Stockholm Day 1- A nightmare come true!!
After a long day of work, Neha and I head to Liverpool Street station to catch the airport train to Stansted Airport for our flight to Stockholm. Both of us were excited about getting there and looking forward to checking in and getting a good night’s sleep. Fate had other plans for us it seemed.
Unfortunately due to delays on the journey to Stansted, we were unable to check in until just before check in finished. We weren’t worried at this stage. We had made the check in time, and we were now in the system. We then looked with horror at the length of the security line. Because of terrorist scares, security was now seriously tightened, and you weren’t allowed to take on board liquids (including water), makeup, deodorant or anything sharp. We were starting to get a little anxious as our flight was in 40 minutes, and the lines were horrendous, but we knew that our bags were on the plane now, and they couldn’t leave without us…could they?
Reaching the front of the line, our bags were x-rayed and we now realised that an hour had passed and our flight was supposed to have left 20 minutes earlier. Having had no announcements whatsoever, there was nothing for it, but to run down to the other end of the airport to our gate, and read the very unwelcoming sign which said “Gate Closed”. Although being able to see our plane outside with the doors open, they refused to let us on, saying that there was nothing they could do (well they could have let us on the flight!). There was nothing for it but to wander back to where we had just run, passing many many other running, panicking travellers also trying to make their flights. Of course I am sure that it took longer to off load our bags than it would have to let us on, but they wouldn’t budge in their judgement.
Arriving at the Ryan Air customer service desk, along with many other disgruntled passengers not allowed to travel to their destinations, we were told that there was nothing that they could do as it was the fault of security and not of Ryan Air. The only option was, of course, to reschedule for another flight in the morning. Although this meant we would miss our Wednesday appointments, we would still get to Stockholm, a city that we were both very excited about visiting, so we decided that a night in Stansted airport could be a little bit of an adventure (although I was very close to giving up completely and returning to my own bed). The moral of the story of course is leave plenty of time for your flight. I will definitely be heeding my own advice from now on.
After a feed, and an email to hostelbookers for them to read in the morning outlining what had happened, we found a nice little isolated patch of cold hard, concrete floor and set up our makeshift beds. We had retrieved our luggage by this point, and our pack made adequate although quite lumpy pillows.
The morning finally arrived, and sore and stiff, we arose like many others early in the morning, determined to be the first in the queue this time. After very little sleep, we walked around like zombies, but this time we made it through the queues with plenty of time to spare, although managing to lose one another. Finding each other at the departure gate, we sighed a huge sigh of relief and wandered on to our flight.
