Category: Travel

Airlines I Used to Go to Japan in 2022

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

Do you like long-haul flights? Some people suffer for some reasons, but I don’t because I get excited, feeling it is special during the flight.

This time I will report the airlines that I used and their flights on the trip to and from Japan in November and December, 2022!

Table of Contents

     1. Outward journey
          a. Lufthansa
          b. Star Flyer
     2. Homeward journey
          a. ANA
          b. Lufthansa
     ★Summary

1. Outward journey

a. Lufthansa

It was actually the second time to use Lufthansa, and it had been the first time since 2019. Then the COVID spreaded, and the Ukraine war began, and coincidentally Lufthansa was the only option. (In more detail, I was supposed to use Finnair, but they cancelled, and though I changed to JAL, they cancelled the flights, too.)

As it had been three years since the last time when I used Lufthansa, there were some differences.

I think the flight took 1.5 ~ 2 hours from Tallinn to Frankfurt.

When I used Lufthansa in 2019, the transit was also Frankfurt, and they gave me sandwiches as snacks at that time. I remember that since there are two flights on one way, I got sandwiches four times. (I got so full. 😂)

However, at some point, they changed their services, and this time they gave me only a 300ml bottle of water and a piece of chocolate.

I searched this information beforehand, so the expectation was low, and yet it wasn’t personally acceptable because I was too hungry at that time. 😂

As for the flight from Frankfurt to Tokyo Haneda, even though it was the same Europe-Japan connection, the flight between Kansai airport and Amsterdam, which I used in 2016 was better.

They gave me better snacks. 😂

Twice.

However, they might also have changed their service, too.

On the other hand, on the way to Tokyo, Lufthansa gave me only drinks and meals. There were no snacks. Although the meals had no problems, I was kind of disappointed because Lufthansa is one of the popular airlines.

For dinner, they gave me options: pasta or beef. If I eat flour products, my belly bloats, which I really didn’t want in the plane, so I chose beef. However, there was still bread. 😂 The beef was served with rice though. 😂

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Until I fell asleep, I tried to manage this hunger with juice which I barely drink in my daily life. Meaning that, I was that hungry.

As for the breakfast on Lufthansa, I had yoghurt, a sandwich as well as chocolate biscuits. I’m not sure if it was because I was kind of paralysed or wasn’t moving that much, such a light meal made me feel full. Therefore, for a drink with breakfast, I had black coffee. Regarding yoghurt, there were some flavours, and the crews distributed it to us randomly. I got a cherry flavour. 🍒

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Perhaps since lots of people prefer the window seats, when booking flight tickets without any additions, most likely I will get aisle seats. The positive point is that I don’t have to care about others to go to the bathroom. On the outward journey, the bathroom itself was close to my seat as well.

However, it was hard to recline my seat, and I had to press the button extremely hard. This is a negative point.

On the Lufthansa plane, the movie selection wasn’t that good, and the screen didn’t work well either.

Considering the outward journey, I thought it might be a good idea to use ANA spending a little more money, or use JAL which would be cheaper than Lufthansa if available. So far, KLM is much better than Lufthansa overall. 😂 (Though I don’t think there is a connection by KLM between Kansai and Tallinn.)

b. Star Flyer

The airline that I used last on the outward journey was ANA’s cooperative airline: Star Flyer. It was a domestic flight. On the plane there was a charging port, a footrest, a drink service and a screen that worked better than the ones on Lufthansa.

Plus, luckily, I had a window seat, and was able to see Mt. Fuji without snow.

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Lots of travelling exhausted me, so I slept a lot until I saw Mt. Fuji. When the crew asked me for any drink, I thanked them, but refused it because I was half asleep.

Star Flyer didn’t have many movie options, but I was too sleepy anyways, so it was not problematic. Besides, the flight between Tokyo and Osaka is usually one hour.

Since Star Flyer is ANA’s cooperative airline, my impression was better than Lufthansa.

2. Homeward journey

a. ANA

It was ANA for the homeward domestic flight. The plane was bigger than Star Flyer’s.

Due to the turbulence, they offered the customers only cold drinks. (They explained so in the plane.)

There is Tanjiro from “Demon Slayer”.

There was no screen on the ANA plane.

However, time flew by, and I landed in Tokyo so fast though it took more time than the outward journey.

b. Lufthansa

For some reason, I felt the meals on the Lufthansa from Japan was better than the one on the outward journey.

For the first meal on the homeward journey, they asked me for chicken or pasta, so I chose chicken. It was something like fried chicken with tartar sauce, and better than the beef with rice that I had on the outward journey.

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On the plate, there was sushi too. My expectation was low as soon as I saw it, so I didn’t get shocked even when I ate it. 😂

For the second meal, there was a big sandwich with veggies and cheese as well as kit kat. If it had been a hot sandwich, the cheese would have melted, and it should have been more tasty, but it was cold. I couldn’t complain about this because it was a sandwich on the plane.

As for the screen or the movie selections were as bad as I explained earlier.

On the Lufthansa plane on the homeward journey, the flight from Tokyo Haneda was delayed, so I was worried about the next flight, but I could somehow arrive at the boarding gate in time to go to Tallinn. However, that flight was also delayed.

Lufthansa this time disappointed me because it was not as good as KLM, and I liked the previous services on the short-haul flight on Lufthansa.

In the future, if there are no other options, I would use Lufthansa, but if the price is still acceptable for me, I would prefer ANA or JAL next time. Also Finnair can be an option too. (I want to try it.)

★Summary

The flight between Germany and Japan takes around 12 hours, but including everything such as transit and waiting time, it takes more. Yes, it exhausts me in general, but still I like long-haul flights. Plus, it’s not always tasty, but the plane meals are special, and I can have a chance to watch a movie that I usually don’t watch. It’s fun overall.

Let’s see which airlines I will use for the next trip to Japan. ♪

Aitäh! 🙂

Airports Used to Travel to Japan in 2022

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

The trip to Japan started from an airport!

This time I had two transits each way. The airports I used were Tallinn airport, Frankfurt airport, Tokyo Haneda airport as well as Kansai airport.

In this article, I will talk about those airports that I used.

Table of Contents

     1. Outward journey
          a. Tallinn airport
          b. Frankfurt airport
          c. Tokyo Haneda airport
     2. Homeoward airport
     ★Summary

1. Outward journey

a. Tallinn airport

At Tallinn airport, the flight checkin was 4.40 in the following morning, so I planned to go to Tallinn airport by the last bus and tram, bringing one 23kg suitcase and one empty suitcase. However, for multiple reasons, I changed this plan. After cleaning Collin’s cage and feeding him, I did the last check on the luggages, and headed to Tallinn airport by Bolt (Estonian Uber). It was 21.30 at that time.

Arriving at Tallinn airport, I found a space to charge my phone. To avoid a too sleepy situation the next day, I tried to close my eyes for 15 minutes, but there were escalators in front of me. It was too noisy to take a nap.

When my phone charged more than 90%, I changed the place. At Tallinn airport, there are two massage chairs. Though the level of comfort was not as good as it looked, it was still better than benches. (I didn’t turn on the massage function. I was just sitting there.)

“From this point it’s hell!”

I thought.

It was around 23.00, and the checkin was 4.40.

Too much time left.

However, I could sleep for around three hours in total. It was away from the escalators, and there were few people because of the middle night of a weekday (Thursday).

After I repeated sleeping for a few minutes and waking up a few times, it was 3.30 already. One more hour was left.

Since it was quite tiring, I was in a daze for a while, and then it turned to be the time to check in.

It seemed that many people would transit in Frankfurt. Though it slightly took time, it wasn’t as bad as the situation of post COVID in spring, 2022.

