September 10, 2012

THE JURY'S STILL OUT

I am behind on my blogs but have a firm commitment to catch (eventually).  It doesn't look like many people are reading them, gone and forgotten in the wilds of Northern Ireland.  Everyone was so good at first, sending emails and cozy messages.  But,   I must plod onward, as this is my personal journal as well as my blog.  It would be nice to hear from folks but I realize people do have a life of their own.

I finally caught up with my life after a 24 hour travel nightmare and finally fell like a person again!

It all started with a lovely day in Paris; sunny, blue skies.  ....   I allowed plenty of time to get to the airport  as I hadn't been there yet by myself.  I was to leave from Terminal 2 E  (the new terminal).  Perhaps it was an omen that the night before I read on google that this particular terminal had collapsed right after its opening in 2004, killing two people. Now that is where I was headed.

I was concerned about being able to handle my bigger valise plus the carry-on and my backpack, but some trusted it to the universe.  My neighbor took the case down to the first floor for me and I walked the one block to the bus stop. The bus arrived in 5 minutes and from that moment on, so many people helped me with my case it was unbelievable (3 people both on the bus and when I got off).  I had already purchased my ticket for the RER to Charles deGaulle airport and and clerk there told me about the elevator going both down and up to stop 2B.  As I was finding the elevator, a young man came alone and said he would carry the case, no problem.  This was a Saturday and the train wasn't very crowded, maybe 60% full. 
At the stop right before Terminal 1 (international) almost all of the people got off at a huge convention center (I have no idea what it was about). The man sitting across from me had a shirt on that said MADRID so I asked him if he is from Spain, and he said he was from Romania (he looked like a soccer or rugby player). We started talking and he ended up hauling the case off the train and walking with me to where his terminal met Terminal E.  I found my Flybe check-in and went through security and our boarding area, noticing I had about one hour until the boarding would begin.   I bought a sandwich and walked around for awhile, returning in a little while, only to learn that our flight had been delayed by at least two hours.

Back upstairs to walk around in all the expensive shops that you find in any airport terminal, returning again right before our two hours would have been up.  The clerk at our boarding gate was sorry to inform us that our flight was delayed longer and was now projected to depart at 7:30 p.m.  Soon after he announced that they were giving all of us a voucher to get a meal.  I wasn't hungry at the moment, so back upstairs to look around some more and decided to read the French newspaper someone had left on the train.   There was an area with big comfy chairs, and I settlled in, feeling very smart and comfortable sitting there reading "Le Monde"" (I can actually understand most of it).  Shortly thereafter, I recognized that the woman sitting across from me was on my flight, so we got in conversation. She was Maya, an engineer from Paris, whose company was sending her to school for an intensive English course near Exeter (our plane's first stop before going on to Belfast). She was most interesting, and we talked about my living in Paris and this and that and how long our flight might be delayed.  At that point I was hungry again so went upstairs to the Food Court, which is much nicer that the ones in U.S. airports, and used my voucher for a salad, some Chinese dish with chicken and noodles, and a drink.  Now only a few more hours to go, right?

I hadn't found a good book to bring and had tired of Le Monde, so the only thing left to do was to edit my book (no more excuses).  I worked on it for about an hour and a half, in between purchasing a huge blueberry muffin and yummy hot chocolate.  We now learned that our flight might be delayed even longer People were getting upset, and most were only going to Exeter!  Some of us got to know each other and we had each questioned the various clerks as to the reason for the delay.  We got every answer from weather to anything else.  The nicest clerk upstairs told me that it was all because the cleaning person didn't show up to clean the plane in Exeter, after which it was discovered the plane needed some device, and one other thing happened to create a huge snowball effect.

FINALLY we learned the plane was on its way, and all the tired people boarded at about 8:30 p.m.  I had been in contact both by Internet and phone (bought a phone card) with Liz, my hostess at the Balleamon Barn near Cushendall.  Our original plan was that Sun. afternoon I would catch a bus from Belfast to Ballymena and she would pick me up after her work there for that day.  Ha!  I was lucky to be able to reach her both by email and on the phone.  The Charming upstairs agent approached me with apology and told me that the airline would not be continuing on the Belfast that night and that Flybe would put me up at a hotel in Exeter.  One other lady had the same issue.  HERE WE GO AGAIN.  Little did I know that Mai and I would become good friends in the 24 hours we were to spend together.

 

Exeter Airport was a dark little place with nobody there at that time.  Mai and I were expecting that the people there had received the message that we would need a hotel and would be waiting for us with open arms.  We always learned not to have expectations, so arriving there the three women on duty did not have any idea who we were or why we were there.  After finagling around and a lot of unnecessary calls and questions, they finally found did the paperwork to get us a hotel in Exeter, and breakfast the next morning. We stayed in a nice hotel, The Jury's Inn (a chain) and the people were fantastically nice and the breakfast even more fantastic.  We got some rest, about 6 hours, and the taxi came to take us back to the airport. Our taxi driver told us that Flybe is having a lot of problems and that they send their planes all over the place to pick up people here and there on flights that aren't scheduled.  No wonder our first pilot told us he had to go to the south of France to pick up some people!

Back with Flybe, they had decided to send us to Edinborough, Scotland, and then on to Belfast.  The flights were both short and uneventful and the Belfast City Airport was a godsend as opposed to the big international one at the edge of the city.   Liz, my hostess and international writer and storyteller, was there to pick me up, God Bless Her - we arrived at her hostel, Ballyeamon Barn, right before 4 p.m., just in time for her friend, Fiona, to give a yoga class for 7 of us; it was great after my body being cramped on all those planes, buses and taxis.  So even tho the Jury's Inn was a nice place for us to be rescued to, actually the jury's still out on Flybe -  my prediction is that they won't be around much longer.

I think I'm going to like it here.