It is 6:41am and I am awake. And I am at an airport. And I will be, for the next 14 hours. Perfect.
That’s what happens, I suppose, when you miss your flight. And missing your flight is what happens, I suppose, when you don’t check your airline ticket. I'm in no way trying to pass the buck, as I take full responsibility for my idiocy, but it's just that every time any one of Alex’s relatives asked us what time our flight was at, she chirped right up without a second thought and said “7:30”. And I just assumed that she knew what she was talking about (of course I would, being a trusting friend, instead of knowing she knew about what she was talking about) and so I just agreed.
And so when we set our alarm clock to get up at 4:30, it was with the intention of catching the 5:15am bus to the airport.
And when we caught the 5:15am bus to the airport, we had the intention of checking in for our ‘7:30’ flight at 6:00, getting to the departure gate, getting through security at our leisure and then boarding some time around 7am.
But alas, no.
I knew the second we walked into the airport check-in area, when I looked at the board with the flights on it and didn’t see our flight at 7:30 on the board (you see, I’m very good at scan reading).
I scanned again but still couldn’t see any flights to Edinburgh.
Then I noticed that there was a Ryanair flight to Edinburgh, leaving at 6:30am. So I asked Alex, already fearing the truth, “What time was our flight at?”, and before she even answered, I knew it was too late. She said “7:30”, of course, and I pulled out our tickets to check.
There it was, staring me in the face.
A big, fat, “6:30; boarding at 6:00” printed in bold letters. Laughing at me, pretty much.
Ah, fer feck’s sake.
Why didn’t I just check the tickets myself? The thing that bugs me is that if I was travelling alone, I would have HAD to check my tickets. And now the poor girl thinks its all her fault...why did I not just double check?! Ah, so frustrating! I let my guard down and look what happened: i proved my mother right again! I’ve heard my her say a million times “If you want something done right, just do it yourself”.
Alex believed that this allllll happened because we got through security fine the first time, so something just ‘had to go wrong’ on the way back. A part of me thought it’d be nice to blame it on a superstition like that…but Ohhhhh no, friends. We missed our flight because we didn’t check our flight time. The single most important thing to check when travelling. It may have been a good idea to know what time we were leaving at, right? But, honestly, there’s not much we can do now, right? We checked with the Ryanair desk, and the next flight isn’t until 8:30… this evening. EVENING. And it’ll cost us each100 Euros. Wonder-fricken-ful. 100 euros for not looking at a piece of paper. That’ll teach me.
Aaaahhh. Well, there’s a first time for everything, right? And I’m glad that at least I’m here with Alex. But to be honest, if I was travelling with myself, I would have been sure of my flight time. I don’t mean to be an intolerable, self-confident witch, but I do consider myself to be an experienced traveller; I know what to do at airports, I have a knack for packing lots of things in small places, I travel smart and take caution when in public. Maybe it’s because I’m used to travelling alone, or maybe because I seem to be just generally very aware of my surroundings, etc, when travelling, but I’ve kind of felt on a few occasions that its harder travelling with someone, because in a way, it can be a distraction.
Good news is that as I am typing this, Alex is calling her mom and we are (hopefully!) arranging a taxi to Alex’s grandma’s or something, so that we don’t have to actually spend the entire day here.
Okay, so here I am, 12:17am the next morning, safe and sound in Edinburgh, and I can fill you in on the day.
After the phone call to her mom, Alex and I hung around the airport until around 9am when it was a decent time to call her grandma. It was actually nice. We sat upstairs on some comfy chairs, and we both got a chance to cool down, stop being annoyed with each other, and enjoy some starbucks on Alex’s mom/dad (or whoever was so kind to put some cash into her account). We got to listen to some Americans sitting near us, talking about “literally peeing their pants” in fright at the New Jersey coastline’s undertow, and laughing in general at their accents (I can’t believe how different their accents are, especially just coming from New Jersey, which is so close to where I live!). We got some food at a little café place that was serving hot food, and, as if my morning wasn’t going horribly enough already, just as my bacon and egg baguette came out of the panini press, all hot and toasted and yummy, I freakin’ dropped it on the ground!!!! Yea, that’s right. I threw it on the grouuuuuuuuunddddd!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE GROUNNNNDDDD!
Right. Anyway… After that disaster, which actually wasn’t a complete disaster because the kind lady working there offered me a new one free of charge (how kind!!), we called Agnes and she happily invited us over to her place. We took a cab from the airport over to her place, for the second time in a week.
