Hey y'all! It's been a while since I last posted. I returned home from Costa Rica about three weeks ago and have been working non-stop since. I finally have some time to tell you guys about my favorite travel story (my favorite in hindsight*). This experience I am about to tell you about taught me a lot about traveling. I hope you enjoy it, and it is okay to laugh at my misfortunes because I am also laughing.
Pictured above: Sneak peak of where this story is headed (this thing is no joke, it is LEANING A LOT)
When I studied abroad in Dublin, Ireland, we had Thursday nights to Sunday nights all to ourselves, and obviously since were in Europe, all of us traveled almost every weekend. We also had a 9 day fall break, which is when this story takes place. I have a cousin who lives in Turin, Italy currently with her husband and children, so I thought, "What a great time to visit them and have my first solo traveling experience". Now, you would think that this would be the chaotic part of the story, and some parts of those three days adventuring alone were (one time I walked in the opposite direction of the train station for two miles), but the worst is yet to come.
Pictured above: First is one of the thousands of beautiful buildings in Turin; second is one of the five towns of the world famous Cinque Terre, Monterosso (which is about a three hour train ride from Turin) which was part of my solo adventure; and third is a photo from the flight from Dublin to Milan over the Italian alps (hands down the most amazing plane trip and worth the trouble to get a window seat).
I was going to fly into Paris to meet two of my roommates. Their flight was supposed to land about 15 minutes after my flight was supposed to. But did it? It did not. Their flight was delayed by two and a half hours (!!!!), and I did not want to venture into the city by myself, so I waited around in the airport for hours until they finally arrived. We go off into the city (not realizing that our airport was an hour bus ride outside of the city), hop on the train to see the Eiffel Tower, and hopped back on the train then bus to return to the airport because we had an AirBnB near the airport for our early flight to Italy the next day. Sounds a little stressful and moderately disappointing, no? Well just wait. There's more. This isn't even the story yet. This is just background information.
Pictured above: First is the stunning and picturesque me (oh, and the Eiffel Tower); and second is an artsy picture which I did, in fact, lay on the ground to take (but worth it, am I right?)
We wake up early the next morning for our flight to Venice, Italy. Which, FYI, is literally the coolest place ever. You have to take a boat for everything (airport transfer, school bus for kids, go to the grocery store, etc.) and it is stunning (although I have heard the bugs/heat/smell in the summer is very off-putting; we were there in October). I cannot imagine anything being bad enough to make two days in Venice bad. Oh, except someone hacking your email through the Wifi in their airport and your naive, inexperienced, technologically challenged mind thinking that the hacker would be able to access your banking apps and steal all of your money. So that did put a small damper on my mood for the first day, but I got over it very quickly because duh, I was in Italy. So I ate some pasta, drank some wine, and we got on with our trip.
Pictured above: First, just one of the millions of little streets in Venice with lovely buildings; second is me drinking my problems away; and third is St. Mark's Square which features this massive church as well as some other really lovely views.
We took a train to Bologna (where we intended on staying for the day but saw hookers and got scared so we left), spent the afternoon in Florence (I wish we had more time there because it was lovely), and ended up in Pisa where we were to fly out of the next night back to Dublin. We spent the day in Pisa, seeing the Leaning Tower and walking around eating gelato and crepes. Very Italian. We stayed in a little hotel that was a short walk to the airport, and when the time came, we packed up and hiked to their airport.
That was still all background. This is the real story.
Pictured above: First, the INCREDIBLE Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (the details are even more wonderful in person); second is the river that runs through Florence that allows for some really nice sunset pictures; and third, one of the many squares in Italy (for any of you Jersey Shore admirers out there, does this look familiar? This was part of the opening credits of the season two when the Jersey Shore people went to Florence.)
We had a late flight, about 10 p.m. We get to the airport early, find some cheap dinner, and head to the gate. Then the flights, one by one, begin to get delayed. All of them. Up until ours, which was one of the last flights of the night. And then ours gets delayed. Everyone is watching and waiting, I wish I could say patiently, but there was a lot of aggression in that terminal. We hear from a worker that the reason for all of the delays is fog. Who ever heard of fog so thick that it can delay not one but approximately ten flights?
Finally, it happens. "Cancelled". The first of the delayed flights is gone. Then, again, one by one, each flight gets cancelled. EXCEPT, ours. Finally, some luck for me. We board the plane, in quite a rush because we did not know how long we had before the fog could move back in. And were waiting for the captain to tell us that were clear for take off. And were waiting. And were waiting.
Also, minor detail, THERE WAS A HURRICANE HITTING IRELAND TOMORROW SO WE HAD TO LEAVE NOW OR WE WOULD BE DELAYED EVEN MORE. So the captain makes an announcement that the fog is back and our flight is officially delayed. Okay, staying calm, none of us are freaking out. They tell us they will get us a hotel near the airport (even though its about midnight at this point). They do not have another flight time, but we should be at the airport again tomorrow no later than 8 a.m. It's fine, everything is fine.
