Ya know that feeling after a really great holiday? Yup, depression! Despite that, my stay in Madrid was just the tonic I needed for the ill effects of my life and I’m feeling much better.
I had a blast while I was over there. I got really good news from home (Get well soon Sharon!), and we celebrated ’till closing in an Irish pub on the last night. My head was a bit sore the next morning unfortunately. hehe.
The trip back was mostly uneventful. My shoes set off the security alarm in Madrid again, but at Stansted where they seem to be a lot more serious about security (or maybe it’s because I understood the security announcements..) I took them off and walked through without a hitch.
The fun started on the Ryanair flight home. The captain informed us that the weather in Cork was bad, that visibility was at about 500m, where 1500m is required, that equipment had failed in Cork Airport and we might have to go onwards to Shannon. This raised a chorus of groans and questions from my fellow passengers but there was nothing we could do. Shortly afterwards however the “Fasten Seatbelts” sign came on in preperation for landing in Cork. You should re-read the first line of this paragraph – those are the things that were going through my head as we descended. Clouds flashed by my window, the plane was buffeted by strong winds and everyone went quiet. Suddenly a “beep beep, beep beep” came from the back of the plane! Someone left their phone on! FFS! The steward came on the speaker system asking that all phones be turned off. I was thinking, “ok, the pilot has to do a difficult instrument landing, and some idiot has a phone on.. argh!”
We came lower, and lower. The fog disappated, and I spotted a few house lights from my window seat. The plane was still being rocked by winds however. I kept a lookout, and watched below for any sign when I spotted the blue lights of the runway. We were home! Yyyeeeesssss! Only a few more feet to go!
Suddenly the engines roared as the pilot piled on the power, the nose of the plane lifted again and the welcoming blue lights disappeared far behind. Everyone was silent for several moments until the captain informed us that the tail winds were too strong and were “outside operating parameters”. Because of the equipment failure at the airport they couldn’t make a landing in the other direction. We were headed toward Shannon Airport.
3 hours later I got home, after a trip in a bus with alcohol soaked seats and a bus driver who took his time driving..
Madrid’s a great city. There’s lots to see and do there. The nightlife is great! I visited El Prado on my last day and was awe-struck by some of the paintings. I’ve a “couple” of photos I want to put online here. Hopefully at the weekend, so make sure you come back next week!
Thank you Cachu, Meme, Alex, Andrea, Kristina, Sascha, My and everyone else – truelly an international group for a short while!
It’s great that you had a good experience in Madrid. It is indeed a wonderful place for a holiday. Getting routed to another airport is often quite an inconvenience, but it’s also good that things turned out well in the end.
I can definitely understand being depressed after a holiday. After having a very good time it is difficult to get back into the regular routines of life. I deal with it by trying to look forward to the next holiday! If you do return to Spain. I highly recommend Barcelona. It is a fantastic city with so much to see and do.
Dan
I agree with Dan. It is really quite hard to get back to normal after having so much fun from a vacation. When you were in Madrid, did you get the chance to see and enjoy those wonderful sights that the place has? I bet you enjoyed every destination that your feet led you while you were there. Yes, nightlife is also superb as there are a lot of fancy pubs that you can enjoy the rest of the night with. And oh, the food that they have makes it a trademark for them. I know you got the chance to taste them as well. 🙂