Big Adventures, Little World

The Hurricane Festival in Germany did everything it could to live up to its name. We had wild weather, but also got heat, blue skies, cold, wind, and just about everything the weather could throw at us! We didn’t get off to the greatest start however as when we arrived at Liverpool Street station to get the train to the airport, we realised that I’d forgot the tickets for the festival, then also realised I’d forgot to grab the passports as well! Luckily, my cousin Sam was staying at my house and after much panicking we organised a taxi for him to rush the tickets and passports to us at the station and then got the next train to Stansted Airport while Jimi and West went on ahead to get the bag of tents checked.

We were pushing it to make it in time, and it was one of the most stressful train rides ever! We both kept looking at the time ever minute or so and even resorted to looking up the next available flights to be able to get to Bremen or Hamburg. Our flight was at 6:30AM and the train arrived at the airport at 5:57AM, and the check in gate closed at 6:00AM. Jimi had sent us the details of our check in gate and we already had all our documents ready and as soon as the train doors opened we were running up the escalators to the check in desk. We got there right on 6.00AM and managed to get some nice guys to let us go in front of them to get our passports checked then we ran over to security. At security we were lucky enough to be allowed through the speedy security line as we were running so late and Elese’s amazing ability to look like she is about to cry and plead to be helped. We lined up behind about 4 people, compared to probably 44 in all other lines. We took our jackets and gum boots off and got all our liquids out at the ready went through. No beeping. Bonus! We gathered up our stuff, put our boots under our arms and started running through the airport in our socks. Of course there had to be people everywhere so weaving and dodging was a must and inevitably bumping into a few people here. That wasn’t going to stop us though, a quick ‘sorry’ over our shoulders was enough as we continued on. We were flying RyanAir so our departure gate was right at the end of the airport and it just seemed like it kept going on for ever and ever. We would get to a point and think we were there, but then there would be another set of escalators to go down or up or more stairs, or another corner to go around and see another stretch of corridor. There was only so much more running we could do carrying our boots, and bags, and wearing all the layers we were being cold at 6 in the morning and to save space in our bags.

We still didn’t know if we were going to make it or not but on we went and after much running/jogging/walking all mixed into one we made it to the gate and were out on the tarmac boarding the plane at 6.20AM! Somehow we had managed to get from the train to the plane in just over 20 minutes, which when I have flown from Stansted other times you would normally want to allow yourself at the least an hour, or preferably more. We were both so relieved when we made it onto the plane, but as we were walking down the aisle, we couldn’t see Jimi or West anywhere. We thought we must be on the wrong plane, but how can that happen with all the checks they have? We gave Jimi a call and he was on his way running to the gate to try and make it before it closed. He’d been held up at security but fortunately they got onto the plane just before they closed the doors. We had probably passed them as we went through security but were so set on our task of getting there hadn’t noticed at all. Astonishingly, even getting there about 40 minutes before we did, they were the ones that were closest to missing the plane. After all that though, we all made it which was all that mattered.