As I put most stuff in the suitcase, it was smoother to take out my stuff from the backpack at the security check unlike travelling to other European cities. It might be a little thing, and yet personally it made me satisfied. 😂

Nevertheless I was very hungry, since it was still too early to have breakfast, I just bought a cup of coffee. Then I got ready for myself, and was waiting for the flight.

Surprisingly time flew.

b. Frankfurt airport

I arrived at Frankfurt airport at 8 in the morning. I desperately wanted to go to the bathroom, and I was starving. 😂

It was a long path from the arrival gate to the next departure gate, but I didn’t get lost because the structure wasn’t complicated at Frankfurt airport.

There was a big bakery at Frankfurt airport, and I bought a breakfast there. Since I couldn’t find the price tags, I just bought a ham sandwich, which cost 7.50 EUR…😂

Later, 15 minutes before onboarding, one concern that I had became stronger…

I didn’t get a passport stamp…

I asked some airport staff members, but they said they didn’t know, and I felt like crying. However, another staff member told me that I didn’t need it for sure, so I went back to the boarding gate.

In fact, I didn’t have any problem when onboarding and entering Japan without a passport stamp.

This is completely irrelevant, but there were lots of Japanese Brazilians at Frankfurt airport.

c. Tokyo Haneda airport

From Frankfurt, I arrived at the third terminal of Tokyo Haneda airport.

Since it was the arrival of the international flight, there were some people who checked the passengers’ COVID information before going to the arrival gate after landing. I had to upload some documents beforehand on an app called MySOS. It said that if I had a blue screen, it’s all good. However, in real life, they asked me to show a QR code. At Tokyo Haneda airport, the Wifi connection sucked, so it unnecessarily took time.

After that, everything went smoothly as I’m Japanese.

Since I had to renew my driving licence in Japan, I got an entry stamp on my passport after passing the autogate.

Then, I had to move to the first terminal of Tokyo Haneda airport because the next flight to Kansai airport was run by Star Flyer.

At the third terminal, when going forward to the domestic flight connection, there was another sign, so I followed it. I took a free bus. I’m still not sure how often the bus comes, but after missing one bus, the next one came soon.

When arriving at the first terminal of Tokyo Haneda airport, I still had a couple of hours, and yet I checked in, and went to the security check.

In case you think you will get hungry or you are already hungry, I recommend buying something before the security check at the first teminial of Tokyo Haneda airport. Around the boarding gates, there were only souvenir stores and vending machines (including light meals, drinks and ice cream). Onirigis (rice balls) In the vending machine with light meals were only tuna and mayonnaise or salmon. I highly regretted not buying anything at 7-eleven before the security check… (However, it was still not a big problem because I wasn’t starving.)

Around the boarding gates in the first terminal of Tokyo Haneda airport, there are some seats for using laptops or with plugs, so you don’t need to worry about waiting time even if you have a long waiting time.

Again, this is completely irrelevant, but there were lots of family passengers who seemed to have been to Disney resort, and it was Saturday (so it made sense).

2. Homeward journey

Let’s talk about a story on a homeward journey. I used Kansai airport.

I stayed at an accommodation in Rinku town, and headed to Kansai airport by train, departing at 6.00 in the morning. It was a little tiring, but I wanted to save money because it would cost 4,000 JPY by taxi to Kansai airport from Rinku town.

My first flight for the homeward journey was by ANA, and I had to go to Tokyo Haneda airport. Although it looked like a domestic flight, the staff members at Kansai airport let me go to the international flight check-in counter. I had two luggages to check in: one 20 kg suitcase and one 17 kg suitcase. I didn’t buy more than I expected. I could have bought more facial toner. 😂

On the outward journey, I had to take my luggages at Tokyo Haneda airport, so I expected to recheck in there, but they told me I didn’t need to do anything until I arrived in Tallinn.

Due to my experience at the first terminal of Tokyo Haneda airport, I bought some onigiri before the security check at Kansai airport.

However, Kansai airport’s domestic flights terminal was much more developed, and there was a convenience store and a cafe near the boarding gate.

I felt like I was an idiot. 😂

After that, I boarded the flight, realising the earliest next visit would be in two years.

★Summary

I know that the story about the homeward is shorter than the other because I was busier with travelling on the homeward than on the outward journey. Though I had plenty of time at Tokyo Haneda airport, since Lufthansa is often delayed, the flight from Tokyo Haneda airport was also delayed, and I walked fast to arrive at the boring gate at the boring time in Frankfurt airport. (Eventually, the flight from Frankfurt to Tallinn was delayed, too, though.)

Compared to Tokyo Narita or Haneda airports, there are smaller numbers of flights, but I still like Kansai airport. This is because I don’t have to move a lot on the ground, and it’s closest to my parents’ place and the base of my stay.

I think I will choose flights to and from Kansai airport next time too.

Aitäh! 🙂

Preparation for Trip in Japan

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

The last visit to Japan was 2019. For three years since then, experiencing the COVID period, I was finally able to visit Japan again!

In this article, I will encapsulate what I prepared for going to Japan!

Table of Contents

     1. Online shopping
     2. Suitcases and bags
     3. Collin
          a. Pet sitters
          b. Keys for my flat
     4. Souvenirs for my friends and family in Japan
     5. Decluttering
     6. Travel insurance
     7. Mobile Wifi for the trip in Japan
     ★Summary

1. Online shopping

Since I was going to visit Japan, I was shopping online from time to time. Usually, I order something and it arrives at my parent’s place in Japan, and I ask my mum to send it to me with some other stuff approximately once every six months. However, since I was going to Japan this time, I anyway bought lots of things online, and my mum got deliveries and kept them at home.

What I bought was mainly cosmetics. Amazon Japan really has everything! I bought 100 face packs… (Eventually I brought only 70 packs to Estonia. I gave the rest to my mum.)

Beside makeup cosmetics, I purchased an eye mask, Fantastic Beasts’ DVD, and shoes online.

Ah and perfumes too…

I didn’t buy skin care products or stationeries because I wanted to buy them in Japan.

I spent 30,000 JPY (207 EUR) at this point.

By the way, I will write another article on how much I spent on this trip in Japan.

2. Suitcases and bags

The reason why I bought so many things online was because I had enough capacity in my suitcases.

Last time I used LOT Polish, and I could bring only one 23kg suitcase. Based on my experience, I selected an airline on which I was allowed to bring two 23kg suitcases for free. Also I was very lucky.

When I came to Estonia, I brought only one suitcase and one 8kg backpack, so I needed one more suitcase. Then, my friend told me that he unnecessarily had multiple suitcases, so I got one big one. It was shaped almost like a square, and looked different, but the size was fine as per the rule on the airline.

Additionally, I bought a haversack on Lindex and a backpack on Nordace. With these I was ready for hanging out and going out and carrying on the airplane.

Reference

As for the backpack, I had wanted to buy it for a long time. On the other hand, I found a nice one coincidentally on Lindex.

3. Collin

Plus, I have Collin who is my roomate chinchilla.

As a chinchilla can live without care for two nights, I looked for a pet sitter who can come to my place and take care of him once every three days.

a. Pet sitters

At first, I used a website called PetBacker, but when I asked my friends, they just said yes.

As I was going to stay in Japan for four weeks, I divided the period into two: the first two weeks and the latter two weeks, during each of which, I asked them to come five times.

It’s easy to take care of a chinchilla. One just needs to let him take a dust bath, feed him, and give him a treat since in Collin’s case, he is being patient during the cleaning time. I hadn’t started letting him take a walk in the room. This is because it had been only two months for him to move to my place, and he nibbled everything as he was only four months old (four years old in human). Therefore, I planned to let him take a walk once he is mature enough, and didn’t include this activity in the to-do list. In total, it took only half an hour.

b. Keys for my flat

In order for my friends to take care of Collin, they needed to come to my place, I decided to make spare keys. My flat owner told me there was one more set of spare keys when I moved in the current place, but I needed two sets, so I decided to make two more sets.

