Storm Atiyah made for an eventful departure from the Isle of Man. It wasn’t just the usual “Blowin a hoolie”, it was gale force 9 with winds gusting up to 100mph. As we unloaded at the airport it took one person to hang onto the vehicle door while someone else took an item of luggage. Unfortunately we discovered that the gusts of wind could blow our unattended 20kg suitcases down the road and into the deep puddles!!!!
Not surprisingly the incoming aeroplane couldn’t land and went back to London Gatwick leaving us with a 7 hour delay while watching the lights swaying outside and hearing the building creaking in the strong gusts of wind. Luckily we caught up with a few people we knew and waited nervously as other flights got cancelled.
To Pete’s amusement, I turned into an anorak and watched Flight Tracker to see where our incoming flight was and then got really excited to see lights heading towards the airport – yippee! Our flight was a little bouncy but we made it to Gatwick for our overnight stay.
A few hours later we were up for our 4am check in. To be honest, I felt like joining these guys for a little more “charge”.
Finally we took off for Bulgaria however a medical emergency for a fellow passenger meant we were quickly diverted to Brussels. Ever feel like things are against you? Anyway, after two attempts to land in Sofia and a truck crash on a mountain pass, we finally arrived in Bansko. Yippee!!!
Our transfer driver, the lovely Svetlio, had moved his twenty or so plastic bottles to make room for all our luggage but fitting in the supermarket shopping on top was a bit of a challenge.
So we have arrived, unpacked and put up our very minimal Christmas decorations. Home Sweet Home for the next four months.
Can’t wait to go and explore as Bansko looks quite different to when we were last here, three years ago.
