If I were a terrorist—I’d pick Galway airport

Sheri and I in our beautiful ensembles-- don't we just look hot!?! (Please remember this was the middle of August)

Sheri and I tried to arrive at the Galway airport with more than a little time to spare. She had tried to check the luggage requirements and was worried that our baggage would be too heavy because it was not an international flight—as it was only from Ireland to Scotland. Roughly like flying from Utah to Arizona, except we couldn’t exactly drive from Ireland to Scotland regardless of how long it would take!
Well, unfortunately, we found out that they were in fact very strict about their baggage requirements. When you are traveling internationally, you are allowed two suitcases each of which can weigh approximately 60 pounds, and domestic flights you are allowed two suitcases of approximately 40-50 pounds each. Now, that may differ from airline to airline, however you get the point. Unfortunately, this airline would only let you take one carryon that weighs 7 kg (15.4 lbs), and ONE suitcase that weighs 20 kg (44 lbs). Well, as you can see, that is less that you are even allowed for domestic flights within the United States. And we had a problem. A BIG problem. I had attempted to pack light (for all those who know me, this is an amazing feat) however, I was going to be gone for four months in an unknown land with an unknown climate and I was toting toys for orphans.
Well, fortunately, Sheri and I planned ahead, and left ourselves plenty of time to do some creative packing. My bag weighed approximately 43 kg, and they were going to charge me 5 British Pounds per extra kilogram. If you do the math, that is roughly 115 pounds, or $220. Ouch! Well, Sheri and I got creative. Unfortunately, some of the first things to go were things like coloring books, bubbles, and extra toiletries. Some of the saddest things to part with were a box of brownie mix and a textbook about Infant Development (but that sucker weighed 1 kg all by itself!) And Sheri and I decided to wear all of my clothes in order to decrease the weight. I ended up wearing 10 pairs of panties, 4 bras, 2 bathing suits, 3 under-shirts, 8 t-shirts, a pair of dress pants, jeans, basketball short, sweat pants, all topped off by scrub bottoms, a sweater, and a jacket. I also had on gloves, a scarf, and just about every necklace I brought. In addition, I had a sweatshirt around my waist, a camera around my neck, two purses, a backpack with 9kg, and a nalgene bottle containing liquids (even though this was right after the big liquids scare in London, apparently Ireland didn’t care about carrying liquids onto the plane!)
Sheri was also wearing some of my stuff—she is an itty bitty little girl, and it was really funny because she was wearing some of my jeans. She looked like a thug! She literally had to keep one hand on them at all times to keep them from falling down.
While we were going through our suitcases, we kept going up to the ladies at the information desk and asking them questions like, “Do they really weigh your carry-on?”, and “How many purses can we take in addition to our carry-on?” and “Do cameras count?” She probably got so sick of us—either that or she was laughing hysterically every time we came up with a new and creative way to bend the rules a little bit. Because I know I was! In the end, I was able to get my suitcase down to 25 kg—quite a feat from 43! I was quite proud of myself! Once we check in our luggage, we were off to trek all the way across the airport—the whole one room and all. There was literally one room for departures and one room for arrivals, and a lobby in the middle. When we went through security—if you can call it that—they didn’t even give us funny looks! Unfortunately, I kept setting off the metal detector, so they had to pat me down (not like that was anything new—I got patted down at every single airport we went through at least once! And Sheri barely ever got patted down. Oh the injustice….) I am pretty sure the magnets in my gloves were setting the alarm off—either that or the 15 necklaces I was wearing!
When the airplane finally arrived, we understood why they were so concerned about us not having more than the allotted weight. It was the itty-biddiest plane I have ever seen! There were like three seats across. And even though Sheri and I didn’t request to sit next to each other, we randomly ended up in seats next to each other, although with that small of a plane, the probability of that happening is not unheard of. The only bad thing was that I started getting really uncomfortable because of the obscene amount of undergarments I was wearing, and how the under wires were digging into my flesh, and it would have been slightly * awkward * to start undressing too much in the middle of the plane. But we were off to Scotland, and believe me—the first thing we headed for once the plane landed was the bathroom!!!