Keys can be duplicated at a key-and-shoe shop in a shopping centre. (I don’t know what it is called.)

I went to a shop called Kingaprof.

Since the clerk told me there are duplicable keys and non-duplicable keys, I showed mine to him. He said mine were duplicable.

It took only about five minutes. He immediately duplicated two sets. One set cost 16 EUR so in total I paid 32 EUR.

I’m not sure if they were cheap. 😂

4. Souvenirs for my friends and family in Japan

Let’s talk about souvenirs to my friends and family in Japan. This time I bought soaps, a calendar, chocolates, a pouch as well as black bread.

I bought Kalev’s chocolate. They sell two different big bags with different flavours, so I bought one kg (two bags) of one type, and another kilo (two bags) of the other type, plus two different flavours of chocolate additionally.

As I did the similar thing in 2019, I feel like doing something different next time.

5. Decluttering

I did decluttering too. However, it does not literally mean that I threw away something. I brought already-read books, saved CDs and something I don’t use in Estonia but want to keep in JapanJapan. Most were books. Since then, I have wanted to read books on Kindle, but I like paper books better because I can know how far I am to the end.

6. Travel insurance

Whenever I travel, I have travel insurance. Like last time, I used an insurance company called Globe Partner. I don’t know any other insurance which I, as a Japanese individual living abroad, can have travel insurance to go to Japan. It cost 35 EUR. I have searched for some other insurances, and yet they cost around 100 EUR.

7. Mobile Wifi for the trip in Japan

While travelling in Japan, the must-have item is Wifi. Like last time as well, I rented a mobile Wifi on Rakuten’s Wifi rental shop for one month.

I received a mobile Wifi in Kansai airport, and I returned it by post. Last time I returned at Narita airport’s Wifi service desk, but this time I had to check in at 6.30 am at Kansai airport, so I wasn’t sure if the Wifi service desk was open. Therefore, just in case the desk wasn’t open, I returned the Wifi by post.

★Summary

I really bought lots of cosmetics… But it’s all good because the more I have, the longer I can use them. I am so glad that I got eyeshadows in different colours.

I am Japanese and my family lives in Japan, so I can do these things, but if I were a non-Japanese tourist, the preparation would be much harder. I wonder how they do with Wifi? I would be worried because I was when I travelled here and there in Europe in 2015, having a SIM-locked phone. Particularly when walking. Actually, sometimes I was worried because the Wifi connection was bad once in a while. ON the other hand, when the connection was smooth, it was very comfortable.

Perhaps the next visit is in autumn of 2024.

I’m gonna save money for that until then again!!

Aitäh! 🙂

Malicious Travel Agency – My trip

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

In March 2022, in order to go to Japan for the first time in two years, I booked flights. Since I wanted to bring two suitcases, I booked flights on Finnair, but they cancelled my flights owing to the Ukraine war and COVID. Due to the fact that they didn’t have any alternative flights, I decided to go to Japan by JAL.

However, after booking the flights, the flights by JAL were also cancelled. What was worse, there were troubles after that.

This time I am going to tell you a story about the troubles that I experienced.

Table of Contents

     1. Tickets bought on Mytrip
     2. JAL’s flight cancellation and booking alternative flights on Mytrip
     3. Mytrip’s “process”
     4. Help request to consumer information centres
          a. Consumer information centre in Sweden
          b. Consumer information centre in Estonia
     5. To get the refund
          a. 28 Sep
          b. 19 Oct
          c. 26 Oct
          d. 27 Oct
     ★Summary

1. Tickets bought on Mytrip

After Finnair cancelled my flights, and they refunded me, I booked JAL’s flights.

I always looked for reasonable flights on Skyscanner, and this time I found flights offered by Mytrip. I used Mytrip because I have used Mytrip when I went to Sweden in March 2022 too.

Without knowing that My trip is infamous.

2. JAL’s flight cancellation and booking alternative flights on Mytrip

Although I booked JAL’s flights for my September trip on Mytrip, they cancelled the flights in June.

Since I booked them via Mytrip, I proceeded for alternative flights via My trip as well. I bought the flight tickets specifically on Mytrip Sweden, and they offered only phone support for English speakers. I rang them, and explained. Then the male support agent proceeded rebooking the alternative flights . He told me to wait a few days as I would not get a confirmation email immediately.

3. Mytrip’s “process”

However, I still got nothing after waiting a couple of days. My spam box didn’t have anything either. I called Mytrip again, and this time a female support agent answered me. She told me it was still in its process, and to wait a few more days.

I waited another few days, and yet there was nothing. I called My trip again, and a different male support agent answered me, saying

“There is no flight ma’am.”






Excuse me?




I asked him

“What do you mean there is no flight?”

He said

“There is no available flight now, ma’am.”

His wording was making me furious.

“I’m not talking about now. I asked to rebook the alternative flights last Sunday, and I’m asking why it’s still not processed!”

“There are no available flights now, ma’am.”

Can I speak to a different support.”

“Unfortunately, there is no available flight now, ma’am.”

I wanted to say “Can you not understand English,”

I thought this would be endless, so I hung up the phone, and called them again. Then another male support agent answered me. I explained everything, and he said

“Just a moment, ma’am.”

On his telling me that, the phone was hung up.

Sometimes I’m too stupid to understand the situation, so I thought “Is there calling line unstable?” 😂 Then I rang them again, and this time a female support agent answered me. I explained the same, and she said

“Let me check, ma’am.”

And she hung up the phone.

This is obviously deliberate.

I tried once more, but another female support agent did the same.

Whereas I tried making it clear, nothing was successful, so I called them again, and then a different support agent answered me. This time I requested a refund.

After experiencing being hung up, I googled Mytrip, and found that it was an infamous travel agency. Because of that, I asked him how long it would take to get refunded when I requested the refund.

He said around five days.

Of course I got nothing even after five days.

4.Help request to consumer information centres

While I was googling reviews about Mytrip, I found one review in which a guy planned to take a lawful sanction, so I googled such a thing further in Japanese. Then one article was in the first page of the Google search result that in such a case we could ask a consumer information centre in Japan.

I checked the proper wording for a consumer information centre in English.

Since I booked flights on Mytrip Sweden, I looked for a consumer information centre in Sweden, and found it. What is better, I found a fact that they handle consumers’ complaints in the EU. (The consumer information centres in the EU corporate one another.)

a. Consumer information centre in Sweden

I contacted the consumer information centre Sweden on this webpage.

I explained the same things as written above, and attached screenshots of Mytrip Sweden’s phone number (and small translation as it was shown in Japanese) as well as copies of emails of purchase confirmation of tickets on Mytrip and of flight cancellation notice from Mytrip in PDF as proofs.

I did this one weekend, and unexpectedly they replied to me so fast.

However, since I lived in Estonia, they told me to contact the consumer information centre in Estonia. They gave me Estonia’s contact information, so I messaged the consumer information centre in Estonia in the form.

b. Consumer information centre in Estonia

The consumer information centre in Estonia responded to me fast too.

As an additional proof, the person-in-charge of my case asked me to send them a bank statement of the purchase of the flight tickets.

She gave me a few of Mytrip’s email addresses, and asked me to contact Mytrip and JAL as well.

I had already contacted JAL when I requested a refund to Mytrip immediately, but perhaps because of the summer time (when people travel a lot), JAL responded me quite late. However, they replied to me when I was about to contact them again.

As for My trip, one of the email addresses that the Estonian person-in-charge gave me didn’t work. The other one worked finely.

