This past week has been a week to remember. For all the good and the somewhat bad, it ended up being for the best and I learned a little thing about how life works in strange ways.
This past week was Reading Week, which is basically the break for my London program where we get a week to rest and possibly travel if we desire to. Because of this, my parents came to visit for the week, the first time they traveled to Europe in their lives. The first 5 days went off swimmingly. I showed them touristy sites like Big Ben, London Eye, and Abbey Road, we went to Liverpool to get the full Beatles Experience, and we even had afternoon tea at an Alice in Wonderland-themed place called the Mad Hatter. They really enjoyed London, and come tomorrow morning, we were off to Dublin, Ireland for 2 days.
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Or...so we thought. We woke up early for our 8:50am flight, and were waiting for our gate for Air Lingus to Dublin. I even took a little nap in the airport, waiting excitedly for the trip of a lifetime.
And then I wake up and all hell breaks loose. We are told that our flight is canceled because of Storm Doris and the heavy winds that come with that. Everyone is freaking out. Soon, we are then put on a wild goose chase where we have to go all the way back to the ticket office in the beginning. We're in line with Air Lingus for a good 2-3 hours, with no communication, only 1 person at the desk, and confusion and paranoia galore. Soon, we find out that they are not able to put us on another flight and all the remaining Air Lingus flights for the today are full.
At this point, my dad, mom, and I are super annoyed, frustrated, and worried about what we are going to do. We don't want to be put on the waiting list because we probably won't make it. We don't want to wait for another flight tomorrow. Our best bet is going to another flight service and asking to get on another flight. We try for RyanAir, and when talking to the lady, she says Dublin is full, but when I bring up Belfast, there is a glimmer of hope.
There ends up being a Belfast flight at 12:55pm that we could take and then take a bus to Dublin to still get to Ireland the day we wanted to. We decide why not, and have to go through customs and everything like before.
Luckily, even with a delay on the Belfast flight, we end up in the sky, make it to Belfast, take a bus to Dublin, and make it to the hotel before the the night is over. We were finally here, and although we lost a day with all this traveling mayhem, we still had Friday to do everything we wanted.
This whole trip has taught me that there will be obstacles in life, but with those obstacles come small victories. Due to the canceled flight, I was able to go to Belfast, another city I had never been to, and I can say I've now been in Northern Ireland. Due to the canceled flight, we were able to bond with the rest of the distressed member on the flight, the most I've talked to random strangers in a long time. Due to the canceled flight, we took a bus with had a lot of pretty sights and scenes to take pictures of. It's truly all in perspective.
I got to go to Ireland despite all the troubles, and that's all I can ask for. We were able to see the cathedrals, some castles, go to beaches, walk a cliff, and hang out at a nice pub at the end of the day. The bumpy road did not kill our spirits too much and at least my parents and I have a funny story to reflect on in years to come.
I will never take advantage of successful flights ever again after this chaos, and it truly shows how if one is able to adapt, he or she will be rewarded in unexpected places.
