Ryanair - A Great Travel Option in Europe

Despite the immense bad mouthing Ryanair gets on the web, after flying with them to Paris from Venice Treviso Airport last month I came away with way more positives than negatives. The airline is the largest in Europe and has 950 routes to just about everywhere. Yes, its definitely a no frills airline and everything including scratch off lottery games (yes that was not a typo) are for sale on the plane. You do get a complimentary seatbelt however. I have read numerous not so pleasant reviews of the airline but one fact that trumps all in regard to Ryanair is the price for flying with them. Its remarkably low, and I was able to fly round-trip to Paris for under 100 Euros. Yes, the airline doesn't usually fly to the main airports of the cities it flies to but the amount of money it costs again usually will make it ok. For instance at Paris-Beauvais Airport in Beauvais France, a comfortable bus will shuttle you to Paris where you can board the metro and go wherever you want. It was 13 Euros, and it took about 90 minutes. To the contrary a trip from DeGaulle (CDG) will probably still take an hour and is only a few Euros less, so I thought it was worth the hassle. I found they weren't overly strict on the bags either. The website is loaded with warnings on exceeding your baggage limitations but if you travel with the basics (you will have to to avoid charges for luggage), you will be below their limit. If you somehow show up with more you either dump the excess or you pay a hefty charge for each KG you go over. I did witness one female traveler transferring some items from her bag to the carry-on luggage of a not so enthused male companion after their bags we're weighed. Now, I will say that it may be worth the small fee to use their early boarding option. I think it depends on which airport you use, but it can be a real crazy situation. Since Ryanair doesn't have assigned seating there are families and everyone else hoarding to the gate as soon as the boarding is announced. At Venice Treviso airport it went fairly orderly. In Paris Beauvais it was borderline pandamonium. I can't say enough that just to avoid fighting or clawing with these people its worth the 4 Euros to just get priority boarding and you go to the front of the line. It would be different if most humans are civilized and thoughtful of others but they simply aren't unfortunately. I don't really mind being way back or anything but the frustration of seeing all of these crazy people cutting in line and running (yes running) to the plane is enough for me to enjoy the chaos from my seat on the plane. This leads me to my only real complaint about Ryanair and that is their Beauvais Airport Departure Area. Along with at least one or two other airlines the Departure area of Beauvais Airport is small, with virtually no seating and there are people everywhere! Literally you will walk in and stand for an hour or two depending on your flight which could be delayed forcing you to stay longer. They don't publish any departure gate information until it begins to board so you have people guessing which gate will be theres only to find out its clear across the other side of the terminal. Its literally a zoo with people pushing and knocking people over to get to the front of the line. I have to admit I absolutely hated this airport. But, like they always say you get what you pay for and it ended up getting the job done. I was among the last 40 or so people to board however in Beauvais and still bagged an exit row seat with all kinds of legroom and sat next to my friend so it all worked out. Overall, I came away with a positive experience with Ryanair and will definitely use them again.

RYANAIR

Pros-
Really Cheap prices, lots of destinations, pretty good about being on-time

Cons-
Crowded Airports, baggage limits with pricey alternatives

Ljubljana Slovenia - Mid October 2009

I didn't spend long in Ljubljana but the day that I spent there was certainly worth the trip. A part of the former Yugoslavia, honestly Ljubljana won't win any major awards for the go-to place in Europe. But,its really a beautiful place with fantastic scenery and some really good food. The Triple Bridge was really nice with the Franciscan Church of the Annunciation dominating the landscape. Near the Bridge the Olde town area and Mestni Trg square with Robba's fountain and St. Nicholas Cathedral are certainly worthy of terrific pictures and a great place to sit down and eat and enjoy the sunset. Walking through Old Town Mestni Trg (Town Square) was nice although construction cut off a major artery into the area visibly annoying and costing the businesses there. Its a nice area but a vast portion of it becomes pretty deserted after dark. Many compare the streets and alleyways in this area to that of Prague. Hovering above is Ljubljana Castle with breathtaking views of the city and the Alps in the distance. You can walk up or take the Funicular to the top for a small fee. I would recommend the Funicular just for the experience. You can always walk down or vice versa. The Castle itself is not the most attractive castle you will find in Europe but it gets the job done. I didn't actually tour it which you can, but just strolling around it up on the hill overlooking the city will probably satisfy your trip up there. Overall I would recommend coming here even if just for the day. Its not going to be a history buff's dream most likely, but it definitely does have history and its overall a beautiful, clean and safe place to stroll around and take in the scenery and sampling some of the good food.

