The Journey to London~

Getting to London was as hard as it could get. On that faithful Thursday, Lyon had a strike and most of the public transportation system wasn't working. I had French class till 1800hrs and I had to be at the airport by 2015hrs. Hence, I left class early just to make sure I could get a Velo'v (public bicycle) to cycle to Part Dieu and catch the shuttle bus to the airport which thankfully was working. Everything went pretty well, until I reached the airport. 

"Sorry sir but I don't have a Singaporean passport on my list", the check in counter guy said. If you are not a European citizen or something, you'll have to fill in some security details about your travel information which I did. Hence, I waited 10 minutes standing at one corner while he was checking in other passengers and waiting for his manager to get back to him. "I'm sorry sir but my manager says you need a visa to go to London..". OMG...now I'm really pissed. All the while he and I were conversing in french, until now. "I DON'T NEED A VISA TO GO TO LONDON WITH A SINGAPOREAN PASSPORT!!", I exclaimed in english. He then called his manager and we waited again. Finally, he said I was good to go and apologized poliltely about the incident, and also mentioned that the flight would be delayed but not certain how long for. I waved goodbye and proceeded to the security screening.

I am aware that we can't bring any liquids exceeding 100ml onto the plane, so I purposely not pack my shampoo, soap, tooth paste and lens solution as Kiki said she could help me out with that. I am aware that we are able to buy wine from the duty free shop and bring onto the plane. 

What I didn't know is that wine bought from the supermarket can't be brought on. As a sign of good will I bought a bottle of french wine for Kiki and her housemates. 

"I'm sorry sir you can't bring that on the plane."

"Eh..so what do I do with it?"

"You can throw it away..."

"Throw away?! No do u want it?"

"No I can't take it from you....There's a bin over there.."

"No man..I'm not throwing away Bordeaux wine dammit!!"

"Why don't you go outside and see if anyone wants it..."

So I went back to the check in counter and offered the guy the wine.

"Why don't you check in your bag?"

"Cos I didn't wanna pay extra for my flight to check in my bag"

"Hang on sir, let me check....Ok u are allowed to check in one bag"

"?!?!...Hell yeah...I'll check it in with the wine..."

So everything seems to be going fine and I met a french guy whom I chatted with throughout the whole plane journey. The flight was supposed to take off at 2055 hrs so when we boarded the plane at exactly that time, we figured that the delay won't be very long. Once we boarded the plane, the pilot made an announcement in a distinct british accent.

"Dear passengers, due to the strike in Lyon today, no one seems to be working at the control tower and thus we cannot get clearance to take off. We don't know how long this will take but the reason why we got all of you on the plane is because once we get the clearance..we're OUTTA here."

So, we waited, waited, and waited. At 2230 hours, we took off. By the time I cleared customs, it was 2340 hrs (was supposed to reach london at 2135 hrs). Once I was out the gate, there was a guy who was sitting on the chair with an "Ask me" sign.

"Hey man, do you know where I can go to take the Easybus to central London?"

"Yeah just head down the passageway, and turn left before Marks and Spencers, there are buses outside and you just have to look for the pillar with Easybus on it."

"Thanks man..."

Went out, looked for the sign, and saw one that says: " Easybus no longer operates from Gatwick South Terminal, please take the monorail to the North Terminal. When I reached the bus stop at the North Terminal, I noticed the last bus for Easybus to Central London was 2300 hrs. London time is 1 hour behind Lyon and because I thought I haven't adjusted the time to London time, I thought I could catch the bus having reached the bus stop at 2304 hrs. I waited for 10 minutes. Nothing. I called Kiki....

"Hey kiki, i think i JUST missed the last easybus..."

"What time's the last bus?"

"2300 hrs.."

"But its 0014hrs now?!"

"......................Ok what's the fastest way to London?"

"The Gatwick Express....."

"OH crap...that's in the South Terminal...."

So I went back to the South Terminal and managed to catch the 0035 hrs train to Victoria station in central London, and after much of Kiki's help I managed to take a bus and arrived at her place at 0215 hrs, 3 hours behind the originally planned time.