When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

On Monday afternoon, I was sitting around on my fourth day of Reserve when they call me with a Costa Rica trip for early evening. About 10 minutes later, the scheduler calls back and asks me if I can make a 3:50pm deadhead, and if so, would I rather go to Dublin, Ireland, out of Chicago. Not a hard question to answer.

I got the airport for my deadhead. The flight was not full so I managed an aisle seat in coach and sat next to a nice young girl from Cameroon, who was going to Frankfurt to visit friends. There was another flight attendant from my base going to cover the trip was well, named Ginger, and it was her first time to Ireland, so she was pretty psyched. I had been to Shannon years ago on a diversion, but never got off the plane, so this was really my first time too.

We met up with our Chicago based crew and boarded the plane to prepare for our departure. I was the Coach galley, responsible for cooking all the food and setting up all the carts. It had been a while since I had done this on a Transatlantic flight, so I was a bit rusty, but everything sort of fell into place.

Our flight over was about 7 hours and most of the passengers were low maintenance. We landed in Dublin about 9am, cleared customs and made our way to the bus that would take us to our hotel.

The hotel property was quite nice and they offer us a free breakfast every morning. Ginger and I were the only two who had never been to Dublin before, so we decided we would power nap and then meet up in the lobby and walk into town to do some sightseeing around noon.

The weather was great, probably in the mid 70's and partly cloudy. We strolled down O'Connell Street, which is sort of the main drag into Dublin and takes you over the River Liffey. We bought tickets on the Dublin Bus, a hop on, hop off double decker tour bus that hits all the main part of Dublin.

O'Connell Street

Monument to Irish Independence

We first hopped off at Trinity College, where the Book of Kells is displayed. This book was written sometime around 800 AD in Iona, an island off the coast of Scotland. It contains the four Gospels of the New Testament, transcribed in Latin, as well as ornate illustrations. I was not allowed to take pictures, so you can check out more about it at the Wikipedia site. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_kells

Trinity College

After leaving Trinity College, we hopped back on the bus and went to the National Gallery. It kind of reminded me of the Prado because they had a lot of Spanish paintings in addition to the Irish ones. After walking around the various floors, we stopped at the Gallery cafe and had a late lunch.

We took the bus thru the rest of it's route and got some great shots of various parts of the city. Lots of cathedrals and monuments.

We ended our afternoon with some souvenir shopping and then headed back to the hotel. At 6pm, they set out wine for our crew and the Continental Airlines crew (and they are apparently notorious for stealing our wine so you have to get there early).

This was our Captain Jack's last trip before retirement so the crew had planned a little special party. We had brownies and snacks to go with the wine and we all presented him with a card.

For dinner we walked to a nearby Indian Restaurant along a canal (note the sign below) and then retired for the evening.

The next morning we all get wake-up calls one hour before pick up, so the phone rings at 7:40am and it is the concierge saying "Good Morning Sir, this is your 7:40 wake up call. Oh... and you are not going home today". I was not prepared to hear that, but apparently the flight had cancelled out of Chicago the night before so there was no plane for us to take home. Now, getting stuck an extra day can suck, unless you are in a cool city like Dublin in which case, it ain't that bad.

We all went up for our free breakfast and decided we would take a little nap and meet at 11 to go back into town and tour the Guinness Brewery.

It was another great day, a little warmer and sunnier. On the way to the brewery, we stopped at The Brazen Head, the oldest pub in Ireland (1100AD). We stapled a Dollar bill to the wall and signed it "Flight 93 Cancelled 7-23-08" and had a beer.

We continued on to the Guinness Brewery. The tours are self guided and you go up a series of floors ending at the Gravity Bar on top that offers a 360 degree view of Dubin. I learned that Guinness is not carbonated, but rather nitrogenated. I can't say I really enjoyed the taste all that much, but it was part of the experience.

After the brewery, we proceeded to Temple Bar, the part of town with lots of pubs and restaurants. Ireland no longer permits smoking in pubs and restaurants, so it was nice to be able to sit inside and not smell all the smoke. We all had Fish & Chips and mushy peas (they were great). The girls decided they wanted to keep drinking, so I walked back to the hotel with my other co-worker, Doug.

We all met up for night two of Happy Hour at 6pm and then Ginger and I went to a local restaurant for dinner before retiring for the night.