Luckily, this time around, the taxi man was muuuuch nicer than before! He comforted us and sympathized with us, unlike those cranky Ryanair attendants. The worst part about the whole missing-our-flight thing was that it was sooo close. If we had realized while on the bus to the airport that we were running late, we could have ran to the station and made it. We were only 10 minutes too late, after they had closed the baggage drop for that flight. And the worst part? If we hadn’t have had a suitcase to check-in, we could have just ran to the gate and made it on with our carry-ons. Anyway, the adorable little old taxi driver got into a philosophical conversation with us, and we took solace in the fact that what he said was true: everything happens for a reason.
When we arrived at Agnes’ house, we had a nice chat, had some tea and toast, and her son Raymond came over for a very brief visit, too. It was nice to meet more of the family! Then Alex and I were just about completely drained from being up so early and all the emotions and stress and everything, so we zonked out for a nap around 11am at grannys. We were meant to get up around 12:30 because Alex’s aunt Anne was coming at 1 to pick us up. As we were sleeping, Agnes took the opportunity to escape from the house, even with her frighteningly sub-par driving skills, and went out to get us pizza for lunch – bless her soul! She’s just the cutest little grandma, and so generous! She kept on telling me about how I better be able to enjoy some “Irish hospitality” while I’m here – and oh boy, did I ever! What with Connie and Tony and Katie and then Niamh and Fineen and the kids, and now her once again!! Anyway, my first thought when Alex and I woke up at 1pm and realized that Agnes wasn’t there and had gone somewhere in the car was “Oh no…oh no! She’ been in an accident!” but thank heavens she made it back within a few minutes – and with personal pan pizzas from dominos for us and everything! Halfway through our pizzas, Anne and her daughter Rosin arrived, and whisked us off, rather briskly, to their place in another area of Dublin called Skerres . En route to their home, I was pretty quiet, mostly from being exhausted but also because of the family history lesson going on. I really didn’t want to interrupt anything, and I know they don’t get much time to catch us…but anyway, the point is, I wasn’t talking much and because of that, I was drifting into sleep mode. I hope Alex didn’t think I was being rude…
Anyway, once we got there, we did a bit of shopping around the town (Alex got a gorgeous bouquet for a small thank-you), saw some adorable little sights (like the windmills in the park among other things) and then hung out around the house just talking and stuff. We had a delicious meal and then were off again to the airport.
Oh, I forgot to mention. As I was just drifting off to sleep during my nap at Agnes’ house, Alex reaches over to the night table between our two single beds and opened a drawer and said ,“Oh, I just love grandma’s drawers”. And then I started laughing like a maniac, thinking of Alex wearing a big pair of granny panties overtop of her clothes. Oh lordy me. The funniest best part is, they never say “drawers” meaning ‘underwear’ here, so she didn’t even get it!
Yes, so we made it to the airport ON TIME this try, which was definitely a good thing. We got our suitcase checked in just fine, said goodbye to Anne and Rosin, and boarded a very speedy flight to Edinburgh. The usual time is 40 minutes, and somehow we arrived 20 minutes EARLY. What the!? Anyway, I’m not complaining. Basically, we got on, I got an insanely expensive [and even more insanely tiny] bottle of iced tea, and Alex shared some Haribo’s with me, perhaps my new favourite gummy candies—and before we knew it, we were in Edinburgh!
Alex’s mom picked us up from the airport and drove us to her dad’s place in Morningside. Then we sat at the end of his bed and caught up with her dad, had some tea and empire biscuits, watched some Gossip Girl (I tried to make it an acronym as GG but then realized that GG can stand for only one thing in my heart, and that’s Gilmore Girls). And now its really bed time. I (re)arranged my suitcase, cleaned all up, and now my eyes are starting to shut again.
Safe and sound, after a long, long day.
I can’t believe there’s only a few days left. I have SO MUCH work to do, its starting to stress me out! No, Becky. Stay strong. It’s just a presentation and a theory assignment. You won’t even remember it in a few years’ time. Like our annoying teeny-bopper crush Jesse McCartney says, “Don’t stress, don’t stress”.
I also think it’s worth noting that this is the first (and probably will be the only) day during my easter holidays that I didn’t even take ONE photo. Probably because Alex would have bitten off my head if I tried to capture her rage, and also because I was so distracted by everything else. Sometimes it’s just nice to experience things for yourself, instead of trying to get proof and photo prints to show other people. All in all, an exciting (and tiring!) day! Hopefully my stay in Edinburgh will be more organized and productive! I can’t wait!
