May 15: Venice -> Dublin
I was very sad whenever I heard Mel’s alarm clock go off at 8 am. Why couldn’t we just stay in Venice for the rest of the week? We had a slow start to our morning to the point where we almost missed our shuttle to the airport. The stress level was already high at 9 in the morning, so what does this say for the rest of the day? We got to the airport early enough for us to get food, get through security, and sit down for a little. We stopped at a gift shop on our way to our gate. We got Nutella Biscuits and another type of cookie that seemed interesting. We stopped at a little café pretty much right after the shop. We got a cream filled croissant and a Nutella donut. If you can’t tell, we love croissants and all things Nutella. I would rate both pastries as a 7 or 8 out of 10. We decided to try and find somewhere to sit since the airline was gatekeeping our gate number.
We searched for a while and while Mel was buying a drink, I ended up finding us a table. The only 2 seats that were empty in the entire seating area were ones at a table someone was already sitting at. I asked if we could sit in the 2 seats since he was sitting in the booth portion. We had no idea how long we would end up sitting there, and much it would be worth it. We were eating our pastries when we realized the guy was saving a seat for his wife. She had come back with food for them. We didn’t want to take up too much table space, so we started condensing our stuff. We sat in silence for a while until the wife asked where we were traveling to. We mentioned how we were on a school trip and used our free day to visit another country. This simple question led to 3 hours of non-stop talking. We learned about their family and travel experiences, what activities are fun around Dublin since that is where they are from, and we even got invited to watch the husband’s band perform. They perform every Monday night at 10 pm. By the end of the conversation it felt like we had known them for years. It was such a fun experience we wouldn’t have had if our flight didn’t get delayed. Oh right, I never told you our flight got delayed.
The couple we were sitting with were also flying back home to Dublin. They flew through Air Lingus, and we flew through Ryanair. Their flight got delayed by about 3 hours. Our flight got delayed by an hour. Every time the husband got up to check on their flight his wife would say, “Go check on it for the girls too.” It was so sweet how they kept a lookout for us as well. We eventually saw that our gate number was posted on our app. So we said goodbye and headed there. On our way downstairs it changed from delayed to now boarding. In Europe the boarding process lasts 10-20 minutes and then they close the gate for good, which is 30 minutes before your flight takes off. While in the U.S., your boarding is 30 minutes before your flight, and they close the gate at the time your flight takes off. We panicked and ran all the way downstairs and through the airport. Unlucky for us, our gate was all the way across the airport from where we were sitting. We then ran into an issue. We had to go through and get our passports checked. We had no clue how long that would take and how much further our gate was. Thoughts of how bad this would be and how we could fix it were racing through my head as we bolted through groups of people walking by. We finally made it to our gate and saw that not a single person was boarding yet. We were all just standing in a line waiting for a bus to get there. Relieved but confused, we stood in line with the rest of the group. I looked at the screen where all the flights were listed and I saw that our new friends’ flight said, ‘last call for boarding’. I was back in a state of panic. I kept saying we should have gotten their contact information so we could warn them. I checked the board every minute hoping they saw the sudden change. I wish I could go back and let them know, but I couldn’t leave my gate at this point. After a few minutes I noticed it had disappeared off the list. I can only hope they made it on time.
After we got off our plane, more than an hour later than we were supposed to, we ran to buy a bus ticket. Thankfully a bus was there and was leaving 2 minutes after we got on. No matter how hard we tried, there was no way we could make it to the museum in time.
