I was held up for ages in customs check in in Chicago by a guy in front of me at the change from Domestic to International airports and had 7 mins to run, bare footed, shoes in hand, to catch my plane. The assistant told me I'd have time and told me a gate number and my wonderful dyslexic brain converted it to another opposite number and when I arrived, the gate was closed, everyone had gone, the hostesses all gone...empty...all deserted and closed off!!
What to do if I missed my plane, as that's what faced me now...
I wasn't going to miss it...
It was then I spotted the sign on the door which said..."In an emergency push on the handle until the bell rings and enter" So I did.
Alarm bells went off, the door opened and in I went, belting down the gangway corridor and up to the plane, I thought was mine, only to see the plane door going down. I yelled to the guy on guard duty..."Hold that door, that's my plane" and tried to wriggle under the descending door with only a small gap left to wriggle under with my back pack on, shoes in hand!
He grabbed me and pulled me out and said..."This isn't your plane" I argued it was and he began hunting me out ...shooing me out..."Get out of here..you have breached security...how did you get in here?"
He was chasing me back out thru the corridor, yelling at me...
"Get out get out of here...the police are coming, you breached security...get out, you intruder" and kept chasing me out and back to the waiting rooms area, running after me, waving his arms like I was a blow fly about to land on the Xmas dinner or a sheep that had gotten into his prize rose garden!
(Even as this was happening, I looked back over my shoulder to see if I could duck back to the plane and nearly burst out laughing at how funny it must have looked!
This tall guy really waving his arms, flapping them actually, chasing a granny with a back pack on, barefooted, shoes in hand, racing like crazy down the corridor...So funny!)
He eventually chased me out, was extremely rude, not in the least helpful and slammed the door shut as he physically pushed me out and into the emptiness...
I was now close to tears as the grim reality hit me...I was about to miss my plane!
I looked out at the plane about to take off and all I could do was pace around in barefooted circles, clutching my boots, wondering what to do...thinking how much a new ticket to Dublin one way would cost and trying to gain some composure after the weird events of just being hunted off the plane I thought was mine, alarm bells going off everywhere, police cars arriving...
It was then that the airline hostess found me and took me to the correct plane, 3 gates down. She calmed my shattered nerves and wiped the tears that were just beginning to form and together we both boarded the correct flight to Dublin.
The AER LINGUS hosties gave me the only whole row of empty seats to myself and I had a rather enjoyable journey to Ireland after all...
Dohhh, I was going to board the wrong plane anyways and heavens knows where I would have ended up!
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| Chicago from the air. The airport is a city in itself! |
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| Arriving Chicago at 6pm on Monday evening... |
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| Chicago airport... |
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| A nice glitzy airport...that was before my dramatic departure! |
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| Where we are headed... |
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| Almost there...8am on Tuesday morning now... |
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| We had a tail wind and arrived 1hr early, so had to loop the loop for a few times... |
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| Morning breaking above the clouds...8am... |
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| Morning under the Dublin clouds... |
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| Waiting for my shuttle bus from the hostel...Plenty of buses here to take you everywhere... |
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| My 8 bed dorm in Paddy's hostel in Dublin... |
We arrived in Dublin well before time, which was supposed to be 9am Tuesday.
My shuttle bus came at 10 am, so by the time we'd cleared customs etc, it was good timing.
The hostel I'm staying in has a 2hrly free shuttle to and from the Dublin airport, so that was good.
Arrived, stored my luggage and waited until official book in time, found my room and bed had a shower at 3pm and went to bed and slept until 8am next morning...17 hours straight sleep!
Next blog is Wednesday's...
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