Getting to Dublin

When Matt told me he was going to Munich for the weekend to visit some of his friends, I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to visit my friend Julie in Ireland.
Excited to visit Julie and step foot into a new country loaded with sexy accents, I started researching my trip plan.
I figured I would just fly out of Nürnberg or at least, fly out of Nürnberg and into a city that flew to Dublin, but no such luck. It seemed that any of the airlines that flew out of Nürnberg would not connect up with others that would fly to Dublin, not unless I wanted to pay €800. So I researched the flights out of other cities and trains out of Nürnberg looking for the cheapest and most efficient way there.

Now as you already know, I grew up in the Ottawa Valley. Here's how we get places at home:
1) You drive
2) You take the train or the plane*
*When you take the plane or the train...someone will drive you in either their car or in one shuttle to said train station or airport. Even when the airport is a 2-4 hour drive.

Here's how you get to Dublin when you don't live with or near family, don't have a car, and can't just take one little shuttle to the airport:
Walk to underground subway, ride to main railway station, take 3 different regional trains(yes it was faster to take 3 than 1), take 1 bus, finally arrive at Airport......Fly to Dublin, take shuttle bus to Julie's work, ride home to Julie's house in the car.
Fortunately, I just had a purse and a small carry-on wheelie bag, so it was easy to make all the necessary transfers. It still blew my mind though.

Next to blow my mind:
Memmingen Airport in Munich.
You walk through the front door, check in on left, restaurant straight ahead, security on the right. I could see clearly out the windows on either end. After I went through security, I had to go to gate 5 of 7. One - three were downstairs, and the rest were upstairs. I mean literally up the stairs. No escalator. There was an elevator but I always find that escalator's are more common in airports. Anyways, up the stairs, grabbed a drink and bagel for the plane at the only other restaurant in the airport. Sat down and waited to board. I realized that the only people in the airport either worked there, or were flying to Dublin.
The flight boards and we walk back down a set of stairs on the opposite wall and out onto the tarmac.

Ryan Air:
Not assigned seats, sit anywhere, pay for in flight food and drinks and hear announcements every few minutes advertising their calender and scratch card sales, along with cigarettes and whatever else they sell.

Overall, it was an easy trip, I had row to myself on the plane, two new passport stamps, and a lot of learning about travelling. The ride back was not as easy, but that deserves it's own post.