The Long Haul

tull

Colene and Michael met up with some of the Australian Deaf team at.Tullarmarine Airport to set off for  Belfast. Customs was quieter than ever seen before, some say it is because of the Aussie $. Left Melbourne at 9:20 pm on the new double decker A380. The whole trip was so smooth it was like sitting in your lounge room for 23 hours. 14 hours later landed in Dubai after having lunch at 11pm, dinner at 3am and breakfast at 6:30am EST. It was 34 deg and quite hazy. As we walked through duty free at Dubai, Colene started to get that glazed look on her face.  Amazing, after 14 hours on a plane watching movies and listening to music, the first thing she said to Michael as she was walking through Dubai's duty free section was that all the designer labels are at their cheapest in Dubai because of no tax. She also asked Michael what was the exchange rate as she saw an expensive dress. Michael didn't tell her that the Dirham currency is quite cheap in its conversion to the Aus $. Don't know how long he can keep that secret especially as they are spending 2 days there on there return trip.
Connections went smoothly and they soon met up with the rest of the team. Boarded the plane and 8 hours late after breakfast again and then lunch we arrived in Dublin. Met our bus driver, Gerard,. We all boarded the bus bound for Belfast.
A suggestion by the team to Gerard to stop at a pub was quickly knocked on the head as he was the only Irishman in the Country who doesn't drink beer. Looking at the countryside you could be forgiven to think you were in Australia except for the quaint cottages and every passing truck having Mc... on it .

On arriving in Belfast,we realised why the Irish have so many jokes told about them. As we were travelling down a busy Belfast road the bus suddenly stopped. We looked out the window and what we saw wasn't the Hilton, where we were staying. The bus started to reverse, as it seemed he went down the wrong street, which just happened to be a one way street.
After getting back on the right side of the road we continued along Belfast main  road and into busy Belfast central, again we suddenly stopped in traffic. Looked out the window, still no Hilton, looked up the front of the bus and yep no bus driver, he had disappeared from the bus. Our guess was that he was lost and was asking for directions. He eventually got back on the bus and headed off as if  nothing had happened. Eventually, we arrived at Hilton and lots of old friends from Perth 2011

 
world deaf championships came out to greet us. Lots of hugs and hi-fives Booked into room had another dinner and off to bed at 9:30 pm Belfast time.  31 hours of travelling and feeling ok. Actually doing this blog at 5 am, but still had over 7 hours sleep. Michael is off to practice until lunchtime at Belmont Bowling Club Belfast  and as supporters have free time........... you can guess what Colene will be doing. Wrong guess..... she is actually going to the Hilton Gym and maybe have a swim. If you go to the Hilton Website and look at the photo of the pool, you'll see a photo taken from one of the rooms at the river below. Who said the Irish don't have a sense of humour.