Okay so this is my first attempt at a travel report so any helpful advice would be really sweet. Also, apologies some of the pictures aren't so good.

So with my exams due to finish on the 17th of May and birthday on the 18th, a few friends and I decided to go to Budapest for a few days to celebrate the end of our exams and to party! The flights were all booked and what-not when I got an e-mail from my college saying my final exam - Politics - was moved to the 19th of May. Oops. Nevertheless the show must go on and the flight date was moved forward a day by the helpful staff at Ryanair customer services for a fee of €25. Not bad, I thought.

FR 1023
DUB - BUD
Monday, May 19th
B737 800 EI-DAF
Flying time: 2H50MIN
Load: 90%
Depart: 16:00 Actual: 16:20

So on Monday the 19th I got up for the 7am bus, which brings me from just outside my home to my college, which is about 50 mins away. After the exam, I grabbed an airport bus to the airport, arriving at approx. 2pm, the same time that check-in for this 4pm flight was opening.

Check-in was a walk in the park, and I surprisingly wasn't over my baggage limit. After a short queue for security, myself and my friend Eamonn were free to roam. DUB was not particularly busy at this stage of the day - the morning flights to the US were mostly gone and the always packed early flights to London were also done with. The few planes hanging around were a reflection of this!


A sweet looking Aer Lingus bird


Luxair and USAirways - Luxair was about to depart and the US flight followed a while later.


A Primera plane waits beside so EI planes, waiting to bring travellers off to finer climes.


Take-off from DUB


We called this guy the Brownnoser.

After a drink or two we made our way to the gate. This being Pier D, the newest addition to DUB, everything was simple but clean. This area was built especially to cater for the low cost carriers. Other flights departing around the same time as ours from nearby gates included a FlyBe flight to Southampton and an Aer Arann flight to Kerry, with both carrying good loads by the looks of things.


Our gate.

As I had paid an extra €5 per way, I was able to avail of priority boarding which meant I got to the plane before most people. Boarding started around 4pm. The slight delay was caused by the A/C coming in late from it's previous destination. Boarding was swift and you were just pointed out the rotating door once you had been "boarded". There were a lot of FR planes around but the pax basicly had to work out which one was ours as we walked around; there were no people or signs saying which one was flying where!

We found her anyway, and here she is:



Inside, the interior was fine. The seats were comfy. We changed seats once when we realised there was broken up biscuit all over the floor below us! They don't clean up much between flights at all I guess. Apart from that, I was happy with the inside of the place. Leg-room was fine also, and I am not a short guy at all.


View across the cabin from my seat.


Our plane today was EI-DAF and it was delivered in Jan, 2003. This makes it an older member of the FR fleet than most and so the interior is not as plastic and yellow looking as the newer planes they have.



View of an EI A320 getting loaded

Within minutes of boarding, we were taxing to the runway. Before take-off, Ryanair play an instrumental song of their amazingly catchy new theme tune! The song is played over and over, just without the words. In between the song was an ad for a new energy drink they are selling on board. Here is the song!



Taxiing


We hate each other!


A CityJer flight from LCY or CDG lands.


No heavies waiting for us to get out of the way, then.

Take-off was great. I really like the sounds and feeling a 737 lets out as it gains speed. What a beautiful A/C.




Take-off from DUB


A ship on its way back to Dublin from England


Eamonn destroys his drink. "The turbulence made me do it".


Any idea what airport this is,eh? Somewhere in England anyhow...


Ryanair IFE and catering ha. The snack carriage was pretty much sold out by the time it got to us, so we passed on having food. The flight passed peacefully and felt fairly quick. I kept myself entertained with an issue of 442. The Ryanair magazine was also gone when the FA's got to us. This was one poorly stocked Ryanair flight, which disappointed me.


Decent towards BUD


After arriving in BUD, we were bussed to our gate. BUD is broken up into Terminal 1 and 2, with 1 hosting low-fares airlines and being very small and simple. Our bags were on the belt by the time we arrived to collect them.

All in all, this was a comfortable flight but it is a pity there was such a limited selection of refreshments to buy.


Eamonn after night one. We had gotten lost in the city and spent sunrise in a park with two homeless guys and their dogs. Long story. Notice the weirdness of the room and easy logo? We stayed in EasyHotel Budapest, a loco hotel! We all had our own double beds, ensuite with shower. Well, that's all we had really. But for €15 per night, who cares.


Westend Shopping Centre in the city centre

The centre had this man made water fall, which was donated by the Niagra Falls and looked awesome.

Me by the Dunabe.

The city has 7 bridges, all of which are wonderful looking.

By the Dunabe

By a Lada - what a car!

Amazing parliament buildings.

The EasyHotel bathroom. I know you can't see much, that's coz there wasn't much. It even had plastic flooring!


Hungarian State Municipal Circus. This was a great show actually, we enjoyed it alot even if I could not manage to smile - I was a tad hungover!

Onboard the Metro. For all you transport buffs, Budapest has an impressive network of metro lines, tram lines, as well as trolley-buses. The metro here was safe and frequent but the ticket machines were a bit of an 80s disgrace!

Neatly placed leaf.

Nightfall over Budapest.

Here are some more pictures of scenes from Budapest. It offers some great sights.










We went to the trains station to buy tix for our train to the airport. To our dismay, just one booth was open, with an elderly lady struggling to deal with the amount of people there. There was also an info desk open, but the lady there could not speak English. When we got to the ticket desk and bought out tickets, we were sent to the info desk to find out the time of our train and what platform it was leaving for, which made things inconvenient. No information was provided in English (or any other EU language) on any signage so we ended up just following natives with suitcases to our train!

That picture is the train we got for the return flight. The train system here seems extremely underfunded and the cabin was dingy. We got the train from the city centre, with BUD being the third stop.