Sights C This isn't Paris or Rome, but its nice

People A Very friendly people who almost all spoke English

Food B+ Not bad, but I don't know if I'm qualified enough to say much. I will say I tried a piece of pizza from a To-Go Pizza place and it was not good at all and gave me some serious heartburn.

Public Transportation N/A They have it, but I didn't use it

Safety A I felt very safe in Ljubljana even at night. I'm sure it has its parts but based on my experience you probably won't see them.

Cleanliness A Definitely a clean city even outside the city center

Introduction

Well as most already know, I'm setting off on the endeavor of my lifetime. I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area establishing residency and applying for an Italian Visa to go and live in beautiful country of Italy. I arrived here on June 28 and decided I would start keeping a sort of journal to chart my experiences. I started this journal pretty late so I will try to sum up whats happened so far.

Day 1
I of course arrived in San Francisco airport then from there I took a turboprop to Monterey where my friend Stacey was waiting for me. We then decided to go ahead and go straight to San Francisco (yeah I know what was the point of going to Monterey). I basically decided I would cave in to my internal dislike for such a thing and we headed for the largest Gay celebration in the universe "San Francisco Gay Pride". It was fun, and we saw a lot of things we were both expecting to see and sometimes not expecting to see. Funny as it is, I think my first observation from the whole thing was how many people were smoking weed on the streets. It was everywhere to say the least. Overall we both had a good time and after a nine dollar beer we headed back to the car and drove by the Italian Consulate. I had butterflies in my stomach immediately. We then headed on back to Watsonville which is almost 2 hours south.

Day 3 - Car Rental
Stacey was going to be away for the entire day, so I decided I would rent a car and drive up Highway 1 which is without a doubt my favorite road in this country. I first went to Santa Cruz and walked on the Pier and the boardwalk, took some pictures, had a slice of pizza and t-shirt at Pizza My Heart, and then headed on up the PCH toward San Francisco. This road is simply amazing, and it hugs the coast for most of the trip to SF. Cliffs upon cliffs, waves crashing, lighthouses, and rocky enclaves come at you so fast its almost impossible to not stop and take it in out of the car. As you approach San Francisco you cut through woods and huge rocks, with another treasure of scenery standing by around each corner. I went to the city and had a really nice time. I drove up and down the northern part of the city gawking at the many beautiful mansions that seemed to go on forever and ever. I have always like touring extremely wealthy neighborhoods and San Francisco has never been short of them. I like to be surprised and for my preconceived notions to be wrong, and I actually didn't realize just how many wealthy homes there are in the downtown area. It simply amazed me. I then headed south to the infamous Haight-Ashbury area (site of the Summer of Love) and thought it was pretty neat. I got offered weed twice (I declined) and overall just mainly walked through. I did stop at a huge record store and purchased a few records since I figured they would be easy to take with me. John and I are starting a record collection. I picked up about 5 titles each costing roughly 3 bucks and with that I headed to Baker Beach to see if I could get some good pictures of Golden Gate Bridge. It's really a great beach with a wonderful view. I climbed on some rocks trying to apparently kill myself, but luckily I didn't slip and bust my head open and got some great pictures of the bridge. I then wrapped up the day and headed on home, enjoying more picturesque views of the Pacific Ocean.

