You can find info on what to do,where to go,many tips on hotels and transportation and food and just everything!So take a look!:)

*hugs*

[alliecat8.livejournal.com]

Oh, you are my Goddess! Thank you for the links. I will use them like crazy...so I *don't* go crazy. I wish I was going with y'all instead of my mom, which sounds ungrateful, (smites self) but traveling is SO much more fun with fangirls, somehow. I hope we'll be regrouping and thinking of new places and running away to play at "GFG"s for the rest of our lives! ♥

[toestastegood.livejournal.com]

I will tattoo 56 stars onto your face if you dare to fall asleep!

As a Scot, I of course have to say that the Irish are feral buggers while we Scots are very well-behaved.

[alliecat8.livejournal.com]

Oddly, an Irishwoman told me quite a different tale about the Scots - she said that *they* were the buggers! In fact, one of our favorite book series', Outlander, is set in Scotland and the bad guys are quite fond of buggering. That was, like, 250 years ago, though, so I'm sure they've learned how to behave by now.

I won't say the same for the Irish because "behave" is a daft concept to them. Obviously I am Irish. ;)

How in the HELL did that girl SLEEP through getting 56 tattoos? I would not. I have a tattoo. I talked my head off the whole time to keep my mind off of it. (Just ask eponine119, zelda_zee, crowgirl13, and gottalovev, who were there and whose ears are probably still numb. The tattoo-man probably knows as much about me as my hairdresser does, now. The only person who knows me better than my hairdresser is God (or, you know, Jacob or Hurley or whoever replaced him - Vincent?)

[birch-tree.livejournal.com]

you're going to Scotland?!!? When? For how long?
I am going there too! :))))

And I'll tell you something: I am flying ryanair too.
I very often do.
It is true: they suck, they try to make you pay for seriously anything (there had been rumors about a charge for using the loo during the flight, for real!), but...
Let's put it this way: they try to take advantage from you, but if you know them and all their tricks, you can beat them.
I mean, I have been travelling from Italy to Manchester for 5 euros once, and from there to Spain for 4 euros. I went to the Netherlands last month, and my flight back with ryanair was (literally!) 10 times cheaper than the outbound flight I booked with another airline.
In order to do that, you have to be really, really careful with your luggage, weigh it to the last minute, add as less as you can, don't relinquish to all the extra crap they try to sell you (extra insurance, priority boarding, sms, etc). And yeah, bring your own food if you need to eat during the flight -water unfortunately is not doable, but it's a short flight after all.
It's a war, baby! Know your enemy so that you can beat them, lol!
But apart from that, well, it's just a normal lowcost airline: the planes are ok, crew usually too, just the normal standard for this kind of flights...

[alliecat8.livejournal.com]

What? What????? You're going to Scotland too????!!

Okay, before I get too excited (dude, how is it that you travel so much?), I'm going July 31 - Aug. 7. Now tell me when you're going, and if it overlaps, THEN we can squee our heads off!!!!! :D

Thank you for the expert advice on Ryanair. My mother is terribly gullible so I'm going to call her as soon as I hit *send* and tell her not to let them talk her into anything, and pray she hasn't already. Oh Lord, I can see people in Ryanair uniforms rolling around on beds covered in cash, cash that would've once been my inheritance. I have to watch my mom like a HAWK, I tell you! What does she expect me to do with her when she's old and I can't afford to take care of her, sail her out on an ice floe like the Eskimos?

Unfortunately I don't know what euros correspond to or how much our flight costs so I can't compare yours with mine, but our travel agent's husband is an idiot and he booked the flight, so.... Yeah, Ryanair is having a party.

I'm gonna shut up and wait to find out if we'll be in Scotland at the same time. PLEASEpleaseplease!!!

(Sorry about the icon but after what you said in the love meme...bwahahahaha) >:)

[birch-tree.livejournal.com]

love your icon! *snickers*
;))

Very unfortunately, we're going to miss each other for just a matter of a couple of days! :(((((
I am flying to Liverpool first, arriving with a late flight on Aug 6th, but I will be in Scotland only from the 9th :((
But you know, I am taking this as a sign that we're getting closer, very slowly, and that we will actually meet one day ^_^
It may seem that I travel a lot, but I only do it around Europe (and as cheap as I can, lol!).
I have never been outside of the EU, and one of my dream travels is a visit to the US.
One day... ^_^

Anyway, we're both going to have a wonderful time! :)))
Do not waste too much thoughts and energy on travel expenses after all. Money come and go, you just enjoy your fantastic trip!

As Sawyer says on my icon: cheers!
or even better: Sláinte! ^_^

[alliecat8.livejournal.com]

Oh, I can't BELIEVE we're gonna be so close, yet so far. You're looking at the glass half full, though - I like that. I probably won't get back to Europe for 5 years or so (not until the kids are out of college) so we should meet here. I don't mean *here* here - not Mississippi! - but somewhere cool like New Orleans. Let's plan on it, darlin'!

It's my mother's money (she's paying for the trip) so that's why I worry about it - she might need it later when she's on a fixed income. I guess we'll just cross that bridge when we come to it.

Sawyer has learned how to speak Irish since you got your icon, evidently. ;)

[valhalla37.livejournal.com]

I can't speak for the Scotland-Ireland ferry, but I did the Liverpool to Dublin one and it was a dream. Eight hours, but totally smooth and no issues whatsoever. Even had a bar, TVs, couches for napping, games room, etc. so we were all able to keep ourselves very well-occupied. :)

[alliecat8.livejournal.com]

I'll read THIS to my mom for sure. You never can predict what you'll get, and we might get lucky. Uh, not in the way that sounded, though. ;) Our ferry from Vancouver to Seattle was like the one you took - unbelievably nice, and I don't think it ever even occurred to my mother to get seasick. See? It's all in her head! Thanks for giving me some positive info! :)