... A Digest of Disasters

Or Five Six Days in London

On the morning of January 15 we innocently packed our bags and headed to the airport by bus to catch our two o'clock flight.
On reaching the check-in desk our bag was checked in and we were informed that the flight was delayed 5 hours and then handed some refund forms which implied that we had to cancel the flight to receive any refund. Svetlana was furious at the uninformative nature of the airport staff, and WizzAir for not being able to provide a better option than the huge delay, and was not sure that she wanted to wait that long for a flight that would have us arrive close to midnight.
We spent the next five hours lurking in the airport bar discussing what to do, despairing further as the delay accrued another 45 minutes, and drinking many beers.
Finally our flight arrived. We boarded and were off. A small bright light was being last onto the plane, which used a sit where you want policy, and being upgraded to extra legroom seats for free - take that WizzAir, you just lost 12 Euros!
After a couple of hours we landed at the incorrectly named London-Luton airport after midnight. Luckily the national rail country trains run all night so we could catch a 1:06 train into Kings Cross. Unluckily the tube doesn't so we had to scramble up a taxi to get to our Motel (well a Liscensed Private Driver actually, and they are referred to as mini-cabs for unknown reasons). Our driver did seem a little dodgy but had all the paperwork and punched the destination into his UPS so I wasn't particularly worried.
Arrival at our Motel in the Walthamstow area showed the perils of getting me to book the first cheap available motel that's on the Luton side of the Thames. We completed our 24hr check-in and went to our room to collapse, only to find that it had almost beaten us to it. Suffice to say we had to sleep so we stayed in the room with: tea/coffee fixings but no jug, no tv remote, the window nailed shut, no fan in the bathroom so the steam would set off the fire alarm, excess furniture crammed in the corners, a highly mobile toilet seat, a sheet of thin foam between two sheets as a doona and a distinct smoky aroma.

First thing the next morning, after a short fire alarm (presumably from other guests showering with the door open), I was able to change us into one of their first rate rooms with no trouble and no extra fee. First rate being within the bounds of two star of course. Everything worked and was present in this room and we even had morning sun shining in to brighten up our mood.
The remainder of the morning was spent in rest before we set out to explore the local area in the afternoon - central London would have to wait until the morrow. During our explorations I had my first Indian meal for a while plus, at Svetlana's insistence, beers (but not Fosters Lager!) at several authentic British pubs.

The next day saw our first foray into Central London, after some internet time and an early lunch. We chose to go by double decker bus for that authentic English experience. It was enjoyable but took twice as long as the tube was supposed to take. On arrival we walked over the Tower Bridge and around the Tower of London in the failing light before taking the bus back to our temporary home for an evening meal of take-away Chinese.

The next morning we were up early and already on the tube when LittleBigGirl called to arrange a catch up for dinner. Our first stop was Buckingham palace which was quickly followed by Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, London Eye, Downing Street, Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus. Satisfied that we'd hit enough of the icons we began our shopping. Perusing Forbidden Planet for comics and The Orc's Nest for gaming items along the way we hit Oxford street and the Virgin Megastore - strangely renamed as Zavvi.
Shopping was cut short to get to our Turkish dinner with LittleBigGirl and BigBen. We had a great couple of hours catching up. BigBen was a font of information on London and on the gaming he indulged in - although the schnapps shots caused me a few Srpski flashbacks.

Our next day started with a quick tube to Oxford Circus followed by a few hours of girly shopping along Oxford Street. A walk through Soho was followed by a cross town trip to the Tower of London which we actually deigned to enter this time. After seeing the Crown Jewels and a few other parts of the Tower complex the Tower began it's four o'clock closing routine so we decided to head home, stopping to admire the well lit Tower Bridge.
Transport woes reared their head again as our line was closed due to somebody being on the tracks. The closure was still underway after our dinner at a King's Cross pub so we made multiple line changes to reach an overground train that got us home late, and tired.

The next morning we were up early and off to the airport. At least until we encountered a line closure at King's Cross and had to do the tube tango again to catch a different National train out to Luton. Arrival at the airport revealed that our flight had been recently canceled. Apparently a flight to WizzAir's home city had problems so they cancelled our flight and shifted our plane to that flight. Much angst, and calculation of travel times with the track works we already knew about, later we decided to take a flight the next morning from Gatwick and stay the night near that airport. The WizzAir alternative was their Thursday flight and we weren't going to stay another 4 days for that!
Another round of train and tube travel ensued before we were courtesy bused to our Gatwick Hotel. We were greeted with a small room but with nicer fittings. A short walk took us to the Horley main street where we had a nice Chinese meal since the local pub closed the kitchen at 7.