In the EU, the refund process has to be done within two weeks in principle, therefore she told me to contact her again if there was no answer in two weeks after emailing Mytrip.

As you can imagine, I didn’t get anything from Mytrip after two weeks.

On the 15th of August, 2022, the person-in-charge in the consumer information centre in Estonia notified me that my case was registered on their end, it would take time because the consumer information centre in Sweden is relevant, and she promised to contact me if there is anything from My trip.

Three days after that notice, Mytrip replied to me by using one of the email addresses that the person-in-charge in the consumer information centre in Estonia gave me. My trip also said it would take time.

5. To get the refund

Here is a timeline of messaging with the consumer information centre in Estonia.

a. 28 Sep

The person-in-charge in the consumer information centre in Estonia told me that Mytrip would send me an email about the refund. On the 29th of September, I received an email from Mytrip that their refund would be done with no fees as my rebooking request was not processed in fact.

The email also mentioned that it would take time, but no exact amount of time was not described.

b. 19 Oct

The person-in-charge in the consumer information centre in Estonia asked me about the situation, but there was nothing. Then she contacted the consumer information centre in Sweden, and told me to wait one more month.

The person-in-charge in the consumer information centre in Estonia also told me to let her know after one month or receiving the refund.

c. 26 Oct

Mytrip notified me that I would get the refund within five business days.

d. 27 Oct

This morning, I confirmed the refund from My trip, so I contacted The person-in-charge in the consumer information centre in Estonia to notify her.

Finally everything was completed.

Although it took four months, it was better than waiting more months or even years, and what was better, it was solved thanks to the consumer information centre in Estonia.

★Summary

When I looked back on my travel history, I also bought the flight tickets to Japan in 2019 on My trip.

On one hand, I think I could use My trip again as I could get the refund by asking in the consumer information centre, and tickets are cheap. On the other hand, the refund process took a long, so I won’t probably use Mytrip or even a travel agency in general again.

If you buy flight tickets on an airline’s website, I think it’s better overall, so I think I will buy flight tickets directly from the airline’s website in the future. Maybe I will uninstall the Skyscanner app too…. What is more, in fact, I use Google flights.

I would recommend you not use My trip.

Aitäh! 🙂

Zooks Goes to Countryside Town Called Puka in Estonia.

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

This story is so trivial, but since Puka, a small town in Estonia, is not so well-known, I decided to write about it for my website.

Puka is a town in Estonia, which one of my Estonian friends is from. One day we were just talking, and the topic was changed to our birthdays. Then I came to know that on one Sunday in August, 2022 there was her birthday. She said “I don’t have a plan to have a big party, and I will just go to Puka. You are also welcome.” Therefore I immediately decided to go to Puka.

From Tallinn to Puka which is almost Latvia, there are only four trains per day, and it takes three hours one way. Even though I took the earliest one from Tallinn, I arrived in Puka at 10.30 am. I wondered what to do for the return trip, and eventually I decided to go back to Tallinn on the same day because the next day was Monday, I had work, I had to train a newly hired employee, and I had an Estonian language class after work. However, my friend suggested me staying at her parents’ place in Puka.

By the way, I thought that I hadn’t mentioned how to buy tickets in Elron, the Estonian train, in any article, so I will explain that too.

Table of Contents

     1. How to buy tickets on Elron’s website
     2. What kind of town is Puka?
     ★Summary

1. How to buy tickets on Elron’s website

It’s very easy to buy train tickets on Elron’s website. Open the website first. It totally depends on you if you create an account there.

After logging in or opening the webpage, enter the origin and the destination, and set the date. You cannot set the date no more than one week ahead. This probably means it’s not crowded that much usually. 😂 Once you enter them, click “Go”.

Let’s find the most suitable time. After selecting the time, click “Choose”.

Select the number of tickets that you need, and click “Next”.

Check the origin, the destination, and the date and time. If you don’t have an Elron farecard, hit ”Buy ticket to e-mail”.

Enter your email address, and go next by clicking “Add cart”.

Given that you need a return ticket, click ”Add return ticket”.

Then you will see the payment option so select the most suitable one.

Have a tick in “I have read and agree with terms and conditions.”, and hit ”Confirm”.

After the payment, you will receive an email with a PDF file which is your ticket.

If you buy tickets for a round trip, both tickets are contained in one QR code, so you will see only one page in the PDF file.

That’s it!

Easy peasy, right?

2. What kind of town is Puka?

Puka is quite a countryside town as you may imagine.

Tallinn has nothing, and it gets me fed up with it after living in Tallinn for five years. However, probably because it is still the biggest city in Estonia, my body and mind seemed to be fatigued due to the noisy environment in the city. Arriving in Puka in summer, it was full of green, and the air was so fresh. Those simple things just relaxed me physically.

The station in Puka had no one, and on the platform, my friend and her friend welcomed me. From there we went to my friend’s parents’ place by her friend’s car.

My friend has a black cat at home in Tallinn, so she brought her to her parents’ place where two other cats lived as well. There was one more black cat and one grey kitten.

When I visited the friend’s place in Tallinn, when I went to a cat cafe in Tallinn, and when I stayed at my boss’s place with a cat, I didn’t have any allergic symptoms with cats like I had as a child. However, at my friend’s parents’ place, I had some allergic symptoms with a cat.

Later, we found that the grey kitten was only three years old in human age, and his short hair was soaring in the air. Then I took it as dust in my body, and that is why I had the allergic symptoms. Without the grey cat, and if I didn’t move, I barely had a runny nose and my eyes were not so itchy.

It seemed I was okay with cats without soaring hair in a clean place.

At my friend’s parents’ place, we had her mum’s Estonian potato salad, had some snacks while watching a film, and ate ice cream in the garden with her two other friends. We didn’t do anything touristic in Puka.

Estonian potato salad

If you ask me about any adventure that I had in Puka, then I would say exploring her parents’ garden. 😂

I was aware that there are lots of private apple trees in Estonia (or even in the whole Europe), and yet they had a pear tree too. They also had tomatoes as well as cucumbers in their small greenhouse, and there were pumpkins, carrots, potatoes and strawberries too. Moreover, my friend showed me raspberries, plums, red currants, black currants, and aronias in addition to cherries. Yeah, there were literally a lot. 😂

Aronia juice

As for the potato salad that her mum made, the potatoes were their own ones. Brilliant.

They have a small lake in front of the garden, and my friend told me they swim there once in a while in summer.

That’s so good, they don’t need to pay for water to have a pool.😂

Also, there is a pharmacy from the station in Puka to her parents’ place. Before going back to the station, I came to know that an Estonian film called ”Sügis” which means “Autumn” in English used that pharmacy in the film. The story is based on an Estonian novelist, Oskar Luts.

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By the way, because I started watching “Talve” which is the continuation of ”Sügis” for learning Estonian, I watched the whole series including “Kevade” (spring) and “Suvi” (summer). 😂 I’m not a huge fan of Estonia, but still I watched all of them, so if you are a fan of Estonia, you should probably watch them. ✌️

★Summary

When I was about to go to the station in Puka with my friend and her friend, my friend’s dad told me to come there again, especially when I’m tired of Tallinn. Since it seemed that her mum was not able to speak English, I thought “I want to see them again with a better Estonian language skill next time.” Also, I reckoned that I would come there again when I have more time because it takes three hours by train from Tallinn…

Puka literally has nothing, but it was a good place to take a break.

A weekend trip might be good.

They also told me it would take 2.5 hours by car, so maybe you can drive a car there too.

Aitäh! 🙂

Outdoor Activities You Can Do in Summer in Estonia.

