Thursday, January 10, 2008
Flashback: Late Night In London
The following was written in July 2003, after a frustrating first evening in London, England.
The passport line at Stansted Airport was long. Very long. Several hundred people long and I'm watching the time tick away until the last train leaves that I have a ticket for, watching 10 pounds waste away in that train ticket. The line moves extremely slowly as there are only two or three passport counters open for the Non EU passengers. In most airports, when the line is exceedingly long, they waive non EU passport holders to the EU line to shorten waits. Not here. It was 12.30 before I got to baggage claim.
Half an hour after the last train to London left the airport. After wandering the airport for several minutes, I found a bus that was to take me to downtown London for just 10 pounds. I was really tired, starting to get cranky, and wished that I could have gotten a better timed flight to get to London. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20. Oh did I tell you I couldn't find a cash machine at the airport either? I'd need to catch a night bus to my friend's house in Brixton once I got to Victoria station. So before I could board the bus, I'd need to get to a cash machine. I got off at Victoria coach station, the bus driver directing me to a cash machine. It was out of order. I wander around towards Victoria rail station... realizing that the night buses leave from the railroad station which is closed, and not from the bus station whose terminal is closed but remains open all night.
After wandering around the area for half an hour, I finally find the rail station and look in vain for a cash machine. It is now 3 AM and I'm hopelessly lost and unable to raise the one pound I need to get on the bus. So, I hire a cab. The first one tells me I can get to Brixton for 8 pounds. I take him up on it but he says that if I want to go with credit card, I have to get a radio cab. Those cost more by the way, and the one I hailed had a broken credit card machine so I still had to stop at a cash machine to pay him. But I did save the 20% credit card surcharge. Total cost of the cab ride? 13.20. This brings my Stansted to Brixton trip cost to nearly 35 pounds, or about 30% more than the cost of the flight from Germany to London. I get dropped off at the Brixton tube station, hiking the quarter mile to Barbara's house where she's waiting for me in her pajamas, sitting under her sunflowers.
At last, I'm home. Able to sleep and able to forget the nightmare of a city commute. My flight landed at Stansted at 11.20pm London time. I reached Barbara's flat 4 hours later. Total distance traveled? About 75 kilometers. Looking back on the situation, I can laugh about it... it wasn't that awful. I did get to see things I've never seen before. I did get to wander around a little bit... even if I was carrying all that weight on my back as I did it. And it did let me have a wonderful night's sleep.
