So here I am, back again on my travels, this time in Dublin! One of my PA’s drove us to the airport where we checked in without that much of a problem, Bristol is actually really good to fly from by the way. We got told to go over to the special assistance point, where there was nothing but a phone on the table, so we had to ring a random number to get assistance around the airport even though half of it we didn’t need anyway, but they were very helpful, but also a little patronising which made me want to kill them by the end of it!
We got onto a random mini bus which took us out to the airfield, I have never stood on a airfield before, it’s quite windy! Anyway, there was a large group of ground crew deciding the best way to get my electric wheelchair onto the plane and then, like normal, they decided to lift it, I’m sure health and safety went out the window, but oh well.
After a short flight, we arrived in Dublin where we were greeted by yet another mini bus. as opposed to Bristol where they lifted my wheelchair, it seemed that Dublin had the sense to use equipment, it was like a luggage conveyer belt which they used to get my luggage off the plane and onto the mini bus. As usual I skipped right through security, there are benefits of being disabled sometimes! And we were then escorted out of the terminal and all the way to our taxi with our lovely Polish driver.
You may have thought the flight would have been the most difficult part of the journey, but infact our troubles hadn’t even began yet! We entered the hotel to be told that they forgot to read the comments section on the booking form which clearly stated that the room needed to be wheelchair accessible, obviously they didn’t have a wheelchair accessable room. We were then told that we would be transferred to another hotel, which we waited an hour for just for the taxi to take us there. This taxi driver, who was foreign, seemed to have an obsession with the word ‘perfect’ as it was used in nearly every sentence. We finally arrived at another hotel where we were informed that apparently we had not paid for any of our accommodation when it stated on the paperwork that it was prepaid, so my PA’s got a little stressed and stroppy with the staff in the hotels. By this time it was around 5pm, and we hadn’t even eaten, so we decided to get a pizza takeaway to eat in the room. After all this palava we decided to go for a little walk into the centre where they have the pointless Dublin Spire which was completed 3 years late (for those of you that actually care). We then walked back to the hotel down some back streets taking some evening photos along the way. As we are in Ireland, we finished our day with a pint of Guinness 😉 and attempted to go for a shower, but the shower screen was screwed to the ceiling, so that was eventful.
Tomorrow we aim to explore the train station, my weird obsession, and then go to Dublin Zoo, so keep following on here and Twitter where we have more photos than today! See you tomorrow 🙂