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

In Estonia, once a year, there is an event called “summer days” held by a company. If a company is too startup and has little money like sometimes they struggle with even paying for their employees’ salaries, “summer days” may not happen, but in many companies in Estonia it seems they have. Based on my own experience and bias, the majority of the companies in Estonia hold summer-day events with leisure activities and stays, and yet some companies include work…

In Timbeter, which was my first company to work in Estonia, during 2 and half a year, I had this summer-day event only once, and it included work. I had to give a presentation with a few of my colleagues, and after that, we went to an adventure park, had dinner and had BBQ after dinner. Next morning, we checked out after the breakfast. This company had only 10 employees at that time, but they checked only CEO and CTO’s schedules in summer, and the summer-day event date overlapped with my vacation, so I got compensative vacation days later.

In the company which I worked for in 2022, we went to Võhandu river and Partisi lake as our summer-day event.

Table of Contents

     1. Where on earth are Võhandu river and Partsi lake!?
          a. Võhandu river
          b. Partsi lake
     2. Activities we did
     3. Accommodation
     ★Summary

1. Where on earth are Võhandu river and Partsi lake!?

Estonia has been popular among Japanese people since I came here, and there are lots of famous places for them compared to the time before 2017, but still they or even you may think:




Where the hell Võhandu river and Partsi lake. 😂


Both Võhandu river and Partsi lake are located in a county called Põlva which is sotuhern than Tartu. I wasn’t involved in planning this summer-day event (and it was not my job), so I still don’t know why Võhandu river and Partsi lake were chosen.

a. Võhandu river

We gathered in the office in Tallinn, and went to Võhandu river and Partsi lake by van chartered, spending three hours.

If you want to go there by yourself, it would be difficult to go there unless you charter a van by yourself or rent a car or drive your own car, I thought.

b. Partsi lake

Partsi lake has an island in the lake, and an accommodation is just beside the lake. The island in the lake was full of trees and grasses, so I didn’t land there or do anything. On the summer-day event, we actually arrived at Partsi lake first, and then headed to Võhandu river as we needed to drop our luggage.

2. Activities we did

As for the activities, the main activity was rafting in the Võhandu river. It was my first time rafting, and I had an impression of “we just go down the river by boat”, which was excessive optimism.

We were splitted into two groups, and I joined the second one. However, while we were going forward, we accidentally overtook the first group on the way to the goal, and since then we had competitively gone forward to progress as fast as possible. Besides, rafting required lots of physical power. Therefore, it was so hard to row a boat.

Furthermore, it got me pretty wet. I believe it wouldn’t be too uncomfortable if you wear swimwear under the shorts and the tshirt. I personally didn’t bring any digital devices by the way. (There was a pocket in front of the rafting jacket though.)

It took us two hours to reach the goal by rafting itself. When arriving at the goal, and getting off the boat, my body was so stiff. The following day, of course I got muscular pain. 😉

Also, there was no femininity seen from my side. (I enjoyed myself though.)

Later we heard that one of my previous colleagues who brought her phone for rafting checked the map while rafting, and the Võhandu river was actually connected to Latvia.

It might have been fun if we just went to Latvia with that small boat.

😂

We also experienced sup boarding after coming back to Partsi lake where our accommodation was from Võhandu river. It was actually quite a relaxing activity. If you are afraid of falling down into water, you will fail. ✌️

By the way, it was my first time swimming in the lake (though I have done it in the sea and rivers), and I was so surprised that water in Partsi lake was so black. One of the other previous colleagues and I googled later, and we found that it was not because of something chemical but natural. I remember the flashing water in the toilet was coloured too…

The accommodation beside Partsi lake had a tiny sauna and jacuzzi (?)/ a small warm pool (?) as well.

We laughed ridiculously a lot and enjoyed ourselves a lot, so I guess it could be an option for your private vacation plan in summer. It seems glamping is also possible. Since I personally don’t like camping, and want a proper bed to sleep in, I didn’t do it. I can sleep while camping, but it’s just continuously uncomfortable the whole night.

3. Accommodation

The accommodation beside Partsi lake seemed to have both a small house and a big house. It seemed we were supposed to occupy the big house with a larger group, and yet suddenly there were lots of cancellations due to sickness, etc, so we all stayed in the rooms on the second floor only. (Or maybe originally only the second floor, but there were still lots of empty beds.)

Each room has four or five beds, and that bed was quite small even for me who was 162 cm tall in order to move during the sleep. (In addition, because of rafting my arms were too tired, so it was difficult to fall asleep even though I was physically tired.)

In summer there are lots of insects (particularly flies and mosquitoes) in Estonia, so we closed our room window during the night, but luckily it was not hot as it was cold summer in July, 2022.

The accommodation’s bathrooms were shared (but of course separated for men and women!), and there are a few more toilets outside. For some reason, there were two showers in one shower room for women… There were also bottles of shampoo, conditioner as well as showergell.

As for meals at the accommodation, we had lunch on the day we arrived there, dinner, and breakfast the following morning. Also, they provide us with lots of snacks.

It appeared to be fine to bring alcoholic drinks, but I’m not so sure.

Later we found that if we stay there with a group of more than 10 people, it costs only around 30 EUR for each person. The website says only “breakfast included”, so I have no idea on lunch or dinner. Anyways, it was way cheaper than I thought…

★Summary

The summer-day event I experienced in this company was only this time, but everything was much better than the one I had when I worked for Timbeter. The best point was there was no talk about customers or what we do daily, and no presentation for work. But I think this depends on the company you work for. I loved the point that work is work, leisure time is leisure time in this company. Whilst we had company events including this summer-day event, there was nothing about what to improve at work, how to approach in business, etc as the purpose was to have fun, not meetings outside of the office, or work-related training. The balance is important indeed.

I have no idea if any other European countries have this sort of summer-day event.

However, anyways I believe anyone can do what we experienced in our summer-day event. There were few people in those areas, so if you are fed up with cities and famous/popular places in Estonia, perhaps you should go there.

Aitäh! 🙂

Total Expensese on the Trip to Ireland 2022!

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

You may wonder about expenses before moving to another country or studying abroad, but this should not mean that we can ignore how much it costs for one trip in a country that you want to visit. There may also be some people who want to go to a fascinating country that is expensive, but still care about their finances.

I always search budgets before deciding a destination or before going to travel there. Then decide how much I save for that trip per month from the point that I searched until the point I travel, depending on how many months are left. I always use a website called ”Budget Your Trip”. They show budgets not only in the destination country’s currency but also in the currency that I use (i.e. in my case euro). (If you use an ad-block add-on on your browser you always see some pop up like I see, so I use this website on the browser that I don’t have the ad-block- add-on.)

In the case of Ireland, the budget trip costs 44 EUR per day and 309 EUR per week, per person, and the mid-range trip costs 109 EUR per day and 766 EUR per week, per person. However, in my case, I decided to save 1300 EUR which was my budget.

Therefore, this article shows the result.

Table of Contents

     1. Flight tickets
     2. Transport in Dublin
     3. Car rental
     4. Accommodations
     5. Food expenses
     6. Travel insurance
     7. Others
     8. Total expenses
     ★Summary

1. Flight tickets

First of all, let’s talk about our flight tickets. We bought flight tickets on Ryanair. This expense is marked in the tab called ”Travel fees” in the spreadsheet that I share every month on Twitter. The flight tickets for two people cost 281.79 EUR. My boyfriend paid 140 EUR and I paid 141.79 as he was going to drive a car almost a whole week, and splitting 1.79 EUR seemed to be very stingy.

Perhaps because of the season, the flight tickets weren’t cheap.

2. Transport in Dublin

Next, here is about transport in Dublin. I bought a 24-hour Leap card which cost 8 EUR. My boyfriend didn’t bring sufficient coins, so I gave him one ride on a Dublin bus from the airport to the city centre, which cost 2.60 EUR. Also on the first day, a taxi drive to my friend A’s place cost 10.20 EUR. Moreover, we took another taxi from the accommodation on the last day to the airport and paid 24.60 EUR.

