Transit: Flying Vueling Las Palmas to Barcelona

Getting back to the Gran Canaria Airport was quite easy.  I walked the 10 minutes down to the main avenue.

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I jumped on the number 17 bus (EUR1.40) and rode it for 15 minutes to the main San Telmo Bus Station down in the Old Town.

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From there, I head downstairs and saw that the buses to the airport departed from Bay 23.

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There was already a bus number 60 there, and some people waiting to board.

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I didn’t wait very long, and soon the bus was boarding.  I put my suitcase underneath and boarded, paying the driver EUR2.30.

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The journey along the coast, offered a great view of Las Palmas and the coastline.

20161104_134724 20161104_135512The trip back to the airport was about 20 minutes, and soon we pulled up outside.

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It was clearly marked to head into the terminal.

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Since I had no luggage to check I headed straight to security.

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It was the friendliest and nicest security I’ve been through (other than the Gold Coast) and soon I was on the other side with an hour to spare.

I really wanted a coffee so I headed to Starbucks. In a moment of insanity, I ordered a Gingerbread Latte.  Oh wow, this drink should not be classed as “coffee”.  Actually I’m not even sure that it is..  It is a horrid concoction which is both incredibly milky and sickly sweet at the same time.  Mental note: don’t drink that again.

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Soon the board showed the gate number for boarding, and it was maybe 10 minutes walk from where I was, so I slowly headed in that direction.

I noticed then, that the board said – delayed 20 minutes.  I figured that wasn’t too bad, so I settled in for the short wait.

I had a quick look at arrivals, and saw a Vueling flight heading to Las Palmas with a late arrival time, and I thought that must be the plane.

The plane arrived, and we gathered to board.

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We went through the scanning and queues on the gangway.  We were standing in the queue for an unusually long time, and then a member of staff called everyone back.  I started to get worried.  I’d never flown Vueling before, and this was not a great first impression.

The staff said there would be an additional 30 minute delay due to “operational difficulties”.

Confused, I just sat down on the floor next to the boarding area.  The yoyo boarding was irking me a little.

After a while, we were then boarding again, and I was scanned through a second time.  At least Vueling had mobile, QR code boarding passes.

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The boarding of the plane looked quite chaotic and slow.  It definitely was not as organised as Ryanair or Norwegian.  Luckily the staff stayed professional and pleasant.

Finally we were all on board, and then the pilot came on, and said that unfortunately due to the delays, we could not get a departure slot, and we might have to wait up to an additional hour.

Hahahahaha. Most of the passengers just laughed, and unbuckled their seat belts, stood up and started chatting.  The staff started handing out cups with water.

This was definitely the craziest flight I had taken in Europe so far.  Even craziest than Ryanair forcing all carry on suitcases underneath the plane for no reason.

Luckily, it was only 30 minutes, and not 1 hour, and I was so relieved when we were FINALLY backing out.

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Take off was smooth and it was beautiful to watch the sunset through the clouds as we flew north.

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Arrival into Barcelona was smooth and we touched down at 9.15pm only 1 hour late (after all that!).

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Being a domestic flight I was out of the terminal very quickly, and I headed to the metro (EUR4.50) to head to the Airbnb in the Gothic Quarter.

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I had to change at University Station, and then exit at Cataluna.

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Then the Airbnb was only 10 minutes walk, and the beauty of Barcelona was a joyous site.

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What a day

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