That’s what happens, I suppose, when you miss your flight. And missing your flight is what happens, I suppose, when you don’t check your airline ticket. I'm in no way trying to pass the buck, as I take full responsibility for my idiocy, but it's just that every time any one of Alex’s relatives asked us what time our flight was at, she chirped right up without a second thought and said “7:30”. And I just assumed that she knew what she was talking about (of course I would, being a trusting friend, instead of knowing she knew about what she was talking about) and so I just agreed.
And so when we set our alarm clock to get up at 4:30, it was with the intention of catching the 5:15am bus to the airport.
And when we caught the 5:15am bus to the airport, we had the intention of checking in for our ‘7:30’ flight at 6:00, getting to the departure gate, getting through security at our leisure and then boarding some time around 7am.
But alas, no.
I knew the second we walked into the airport check-in area, when I looked at the board with the flights on it and didn’t see our flight at 7:30 on the board (you see, I’m very good at scan reading).
I scanned again but still couldn’t see any flights to Edinburgh.
Then I noticed that there was a Ryanair flight to Edinburgh, leaving at 6:30am. So I asked Alex, already fearing the truth, “What time was our flight at?”, and before she even answered, I knew it was too late. She said “7:30”, of course, and I pulled out our tickets to check.
There it was, staring me in the face.
A big, fat, “6:30; boarding at 6:00” printed in bold letters. Laughing at me, pretty much.
Ah, fer feck’s sake.
Why didn’t I just check the tickets myself? The thing that bugs me is that if I was travelling alone, I would have HAD to check my tickets. And now the poor girl thinks its all her fault...why did I not just double check?! Ah, so frustrating! I let my guard down and look what happened: i proved my mother right again! I’ve heard my her say a million times “If you want something done right, just do it yourself”.
Alex believed that this allllll happened because we got through security fine the first time, so something just ‘had to go wrong’ on the way back. A part of me thought it’d be nice to blame it on a superstition like that…but Ohhhhh no, friends. We missed our flight because we didn’t check our flight time. The single most important thing to check when travelling. It may have been a good idea to know what time we were leaving at, right? But, honestly, there’s not much we can do now, right? We checked with the Ryanair desk, and the next flight isn’t until 8:30… this evening. EVENING. And it’ll cost us each100 Euros. Wonder-fricken-ful. 100 euros for not looking at a piece of paper. That’ll teach me.
Aaaahhh. Well, there’s a first time for everything, right? And I’m glad that at least I’m here with Alex. But to be honest, if I was travelling with myself, I would have been sure of my flight time. I don’t mean to be an intolerable, self-confident witch, but I do consider myself to be an experienced traveller; I know what to do at airports, I have a knack for packing lots of things in small places, I travel smart and take caution when in public. Maybe it’s because I’m used to travelling alone, or maybe because I seem to be just generally very aware of my surroundings, etc, when travelling, but I’ve kind of felt on a few occasions that its harder travelling with someone, because in a way, it can be a distraction.
Good news is that as I am typing this, Alex is calling her mom and we are (hopefully!) arranging a taxi to Alex’s grandma’s or something, so that we don’t have to actually spend the entire day here.
Okay, so here I am, 12:17am the next morning, safe and sound in Edinburgh, and I can fill you in on the day.
After the phone call to her mom, Alex and I hung around the airport until around 9am when it was a decent time to call her grandma. It was actually nice. We sat upstairs on some comfy chairs, and we both got a chance to cool down, stop being annoyed with each other, and enjoy some starbucks on Alex’s mom/dad (or whoever was so kind to put some cash into her account). We got to listen to some Americans sitting near us, talking about “literally peeing their pants” in fright at the New Jersey coastline’s undertow, and laughing in general at their accents (I can’t believe how different their accents are, especially just coming from New Jersey, which is so close to where I live!). We got some food at a little café place that was serving hot food, and, as if my morning wasn’t going horribly enough already, just as my bacon and egg baguette came out of the panini press, all hot and toasted and yummy, I freakin’ dropped it on the ground!!!! Yea, that’s right. I threw it on the grouuuuuuuuunddddd!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE GROUNNNNDDDD!
Right. Anyway… After that disaster, which actually wasn’t a complete disaster because the kind lady working there offered me a new one free of charge (how kind!!), we called Agnes and she happily invited us over to her place. We took a cab from the airport over to her place, for the second time in a week.
