Going home...
Door: Samantha de Bruijn
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Samantha
26 Februari 2011 | Verenigd Koninkrijk, Glasgow
I thought I had given most of my stuff back to the Netherlands with the parents of Mathilde. I had kept my very big suitcase, but I didn't expect it to be totally full. I thought that it would have been nice to have some extra space left in my suitcase, so that everything would fit and I could even put my jacket in there or something. To my surprise, it was already quite full when I was finished packing. Apparently, Mathilde and Leoni had the same problem with their luggage and asked if they could put some of their stuff in my 'oversized' suitcase. Sunday morning (19th) we ended up by Leoni sitting on my suitcase and Mathilde trying to close the zipper.
I had ordered a cab for a quarter to eight that morning and we were a bit of in a hurry to get everything downstairs in time. When we took the luggage to the cab, it surprised us how heavy my suitcase was. We would soon found out how heavy it really was...
So we were finally in the cab, the driver had helped us getting our stuff in the cab, and we were off to Glasgow Queen Street Station. We would leave Glasgow the way we had entered it on the 31st of August. We took the train to Edinburgh and the bus to the airport, just like I had done for my surprise visit to my boyfriend in the Netherlands. That's when Murphy's Law applies: just when you have calculated so much time that everything can go wrong and you will still be in time, that's when you have no delays at all. Well, at least it wasn't stressful either. We were so early that we even met Melanie, Verena and Nina (she went with them to say goodbye) at the airport. They were to fly at twelvish, but while we were waiting for the luggage check-in desk to be announce, we heard that their flight was cancelled. They decided to go back go Glasgow, stay in their room in Firhill Court (the both rented it until the end of February) and give it a try a few days later.
Meanwhile, we were waiting for any news about our flight. It was the second flight on the schedule boards, that are all around the airport, that wasn't cancelled or heavily delayed. But we didn't knew jet where to check in either. Finally, an hour before our flight would depart, the check-in desk was announced. By then we already expected some delay, because it's almost impossible to get everyone to check in their luggage, check the hand luggage, go through the passport check and board within an hour.
Mathilde and Leoni had handed in their luggage without any problems and now it was my turn. I already wrote that we thought that my suitcase felt a bit heavy, but it was hard to say if it was over 20 kilos. It was. The suitcase was way to heavy: 35 kilos! They wouldn't even take it. They said the maximum was 32 kilos, so we had to put some of the stuff in our hand luggage. I knew that each kilo above the 20 kilos would cost me 10 pounds and I already prepared myself for paying 120 pounds. No exactly what I had in mind. I was also very surprised that it weighed that much. I thought I only had some clothes in it, but I guess the cutlery was also quite heavy. We took some of the heavy stuff out of my suitcase, replaced it by lighter stuff from our hand luggage and we tried again. This time we went to another desk and the weighing scale said 32 kilos. However, the woman behind the desk thought it was only 27 kilos. Still too much, but I'd rather pay 70 pounds than 120. We tried to pay by card, but the machine wouldn't take it, because it wasn't an English debit card. She said that we had to pay by cash at another desk, but there was a very long queue over there. What exactly happened at this point I cannot recall, but she suddenly said that we didn't need to pay at all and that she should would just take my suitcase. We quickly thanked her, grabbed my boarding pass and passport of the desk and walked away, before she could change here mind. We couldn't believe that had just happened!! I was so incredibly lucky! Mathilde suggested that it was probably because of me. Things like this happened to me multiple times during the last four months: visit the show of the hypnotist during the Fresher's week without my Fresher's pass, getting into Brodick Castle without my National Trust card and now this.
Once we got through the hand luggage check all that was left was to wait. Soon we noticed that our 14:40 EasyJet flight to Amsterdam was delayed until 5pm, so we had plenty of time to get ourselves some late lunch. While eating our sandwich we saw the 9:45 KLM flight to Amsterdam finally depart. The other KLM flight to Amsterdam, scheduled for later that afternoon was cancelled. Lucky again: the airports weren’t closed and our flight wasn't cancelled (in contrast to many of the flights and airports that day)! Eventually, we were able to board and had four hours of delay. This was because the aeroplane wasn't at the airport yet and not because of Edinburgh Airport. I didn't even care about the delay anymore. At least we were not stuck at Edinburgh Airport and four hours was nothing compared to some of the other flights of that day.
Guy was going to pick me up from Schiphol. (Un)fortunately, his trains also had a lot of delay, so he didn't had to wait a very long time. At 9 o'clock (Dutch time) I could finally hug my boyfriend again. Even though I had seen him two weeks before, I was still very glad to see him again. While Mathilde and Leoni were collected by their parents and siblings that would take them back home by car, Guy and I went back by train. There was a lot of chaos at Utrecht Centraal Station, so it wasn't a route we would normally have taken, but we had no delays and at ten past midnight, we arrived at Nijmegen Centraal.
Because of the bad weather in the Netherlands, there were no buses that day in Nijmegen, so we had to take a cab back (walking back with my 32 kilo suitcase at midnight was not really an option). I had never taken a cab in the Netherlands before and I now know exactly why: they are not as cheap as in Glasgow. We decided to stay at Guy's place, because going to Groesbeek would take longer and would definitely be much more expensive. The ride from Nijmegen Station to the Radboud University (Guy's room is close to it) was almost 12 euros(!), but I was very glad to finally be 'home' and to go sleep after this exciting and exhausting day.