The flight home was ok. It's a daylight flight and the passengers were always up and standing in our way. Since it was blocked over 8 hours, we are contractually guaranteed crew rest seats, so we each got to retire for about an hour and a half and sleep. Most of the passengers were older Americans who were on a tour and returning home and they were constantly going to the bathroom. We arrived into Chicago a little late and Ginger and I hauled ass to try to make our deadhead back to base, but we missed it by 3 minutes, so we had to catch the next flight where I had a middle seat between two very large men.

It was a great trip, getting an extra day and all, and since it's not a trip on our bidsheet, it was nice to go somewhere out of the ordinary.

Chavezuela

So my latest trip found me laying over in Venezuela (Chavezuela may be the new name soon after their loon ball president) and Tampa. Can't say Caracas was all that exciting. The most adventurous thing you can do is go down to the hotel pool and try to dodge the rocks that the folks living in the mountain slums above the hotel throw down at you. The most annoying thing about Caracas is that Chavez has changed the time zone so that it is 30 minutes behind EST. So when it is 5pm in Miami, it is 4:30 in Venezuela.

The second day we flew from Caracas to San Juan to Tampa. This was the best part of my trip because I got to have breakfast with Carla, one of my dearest friends in the whole wide world. She lives in Scotland, but was back home visiting family. The highlight of our meeting up was the 9 bottles of Original Source shower gel that she got for me. The story behind that goes back to when she first moved to Scotland after she met her soon to be husband and I came over for a visit. That is the shower gel he used, and I fell in love with it. On every successive visit over to the UK, I would pick up a few bottles. I am now happy to say I am the owner of 11 bottles of Original Source (http://originalsource.co.uk) and that should last me for at least a year.

The third day was long, but uneventful as we flew back to base and then did a turn to Belize.

Tomorrow I am going to attempt for the second time to fly to Houston to get my Crew Visa from the French consulate. Last month I managed to try to go on the same day we had a massive thunderstorm so I am hoping for better luck tomorrow.

Flying the Fourth

Starting in July, I switched to the International Division. Some of my trips were international before, but those were trips to Mexico and Canada that did not go large distances over water. While it means less relative seniority, (I am roughly 1400 out of 1450 people) the trips are generally better, with a bidsheet that covers Japan, Europe, South America, Hawaii, Caribbean and Central America. Now the prime trips are hard to come by, but at my seniority as a Spanish speaker I can hold Central America and Caribbean trips.

I am sitting a reserve rotation this month and they called me out for a three day flying over the 4th of July. We overnighted in Cancun, Mexico the first night and Grand Cayman the second night. It was nice to be to these destinations again after an absence of many years.

The first day, we did one leg to Cancun. Our hotel in Cancun in phenomenal. I had a room that faced the pool with the beach behind it. I am not really a sun or pool person, but it was overcast out, thankfully, so I went and sat by the pool enjoying a couple of beers. For dinner, the crew met up at a local restaurant and I had pizza (not very Mexican I know).

The next day we had a much longer day, flying first to Miami, then a turn to Puerto Plata (it's in the Dom. Rep.) and then on to Grand Cayman for a short layover. It was actually an 11 hour layover which is short to an international crew, but for me, that was a long layover on domestic!

When we arrived at the hotel, the waiter arrived with welcome drinks (I know what you are thinking, but there was no alcohol in them.... I guess that part is BYOB) and we enjoyed the tropical ambiance of the hotel grounds before retiring for the night.

The last day we flew back to Miami where we sat for a while. We ate at La Carreta, the best Cuban food ever in case you are in the airport, and then were delayed a bit because our plane was coming in from Havana (on a charter). We flew back to Cancun, then home.

Round One: Ron -1, Armadillo -0

I finally managed to catch the elusive armadillo that has been tearing up my backyard. I had given up home really, but left my live trap up against the fence anyway. This morning at 7am, I went let Gretchen out and I saw the trap had closed and sure enough there was an armadillo sitting inside.

I called Animal Control but they don't open until 8:30am, so I took matters into my own hand and took care of the relocation myself. Gretchen and I loaded the armadillo into the trunk. I drove about 5 miles away to a park that borders a wooded area, and I let the little guy run free. I hope he is happy. He has access to the woods, a field, and a lake. What more could an armadillo want?

