As I mentioned in earlier blogs, I really fell hard for Ireland, well at least the areas of Ireland that I visited. I feel that my simple words won't do Dublin and it's surrounding areas justice but I'll put forth a valiant effort to share my new found love for this mystical and charming place the Irish call home. I left for Ireland on a Saturday. My dear friends, Mark and Jocelyn, and I left for Zurich Flughafen (airport) going to different places. I was going to Dublin and they were going back stateside, after spending nearly two weeks in Italy and Switzerland. I typically don't do a great deal of planning when I travel because that's just not my style and I prefer to wander around town as if I'm not really a tourist. Also, my wife tends to do most of the touristy planning. For example on my 30th birthday, she took me to Paris and we literally walked for seven hours straight one day! Seven hours is a long time, even for me, the person that walked around Amsterdam aimlessly for five hours. But for this trip I decided to be a full blown tourist and booked a few touristy type things. My first adventure would be a cultural dinner at Dublin's oldest bar, the Brazen head, led by Johnny of Irishfolktours. My next touristy trip would be a guided bus tour through Wicklow and it surrounding areas. Little did I know that I was going to have an adventure before I even arrived in Dublin.
As usual, I arrived at the airport with about an hour or so to spare. And with no checked luggage, I feel very comfident about relaxing before my trip. So when I saw that my flight is delayed by thirty minutes, I think in head, "no worries, this will be ok" But when I saw that the delay was caused by strong winds, I immediately thought, "now see, this isn't even funny!" Delays are one thing but when it involves wind, that just involves all types of variables that my brain can't even comprehend into the equation. Two things to note. 1. I took an atmospheric sciences course in undergrad to fulfill my science lab requirement, basically Meteorology 101. It was either that or Rocks for Jocks and I chose the tougher of the two. After AP Biology and AP chemistry in high school, I was pretty much done with science classes. But anyway, we learned all about updrafts and downdrafts in regards to wind and how pilots completely duff landings, approaches, and take offs because they're not reading their gauges appropriately in heavy winds. 2. I'm that guy on the plane. I try to hide it most times but i'm definitely that guy. You know what guy I'm talking about...sweaty palms, yells "WHOA" at the sign of turbulence and gives you the "We're all going to die" stare when the pilot asks the flight attendants to sit due to turbulence. #2 actually get's better the more I fly and the shorter the flight is. So if I fly every week or every other week or short distances, like in my old job, then I get used to it and can handle the short flights. After our 30 minute delay we board and then they immediately tell us that our flight is being held for another hour due to wind in London. I forgot to mention this but my flight was to London and I was going to hop on a different carrier for the trip to Dublin. It would have been easier to fly direct to Dublin, then to London and then back to Zurich but my wife wanted me ride on the plane back from London with her. So basically she was asking a person that doesn't like scary movies to go see Friday the 13th and Paranormal Events on the same day. What's an extra flight for love, no? I had a very small window to land in London and get my next plane to Dublin and this wind delay was not helping at all or so I thought. I think it's funny too that the pilot kept making announcements stating that he had good news and that we were being bumped up by 10 or 20 minutes. Each time I looked at my watch and it always added up to us leaving an hour late. How can I trust a Pilot who tells me that we're going to be leaving 10 minutes earlier than expected and now our take off time is X and not X minus 10. Are we flying at 42,000 feet or 22,000 feet? Another thing that didn't help was that someone got sick on our plane and had to be removed and of course she had checked luggage. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! So there's another 20 minutes to do a security sweep of the luggage and allow the ambulance to remove her from the plane. There goes my connection to Dublin and there goes my Cultural Dinner reservation.
In my head, I'm thinking that I'll need to pull a serious O.J through the airport to catch my connecting flight and hope that they hold the gates open a little longer than usual. Not the bad white bronco O.J or the kick in the door in Vegas give me the loot gangsta style O.J but the O.J that was a commercial icon and movie star. They are two different people. It's like Michael Jackson and Jackson 5. I'll just leave it at that for now. The landing approach was brutal, I was so preoccupied with getting all my belongings that I didn't even worry about the plane flying sideways or the bumpy approach. Exiting the plane, I was on a mission to find my Aer Lingus flight location and to board the plane. Let the sprinting begin. I got a serious workout running through Heathrow. I guess I was hoping that my plane would be 2 minutes away, which makes no sense because it was a completely different airline and kind of (yes kind of...) going to a completely different country. What I wasn't expecting was to have to go through security again and then get attitude from the Aer Lingus clerk. She just pointed over her head and said something inaudible. So I started running again and the signs said that my plane was a 15 minute walk away, so basically at my sprinter's pace I should make it there in 13 minutes. Heathrow is a maze. Seriously, it's like they built this airport in 1950 and told themselves that no way in hell is London going to grow and then after it started to grow and expand, they just started adding Chutes and Ladders. For all I knew, I was going to end up back at the Aer Lingus clerk's desk. Okay, I'm making good progress....G1-10...G11-20....G21-30...G61-70....G8f and G8e....WHAT!?!?! Where are the 80's, I'm going to 83 My flight is going to leave because I'm stuck in airport purgatory! An airport attendant told me that this is a common mistake people make and that if I walk a little ways back in THAT direction and make a left at the door that doesn't look like an entrance to anything and THAT would be G81-90. Ok, I don't have time to argue this point either, so off I went to more winding and turning and finally to my gate.
DELAYED due to wind.
I could have been frustrated but I was just happy the plane was still in London. I'm was there, the plane was there, we were there together and that allowed me to relax. At least for 30 minutes or so. Then we boarded and then we landed in Dublin. All in a day's work for me I guess.
Next up Dublin...I seriously planned on talking about Dublin this blog but then I got distracted by my misadventures in life and you know how I can ramble on.
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