"Experience, travel - these are as education in themselves." -Euripides
Last day in Spain. Last Day in Europe. Last Day in Another Country. Who knows when the next time is that I will go international. The past two weeks have been an absolute whirlwind for me. And today was going to be no different.
I had a morning flight and after what happened last time, I was determined to be there early. I am implementing a three-hour rule for every plane trip I take hereon out. I booked my flight to DFW through Aer Lingus which made two stops; one at Dublin and one at Boston. I checked in and went through security for the last time for hopefully a long time. The wait began. Time comes to board and no one lets us in. Apparently Dublin had some bad weather and our flight had been delayed for two hours. In my mind I was irritated about waiting more especially after I arrived at the airport early but even more worried about making my connecting flight which was I had a three hour layover to cushion any mishaps (later I would realize that this wouldn't be an issue). We finally boarded and flew to Dublin in bad weather condition. Turbulence was awful and I have to say that this was the one time where applauding after the pilot landed the aircraft was socially acceptable.
I was stressing out about missing my flight to Boston. This was the big transcontinental one. Who knows if they would have another flight? It turns out that I wouldn't have to worry since that flight had also been delayed. What was even more excruciating about the wait is that they didn't have a definitive time of when they would leave. The screen would always say "More info at 4:30, 5:30 etc." They finally opened up a gate to board three hours after it was initially scheduled. Then factoring time to board and takeoff, tack on another half hour. The bright side was that my seat was at the front of economy (movin' on up) so I got extra legroom just like my previous transcontinental trip to Scotland. I can't tell you how good it feel to have that extra bit of space.
The six hours flew by faster that I thought it would. They didn't have any tv shows or movies that I wanted to watch (first world problems) so I just listened to music and started reading Divergent. I figured my flight to Dallas was a definite no-go so I prepared for the worst. And my fears were reassured. But fortunately I got a complimentary night's stay at the Boston Hilton. I had never been "put up" at a hotel before so I was pretty shocked that I didn't have to spend a dime on the room.
After a combined 6.5 hours of flight delays and a total of 10 hours in the air, I would be completely fine if I didn't get to go on a plane trip for the next couple years.
No comments:
Post a Comment