The last few days have been a little bit unexpected. Yesterday, Bron, Sally and I were meant to travel to Ireland, the elusive place of all happiness that was drawing us in with its rolling hills and the promise of friendly english speakers. but alas. as much as we tried to get there yesterday… well… hmmm.
We arrived at the airport at like 1pm for our 4pm flight… something even Bronwyn’s dad would be proud of!! The lady as we checked in was like… there has been no delays announced. hurumph. after waiting another 7 hours they told us the plane to dublin was cancelled and we would have to go down stairs to rearrange flights and accomodation for the night. We lined up for about 20 minutes, and were then told that actually they were only helping families with kids. so we then had to wait in another line for those with no children. fair enough i suppose. so we waited another hour… and then (and this is the most outraging part) they called for french speakers!!!!!! honestly. The man next to me was like “they should be calling Irish speakers first” which made me laugh for some time. Eventually, we found out that they weren’t adding any flights the next day… so people had to fight for seats on the planes already departing… so they recommended us to change our seats online. which basically meant they didn’t want to speak to us. So we did change our seats to the first flight to Dublin the next morning. They didn’t offer us accomodation. we had to do it ourselves. thank goodness for travel insurance.
so we rocked up to the airport the next day and a man came over to us with a list and was like “if you’re on this list that means you’re on the 10.20″ – i was like (????) we better be!!! But we were so it was all good. Anyways this plane was 40 minutes delayed… but eventually we got to Dublin!!! hooray.
only to find that my luggage is still in Paris. blast it all. oh and i broke my glass ring today… it shattered so i had to throw it out. such a shame… so i hope the luggage arrives soon…. cos i have no spare underwear!! or a toothbrush. eww…
Concurrently, Mike was due to meet us in Ireland today at 11. but he got stuck at Gatwick, which is possibly the worst place he could have been!!! if youve seen the news about London weather at all… so all day at our accomodation we were waiting to hear or for him to turn up. which he eventually did!! right after we called his mum. and his suitcase was lost too….
so all’s well in ireland, except mike and i have no suitcases, and we are somewhat sliding around the streets. our driving plans are possibly being revised as well… icy icy roads here.
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January 8, 2010 at 9:49 am
Jenni Smith
what an adventure! at least you can laugh at it, now it’s over. I’m so glad you’re all safe in Dublin, at least you can borrow clothes from the girls…poor Mike can’t. Two comments: in New Caledonia last month, we had numerous examples of the french disdain for providing service, even in the hospitality industry. So I’m not surprised really, except sad that it made your experience so much harder. Secondly, when I was a 20 yr old student travelling through Asia on the cheap, flying on student flights, our plane was held up in KL – we were sitting in it, on the tarmac, watching mechanics try to fix one of the engines, so we were quite pleased when they pulled the flight. All the passengers were students, yet we all were given vouchers to a lovely hotel downtown, airconditioned AND with a pool! Since we had had neither of those luxuries in the previous 3 months of our travels, we thought the delay was pretty cool. We also enjoyed free hotel meals. Sadly, times have changed in the airline industry.
January 8, 2010 at 11:35 am
Mark Earngey
Ha! I’ve had my luggage lost when I arrived in Ireland too! It was hilarious because I’d come straight from Oz and was wearing shorts and thongs. My feet were so cold that the first thing I did was find a shoeshop, but I made the mistake of telling the poor salesgirl that …. I’d arrived in Ireland and only had my thongs!! hahahhaa…. her facial expression was priceless!
Hope Ireland’s awesome!
Watch out for sleeping sheep on the roads 
January 8, 2010 at 12:33 pm
sydneysynecdoche
Oh my gosh! French people sound so mean, but they seem to nice on television.
But Ireland! Careful, when they get drunk they’ll speak sweet nothings in Gaelic to seduce you. However, if you’re like me you won’t understand so you’ll just go talk to someone else.