Ginger Without Borders

At this point, I really might just be cursed. Today was suppose to be our flight from London to Barcelona – we got up, got packed, left for the train super early (4 hours until take off, just in case), and got to Gatwick Airport with plenty of time. Which was good – both Lauren and I somehow had to have extra screening: apparently the snack bars in my backpack set off the scanners; we have no idea why Lauren’s bag was flagged.

We walked around the airport, ate, got coffee, explored everything that was actually interesting. I introduced Lauren to Kinder Bueno, which is now one of her favorite candy bars. Finally we went to our gate, still with an hour left until our flight. And we waited. And waited. And waited some more. 10 minutes past our original boarding time, the voice over the intercom finally informs us that an engineer is currently on our plane and they will let us know soon when our boarding time will be.

More waiting. Our departure time passes. Many people leave the waiting area (in Gatwick airport, the waiting area is gated off so you can only enter it if you have a valid boarding pass for that specific flight). A few are on the phone with the airlines trying to find alternative transportation. Lauren and I are still oblivious (well, in Lauren’s case, she is a bit delirious from the exhaustion of my version of traveling). Finally the voice over the intercom contacts us again – there is an issue with the plane that cannot be fixed here. They must taxi the plane to another area of the airport, fix the issue, then we can fly. But in the mean time, we are not allowed to stay in the boarding area – we have to move back to the food concourse where those without flights that hour are kept. There is no estimated time for our flight at this moment.

Annoying as it may be, I’m not totally surprised. At this point I am under the assumption that every form of transportation we plan to take this trip will be delayed – because at this point, ever form has been delayed for me…

Ten minutes later, after grabbing another coffee (4th of the day! All my money is being spent on caffeine!), the electronic board with gate information finally shows instructions for our flight – ‘Gate to be announced at 17:10’. Y’all – our flight was suppose to land at 17:55….

16:55 – I check the board while Lauren is passed out on a bench. ‘Go see the flight desk.’ I wake Lauren up and run down to the desk with my passport; everyone from the flight is huddled around it in a mob. Of course we are the only flight to Barcelona that was cancelled. Eventually, after standing in the mob-line for 30 minutes (with no movement, I might add), one of the fellow passengers informs me that Vueling sent out an email with the new reservations for everyone. Only problem – I’ve used my 90minutes of free wifi at the airport and I don’t have cell service…. Thankfully I could log on to the wifi using my iPad, and we have our new ticket – leaving at 19:40 (7:40pm) and not getting in until 22:45 (10:45pm)….

As I always say, no such thing as an uneventful trip for me, right?