Luckily, this time around, the taxi man was muuuuch nicer than before! He comforted us and sympathized with us, unlike those cranky Ryanair attendants. The worst part about the whole missing-our-flight thing was that it was sooo close. If we had realized while on the bus to the airport that we were running late, we could have ran to the station and made it. We were only 10 minutes too late, after they had closed the baggage drop for that flight. And the worst part? If we hadn’t have had a suitcase to check-in, we could have just ran to the gate and made it on with our carry-ons. Anyway, the adorable little old taxi driver got into a philosophical conversation with us, and we took solace in the fact that what he said was true: everything happens for a reason.
When we arrived at Agnes’ house, we had a nice chat, had some tea and toast, and her son Raymond came over for a very brief visit, too. It was nice to meet more of the family! Then Alex and I were just about completely drained from being up so early and all the emotions and stress and everything, so we zonked out for a nap around 11am at grannys. We were meant to get up around 12:30 because Alex’s aunt Anne was coming at 1 to pick us up. As we were sleeping, Agnes took the opportunity to escape from the house, even with her frighteningly sub-par driving skills, and went out to get us pizza for lunch – bless her soul! She’s just the cutest little grandma, and so generous! She kept on telling me about how I better be able to enjoy some “Irish hospitality” while I’m here – and oh boy, did I ever! What with Connie and Tony and Katie and then Niamh and Fineen and the kids, and now her once again!! Anyway, my first thought when Alex and I woke up at 1pm and realized that Agnes wasn’t there and had gone somewhere in the car was “Oh no…oh no! She’ been in an accident!” but thank heavens she made it back within a few minutes – and with personal pan pizzas from dominos for us and everything! Halfway through our pizzas, Anne and her daughter Rosin arrived, and whisked us off, rather briskly, to their place in another area of Dublin called Skerres . En route to their home, I was pretty quiet, mostly from being exhausted but also because of the family history lesson going on. I really didn’t want to interrupt anything, and I know they don’t get much time to catch us…but anyway, the point is, I wasn’t talking much and because of that, I was drifting into sleep mode. I hope Alex didn’t think I was being rude…
Anyway, once we got there, we did a bit of shopping around the town (Alex got a gorgeous bouquet for a small thank-you), saw some adorable little sights (like the windmills in the park among other things) and then hung out around the house just talking and stuff. We had a delicious meal and then were off again to the airport.
Oh, I forgot to mention. As I was just drifting off to sleep during my nap at Agnes’ house, Alex reaches over to the night table between our two single beds and opened a drawer and said ,“Oh, I just love grandma’s drawers”. And then I started laughing like a maniac, thinking of Alex wearing a big pair of granny panties overtop of her clothes. Oh lordy me. The funniest best part is, they never say “drawers” meaning ‘underwear’ here, so she didn’t even get it!
Yes, so we made it to the airport ON TIME this try, which was definitely a good thing. We got our suitcase checked in just fine, said goodbye to Anne and Rosin, and boarded a very speedy flight to Edinburgh. The usual time is 40 minutes, and somehow we arrived 20 minutes EARLY. What the!? Anyway, I’m not complaining. Basically, we got on, I got an insanely expensive [and even more insanely tiny] bottle of iced tea, and Alex shared some Haribo’s with me, perhaps my new favourite gummy candies—and before we knew it, we were in Edinburgh!
Alex’s mom picked us up from the airport and drove us to her dad’s place in Morningside. Then we sat at the end of his bed and caught up with her dad, had some tea and empire biscuits, watched some Gossip Girl (I tried to make it an acronym as GG but then realized that GG can stand for only one thing in my heart, and that’s Gilmore Girls). And now its really bed time. I (re)arranged my suitcase, cleaned all up, and now my eyes are starting to shut again.
Safe and sound, after a long, long day.
I can’t believe there’s only a few days left. I have SO MUCH work to do, its starting to stress me out! No, Becky. Stay strong. It’s just a presentation and a theory assignment. You won’t even remember it in a few years’ time. Like our annoying teeny-bopper crush Jesse McCartney says, “Don’t stress, don’t stress”.
I also think it’s worth noting that this is the first (and probably will be the only) day during my easter holidays that I didn’t even take ONE photo. Probably because Alex would have bitten off my head if I tried to capture her rage, and also because I was so distracted by everything else. Sometimes it’s just nice to experience things for yourself, instead of trying to get proof and photo prints to show other people. All in all, an exciting (and tiring!) day! Hopefully my stay in Edinburgh will be more organized and productive! I can’t wait!
Night night!!
Beckers
xxx
Beckers
xxx
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