Fourth of July
On the Fourth of July we went to the beach (God I need Stacey here to get the names right of the beach) but it was really nice. I got sunburned during the day, went to a bar late in the afternoon with Stacey and two of her friends, and then we headed back out to the beach with her friends (Paul and fiance whom I cannot remember name, again where is Stacey)and joined by his mother we watched fireworks on the beach. I'm telling you in almost 30 years on this planet, I don't think I've ever seen this many fireworks being shot at once. You could see them up and down the beach far in the distance, miles and miles away. It was simply amazing. What was also amazing was the cops trying to enforce a fireworks ban. This was the strangest thing to me. Literally I watched as the cops were giving some people hell, writing them a ticket, and making them leave the beach. While they were doing this fireworks were streaming through the night bursting in all directions. It was a really bizarre and really in a way kind of sad. Something that this many people do, for the most part harming nobody, and their government actually trying to take it away. Its obvious that sometimes liberal governments would rather stop people from doing things that they enjoy so they can cut costs. One observation I could clearly make so far in my trip was that there was a lot of people out here who are patriotic. It almost seemed like they were a little more than the South where I'm from if that could be possible. Now minded, I was not in San Francisco, but I was in a very liberal county. I completely underestimated the celebrating of Independence Day, the flags everywhere, the parades, the clothing etc. It was everywhere and it made me feel a little better about my country than I did before I left. On the East Coast we almost get led to believe at times that this area of California especially was quite different than the rest of the state and overwelmingly different than the rest of the country. Its not seemed that way to me at all really so far. Anyway so yes fireworks going on everywhere, cops trying to stop it but majorly unsuccessful, and meeting Paul's very old fashioned, charming and all around nice mother. She made some very like-Jay statements about the country, the cops, and Michael Jackson and was a pleasure to meet. Overall I had a fantastic time at the beach. I can't believe I forgot to mention we went to the San Francisco Giants game against the Astros the night before. It was yet again the same story for me. The Giants are suddenly winning 13-0 and its the third inning!!!! Needless to say there would not be another run scored the entire evening and this baseball game fell into the books as "pretty boring". It was nice in a way though and I still enjoyed the game. They had fireworks after the game, and I was once again slightly surprised at the amount of patriotism. In the town of San Francisco, liberal hated Lee Greenwood's Proud to be America blared on the speakers to the whole crowd as fireworks rose out of the bay behind the centerfield scoreboard. And, the city didn't require "I won't forget the men who died" to be changed to "those" who died. Its the little things about the city that sort have been winning respect with me here and there.

Lots more happened with Stacey and I had a great time with her. Unforunately I'm gonna have to fast forward for now. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to this.

San Francisco International Airport

San Francisco International airport is one of three major airports in the Bay Area, and normally serves as a not only a domestic hub, but a major pacific international hub with lots of flights to Asia. I've been to SFO a few times and overall its a pretty good airport. I have only used the Domestic area and have flown United and US Airways. Its clean, manageable, and in a pretty good location. The airport is located south of the city, and provides subway (BART) service to downtown which is nice although its a bit pricey. Getting from terminal to terminal via the local airport train is also relatively easy and doesn't take very long. Even if you get on the wrong one going in the wrong direction it seemingly brings you back around in a few minutes. There are places for someone with a laptop to plug it in located all over including the seating areas. San Francisco is fairly up to speed with more modern airport amenities including things you can't do at some airports like renting a DVD player, a medical clinic, and some museum galleries. It even has an aquarium. I like the people movers inside the airport (they are bouncy which for some reason I like) and they are placed pretty much everywhere. Signs are well placed, and large to see from far away, yet not overbearing. I haven't experienced any delays at SFO, but from what I hear they can happen, especially if the infamous San Francisco fog is present around the airport. Food is not too bad, but I would like to see a few more of the national chains believe it or not as sometimes I'm in a hurry and don't have time to sift through all of the different places trying to figure out what they have and how much it costs etc. I'm also a picky eater so that comes into play.

Some things I don't like about the airport are having to leave security to make a connecting flight. This really annoys me, and I most recently flew into SFO and had to basically run to my next flight after a 30 minute hold up at security so I could make a connection in another terminal. I understand its rare for large airports to have everything behind one security check, but some do with Chicago (minus the international terminal) being one of them and also Charlotte. Wireless internet is not free which is another thing I really don't like. Also if your renting a car in San Francisco be prepared for some frustration. I could not believe how small their rental counter area was. There were people sitting on the floor, lines spiraling into other rental company areas and not even room to walk from one part to the other. Rental cars tend to be very expensive here as well.

Overall its a decent airport and if you like big planes there are few places in the United States to see more of them. The last time I was there I saw 6 747's which is quite a few to be parked at the airport at one time. The terminal is good at showcasing traffic on the tarmac as well.

Airport rating B+
Eating B-
Crowd management A-
Amenities B+
Ease of getting around A-
Car Rental D
Public Transportation A-