Love,
Samantha
-----------------------------------
Photos: http://s1046.photobucket.com/home/MathildeCastelijns/allalbums
I had ordered a cab for a quarter to eight that morning and we were a bit of in a hurry to get everything downstairs in time. When we took the luggage to the cab, it surprised us how heavy my suitcase was. We would soon found out how heavy it really was...
So we were finally in the cab, the driver had helped us getting our stuff in the cab, and we were off to Glasgow Queen Street Station. We would leave Glasgow the way we had entered it on the 31st of August. We took the train to Edinburgh and the bus to the airport, just like I had done for my surprise visit to my boyfriend in the Netherlands. That's when Murphy's Law applies: just when you have calculated so much time that everything can go wrong and you will still be in time, that's when you have no delays at all. Well, at least it wasn't stressful either. We were so early that we even met Melanie, Verena and Nina (she went with them to say goodbye) at the airport. They were to fly at twelvish, but while we were waiting for the luggage check-in desk to be announce, we heard that their flight was cancelled. They decided to go back go Glasgow, stay in their room in Firhill Court (the both rented it until the end of February) and give it a try a few days later.
Meanwhile, we were waiting for any news about our flight. It was the second flight on the schedule boards, that are all around the airport, that wasn't cancelled or heavily delayed. But we didn't knew jet where to check in either. Finally, an hour before our flight would depart, the check-in desk was announced. By then we already expected some delay, because it's almost impossible to get everyone to check in their luggage, check the hand luggage, go through the passport check and board within an hour.
Mathilde and Leoni had handed in their luggage without any problems and now it was my turn. I already wrote that we thought that my suitcase felt a bit heavy, but it was hard to say if it was over 20 kilos. It was. The suitcase was way to heavy: 35 kilos! They wouldn't even take it. They said the maximum was 32 kilos, so we had to put some of the stuff in our hand luggage. I knew that each kilo above the 20 kilos would cost me 10 pounds and I already prepared myself for paying 120 pounds. No exactly what I had in mind. I was also very surprised that it weighed that much. I thought I only had some clothes in it, but I guess the cutlery was also quite heavy. We took some of the heavy stuff out of my suitcase, replaced it by lighter stuff from our hand luggage and we tried again. This time we went to another desk and the weighing scale said 32 kilos. However, the woman behind the desk thought it was only 27 kilos. Still too much, but I'd rather pay 70 pounds than 120. We tried to pay by card, but the machine wouldn't take it, because it wasn't an English debit card. She said that we had to pay by cash at another desk, but there was a very long queue over there. What exactly happened at this point I cannot recall, but she suddenly said that we didn't need to pay at all and that she should would just take my suitcase. We quickly thanked her, grabbed my boarding pass and passport of the desk and walked away, before she could change here mind. We couldn't believe that had just happened!! I was so incredibly lucky! Mathilde suggested that it was probably because of me. Things like this happened to me multiple times during the last four months: visit the show of the hypnotist during the Fresher's week without my Fresher's pass, getting into Brodick Castle without my National Trust card and now this.
Once we got through the hand luggage check all that was left was to wait. Soon we noticed that our 14:40 EasyJet flight to Amsterdam was delayed until 5pm, so we had plenty of time to get ourselves some late lunch. While eating our sandwich we saw the 9:45 KLM flight to Amsterdam finally depart. The other KLM flight to Amsterdam, scheduled for later that afternoon was cancelled. Lucky again: the airports weren’t closed and our flight wasn't cancelled (in contrast to many of the flights and airports that day)! Eventually, we were able to board and had four hours of delay. This was because the aeroplane wasn't at the airport yet and not because of Edinburgh Airport. I didn't even care about the delay anymore. At least we were not stuck at Edinburgh Airport and four hours was nothing compared to some of the other flights of that day.
Guy was going to pick me up from Schiphol. (Un)fortunately, his trains also had a lot of delay, so he didn't had to wait a very long time. At 9 o'clock (Dutch time) I could finally hug my boyfriend again. Even though I had seen him two weeks before, I was still very glad to see him again. While Mathilde and Leoni were collected by their parents and siblings that would take them back home by car, Guy and I went back by train. There was a lot of chaos at Utrecht Centraal Station, so it wasn't a route we would normally have taken, but we had no delays and at ten past midnight, we arrived at Nijmegen Centraal.
Because of the bad weather in the Netherlands, there were no buses that day in Nijmegen, so we had to take a cab back (walking back with my 32 kilo suitcase at midnight was not really an option). I had never taken a cab in the Netherlands before and I now know exactly why: they are not as cheap as in Glasgow. We decided to stay at Guy's place, because going to Groesbeek would take longer and would definitely be much more expensive. The ride from Nijmegen Station to the Radboud University (Guy's room is close to it) was almost 12 euros(!), but I was very glad to finally be 'home' and to go sleep after this exciting and exhausting day.
Love,
Samantha
-----------------------------------
Photos: http://s1046.photobucket.com/home/MathildeCastelijns/allalbums
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