5 dAyS, 3 AiRpOrTs, 5 cAnCeLeD fLiGhTs...

I will share my "saga" of my trip to the North of Ireland...

I know I shouldn't be flying so much as it´s really bad when everyone does it all the time as if it´s not bad for the planet in so many aspects, but it is not easy to have a fiancé so distant and going through a stage in life when she really needs support...

I was only going for a week, for Emma's birthday, to see her dad in the Hospital and the rest of the family...
I ended up having 5 flights canceled, in 3 different airports, and ended up arriving in Belfast on the same place the Titanic was built... thankfully nothing compared to the Titanic story happened...After all that it would be dreadful ...



I was supposed to depart from Lisbon airport on thursday the 2nd of December, but the flight was canceled because Dublin was covered in snow...
The next flight from Lisbon was only on sunday, so I looked for other options.
Thankfully Aerlingus refunded my ticket and I booked an Easyjet flight from Faro to Belfast on saturday morning.

It was also a good opportunity to visit Edna, Paulo and the boys and to stay over for Paulo's birthday on the 3rd...

I checked the web site before going to the airport, no signs of snow in Belfast and I thought it would be ok...
When I got there, I saw people coming down after passing through security... That did not look good to me...

the Easyjet crew were telling us to wait for news... I decided to go and ask what the reason was, when I was informed that the spanish controllers decided to strike without warning... Great !!!

The flight was canceled...
At this stage I was running out of options...the next flight from Faro was only monday , which would give me 2 days in Belfast before I had to fly back again...
The airport was chaotic... all flights were canceled... mine was already the second...

On the other end was Emma, waiting to be with me after an exhausting and draining week with her dad in hospital, knowing that I couldn't stay longer because of my flight to Angola on the 12th in Lisbon... It's been hard for her and for me also, to be apart in such a time as this, knowing I cannot support her better... 

going to Angola was not an easy decision, but I feel it's going to be a good time with my family too. I know my parents are super excited to see me there...it's just hard to balance all the emotions...

Back to my "saga"...As I was waiting together with hundreds of other people who were queuing to get any sort of information, Emma was checking online for other possibilities... At least, I would also be refunded for this flight...
The other option was to go the next morning to Liverpool, and then another flight to Belfast...

Even though I had to wait only a few hours at the airport in Liverpool, Emma decided to meet me there anyway...

And that's what we did, even though I thought Emma was a bit crazy to do that, I have to say I was really glad to see her at the Liverpool airport, after waiting 4 days to finally get somewhere...

She had brought some food, so we had a cup of tea and ate lunch... our flight was at 5pm, so around 4 we headed to security...
after waiting a while we were informed that most of the flights were being canceled... We couldn't believe that !!!
the problem now was not the snow, but the fog in Liverpool, so there were no planes able to land...
we went as fast as possible to the "Flybe" desk and asked to transfer our booking to the next flight at 8pm...thankfully we were the first ones arriving so we skipped a huge queue that was quickly formed at that desk...

the fog remained so that flight was also canceled... my fourth in only 4 days, in 3 different airports ... what else could we do ?

we didn't arrive that quickly to the desk this time, so we spent more than an hour standing in the queue to have our flight changed for the next day... then we had to be at another queue to get some accommodation for the night... at least that would be covered by the Company... the communication at the airport was really poor, and another chaos was established...
It was almost 10pm when I said to Emma "lets forget about their organization, and find ourselves a hotel"... it didn't take much to find one just around the corner...
At that stage we just wanted to eat and sleep... but we kept saying to one another "at least, we are together"... I couldn't imagine if I was there by myself and Emma was still waiting in Belfast... I was thankful for Emma's craziness at that stage.

The next day was her birthday... definitely not what she had in mind some days ago... as we got to the airport we were informed that the flights were all delayed, waiting for the fog to rise...Hmmm, I was not so hopeful for that fog to rise in the morning...

What else could we do? Emma was a bit sad and emotional, because she wanted to be with her dad at the hospital that day...

we had breakfast there and Emma opened Edna's birthday present...

and Joshua and Nelson's drawings...

...after a few hours waiting we realized our intuition was right... the flight was canceled again... we didn't want to wait at the airport...

That was not a nice way to celebrate one's birthday... so Emma decided to book the ferry for that night and we'd hang out in Liverpool, the land of the Beatles...

Imagine... 
speaking about "the Beatles", I have a funny story to share about Emma's dad, James, or Jim... around the time The Beatles were just starting to become a bit famous, Jim was in charge of booking different bands to play in a certain pub in Northern Ireland... he is a musician himself... one day a guy came to him and asked if he could book a gig for a band from England... he first asked how much they were charging and I don't remember exactly how much was it, but it was way too much for the pub´s budget... he thought it was a big band and that was why it was so expensive... so he asked how many were they... when he heard they were only 4 young guys, he thought they must have been crazy to ask so much money...he then asked the guy for their name, and he said "The Beatles"... "The Beatles?",said Jim, tell them "no"...

I love that story! And of course, after a while Jim found the same...
One of the many stories of this brilliant man ...

Off we went to the city center...

And I heard a new story about the family...these lions were a gift from Jim's grandfather to the city of Liverpool... their family were linen farmers in those days and they must have been helped by the city at that time... I don't remember the details of the story, but it's something around these lines... Jim also has a picture of himself with the lions, so Emma wanted to take one too and show him later...

interesting graphiti... "Poor are People"

at the door of the cute vegan restaurant we went to have lunch...

at the ferry!!! finally going to Belfast...
It ended up being a nice birthday for Emma... sad that she couldn't be with her family, but at the same time it was for her a time of rest after the last week , going back and forwards to the hospital , the farm and Belfast... and the whole emotional stress that she is carrying for her dad and the whole family at this stage...

Here we were about to arrive as the sun was about to rise too... 8 hours on a boat... so nice... the lights you see on the left corner are the "H&W" cranes (Harland and Wolff) in Belfast, where the Titanic was built...

It all went fine in the end (not for Titanic, but for us)... 

Maybe not "by chance",  we ended up having a really good time, and the flight company will pay for all the expenses of food and accommodation... I postponed my flight to the 10th, and we enjoyed every single day together before I had to go to Lisbon to get my next flight to Luanda- Angola...

I know all this doesn't sound anywhere close to being environmentally friendly, but I do hope it is not for much longer...

Finally at the hospital, visiting Jim... we celebrated Emma's birthday again and took the cake that Elizabeth, Jim's twin sister, made for Emma...

at the time I'm writing, already in Angola, he is back at home, thankfully... he still requires constant attention though, but at least he is with his family... Prayers are still appreciated ...
I was really glad to spend some more time with him...

That was the end of my saga... I'm tired of writing now, so I will write another post about my arrival in Angola... I made a little video of the car trip from Luanda to Benguela, but it might be hard to post it, as it´s a big file...