AH!

We missed our flight, I can't believe it! I'm convinced that Ryanair has a policy requiring them to hire only sociopaths.

Last night we spent the night in the airport, as our flight was departing at 5:40 a.m! We woke up in plenty of time and were at the gate 30 minutes before it opened! We were in line to board the plane, with our passports and tickets ready, when the clerk informed us that we have to get a special 'EU stamp' on our tickets because we were no longer in Schengen territory!!! Why hadn't anybody mentioned this!?!

Of course, we traveled light with a small backpack each, and we printed our tickets offline- so we had no reason to go to the Ryanair desk (we also checked-in online)! Ridiculous!

So, we begged them to hold the flight for five minutes (it wasn't even supposed to take off for twenty minutes) and ran to the first floor of the airport to get the special stamp. We got it and ran back only to find out that they would not allow us to board! The stupid plane was still sitting there, with the door open and the stairs still attached! Ryanair employs evil and heartless people. It is capitalism at it's worst; they create all of these stupid little formalities in an attempt to screw people out of every dollar they have.

WHATS WORSE! As we (I) was sitting at the gate, crying, we witnessed the same Ryanair employees hold a flight for a first class passenger who was EIGHTEEN minutes late!! Is there a better business bureau in the UK?

Of course, buying the return tickets from Ryanair (late) will cost us 200 dollars, compared to the 30 we originally spent. So.. we are taking bus to London, where we will spend two days, then we will fly home on a (slightly) cheaper flight.

In better news, Scotland is amazing. We've been to Edinburgh, Glasgow and the amazing Isle of Arran. We spent two nights on the island, which was an incredible experience. It has everything- highland mountains, lowland plains and the sea! We had a bonfire one evening and were joined by a family of sheep; there are empty castles that you can explore and little caves that you can climb around in.

Robert and I are VIP members of Scotland- we've received midnight tours of the island by a police officer, and an amazing and huge private room for the price of a single bed in a hostel (fate)! We will explain it all when we are back in Finland.

I can't wait to share pictures, it's such a lovely country.

Oh, and I got an exciting email- Burn Magazine is going to publish a set of my photographs! It will take (at least) a few weeks as I have to work with them on the presentation.

http://www.burnmagazine.org/