3. Car rental

In terms of car rental, renting a car cost 936.42 EUR, and charging the fuel (diesel) twice cost 144.65 EUR, in total of which it was 1,081.07 EUR. However, since my boyfriend paid for all of these, we decided that I would pay for accommodations. But still there were some differences of 350 EUR. He didn’t care, and yet I paid him back 174 EUR because I even couldn’t help him drive, I wanted to pay him back.

4. Accommodations

This is about the expenses on accommodations. I’m pretty sure that it wouldn’t have cost that much if I travel by myself or my Japanese friend S who has travelled with me before. Even if I had chosen private rooms, I’m sure we wouldn’t have had to pay that much. 😂 Since we booked the accommodations right before heading to the destinations, it cost a lot…

Two nights in Galway required 238.56 EUR, another two nights in Mayo was 180 EUR, and two nights in Dublin cost 314.64 EUR, so in total the expenses were 238.56 EUR. I paid for all of these.

In addition, it cost 248.35 EUR for the hostel in Dublin, where we were supposed to stay. This was also supposed to be two nights. If you read the article about the accommodations in Dublin, you will see the details…

Adding all of these, the expense is almost the same as the car rental fees and fuel fees, but I didn’t want to include the hostel cost for the first day in Dublin personally, I deal with it as my own expense.

I will triple check whatever it is from next time when travelling with whoever they will be. 😂

5. Food expenses

When it comes to food, we always paid for two of one by taking turns. This rule? culture? was created because I stopped him paying for both of us at restaurants twice in a row. 😂 By taking turns to pay for food, I paid 179.90 EUR in total. However, this includes a few cups of coffee for him while he was driving.

6. Travel insurance

When you travel abroad, you should have travel insurance. If we have a Japanese credit card, it often has travel insurance too whilst Estonian debit cards don’t. For this reason, I always purchase travel insurances on Swisscare. If a Japanese person who travels to Ireland from Estonia for eight days, it cost 14.70 EUR.

7. Others

Other than the above, I paid for Harry Styles’s concert which was 104.65 EUR as well as the goods which was 35 EUR, for parking and highways which were 10.30 EUR in total, and for souvenirs which totally cost 7.88 EUR.

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Hence, the total expense for other stuff was 157.83 EUR.

8. Total expenses

Now, let’s add everything I explained above.

Item

Expenses

Flight tickets

141.79

Transport

45.4

Car rental

174

Accommodations

981.55

Food

179.9

Travel insurance

14.70

Others

157.83

Sum

1,695.14

Yeah, it’s way over my budget. 😂

It’s for sure because of the accommodations. Plus, I wish we could have booked a car for rental. This is because we could customise later on.

★Summary

Although almost 400 EUR was over my budget, the trip was also over now. We can’t take anything back. What I learnt from this trip were;

  • Let me plan if you are not good at it.
  • I should triple check everything including facilities and locations for accommodations.
  • I need to be able to drive a car in Europe too.

There may be more, and yet it was a bit difficult as it was our first time travelling together abroad.

I swear, I will plan a trip with whoever I travel after understanding all the points that the travel companion and I cannot compromise. 😂

I cannot plan a detailed day schedule way beforehand though. 😂

In conclusion, it was a story that a trip to Ireland isn’t cheap.

Aitäh! 🙂

7 Souvenirs You Can Buy in Ireland.

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

Some people (particularly Japanese people) feel like buying and bringing souvenirs when travelling. Or, you might feel like giving something specific from your travel country that one of your friends or someone wants to go somewhere?

On the trip to Ireland in June, 2022, I didn’t buy a lot of souvenirs, and yet there are some recommendations of souvenirs even for yourself as a traveller when going to Ireland, so I made a list.

Table of contents

1. Barry’s tea
2. Rich tea biscuits
3. Cadbury’s chocolate
4. Tayto
5. Carol’s products
6. Pennys
7. Butler’s
★Summary

1. Barry’s tea

Barry’s tea is an Irish tea brand.

When I started living in DCU’s (Dublin City University) student accommodation in 2015, as a welcome gift, one small package of Barry’s tea was on the kitchen table, which was the first time I knew Barry’s tea.

Reference

At that time, Barry’s tea package in the accommodation was a green box, and it seemed to be a normal version of Barry’s tea. Later my Irish friend told me “Red Barry’s tea tastes richer,” since which I always buy red Barry’s tea. There is also a black version.

The sizes of packages are small (20 tea bags), medium (80 tea bags) as well as big (160 tea bags).

In 2019 when I travelled to Ireand, I bought the biggest one (160 tea bags). At that time, I flew to and from Dublin by Lufthansa, and they allowed a bag up to 8 kg for free. However, We flew by Ryanair to and from Dublin this time so we could bring only the small one (20*25*45 cm) for free, so I couldn’t buy the biggest one. (Strictly speaking, I could have bought it as my boyfriend had more space in his bag.) Therefore, I bought the medium size. Personally I was still satisfied. I got ready for a boring winter in Estonia!! 😂

Plus, while you are travelling in Ireland, and if you are not lactose intolerant, I recommend drinking tea with Irish full fat milk.







Super tasty!!





It’s a bit irrelevant, and yet even milk only is super tasty!!!!

2. Rich tea biscuits

Rich tea biscuits are not Irish, sorry, but British. Recently I came to know that in Nigeria which used to be the British colony, they can get rich tea biscuits. So envious!!! Therefore, if you go to an African shop in Estonia, it’s said that you can get rich tea biscuits. (I want to try it while I’m taking a break from the ketogenic diet.)

Reference

Unlike cookies, rich tea biscuits taste crispy (?). Given that you are interested, check out a scene in Dalkey island in the film called “Sing Street”, where two characters eat rich tea biscuits.

The thing is that the rich tea biscuits match tea. 🤭

What I bought was cheap Tesco’s (British supermarket chain) private brand rich tea biscuits, and yet it was still good.

I often ate rich tea biscuits while I was an exchange student in Ireland. (Usually I ate rich tea biscuits or digestive biscuits.)

3. Cadbury’s chocolate

Cadbury is also from the UK as a brand, and yet there is a company called Cadbury Ireland in Dublin. I was shooting an independent film when I lived there, and one of the actors was from Northern Ireland. He said

“Cadbury is tastier in the Republic!”

Really? 😂 Does it differ that much? 😂

Reference

Since I came to Estonia, I have eaten dark chocolate more often, so I felt it was super sweet, but it was really tasty.

I happened to encounter a new flavour of Cadbury’s chocolate in Dublin, which was orange, hence I chose that one as a souvenir for my coworkers. Since there are more products such as chocolate bars and other chocolate products from Cadbury, you may want to check them if you are interested. Ultimately, you can buy some small chocolate bars in Dublin airport.

4. Tayto





Tayto is something Irish!!

Tayto is an Irish crisps brand. It’s thinly sliced, and there are three flavours. Personally I love salt and vinegar. However, it seems many people prefer smoked bacon.

Reference

I didn’t buy this time, and yet in 2019 I bought one big bag, in which there were two small bags of three flavours. If you calculate, there should be six small bags in total, shouldn’t there?

Surprisingly, there were seven. 😂

I counted multiple times, but there were seven. 😂 I don’t remember which flavour had one more bag though. Then I told my Japanese friend A in Dublin by messaging, she said “I’ll buy and try too~”. 😂 So, if you are lucky, you may get one more?