FR 1024
BUD - DUB
Saturday, May 24th
B737 800 EI-DAF
Flying time: 3H
Load: 95%
Depart: 20.25 Actual: 22.25


When we arrived at BUD by train I was surprised to see that to get to the terminal one had to endure a lot of stairs. The facilities here did not take into account disabled people at all.


We headed towards the departures hall. T1 at BUD really is tiny - one can walk from one end to the other in no time.



Interior in BUD T1



These pictures show the zoo that was check-in at BUD. I know, it's low cost. Does that not mean people should queue? There were three flights checking in; one to LTN with EasyJet and one to Malmo with Zoom. People were just herding towards their respective check-in desks regardless of who was there before them. This sort of thing gets on my nerves as it is just plain disrespectful.

After eventually getting through the madness I checked in. The metal detector went off on me, even though I was wearing pocket less shorts and a t-shirt. I got a right feel-down and stare from some grumpy security guy, who did not seem to chuffed to be at work! After being deemed threatless, I passed on to passport control. One desk, about 400 pax, few of whom knew how to queue. This was one hell of a wait and alot of pax seemed to be getting agitated at the way things were being done here at this stage. Why was everywhere understaffed and uncontrolled? IAfter about 20 minutes of waiting I went through passport control and into the departures area. There were few A/C around to see.

Wizz 737 awaiting departure

Duty Free had only one person working. These guys obviously did not appreciate that a few hundred Irish and English pax in their terminal meant that 200 packs of cigarettes and discounted perfumes would be in demand. We queued to buy a packet of toffees for about 20 minutes, buy I did not mind. There wasn't alot to miss out on here. The souvenir shop and magazine store were shutting up and the cafe (with one worker doing food for all!) offered a far worse queue.

When departure time was just around the corner and we had no plane, I started to wonder if just maybe the world's best on-time airline was having a bad day?

Indeed, it was.

We were informed of this delay about 10 minutes before our scheduled departure, so it was no real shock to most, but there was still a mass groan when they announced a deal of this length. There was now a queue for the toilets, which were few and far between. Everywhere you looked, there was a massive, malformed, angry queue!


As my friends resorted to comfort eating and comfort reading, I just stared at the airfield as the odd private jet landed.

The plane eventually landed, but alas not in time for our delayed time. It landed at around 21:50. Now, I understand that this was a really bad terminal to be stuck in and everybody was desperate to get to the plane, but the sense of mania that ensued when the gate attendants hopped over a collection of bags, babies and dozing people scattered around the floor to start boarding is something I have never seen before. They done away with the whole priority boarding thing I and others had paid for and just started wripping random boarding passes without even looking at the passangers face or acknowledging our existence. Needless to say, no queue was formed. It was kind of being in the middle of a mosh-pit actually. Everybody was trying to squeeze through the mass and get to the desk. We got through after about ten minutes of waiting and surviving! We were put onto two buses and brought to the A/C - EI-DAZ. DAZ was delivered in Jan 2004 and boasted a beutiful McDonalds style yellow interior and seating colour scheme!


The seats also had ads on them.


I was pretty happy to have mad it into the plane without any serious injury. I had a gash on my leg from somebody running into me when legging it from the bus though; really!


My Walkman kept me sane for the flight.

The captain explained that we were delayed because the A/C was late coming in; as if we had not realised! The crew on board were very welcoming and we were really happy to see some friendly faces when we saw them.

There were magazines for us this time, and Ryanair Magazine is actually a great read. It has some really entertaining articles and the CEO's address features a picture of Michael O'Leary in a big leprechaun hat grinning like some evil monster. They even found the space to slag off Da Vinci airport for having misleading sign-posts (pointing out they fly to a more convenient airport there). I found the magazine a great read.

Heck, I was in for more thrills when a crew member explained they had two hot-dogs left - the only hot food they had available. I snatched the opportunity with two hands, before realising the thing was so small I barely needed one hand (sorry!). Here is a picture of the Ryanair New York Hotdog:

I threw ina can of beer too, and a Pepsi Light to make myself feel slightly less disgraceful. Myself and the F/A had a laugh when she pulled out the can of Pepsi, which cost €2 I think but was tiny. The hot-dog was actually tasty enough and the Beer was yummy.

The pilot kept us informed throughout the flight and there was alot of turbulence over some parts of Europe. We flew over Dublin from the Irish sea and then done a u-turn back towards DUB for some reason. We landed at 00:25 - two hours late. The landing was one of the smoothest I have ever had; I barely noticed us actually touching down! Off we got and we were left to our own devices to walk past a bunch of A/C and into Pier D at DUB. Now, most people rush to arrivals but as an aviation enthusiast, us types can't help but stare at the beauties around us and take in the smell of jet fuel, can we?!




A/C as we leave.





It is quiet a walk to baggage from arrivals in Pier D. Actually, it is quite a walk to arrivals never mind baggage! However, I like the clinical feel to it and it was spotless. Those autowalkers are a Godsend for tired feet too. We even noticed some ambient lighting along the way; which makes all the difference. I found the facilites at Pier D very pleasant really.

Anyway, bags were waiting for us as we arrived at baggage claims. There was a great vibe around as Munster had just won the European Cup and there were alot of fans returning from chartered flights.


Than it was off home.

I enjoyed both flights like I would enjoy any, but it really is a pity Ryanair cannot do a bit more for their pax on the ground. Simple things like having check-in organised and keeping pax better informed would go along way to improving their service. I have no problem with the inflight service. The outbound flight was understocked completely with regard to food, but I guess they had a Hungary bunch before hand or something; get it?
 

Thanks for reading and enjoy your next flight.
Mark