I have a feeling, I will always have a problem with these critters, but at least I managed to take care of the problem, if only temporarily.

O-town

No... not the short lived boy band from days of yore... My slang for Orlando. I am a native Floridian so I am allowed to call it that. I ended up with a reserve trip that had a decent layover in the land of Disney.

It was actually a trip out of the MIA/FLL domicile, so I had to deadhead into Fort. Lauderdale to start the trip. I was a little miffed because I put myself on the standby list for a seat in First, and when you are traveling on company business you are supposed to get priority over Non-Rev passengers, but in the end, the agents put a Non-Rev in the last seat in First. I did get to sit in an aisle seat but I was next to these two 16 year old kids.

This was strange.... they were a couple and their parents were letting them vacation together in Puerto Rico together. What kind of parents would do that? They were all over each other the whole flight. I was thinking they should have fashioned a cover out of the the blankets for a little privacy. People want to join the Mile High Club anyway they can I guess. I think with a little more privacy, they would have.

I ended up meeting up with my friend Janet when I got to Orlando. We used to work together at The Disney Store when she lived back in Texas. She and her husband moved to Florida a couple of years ago. She drove in and we had lunch together at Bennigan's. It was fun to sit and catch up about the "old days".


This reserve month is wrapping up. It wasn't too exciting, hence the shortage of posts. I have to serve another reserve rotation next month, but I will start flying International on July 2, so hopefully I will get some more exotic locales.

Taking Christian Home (part of the way)

I just returned from an Airline Ambassadors trip. I took a little boy named Christian DeCenas from St. Louis to Miami. Originally I was to take him to Miami and bring two little girls (Kelin and Raquel - read about them in prior blog entries) along, and take them home to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Sadly, a TACA airliner crashed in TGU and the airport was permanently closed, so their trip has been delayed. But I was still needed to take Christian to Miami. From there, an Eagle F/A named Derek would take him to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

I flew up to STL the night before and then met Christian and his wonderful host family at the airport at 4:45am (nice and early). Our flight to Miami was fine. The crew was great and real helpful. We got to Miami a bit early and I handed him over to Derek and as luck would have it, got on a flight bound for home that was delayed from earlier so I did not even have to sit around Miami and wait at all.

I am a bit sad that I won't be able to take Kelin and Raqeul home. They will be going now into San Pedro Sula at the end of the month, but their travel dates conflict with some international training I have scheduled. The good news is Kelin's scoliosis has been corrected and Raquel has had some preliminary work on her bilateral hip dislocation so both girls are on the mend.

Westward to Alaska

I am a bit delayed in posting the pictures from my Alaska trip. I picked it up last week. We flew out on Memorial Day. The flight was full with the usual cruise ship crowd. And of course we sold out of food before we were even half way thru the cabin, but once we landed in beautiful Anchorage, it did not matter.

The high temperature while I was there was 65 degrees. A nice change from the oppressive heat of home. I hung out on the layover with Susan, one of my co-workers. We started at 7am on Tuesday (mind you ANC is three hours behind home so it isn't THAT early) and went to this place called the White Spot for breakfast. It was very local (but I will say the name sounds kind of racist) but the food was great. I had HUGE pancakes and some reindeer sausage.

We then headed down to Pete's to rent our bikes. He takes care of all the flight crews. We ran into Bonnie, another co-worker, when we got there.

Susan and I decided to do the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail (http://www.trailsofanchorage.com/kincaid_park.htm). It is about 8 miles one way, so the round trip is 16 miles. It hugs the coast out past the airport, then goes up a rather steep mountain. We ended up walking our bikes up the mountain, but riding down was fun. We saw a mother moose and her babies, but we were mindful to keep our distance. At one point you are at the end of the runway and it looks like the planes are going to land right on top of you.

We detoured on the way back to the Sugaya Asian Grocery Store. We had lunch there and got some snacks for the red-eye home. We also ran into Bonnie again. Susan and I were exhausted....

We got back to the hotel around 3pm. I was tired and my nads were sore from the bike ride and I just wanted to sleep for a few hours, but the hotel is getting renovations so the constant jack hammering made it hard to sleep. I think they stopped around 5pm so I might have got an hours worth of sleep.

The flight home had about 40 open seats in the back which was nice. We had the last row to ourselves. There was this one gentleman we had to cut off because he was being rather liberal with the "toddies".