Ireland is a super easygoing country. Estonia is rather more serious. 😂 Therefore, I think it’s less stressful to live in Ireland. Easygoing processes for immigration, repairs, etc are inconvenient though. 😂

They are easygoing, and that’s why they don’t care how many small bags are in one big bag. 😂

You can buy small bags of Tayto at Spar (kiosk) or convenience stores in Dublin airports.

Also, this is pretty common in Ireland that each kiosk has some meal deal consisting of sandwiches, a bottle of drink and a bag of snacks. You can get a small bag of Tayto in that way. It’s like a side “dish” of a sandwich.

There might be just big bags with one flavour like crisps you can see in Japan or in Estonia, and yet I don’t know as I ‘ve never seen or I’ve never paid attention to such a type of product in Ireland. Perhaps you can look for it in Tesco.

5. Carol’s products

When it comes to Ireland, some people think of Carol’s which is a souvenir chain shop. There are a lot around in Dublin.

If you want to buy some classic souvenirs like magnets, postcards, etc, go to Carol’s. They also sell garments and accessories.

In my case, before ending my exchange student life in Ireland, I bought a big Irish flag. I’ve still decorate it in my bedroom. 😂

If you have no idea what to buy for souvenirs, just go to Carol’s just because they have classic souvenirs. You can also ask for duty free there.

Except for the purchase when I lived there, I’ve never bought anything in Carol’s. I prefer something specific and local such as Barry’s tea. 😂

6. Pennys

Pennys is Irish Primark which is a fashion product chain shop that sells clothes, accessories, and housewares. I’m not sure about Primark in the UK, and yet Pennys in Ireland has products with “Irish designs”. The price is low, so maybe you can save more money than buying souvenirs in Carol’s? As an exchange student in Dublin, I bought T-shirts with the Irish flag or something like that for my brothers.

Reference

By the way, I still have a pair of socks from Pennys. 😂 (Purchased in 2016. 😂)

This time I didn’t buy anything in Pennys. Last time in 2019 I bought a knapsack, and I use it as a gym shoes bag even now (2022).

7. Butler’s

Reference

Butler’s is an Irish chocolate brand. When being the exchange student, I often saw many Japanese exchange students buying chocolate souvenirs there.

Me?

I didn’t buy any, of course.

This is because it was boring and too ordinary to choose chocolate as souvenirs, particularly from some brands, famous ones. I feel like giving local chocolate that we can get in supermarkets as the flavours are extraordinary. (I personally don’t choose anything ordinary for gifts because I want to see how the receivers react. 😂 Of course sometimes it’s ordinary. 😂) If you want to give basic souvenirs, Butler’s could be an option.

★Summary

From my point of view, Irish souvenirs are just for my self-satisfaction. However, hopefully this list could be some reference for those who want to travel to Irealnd. Perhaps my perspective is strange because I used to live there.

My personal strong recommendations are all of them except for number five and seven. If you are fond of something local or something that is probably not in normal souvenirs shops, get those products and/or go to Pennys!

Ah, I’m so glad to have bought Irish tea, and I’m so looking forward to enjoying a boring winter in Estonia with hBarry’s tea! 😂

Aitäh! 🙂

Use Public Transport in Ireland to Save Money

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

Here is a summary of public transport in Ireland. Besides the transporate I am going to mention here, there is a coach called Bus Eireann or long-distance trains in Ireland. However, the transport that I am going to mention here are only those I used in real life or I considered using, which are mainly transports in Dublin.

Table of Contents

     1. Dublin Leap card
     2. Apps you can use in Dublin
          a. Dublin bus app
          b. Journey Plan app
     3. Public transport in Dublin
          a. How to take a Dublin bus
          b. How to take Luas
          c. How to take DART
     4. Taxis
          a. Bolt
          b. FREE NOW
     5. GoCar
     ★Summary

1. Dublin Leap card

If you seem to use public transport in Dublin , you should probably count how many times you may use public transport, and how much you may need to pay during your stay in Dublin, beforehand.

Leap cards are used by the locals, and it’s available among the travellers too.

When I travelled to Dublin in 2019, I was visiting places where an Irish movie “Sing Street” was shot, and I had some other visits, so I bought a Leap card valid for 72 hours. It cost 16 EUR.

Reference

This time on the trip to Ireland in JUne, 2022, I bought a 24-hour Leap for 8 EUR. Only I bought, who knew that the frequency of using public transport is high enough. My boyfriend didn’t buy a Leap card.

2. App you can use in Dublin

When you move around by using public transport in Dublin, the following apps may be useful.

a. Dublin bus app

The UI is antique, and it looks the same as in 2016, and yet it does still work.

Reference

However, you shouldn’t trust any timetables basically. It’s always delayed. (Or maybe I should say it doesn’t follow the timetables. It looks like no one cares about the time as the Dublin buses’s speed is too fast.)

On the other hand, it’s still useful when the Journey Plan app below doesn’t suggest any good routes, or when you look for bus numbers.

b. Journey Plan app

The Journey Plan app is more recent. The UI is up-to-date, and yet the suggestion isn’t that good. However, basically it’s an OK level, so not problematic.

Reference

If you are a bit worried, compare the suggestions from the app and from Google maps.

3.Public transport in Dublin

Since Dublin’s public transport has some characteristics, I summarise in this section.

a. How to take a Dublin bus

On a Dublin bus, they accept only Leap or cash. If you don’t know this, you may need to use a five-euro note or even more than that for one drive.

This is because they don’t give changes.

If you want to take a Dublin bus, you need to show that you want to get on when the bus is approaching you. Otherwise they don’t stop in front of you. Also if there is no one to take on, the Dublin buses just keep going without stopping. (Plus the speed is very fast. 😂)

When riding on the Dublin bus, and tell the driver where you want to go, they tell you how much it costs. It cost 2.60 EUR from Dublin airport to the city centre of Dublin (as of June in 2022).

Reference

My boyfriend, who doesn’t like buses, doesn’t use buses even in Tallinn. Besides, since it was a different country, he had no idea how to get on the Dublin bus. (Of course.) Plus, since I brought a bunch of coins, I paid for him, and he got on the Dublin bus by using my Leap. Therefore, everything went smoothly.

Since buses require passengers a faster speed than any other public transport, it might be profound for beginners. However, since you can calculate fares in advance, if the environment is well enough, you can prepare cash, particularly coins. (I did before going to Ireland as an exchange student. Thanks to it, everything went smoothly.)

On the Dublin bus, you need to get on from the front door, and get off from the back door. Don’t mix this.

b. How to take Luas

Luas means “fast” in Irish. However the real speed is as “fast” as bicycles. 😂 It’s basically a tram, and yet it’s easy to take one.

There is a Leap card-reading machine at Luas stops, so Leap card holders just need to read the Leap cards there. If it makes a sound, it’s OK.

Reference

Given that you need to buy a ticket, you can buy one at a Luas stop. You can pay by card, so no cash is needed.

You can get on and off at any door.

In Dublin, you should buy a Luas ticket. It’s really random to get inspected. Unless you have any tickets, you will be kicked out from Luas. (I’m not sure if they really charge fines. This point is the same as Tallinn.)

c. How to take DART

DART is a Dublin train. You can use it when you go to Dún Laoghaire. Aviva Stadium’s nearest stop/station was DART. Given that you travel around only in the centre of Dublin, you may not need to use it.

Reference

With a Leap card, you can get on DART easily too.

Since my boyfriend didn’t need to go anywhere by DART, I don’t know how to buy tickets at a DART station…

By the way, some Dublin buses have USB charging ports, and yet DART doesn’t have any. (At that time, my phone charge was very low, and I wished there had been.)

4. Taxis

We used taxis in Dublin too. I usually don’t use taxis wherever I am. However, we had no choice but to use a taxi at some point in Dublin.

a. Bolt

Bolt is from Estonia, and yet we could use it in Ireland too. Therefore I didn’t need to download any other taxi app additionally ,which was a good point. (Eventually I did though.)

