The fall of 2008 was my first exposure to the “budget airline”. The US has Southwest, Jet blue, and Virgin Airlines …but they have nothing on the budget airlines of the EU. Who knew you could fly from Venice to Dublin or from London to Geneva for 5 Euro flat, with NO taxes?
Yes, there are some catches if you’re traveling with a check-in, but that’s another post entirely. We only needed our carry on backpacks for most of our trips! I only had a few short months in Europe and wanted to make sure I booked all my flights early. Ryanair’s name (among others) came up quickly. Despite the negativity I’ve read about the airline – including numerous canceled, delayed,and “haha-screw you” flights…- we went with the Dublin based airline and hoped for the best. I’m happy to report that I’ve never had an issue with Ryanair, yet.
Playing at the Park
Ryanair was offering their notorious, limited time, no tax flights, and one of the options was Malta. After some Google-ing , I learn that Malta is one of the smallest countries in the world, and it is south of Italy. Yes, an actual country! Here’s an example of how my geography education has failed me.
The amazing offer was about to expire, so we booked the flight on a whim. We book for early winter and hope that Malta, being south of Italy, will still be supporting warm weather. I figured, 10 Euro roundtrip? If something comes up that weekend and we have to cancel, so be it…but we couldn’t miss out on the chance of a lifetime going to, uh Malta? I’m very glad we followed through with it. It was probably one of the best destinations we hit our entire trip.
Mondays are always especially rough for me. My 8th graders are a bit more indifferent on Mondays than on any other day, and mornings are usually hard after sleeping in Saturday and Sunday.
