mornings on the go

Tags

airports, birthdays, family, flying, Ireland, leaving Dublin, life at airports, travel

I’m currently in the middle of six weeks of family birthdays, it starts with my nephews and ends with my own. And since one them is celebrating a wonderful noughty (or maybe it is naughty) birthday I am giving up some precious hours of sleep and boarding an early morning flight to Germany.

And although I had to drag myself out of bed just a few hours ago there is something really nice about airports in the morning. While the rest of the world is only slowly waking up the airport is already a hive of activity – it’s a bit like an enchanted universe all of its own.

I treated myself to a double espresso at Butlers and enjoyed the complimentary chocolate too and sat to watch the people around me. Curled up on a few seats were two little boys, still fast asleep beside their parents who were waiting to be called to their gate. Next to me sat a business man in a dark gray suit that matched his complexion, clean shaven but with dark sleep deprived bruises under his eyes, he was shouting into the phone in short busts of a language I  couldn’t understand. A loved up couple cuddled up to each other as they shared a croissant, the rest of the world fading away their rose-tinted eyes.

And then it was time to take off … I left Dublin before the sun rose and as I flew towards Germany the sky was dipped in pink.

 

leaving on a jet plane

Tags

aer lingus, aviation, Dublin, flying, Hamburg, holidays, miscellaneous, random, transportation, travel

“My bags are packed and I’m ready to go”, well not quite I still have an hour before the taxi comes and whisks me off to the airport.

The first time I flew on my own I was five years old and my sister was seven. We were unaccompanied minors and on way to visit our grandmother and aunt in Germany for the summer. I remember being all excited and anticipatory, not really knowing what to expect or what would happen. It was the first year that Are Lingus flew directly from Dublin to Hamburg, if memory serves the first flight ever, and there was a bit of a buzz about the whole thing.

I had been to Germany before but it was always with my parents and we did sometimes drive, so flying on my own, well with my big sister, felt grown-up and very special. The only down side was that we both had to wear a bright orange plastic purse around our necks containing our passports, tickets and all the other vital travel documents.

I was never a quite child, I was always chatting to strangers and quickly made friends with the beautiful Aer Lingus stewardess who was looking after us. My sister and I got sweets and colouring books, a few toys and we spent an enjoyable time up in the air. What we didn’t know was that my mother was having a panic attack back in Dublin.

As soon as we had taken off, the airport attendees in Hamburg went on strike and we were re-routed to Holland. I loved the adventure of the whole event, we got to stay in a VIP lounge in Amsterdam and drive around in a little buggy, while everyone around us was frantically trying to get us to our relatives in Hamburg.

I can’t remember exactly how long the whole thing took, but it was dark outside when we finally arrived. I know that both my aunt and mum were very relieved when my sister and I ran into the wide open waiting arms, legs and blond hair flying, and in my case an stream of excited chatter following in our wake.

Today I am quite use to flying, but I still love the anticipation of going away,  however nothing can quite compare to that very first trip. What made me grin this morning was that my sister told me Hamburg is back on strike, so I am sort of wondering where I’ll end up, a possible adventure on the horizon. The only downside is that I have to be back on Monday morning to teach.

invading Germany

Tags

blogging, boomerang, family, flights, flying, Germany, holiday, invading, miscellaneous, random, thoughts, travel, work

Since my flight leaves tomorrow morning even before the first birds take off into the skies I decided to write a quick post now.

Originally I was meant to invade Germany on Wednesday and I had this whole plan of action mapped out, who was I going to overrun first and how would I make them all do what i want to do. Sadly work had other ideas and with surprisingly little kicking and screaming on my part I was a true jet-setter and just changed my flights with a click of my mouse.

Obviously it now means my invasion plans have all evaporated and I am now stuck with only a  few days to see, do and buy everything I need, want and have to. I will have to dig deep into my German, efficient side and do a quick strike.

For all of those of you who may miss reading my whimsical thoughts and random ideas I will be back on Thursday and hopefully a new nest of weirdness will have settled in the recesses of my mind and I will have lots of posts just waiting to erupt from my fingertips.

So it’s up, up and away for me but worry not like a boomerang I will return!

 

For those who need a bit of random reading here are some of my older posts:

PJs and DJs (19/03/2012)

past, present and future (23/03/2012)

weather rain or shine (05/042012)

no fashionista (06/04/2012)

point of views (07/04/2012)

weather rain or shine (05/042012)