Reference

In Estonia, when taking Bolt, the fare is shown in the app, and when getting off, the price never goes high or lower than that. If it shows 5 EUR, the final price is 5 UER.

However, in Ireland, even if you used Bolt, they used a metre system, so the app showed the price range.

In fact, when we used the Bolt taxi, it was more expensive than the shown price range.

Because of that, I thought “I probably won’t want to use Bolt again even if I need to use a taxi again.”

b. FREE NOW

FREE NOW seems to be used in other countries including Ireland. However, it’s not available in Estonia, so even though you can download the app, you can’t use it in Estonia.

Reference

FREE NOW was like Bolt Ireland, and it showed the price range. FREE NOW’s price range was more trustable. I eventually paid the cost between the actual price range.

Therefore, from my experience, if you want to use a taxi in Ireland, perhaps FREE NOW is better than Bolt.

By the way, when I lived in Dublin in 2015 and 2016, Uber was the only option. Has Uber gone anymore? Anyways, in the first place, I deleted the Uber app from my phone… (a long time ago.)

5. GoCar

GoCar is an Irish car sharing service. There are different cars. Although it’s not that common in general in Ireland, AT is available there too.

Reference

Due to this fact, we planned to use GoCar to travel to Ireland, and yet I found that the driver’s verification might take 48 hours one week before the trip. Because of my occupation, Compliance verifies sometimes manually, so if there are lots of registrations, it would take a longer time than it’s written there, I thought. Therefore, I immediately shared that information with my boyfriend, but

he registered on the first day in Ireland…

I thought:







You didn’t check my message properly.


😂

Of course it took more than 48 hours to get verified.

(I thought like that because I was able to guess thanks to my occupation. However, from a pure customer’s perspective, taking more than 48 hours may be unexpectable. In the web page, they mention “We try to verify within 48 hours”. My friend A’s husband also said “They verify within 48 hours”, so they cannot guess. Of course people tend to take it as written because in any page it was written “it may take more than 48 hours”.)

Eventually the car rental was cheaper, and the trip style was that we decided where to go right before going, and this is why the car rental cost more cheaply. If you have a determined destination, and the route is determined too, then car sharing may be cheaper in my opinion.

★Summary

When going to Irelna, I wanted to take aDublin bus at least once, so I was happy to take one. As for Luas, it is easy for travellers, but boring for Dublin bus fans. 😂 This is just because the Dublin buses have two floors! (In the Continent, long buses are more common, but the two-floor buses are more fun to ride, and I think it needs less space.)

I would encourage you to try Dublin buses!

Aitäh! 🙂

Dublin Airport in 2022

ZooksLeave a comment

Tere!

In summer 2022 when my boyfriend and I were travelling, it was post COVID, and since the number of travellers increased (or got back to normal?), every airport in Europe was crazily crowded. (Tallinn airport wasn’t an exception, but it seemed to be better than Dublin airport or Manchester airport according to news.) Therefore I decided to write a post about how Dublin airport actually was.

Table of Contents

      1. Dublin airport at the end of June 2022
      2. From Dublin city centre to Dublin airport
      3. Ryanair’s visa check
      4. Security check at Dublin airport
      5. Security check isn’t the only one you would queue in Dublin airport
      ★Summary

1. Dublin airport at the end of June 2022

First of all, June is generally a vacation season in Europe. In Japan it’s the rainy season, so there may not be many tourists, but in Europe many people take longer vacation days from their annual leave between May and August to travel.

Ireland is one of the European countries where many people go, and of course people mainly go to Dublin, therefore Dublin airport gets very busy and crowded too. For this reason, the airport is more congested than any other season in general.

However, it was a post-COVID time.

According to my Dublin friend F, people forgot the rules for the cabin baggage, and some of them have actually brought big whole bottles of shampoo. Because of such passengers, it seemed to take time for security checks. But this is merely one of the assumptive reasons, and yet mine is:

People were not able to travel owing to COVID, as per which the security checkers were laid off, but then now it’s post COVID, and they need more employees at security checks.

I don’t think airlines and airports increase the number of flights all at once, so I believe we cannot say it is because of the increase of the flight numbers.

In our case, perhaps because our flight was in the morning, the situation was much better than I was worried. However, I thought if it had been a flight in the afternoon, the situation might have been chaotic.

2. From Dublin city centre to Dublin airport

Our plane was planned to depart at 9.30 in the morning Usually, personally I go to the airport 2 hours before the departure, and yet I received an email from Ryanair that the passengers should be at the airport 2.5 hours, and 3.5 hours before the departure if the passengers have check in luggages.

I talked about this to my Japanese friend A’s husband in Dublin, he said he would have been at the airport at 6 am, i.e. 3.5 hours beforehand.

I wondered, and decided to be there at around 6.30 am.

From the accommodation in Dublin to Dublin airport I personally wanted to take the Dublin bus, but we decided to take a taxi the previous night. (I didn’t think about anything, but my boyfriend thought the taxi fee would be cheaper in the morning than when we saw.)

Then, when I was about to call a taxi, he asked me the price, I said “It says maximum 27 EUR.” and he said “Let’s take a bus…”

Man, it’s too late. 😂

If I had known the situation in the airport, I might have been able to change the plan, but the situation was unknown until we arrived there. Since I need to get a visa check at Ryanair and it’s too late to depart by taking a bus, I called a taxi.

As for the taxi, there will be a different article.

It took approximately 10 to 15 minutes by taxi from the centre to Dublin airport.

3. Ryanair’s visa check

When going back from Ireland to Estonia, of course I needed a visa check.

At Ryanair’s check in counter in Dublin airport, there was only one counter for the visa check. Another five or six counters were used for those who have check-in luggages. Even at past 6.30 am, the queue was already organised, and therefore the visa check-in counter was also used for check-in luggages. However, it was meant to be for a visa check, the Ryanair staff let me though prioritised.

Probably because this time we went to the check in counter together, the Ryanair staff gave me two boarding passes.









He looked a bit happy.

I’m happy too.

By the way, the paper that I printed out just in case was not necessary at all as they don’t give us a stamp anymore. There is no point in bringing the printed stuff.

4. Security check at Dublin airport

We were waiting for the security check for quite a while but less than one hour. It took more time than Tallinn airport, and yet we didn’t need to worry about our flight.

However, it took around one hour in total for the visa check and security check eventually.

5. Security check isn’t the only one you would queue in Dublin airport

At Dublin airport, the security check is not the only one you may queue for.

On arriving at Dublin airport, the airport staff asked us if we came for the departure, and then guided us to the specific lane. (The route to the checkin counter was the same as before though. It was a bit irritating that we had to be guided.)

In addition to this, cafes in Dublin airport also had long queues.

I craved coffee, and I was hungry, so I decided to buy something at a cafe near our flight’s gate. On Ryanair’s flight, you can get a cup of coffee (and maybe other non-alcoholic drinks) for 3 EUR, so the price was almost the same. It depends on you whether you buy at the airport or Ryanair’s plane.

★Summary

Eventually, when we arrived at the flight gate, we had enough time so we have no idea how crowded afterwards at the security check in Dublin airport it was. Maybe there was a longer queue. It could happen at that time. Therefore our decision to go to Dublin airport earlier was right.

We arrived in Tallinn at 3.30 pm, and we both were exhausted.

Before the trip, I had seen a post on Facebook thatTallinn airport was crazily crowded, but in real life it was not like that actually. However, I thought we should perhaps be more careful in other cities (especially popular cities in summer).

Being at the airport earlier is better than having a too tight schedule or being late.

Aitäh! 🙂