I wasn't originally supposed to go to Ireland. During my study abroad program, I had planned a weekend trip to Barcelona with a large group of friends and was so excited to see one of the cities that still to this day has a spot on my bucket list. We were all flying out of different cities near Florence, like Milan, Bologna, and Pisa. For me and three of the guys, we were flying out of Pisa. Once we were literally about to step onto the plane, the airport was evacuated. Apparently a bomb was found in the airport!
All of the flights were cancelled and a bomb squad came in to take a look. Luckily, the bomb was described as "an ancient not exploded World War II bomb," according to the airport alert monitors, so everyone was safe. Still, we were unable to get out of Pisa that night to Barcelona. We fortunately were able to grab a taxi in the swarm of people outside the airport, and then caught an extremely crowded bus (since the trains stopped running) back to Florence so we'd have a place to sleep. To be totally honest, I was really bummed that I was missing out on the weekend in Barcelona. However, we still took advantage of our weekend in Florence by experiencing some of the local culture and nightlife, as well as a day trip to Siena.
Since I had ended up getting my flights refunded, I had some spare money and a free weekend coming up. Two friends had a trip to Ireland planned and invited me along. It was such a fun weekend! Even though I was originally bummed about missing out on Barcelona, if I had gone, I wouldn't have gone to Ireland the following weekend. Everything happens for a reason. When you miss your train, or your flight gets cancelled, or anything else goes wrong, the best thing to do is simply make the best of it. Barcelona will always be there, and maybe one day I'll get to go. And I had a wonderful time exploring three cities in beautiful Ireland!