When Rachel and I had said all are goodbyes, we were sad to be leaving Uganda but excited about seeing all of our friends and family at home. We were driven to the airport by the same taxi driver as when I went to Zanzibar so we were a little early and decided to sit in a small café area and play cards to pass the time. There was a man sitting at the table behind us who kept attempting to scratch his thought and making a horrible gargling noise. Rachel and I were nearly sick and were hoping that he wasn’t on our flight. When check-in opened, he queued up directly behind us to check-in for our flight. The thought of him sitting beside us for seven hours to Dubai seemed unbearable. Thankfully he wasn’t seated beside us but I could hear him when I walked past on a toilet trip.
We successfully made it to Addis Ababa where we were meant to just touchdown and take off again to head towards Dubai. Whilst on the ground, they found a leak in the plane and all passengers were asked to disembark the aircraft whilst they attempted to fix it. Rachel and I panicked to begin with as we knew that we had connecting flights to get in both Dubai and Heathrow to catch. After waiting in the Ethiopian airport for a few hours, we were informed that we would have to spend the evening in a hotel and fly out 24 hours later than scheduled. We were both frustrated as now that we had started travelling, we just wanted to get home.
The hotel that they put us up in for the evening was beautiful and even had a bath! Something which was had not seen in four months. They supplied us with three good meals and then we were shuttled back to the airport the following day. They had kept our luggage overnight but we had to collect it at the airport the following morning and check it in again. My patience began to decrease whilst standing in the line as the Ethiopians kept pushing to the front of the queue. Apparently Africans do not understand this concept.
Three hours later, Rachel and I reached the front of the queue. Originally our luggage had been checked in directly from Entebbe right through to Belfast but they informed us that we would have to pick it up in London Heathrow. After a few minutes, the man informed us that he was able to check it in the whole way through which was a relief to Rachel and me as we knew we had quite a tight connecting time. The computer system crashed during our check-in though so although both of our luggages was going all the way to Belfast along with me, the y could only check Rachel in to London Heathrow and she would have to check-in again there.
This was fine until we reached London. When Rachel went to check-in, they said that it was unlikely that they were going to get her onto the flight. I didn’t know what to do as I would have to pay for another ticket home if I didn’t take my seat that had been booked but I didn’t want to leave her behind. Thankfully they were able to get her on the flight although we were not seated together.
Fifty hours later, we touched down in Belfast City airport. Neither of us had ever been so glad to see Northern Ireland in our entire lives. The wait for our luggage was rather short but it felt like a lifetime when we knew your families were waiting around the corner to give us a huge hug. Mum, Dad and my brother were all there to welcome me home with huge smiles on their faces (and a few tears from mum). What more could I ask for?
No comments:
Post a Comment