Early arrival at the airport the next morning did us no good as our flight - with a different airline - had a half hour delay. Finally after attempting to spend our remaining British Pounds in the airport we were able to board an actual flight and escape back to Svetlanaland.
We were collected from the airport and hustled back to Svetlana's home town were we promptly hugged the ground.

All this delay has unfortunately removed Venice from my travel menu this trip as I have to flit my way back to Australia in only a few short days.

... Across the Border for a Srpski Xmas

After surviving the feasting of Xmas and New Year Svetlana and I headed across the border to visit her relatives in Srpski.

Little did I know that I was heading into the middle of Srpski Xmas and even more feasting. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were all big affairs with the rakija flowing freely and the soup, meat and cakes seemingly endless. It was almost more than my freeloading body could take but I think I did the Aussie drinking reputation proud - I just can't remember anything after the sixth rakija!

Anyway, somewhere in there we made a couple of visits to Beograd and saw the magnificent views from the fog-shrouded fortress.

It looked something like this:

The second day the fog had lifted for the morning so we did see a little more - unfortunately the camera batteries went flat so there are no photos.

After escaping from the food and heading back into Svetlanaland through more shrouding fog we discovered that somebody had stolen all the snow while we were gone. All that remained was mud and water.

To escape from this Melbournesque winter we headed to the coast to stay in a resort town often frequented by Austrian nobles recovering from tuberculosis. However the weather we encountered was more likely to spawn TB than cure it. The fog and rain followed us and all we could do was walk around admiring the dripping urban decay of the delightful little alleyways and staircases that clung to the mountainous coastline.

Thankfully we will be off to London for five days tomorrow to escape the persistent fog and rain.

... A New Year in Another Place

I have managed to elude my captors to once again make a blog posting.

Since my last post I have spent many an hour indoors and have managed to knock off the two last books for the year. This brings me to a total of 27 - which is, of course artificially inflated by counting each of the six parts of The Green Mile as an individual book. So 22 books in reality. Still not too bad although not a single 5 star rating amongst them but six 4 star ratings still mean it was a good year.

Anyway you all probably want to hear more of my adventures in Svetlanaland. From small tales like my forgetting the word for burek at the bakery and having to ask for sir sir (cheese ... cheese); or perhaps my many dog walking conversations with the locals; or how possible over consumption of dumplings may have caused me to come within a hairs breadth of fainting later that evening while crammed into one of the smokiest little 'pubs' in existence.

The big one would have to be New Years Eve.
After dropping the dog at Svetlana's sisters place, and participating in the pizza part of their pajama & pizza party out of politeness, I headed off to the venue that Svetlana had chosen for us to see in the new year.
Well you have not really experienced a New Years Eve until you have spent it dancing until the early hours to Svetlana-ese pop songs in a Hemmingway themed bar while firecrackers are being constantly set off in the zero degree temperatures outside.
All that dancing also lead to a serious case of knee cramp which left me unable to follow the advice of Days of our Libraries commentary advice from my previous posting.

New Years Day dawned with actual sunlight at about 11 in the morning and I realised I hadn't actually seen the sun for about two weeks. However by the time we'd arrived at Svetlana's parents place for the traditional New Years feast it was all grey and fat snow again. The rest of that day was lost to post-feast napping.

Yesterday was my day for exploring the capital. Svetlana had to work and I was able to amble my way around the city. I walked through a park beside battlements; saw the inside of the famous cathedral; spent an interesting hour in the muzej of Naive Art (self-taught artists, many of whom painted on glass); found the local game store to be closed for inventura; explored the ethnografski muzej wondering at the collection of village costumery that Rugrat Twin had drooled over mere months ago; squeezed myself into the worlds smallest comic store and explored the byways of the old city. Eventually I returned to Svetlana's office and we zoomed home through the crazy traffic - oh sedate Punt Road I miss you - to a evening meal of scrumptious chevap chi chi.

The bad news is that illness has struck and Svetlana will probably be unable to drive us to Budapesht so we will have to tick that destination off the list some other time.

I'd better go now before they realise I'm gone.