WEATHER: Cold in Dublin 11C – Warm in Madrid 28C
HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Discount taxi fare
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Paying excess flippin baggage with British Midlands - bastards
BUYS OF THE DAY: 18GBP transfer from terminal 1 to terminal 5 at Heathrow and back again
WORD OF THE DAY: - Bloody Hell
Well it was an early start to the day. 5.15am alarm, for a 6am departure from the hotel for an 8.40am flight. I had pre-packed the night before, so it was just a matter of showering and toiletries to put away. I had it all done by 5.40am, so I went back to bed for another 20 minutes, snoozed for another 10 minutes, so didn’t get down to reception till 6.16am. It is a Sunday, so I figured that Dublin traffic on a Sunday can’t be that bad, and the airport is not that far either, so I wasn’t too concerned that I was a running a little late. I went to pay for my internet from last night and the guy said that there was nothing to pay! SWEET – 10EUR saved.
I was going to catch the airport bus for 7EUR, but with road closures because of Obama coming tomorrow, I decided to just catch a taxi to the airport, as I was also running out of fluff time anyways. I had just closed the taxi cab door, when this French guy came over and said do you want to share a cab – are you going to the airport! Sure, jump in buddy – so my 20EUR taxi cost me only 10EUR – SWEET. I got dropped at terminal 2 as I thought I was flying British Airways, but alas I was flying British Midlands. Luckily the terminals in Dublin are not that far apart, so I just walked the 8 minutes to the correct terminal to check-in.
I self-checked myself in – and then stood in the bag drop queue for 40 minutes before getting to the counter. Armed with a big smile on my face, I knew straight away I should have waited for the guy to be free. The chick was a Debbie Downer and as soon as my bag was on the scales she hit me up. Your bag is over weight – CRAP – by 3kg! Listen sister I have been over 3kg for all of my 7 flights to date, and you are the only one that has a problem? Needless to say I didn’t say this to her – so they hijack your boarding pass till you go to another counter to pay your dues – this time it was 12EUR per kilo to London, so 36EUR later, you then need to go back to the same cranky pants to get your boarding pass back. I did also check, ( even though I knew what she was going to say ) if she could check my bag all the way through to Madrid but the flight was on a different ticket and a different airline, so who would have guessed that she said no!? Bitch – Not so SWEET
So after looking at my itinerary, my Dublin flight gets in at 10am and my Madrid flight leaves at 12.15pm. Hmmmmm, so I need to collect my bag, change terminals in London, recheck in and security all in 2.15 hours – who sees a problem with this timing. Holy heck, I’m going to have to haul some serious arse to make my flight in time. I decided to not stress, as I can’t change it, I just need to move like a jaguar to get it all done in time and my fat arse on that flight to Madrid.
My flight is 10 minutes late arriving into London and we land at 10.10am, of course. The good thing with Ireland arrival is that there is no passport control required and when we came in we were the only flight at our carousel at terminal 1 and I pretty much got out of there within 15 minutes. I was flying British Airways to Madrid, so just assumed that I was leaving out of terminal 5 ( we know what assumed does – it makes an ass out of you and me) I didn’t want to fluff around with the train, ticket and timetable, so I jumped into a London taxi and we hauled arse from terminal 1 to terminal 5. I got to the self-check-in just inside the 2 hour check-in, with a sigh of relief I enter in my reservation number and can you imagine my surprise when it came up with the message “your flight dies not leave from this terminal’ WTF!!!! Crap, crap, crap – so I hailed a staff member and she said oh that flight leaves from terminal 3 – of course it does. I spent my last 18GBP on the taxi to get me to terminal 5, so I went to use the ATM next to the self-check kiosk, tried all 3 cards and none of them were working. Fine, I am sure that they will take visa card for payment for the taxi. Meanwhile time is a ticking. So back down to the arrivals and I walk to the taxi rank and ask if they take visa – no was the answer, of course. So back into the terminal to find a different ATM, which was located and money given on the first go. So back to the taxi rank for a taxi now from terminal 5 to terminal 3. Another 18GBP later and I find the British Airways check-in area at terminal 3, looking a little frazzled at this stage with 1 hour and 5 minutes till fly time, and the guy checks me in, doesn’t even blink with the excess 3kg (stuff you BMI) and gives me my boarding pass that had a boarding time of 12.45pm for a departure at 1.10pm. Holy heck, I thought my flight was at 12.15pm. There must have been a time change somewhere along the track. Chris at work is really good at sending them all though, so I must have just forgotten to update my main copy!!! How hilarious is that!! But what a relief and I must have looked like a goose going up the escalators with a huge smirk on my face, knowing what I had been doing for the last 2 hours! Happens to the best of us right! So that ranks as a SWEET…
I did try and self-check-in for my flight to Madrid, but it came up with an error with my passport information. But I did get to the seat plan and they had me in a middle seat – um no thanks, so I managed to change my seat to a window – it just happened to be in the last row of the plane. I was fine with this though, as I was in no rush to get off in Madrid, as I didn’t have anyone or transfer booked. As it turns out, there was a couple that sat next to me, but when the aircraft door closed, there was a whole row free across from us, so they moved and I had a row of 3 seats to myself! Woo hoo, I got to spread out for the 2 hour flight. SWEET!!!
After landing at Madrid airport, it must be a massive airport. We seriously had to walk 10 minutes to get to a sky train, that took 8 minutes, to walk another 10 minutes to get to passport control and out to the baggage carousel. The good thing when it takes that long is that you generally don’t have to wait too long for your bags.
I found an information desk once I had cleared customs and a taxi costs 30-40EUR to get to the city. There is a metro that also runs and I am not sure of that cost, but I did ask about a shuttle service and this was only 20EUR, so I booked that and I am glad that I did. The hotel was actually quite difficult to find to start with, but also looks like it is a little way out of town. So I am not sure if there is even a metro nearby. So once again I am happy I have paid a little premium to get straight to the hotel with my bevy of bags.
So I get to meet my new Contiki group tomorrow afternoon – Contiki Espanola. I will need to now dig out the 3 words I learnt on our MSC cruise. It’s taken me 3 weeks to stop saying Gracias and now I need to get my Spanish groove back on – but I am ready and looking forward to a new start.
Doof Doof – Ibiza here we come – doof doof doof…….
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