(There is a TL;DR if you want to skip to it)
Holidays! Aren’t they just the best time of year. You can get away, put your hair down and put up your feet.
A time to relax and unwind…except when you sleep in 2 hours before the flight right?
Well, let me take you back to last night (Sunday) and I was ready to get on the 6:25am plane from Dublin to Birmingham! I said "I’ll got for a 1 hr to 90min nap". So I se the phone for midnight and I would get ready to go for the bus leaving Carlow at 2:35am!
This did not happen!
What happened was, I woke up just before 4:30am. Note: The bus that I was planning to get on at 2:30am was already at the airport at 4am, so I was super late.
I tried to get in touch with Ryanair to see if there was anything I could have done. Nothing. No lines open until 6am which was not good for me as the flight was 25 mins after that.
So I done the next best thing. I rang a taxi (Carlow Cabs to be specific) at 4:55am and say "I need to get to the Airport as fast as possible" The lovely women on the other end of the line was super nice and stated that she wouldn’t allow her drivers to speed, which was completely fine!
As I live a couple of doors down from Carlow Cabs, there was 1 guy who can go fast but not absolutely go mental. I apologise in advance for not knowing his name.
So, into the taxi just on the edge of 5am! He put the foot down! We could have been faster but there was rain in the hours before and thus made the road a bit slippy!
Belted down the road. Most of them were empty. "We will make it" said the driver as I was crossing my fingers…As we approached Dublin, it was starting to get worse and worse.
The driver got me to the departure door just before 5:50am (Note, the Gate was closing at 5:55am…so time was at the essence!)
Made my way to security…everything was moving fast, but not fast enough. The screen above was saying that the average wait time to get through was 17 mins. I nearly bricked one out in the middle of the queue. Panicking was already in full swing.
Found a opening…2 people in a queue…bolted to it. Took out my laptop and threw it into a box, bag and everything else into another one…Step through BEEP – AAAAGGGGHHHH. Bleeped by the scanner. Could it already be over? No. 1 minute later..good to go!
Checked the nearest departure board to see which gate the flight was…212! Holy Crap…Gate 212 - Final Call
I ran. At one point, I wish I was an Olympic runner. Gate 212 was the key location! Stumbled across another departure board Gate 416 - Boarding. WHAT?! 416.
I actually shouted 416 and I think 2 officials noticed me…Quickly noticed it was a Aer Lingus flight and not Ryan…Looked above, Gate 212 - Final Call – My heart attack was calming down at this stage and I was rushing.
Got to Gate 212 and there was a BUNCH of people.
The signs…They lied to me. No one was board…Hell, the gate wasn’t even opened there.
I looked at my watch, 05:58 – It was supposed to be closed at 05:55! Oh Ryanair.
I got to the gate, got to the seat and I breathed a big sigh of relief not before a breakout in sweat from running and worrying.
Took after after 06:30 and arrived in Birmingham at 07:10.
Travelled to Tamworth where I am going to be staying for the next few days!
What an episode!
TL;DR – Fell asleep, woke up 2 hours late..Made the gate with -1 minute on the clock. Still made it.