Road trip to Europe: part 1

My friend K and I had planned to visit Poland last weekend. We bought flights on Ryanair for some paltry sum, and spent ages looking at websites and choosing where to stay. We planned to spend four days in Gdansk, by the coast. However, nothing went according to plan...

We were due to fly out to Poland on an early morning flight on Friday. We'd taken our bags and passports to work, so we could get the coach from Liverpool Street to the airport without having to go home first. We had explained to the normal security guard that we would be back at the office by 11.30 to get our bags, as I had a ballet class and we were going to get some food afterwards. He said that this would be fine, and that the night security guard would let us in.

On arriving back at the office, the security guard was nowhere to be seen. Assuming that he was doing his routine checks, we waited for 15 minutes. We then started to worry. We suspected that he might be on the 4th floor, as one of the lifts was on the 4th floor. We then called some people from work. We tried calling a number of different phone numbers accross the whole building, in the hope of alerting the security guard.

By now it was half past midnight, and we were freezing. We went to a pub that was open to sit in the warmth and carried on calling the office. At 1am we returned to the office, but the security guard was still not there. By now, the panic had really set in, and we called the police for advice, but they couldn't help us. We banged on the doors, and shouted, hoping to alert the guard, but he clearly wasn't on the ground floor, as he didn't hear us. There was only one light on on the ground floor, in the library, but no one was there.

As it passed 2am, we started to get really scared. We sat in the doorway for another half hour but eventually it got too cold. We decided that we would have to find somewhere warmer to stay. We walked up to London Bridge and sat inside for a while, trying to think of what we should do. Eventually, the only place we could think of that would be open was the hospital. Inside the main entrance, there were some chairs, where we sat, and kept calling the security phone every hour until half past five. Again, there was no response, but having been told to leave the hospital, and knowing that time was ticking and we needed our bags, we went back to the office.

We called the office and banged on the door for a further few minutes but still no one appeared. By this point, both lifts were on the ground floor. We suddenly saw a shadow, and realised that someone was there. We shouted and banged as loud as we could, and he appeared from the reception area and let us in. By this time it was 5.30. We ran to get our bags and passports, and booked a taxi. As we waited for the taxi to arrive, we asked the security guard where the hell he had been. He claimed that he had a stomach bug and was being sick in the room next door. That was obviously rubbish, as that room is an office. Don't normal people go to the bathroom when they're being sick?? We asked him why he hadn't answered his phone, and he said that he couldn't hear it. But we'd rung him on this number when he was sitting in the reception area! I really wanted to kill him.

By now, 5.45, the taxi had arrived, so we ended our conversation with the guard, as our main priority was getting to the airport on time. Unfortunately, we ended up missing our flight by five minutes. The next flight to Gdansk would be the following morning.

At this point, we were so close to tears out of tiredness and frustration. We tried to find flights to nearby destinations, with no success. In the end, we bought a flight to Berlin - some 120 miles from our destination, planning to take a train from there to Poland, so that we could at least use our return tickets. This cost us £165 each. We didn't think we could face the disappointment of not going away after the traumatic experience of the night before.

As Stansted airport was nice and warm, we decided to get some sleep there. Unfortunately the benches were metal and had arm rests. Somehow we managed to get to sleep, and actually slept quite well. I woke up to the sound of screaming children. One kid in particular was making a godawful racket and would only be silenced by her mother shaking some maracas at her. If the kid had been young, I might have let it pass. But no, it was a girl aged about 10!! I came so close to strangling the kid, and her mum for good measure. In the end I had to go for a walk around the fabulous shopping centre that is Stansted airport to get away from the kid.

We spent quite a lot of time in the smoking area, which seemed to be where all the fit guys were. I tried eyeing some of them up,as an enjoyable way to pass some time, but I realised that I probably looked like death warmed up. I tried to have a wash in the bathrooms, but it wasn't really possible. All I wanted was a bath.

Check in time for the Berlin flight was 16:40, and the time crept round so slowly. When we finally got through passport control, I wanted to jump around with happiness. I did a little jumping, and was thankful we were finally on our way.