We go out to those huge charter buses, load up, and off to the hotel we go. 10 minutes passes, then 20, then 30, then 60. I am thinking, "'Close to the airport' implies that the hotel would be close and not an hour away?". Finally the bus driver pulls over in front of a house. Like, a person's house. Not a hotel. And he says, "Here!" And every single person on that bus was shaking their heads no, but he walks right up to the door and starts pounding on it. Some poor Italian old lady answers and was not happy. I would not be either. He returns to the bus and informs us that is not the hotel and that he thinks he has the wrong address, so he is going to call his boss.
By the time were back on the road, it is about 1:30 in the morning and I am over the situation. I have been living out of my bookbag for 9 days and I have 0 clothes left, I am exhausted, and all I want is to be back in Dublin. ONE HOUR LATER we arrive at a hotel. We do not even check to see where it is located, because it looks nice enough and we are insanely tired and have about four hours of sleep ahead of us. We get our room and pass out, setting alarms for early enough to get showers and find out where we are in the morning.
We wake up, still exhausted, take showers, and head out to the continental breakfast to figure everything out. Turns out, we are not that close to the airport, and we either have to take a taxi which will cost almost $100 or walk into town and try to find the bus station. We are on a strict time limit, but we are also broke college students, so we start walking. After about 30 minutes of walking and no luck seeing any signs or buses, we ask a front desk of another hotel to call us a cab. Off to the airport we go, in a terribly expensive taxi, grumpier than we were before. We arrive at the airport, locate our new flight time (which is way too soon), and get in the ridiculously long line to get through security. Now, the airport in Pisa is not huge, but it is large, and the security starts in the middle of the building. The line goes through the S-gates, down to the end of the building, goes ALL THE WAY BACK UP THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE BUILDING, AND THEN HALFWAY BACK DOWN.
We are in line, the line is not moving quickly enough, and were thinking that we're going to have to be those people who run to the front of the line and beg to let us go because were going to miss our flight. We think we have about an hour. When we got close enough to the next TV screen to check the flight was still on time and everything (because remember, there is a literal hurricane supposed to hit Ireland today), and we cannot find our flight. We are watching the screen, thinking we just missed it, it will be on the next screen, but it is completely gone. We jump out of line and storm off to find an employee. We were not the only ones confused and angry, because our entire flight was screaming at whoever would stand still long enough to hear. "The flight has been delayed again, we do not know when it will be set for, try to remain patient, we will have answers soon ,etc...". Oh, HELL no. I want to go home NOW.
Eventually, we get too tired and hungry from being annoyed, and were honestly just too tired to care anymore, so we went to a restaurant and got some more pasta and some more wine to wait this out. We took turns napping and watching each others stuff while still occasionally checking for any new information, but we just had run out of hope by this point. Then, like God's voice calling out to the Moses, we heard, "Anyone on Flight Number Whatever from Pisa to Dublin, go to your check-in desk". I'm telling you right now, I have never run so fast in my entire life and probably never will again.
Now you may be asking yourself, "What is the time frame here" or you have given up reading which is understandable because this is a very long story, but for the first group, its about 5 p.m. We have been in the airport today for about 8 hours and in this situation for about 21 hours. They tell us to head to the gate, that they're going to try to fly us out whenever a spot opens up. They told us the hurricane was basically gone except for some winds but they wanted to fly us back tonight. So we're excited. We take off to the gate and get there with ease (the security line was much shorter). So then we're sitting and waiting for an announcement and watching the TV screen for our flight to get added. And an hour passes. And another hour passes. And one more hour passes. And then all hope, yet again, is gone. It has officially been 24 hours since our flight was supposed to leave, and it looks like were never leaving. It's the Airport California (now you understand the title).
Then, I kid you not, ALL OF THE FLIGHTS START GETTING DELAYED AGAIN. And then, again, I kid you not, someone got on the speakers and said, "Yeah, Dublin flight, we're leaving tonight . Get on the plane ASAP." So everyone takes off to the gate, and they really are boarding the plane. So we get on the plane and once more, were waiting on fog. The captain told us as soon as it was possible, he was getting us in the air. We were the only flight cleared to leave and no other flights were coming in. Then, it happened.
The fog cleared for 5 minutes, and we were able to leave. Then flying into Dublin the hurricane was gone but forgot to bring the wind with it so the landing was absolutely terrifying but once we landed, everything was good with the world again.
Pictured above: First, of course, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Okay, duh it's leaning, that's why it's famous, but this thing is LEANING. You have to see it to really understand this; second, a beach a short and cheap bus ride away from Pisa; and third, gelato at said beach (amazing gelato).
Moral of the story: NEVER get mad at a one or two hour delay, because at least it is not an overnight, 24+ hour, chaotic, stressful, smelly hellhole of a situation. Unless you are like me, in which case you will likely still be mad at a one or two hour delay. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my story and I hope that something like this never happens to you!
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