The Big Trip Day 17 – Back to Linz

Bllllluuuuuuurrrrrrgggghhhh.

That’s what 4:45AM sounds like. We had to get up insanely early to catch a shuttle bus from the hostel to the airport. We basically had two options on getting to the airport:

  1. Take normal bus. Leaves at 5:30AM arrives at 6:30AM. The arrival time was perfect for the flight.
  2. Take shuttle bus. Leaves at 5:30AM arrives at 6:00AM.

They were basically the same price, so we decided to take the more convenient shuttle bus and just sit around the airport. Well, we got there about 5:45 instead of 6:00. We got checked in and through security. Then we sat around. Really, we didn’t do much more than that. Joni read some.

The flight back to London was uninteresting. We did learn that Ireland has an agreement with England that you don’t need to go through passport control. That was convenient, but we were kind of looking forward to seeing if they would ask me a bunch of questions again. Basically, we wanted to test how suspicious I look. Oh well.

We got our checked bag, then had to go out through security and get re-checked-in for the flight to Linz! RyanAir is a discount airline and doesn’t have any way that I could find to do a connecting flight. So, we were left with a flight to London, then an entirely different ticket/flight to Linz. It meant going through security twice, but it wasn’t too bad. The scanner at London did go off on me though. I think it was the shoes. So the guy gave me a gentle pat down. It made me feel funny.

We had just tons of time to spare, so Joni played a game and I did some blogging (the day 15 post). We also had a little snack. Joni had noticed some chips in London that we finally got a chance to try: Worcestershire flavor. Oh man, greatest chip man has ever invented. I should try making them myself…

Eventually we had to head to the gate. When we got down there we discovered a teacher we had met at Joni’s teacher’s house when we went there for dinner. He (the teacher we met) was there with his class. He had mentioned at dinner that he was taking a group to England and we just happened to have the same return flight. We chatted with him a bit in line, then got processed and headed to the airplane.

Most of the airplanes for Ryan Air are accessible only by walking to them and going up a staircase. I think this is to increase plane/gate density, but that’s a different post. The point being is that it started raining fairly hard, so we all had to run through the rain to get to the airplane.

The flight to Linz was way shorter than we were expecting, so Joni just napped and I read. We got into the airport, grabbed the checked bag, then took a cab back to the dorm. We figured it was just easier than messing around with a train/bus. It worked out well too because we needed to go grocery shopping! Turns out that today is another national holiday, so a lot of stuff is closed. Silly Austrians.

We spent the night Internetting, blogging, and getting unpacked. We’ve got just a few days now before we are heading home, so we’re going to start working on selling the stuff worth selling, giving away the stuff worth giving away, throwing out the stuff worth throwing out, and packing the rest. Hmmm, maybe we should pack the stuff worth packing first, then sell the stuff worth selling, then giving away the stuff worth giving away, then throw out the rest. Yes, that sounds like a much better plan.

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