Though this was not one of the things I wanted to do before I die but it is interesting to have done it. We managed to miss our flight for the first time in life and hopefully the last time. The story is much more interesting about how we missed the flight. My wife and I decided to go to Prague for the weekend from London. This was precisely to make the most of the Schengen Visa that we had for six months to go to maximum EU countries. We recently had been to Norway to see the Northern Lights.
We were supposed to fly Friday evening and come back on Sunday evening. I didn't know earlier that my office will be so busy on Friday that I will not be able to even plan some stuff in Prague, check us online for the flight and print tickets. Fortunately, Archana took care of most of it. I didn't even help her pack anything for the trip. For us to get to the Luton airport (which is farthest from the London City), we had to leave latest by 5 PM. Archana came near my desk while I was away, dropped the changing bag, and was waiting outside for over half and hour. Being overloaded by work, I could barely get up from my desk fifteen minutes past 5, I changed, did some last minute work and left at 5:30. This was the beginning of a series of unfortunate events. We went to the underground station to catch our train to London Bridge, where we were supposed to board a connecting train to the airport. And yes, all the trains were running with severe delays. We waited for 10 minutes or so but there were so many people that even if we decide to go by train, we would’ve had to stand in line and take second or third train. So we decided to go outside and take a cab to London Bridge. When we came out, it was raining and of course cabs were hard to find. Archana called a cab company and after being promised to come in few seconds, someone turned up after 10 minutes. We took the cab amidst the heavy traffic and reached London Bridge in about half an hour that usually takes 10-15 minutes. We went to the platform and were waiting for our train to the airport. Now I tried to be smarter and suggested to take an earlier train to intermediate station and catch an express train. While on this intermediate train I realized, it was a wrong train and we had to come back to the same station after wasting half hour. This half hour cost us that regular train to the airport that we were supposed to take in the first place.
We were then waiting for the next train and now we knew we were cutting very close to the flight time. Boarded the train and started preparing ourselves for missing the flight so it doesn't come as a shock if we miss it. We reached the Luton airport station and took a taxi to the airport and literally ran all the way to the gate. And guess what, they said they have closed the gate and we cannot board our flight. It was still more than 20 minutes to go for the departure but they had calculated the fuel needed for amount of passengers and also food supply. What food, we don't even get peanuts now days, and fuel for two additional people?? Anyway, it was not time for argument. We went to check if they can offer some alternative options, but the lady said “You can board the next flight at 08:15 in the morning and pay 51 pounds each extra!” We gave up.. Actually, it was funny, we both took it lightly (not that we had a choice) and immediately started thinking about our alternate plan. There was a point we started laughing. “Everything happens for the best” we told ourselves. And it helps to prepare yourself for the worst while you dream of the best.. However, it was tiring to travel such long distance just to know that we missed our flight.
No, the story doesn't end here, the series of unfortunate events still continues. We took the shuttle to the train station where we were told that trains were suspended for indefinite period due to a crime / accident somewhere on the track. An alternative was to take a bus to the city, which would probably take at least couple of hours. Then someone gave few of us an idea of sharing a taxi together as we were all going to the city centre and it instantly made sense to us. Of course the guy who advised us already had a taxi friend ready to take us to the city but it was a brilliant idea. Apart from two of us in the taxi, there was one play writer Irish lady, a vascular surgeon from Hungary and another female from Hungary. We all socialized in the taxi and the surgeon guy (John) mentioned that he has to travel further north in UK and will be looking for a hotel in the city to live for which he had no clue how to find. I discussed with Archana and then offered John a place to stay overnight at our house. And he accepted almost instantly. After struggling through disrupted underground train services in London, we finally reached home with John. We hadn't told my brother Ashish yet that we have missed our flight and of course, he wasn't expecting us home. Archana tried to open the door with the key and Ashish got very scared and he yelled, “Who’s that???” He looked through the keyhole and saw John, which made him even more, scared and locked the door that Archana tried to unlock. Then we said it is us and he breathed a sigh of relief. It was so funny later when he said he was about to dial 999 :)
To my surprise, our chemistry with the stranger was very good and we ended up chatting very late in the night. And yes, Archana got a lot of medical tips from John starting from drinking filtered water in UK to what chair to use for preventing back pain. Well I was first one to fall asleep, then Archana and later Ashish. John was still going on even when on the bed ready to sleep..
This was truly unpredictable day or rather adventurous if I may say J
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