D3: Travel Day

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My life omg… my life hahahaha.

Today was one of those days that tested my patience but also turned into a very people friendly day. As we’ve well established in my journeys, I don’t have to seek out conversations - they always find their way to me.

(Sorry it's quite long... it was a long day.)

Ok, so first off at Holyhead I had a long wait for my train… and I made myself a new friend. His name was Keith. Keith was a little drunk. And by a little drunk… I mean a lot drunk. Like smelled worse than a brewery drunk. He was a friendly drunk at least… it was like conversing with a 5 year old. Here are a few snippets of our interaction:


• (*sitting and staring at me for a good 5 min before*) “Hiya. Whatcha doin’?” I’m looking at photos I took. “Can I come see?” Uh. “Can I come see please?” Ok. He plopped himself down on the floor beside me.
• “My name is Keith.” (about 5x in the span of an hour)
• Big dilemma to go home to Liverpool or to go to some obscure town in Wales to meet up with two mates to have a good time. I feel this good time would involve copious amounts of alcohol he did not need. We made a list of pros and cons about each choice.
• He then talked about his wife (maybe current wife? ex? i have no clue) and his 20 year old daughter. He started to almost cry and I was like oh God don’t cry.
• He wanted to see my photos from Dublin. He said “that’s nice” to every photo lol. Yes Keith, thank you. It’s all so nice.
• He also wanted to see photos from Copenhagen. He then interrupted me to talk about cars instead. I told him I knew nothing about cars. He wanted to show me his YouTube channel… alas, I told him I had no wifi.
• He asked where I was going… so uh, clearly I was going to Glasgow to meet friends because yes that is my story and sticking to it.
• He then realized he was dead tired and asked if he could sleep on the floor beside where I was sitting. Ah. Ok fine? I guess?
• “If you leave, wake me up first. Don’t just leave me here.” Ok Keith. “I’m serious. Don’t just leave.” Yes Keith.
• He proceeded to fall asleep about a centimetre away from my bum. Uhm, alright..? Awkward much? I went on about my business on the computer… he woke up about 15min later and asked if it was okay to hold onto my coat/shirt like a baby.., uhm, no Keith… “But why?” Because, if you want to sleep there, don’t touch. “Ok.”
• And he was out again after that, but only after offering to buy me a coffee first haha.
• He spent the next hour or so snoring like a bulldozer beside me.


I’m telling you… my adventures, man... I mean, I love the stories I get out of my encounters… but I mean what is it about my face that screams ‘come talk to me stranger’.

Needless to say, I was glad when his train came at 4h30. Ahem. He thankfully woke up under his own steam at 4h10 when I not so gently urged him not to miss his train in our sad goodbye moment:


• “But when do you leave?” Later.
• “Can I wait with you?” No. Don’t miss your train.
• “Can I have your number?” I don’t have a UK one.
• “Can I-“ Go catch your train Keith.
• “Give us a hug then.” Uhm. I didn’t answer quickly enough and got pulled into a bear hug and ewwww heebie jeebies ok but he let go at least and left for his train. Oh Keith.


And I was equally glad when my train arrived and I commenced my journey… so it was supposed to be:

1. Holyhead to Crewe. // 2. Crewe to Edinburgh // 3. Edinburgh to Inverness // 4. Inverness to Thurso.

Note how I say “it was SUPPOSED to be”.

Sigh.

I got on the train at Holyhead no problem, even got two seats to myself nice and comfy… and then we got to Llan… however you spell it Junction. (Basically middle of nowhere rural Northern Wales). As we pulled up to the station they told us we’d be delayed “for an undetermined” period of time due to signal failures further down the track. Great. All my connections were relatively short which isn’t a lot of wriggle room and it’s a Saturday so it’s not like there’s a train every hour or anything. But hey, fine, whatcha going to do, right?

15 min later they told us it would be a minimum of a 45 minute delay and that they’re looking into getting shuttle busses. Oh fuck no. (It’s not like there are coaches waiting around in rural Wales. Not exactly a hub.)

I got off the train to ask the ticket guy for another route/timetable up to Thurso since I was sure I’d miss my first connection. He was a right dick and told me he couldn’t help me because he didn’t know how long the delay would be. Fine, you could still give me an option or two… pull it up on NationalRail and it will give you all the options. But fine. Whatever.

I got back on the train and just shrugged it off to a certain extent - again, what else is there to do?

That calmness was short-lived. 5 minutes later they did another announcement - the train was being terminated, we all had to disembark because they needed to clear the rail and that service was suspended for the time being and that when they had more info they’d tell us but that no service was running east.

Uhm.

UHM.

All service east was suspended or severely delayed to the point of being suspended. Going back west brought you no where and so I thought maybe I’d take a train south-east to Wolverhampton/Birmingham and try to catch something north-east some there.

But then I had a travel miracle. I’m good at these, sometimes.

I overheard a lady telling another lady: “I heard you’re driving to Chester to catch the next train. Could we join you?” I didn’t even ponder about stranger danger haha, I didn’t even think before joining the convo and in the sadness most desperate obviously-not-from-around-here voice I asked if I could come too haha. She took pity on me though and said sure.

