Let the Adventures Begin!
An Early-ish Start
The plan; an early-ish start to the day. Fortunately, a mate (thanks Bamber 😘) had kindly offered to drop me off at Exeter Airport as he was heading out that way, so no need to disturb the wife.
Shortly after waking, quietly climbing out of bed, jumping into the shower, and coming back into the bedroom, I'm greeted by a somewhat grumpy better-half... I'd forgotten I'd set a second alarm, and not turned it off… sending Eddy 🐕 into a howling session. Oops 😅
After saying my goodbyes, Shelly turns to me and says “oh, one last thing…” I'm thinking, what could this be… a romantic fair well? kind, loving wishes for a safe journey?.. Nope… “Make me a brew before you leave 😚”. Brilliant. Probably deserved that 😂
Arriving at the airport rather early, I got through check-in & security (I was literally the only person). And proceeded to get myself comfortable for a reasonable wait.
And no need for more of an excuse; off to WHSmiths for a paper-back bargain. Not sure how much time I’ll get for reading. But these two look like they’ll keep me entertained…
Wasn’t long before things got more exciting than anticipated. A fire alarm, followed by a quick realisation that this wasn’t a drill and we all had to evacuate the terminal. Fun.
Now, this wouldn’t normally be too much of a concern… but when you’ve got a connecting flight to catch. This was making things more spicy than planned.
Fortunately, we didn’t have to stand in the wind and rain for long, before being asked to go back. But we’d all need to go back through security.
One thing is for sure - seconds time through security took a loooot longer. Which also resulted in plenty of clock watching.
Excitement over, it wasn’t long before the call was coming through for boarding. Everything was still running on time.
Dublin Airport
Yurr… It’s slightly busier here than Exeter Airport.
Mission #1 - Try and get a blog set up
And then…. waap wap waahhh…
The Delay (that was not to be)
Hahaha… 💩💩💩
So…. The flight that was delayed until 3pm, and had a message saying that boarding would start at 2pm. Yeah, they changed it back again. And there I was, sat typing this blog, thinking I had loads of time.
So you can imagine my surprise when I came to check the board again, just before 2pm, to see Final Call!!! To a boarding gate 7 minutes away.
I ran. All the way to gate 110. Only to find everyone sat calmly. I checked with the boarding crew, who smiled and told me that boarding hadn't yet started. Few!!
I sat down, feeling somewhat relieved.
And then! I look up and see the destination for this gate was Alicante, NOT Stockholm. 😳😳😳
They'd only gone and changed the gate to 102 (which I'd just run past 🥹)
Checking again with the boarding crew, I was quickly informed that gate 102 was now showing as closed. Feck feck feck, I'd missed the flight😭😭😭
Or had I?!?
A (very quick) sprint through the terminal gets me to gate 102, where I can literally see them closing the doors. With seconds to spare, they checked my details and told me to run!
I made it! Just 😅
Honestly, it was like everything was conspiring against me getting to Sweden. But I'd got on the plane, that was main thing. Time to relax for a few hours.
Getting off the flight, I'm now feeling a mixture of relief, and a not-insignificant amount of dread that, due to the change of departure gates / aeroplanes at Dublin, there's a fairly high chance my hold-luggage is heading off to warmer climates - without me!
Ryan Air really is like the Weatherspoons of the sky… Zero frills, plus, it's like sitting in ya Nan's lounge (somewhat dated throughout). Anyway, it did what it needed to do. Get me to Sweden…
What a day!