M M M My Girona & I HATE Airports (Part 74)

The route I took from Toulouse to Bremen was a little counter-intuitive. I headed by train and a couple of buses in the completely the opposite direction until I reached a whole different countryand then flew straight to Bremen from an airport in Northern Spain.

I expected Girona to be just an airport however it turned out to be the unexpected gem of my trip so far. I spent the afternoon wandering the picturesque old-town - narrow winding cobblestone streets, a partly intact roman wall and a magnificent Cathedral. Best of all, the city was almost completely void of foreign tourists.

In the evening I headed out to a lively plaza with a friendly Slovakian hostel-goer, and spent the evening sipping beer and eating a banquet of tapas. The perfect one-day spanish experience.

My experience at Girona Airport was a lot less enjoyable. Budget Airlines have made travelling across Europe quicker but vastly more frustrating. In Europe RyanAir are the worst of the worst. They force you arrive at the airport the earliest, have the most uncomfortable seats with the least leg-room, the lowest baggage allowance and although their flights seem cheap, after you include taxes and all the other unavoidable, booking, baggage and credit card fees, you end up paying about three times the advertised price.

And while most airlines are at least somewhat flexible with their baggage limits RyanAir have staff waiting at every gate to weigh and size test every bag during boarding. I tried to walk on carrying a small book and my iphone and they actually made me put them back into my bag just to make sure they didn't weigh 3 kgs. My advice - don't fly RyanAir.