So begins my epic journey.

It was about an hour’s drive to Chester - the driver was the absolute sweetest lady. I sat up front, so we ended up chatting all about Wales, about Canada, about our lives and our jobs. (“I take it you’re not from around here.” Whatever gave you the idea haha). She had been trying to get to London for a girls weekend and we were talking about how it’s funny how things work out - there’s another station a little closer to her, but she decided to come to this one because it’s slightly bigger… and hey, that ended up being my saving grace. I also got to be her sat-nav lady and we joked about what a treat it was to have a Canadian accent on the sat-nav duty 😉

Arriving in Chester, I needed to get to Crewe. Of course the west-east trains were all messed up now with a huge section of the route completely closed, so even though it should come every 30min or so on weekends it was going to be over an hour to wait. I went to customer service and was like yeah… help me, oh please help the poor non-Brit find her way. Luckily I found a guy who was actually helpful and printed off another route I could try and take. Key word: try. Basically everything that went remotely near the trouble area was delayed which rippled through causing delays in Crewe and further south in towards London. And everything he gave me had connection times of 5-10 minutes.

He printed off my new itinerary full of places I’ve never even heard of:

A. Chester-Warrington Quay // B. Warrington Quay-Lancaster // C. Lancaster-Hayford // D. Hayford-Aberdeen

Please note, I wasn’t ever going to Aberdeen… I’m supposed to be going to Thurso.

With where things stood it was now literally impossible for me to get to Thurso tonight by train because it’s so far north. HOWEVER because it was a train screw-up and not my own, if I go as far as I can on their service they are actually obligated to pay for my taxi the rest of the way. I just stood there blinking, I’m like ok run that by me again - I made him repeat that they would pay for my taxi from Aberdeen to Thurso.

I stood there laughing. Ok, great… that’s like… 5 hours by car. But ok, fine, whatever, I just want to get there in one piece and tonight so that I don’t lose my hostel room.

So, I got lucky and the second train was late due to another signal failure, so I had time to connect. I was then tempted to stay on it because it went up to Glasgow… but I figured there was a reason the train guy didn’t have me to do that. I probably would have got stuck in Glasgow and they would argue I could have gone higher.

(By the way, I typed most of this entry while on the train from Lancaster to Haymarket. Quite literally have no sweet clue where I was at the idea. No idea if it was England or Scotland or what’s happening. All I knew is there were a ton of sheep. So many sheep I couldn’t take pictures because we’re going so fast there are just like fluffy dots in my pictures haha.)

Alright so I made it to Haymarket which is apparently just outside of Edinburgh. There was a train to Inverness which I debated waiting the 5 min for but the train to Aberdeen was arriving just as I was getting off my other train so I literally had a minute to decide and went with what the guy in Chester had told me. UGH WRONG. (Sort of?) Had I actually got on the Inverness one, I would have managed to catch up with my final connections. THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE PERFECT ENDING TO MY DAY. But alas, I listened to the train employee rather than my gut…

Now I knew I would likely get stuck going from Aberdeen to Inverness by train and then taking a taxi from Inverness (only 2.5 hours, give or take). And really all I wanted was a bed haha.

So, sure enough I get to Aberdeen and the lady (my dearest Susan, who I owe everything too and was superwoman on the phones for me) told me I’d have to at least carry-on to Inverness. She had to call about 5 diff people because Virgin Trains (the rail that had the signal failure) closed at 4pm (it was now 6pm) but she did it! Now thankfully when they put everything in the system it told them there was no way I could have made the train to Thurso, so they didn’t even fight me on it and agreed to pay my taxi from Inverness to Thurso.

Train from Aberdeen to Inverness was uneventful. I fell asleep by accident for like… 20min.

Arriving in Inverness was a star welcome ok. At the end of the gate there are two National Rail employees who approach me:


• “You wouldn’t happen to be travelling north, would you?” Yes?
• “You wouldn’t happen to have been delayed in Wales, have you?” Yes?
• “What’s your name?” Julie?
• “We have a winner! You’re taxi is here.”



Oh God I laughed. Too tired - everything was funny.

The drive to Thurso took a little over 2 hours and it was honestly the best thing that could have happened haha, better than had I made the original connection. (Yes, I hear you all telling me I shouldn’t have stressed and just go with the flow. Well. Had I known I’d have the taxi, I would agree with that.) The taxi driver was the sweetest old man - we talked about everything from soccer, politics, weather, travel plans, families, our lives. He also pointed out every little detail as we drove along - pointing out towns, places of interest, wildlife haha, everything and told a bunch of stories about people he's taxied over the years in the Highlands... all very cool.

So not only did I have a great personal tour really, I also took great pleasure in seeing the final cost be £220 (so… $370 give or take) and knowing I didn’t have to pay a penny for it haha.

What a day! Glad I’m in one spot for a few days now.

(And as a final nice thought - my three big interactions today were with a Brit, a Welsh lady and a Scotsman. Cover my bases for the UK, don't I.)

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Comments

[Irene]

Angels Along The Way
Aw, I love people! Look at all the angels who helped you along the way - we have to be angels for each other! Well done.