Welcome to the U.K. Dear! my first day in england it wasn't as i planned
Hey there, I'm currently studying in Lincoln pursuing an exchange semester so, this first story happened the Sunday 17th of January, I was in London saying goodbye to my family because their returning flight was at the next day. Due to the time, I had to go to Lincoln by coach and not by train (not a brilliant idea).
My coach was departing from the Victoria Coach Station at 4:00 pm and it was planned to arrive to Lincoln at 9:00 pm, because we needed to make some breaks in Peterborough and in Grantham before arriving to Lincoln; a long journey but an easy one at the end, right? right? WRONG!
For obvious reasons I fell asleep the first 2 hours so I woke up at 6:15 pm approx. I was really thirsty by the way, so at 6:25 pm (I remember perfectly) we made a break in Peterborough and the driver said that we could get off the coach to stretch our legs and that we will departure at 6:30.
So I got off the coach and asked him, "where can I find a shop?, I need water" and he told me "sorry mate there are no shops in here, but we will make another break at 7:30, if you can wait until we get there you can buy your water in a shop there" but there was another dude (just next to the driver) that told me that at the end of the hall there was vending machines (in my defence I can be almost sure that the driver heard that) so I went to the vending machines but I didn't had change, and, there was toilets in there so I decided to go to the toilet, as you can may imagine IT WAS THE DUMBEST IDEA EVER!. When I returned I saw that a coach was leaving, so you can imagine my face like:
I started to run behind the coach really desperate, until I realise that I would never reach it. So, there you got me, in a city that I didn´t knew, with no clue of where it is situated in the map, almost no money, no phone with UK number, and alone, oh right, and also my luggage was in the coach too.
After that, I found two black girls, and told them what just happened and ask them to borrow me their phone to make a call to the company and see if they can do anything. One of them left because she needed to catch her coach, so the other girl was really nice to me and helped me to make the call (because if the british accent is difficult to understand at the begining, you should try to understand it in a phone call).
In this call we told the person what happened, and he asked me "why did you got off the coach if that´s not an authorized stop?" (strike #1) I told him that the driver said so, after a little argue he asked me about 1 thing, my ticket number, I printed wrong the ticket so only you colud see the bottom half of the number so we didn´t understood the number (strike #2), then he told me "well, tell me the e-mail account where you send it" (AND STRIKE #3) my sister bought the ticket so she send it to her e-mail and I didn´t knew which was her e-mail! At that point you can understand that I had the desire to die.
My last chance came when he asked "well, at least can you tell me what´s your last name and how much did you paid for your ticket (finally an answer that I knew!) so I give him the information, and told him that the driver said that it will be a break in some point at 7:30, he verified the information and told me to catch a taxi directly to Grantham (because there was where the break will take place, and they will let the driver know that I was on my way and to wait for me, also to keep the note and with that the company will make me a refund for that taxi. The girl that was helping me took me to a place where there were taxis, I said thanks to her and give her a hug (I have to emphasized that I have never given a hug so sincere in my life). At that point when I took the taxi I thought that the problem was solved, do you agree? well haha NO! there´s more...
Following the instructions, I told the taxi the story and that we needed to reach that coach at any cost, and after half an hour we arrived to Grantham at 7:30, but, the taxi driver didn´t knew where was the coach station (someone please kill me, I thought), we pulled over and waited for someone to appear, until we saw a man that told us where does the station was, we arrived to the station as quick as we could and as you may imagine THERE WAS NO COACH! then, the two of us went to a little shop and asked a man "hey does this place is the coach station?" "yes" he replied, "have you seen any coach of the N.E. company?" we asked "yes, arrived at 7:15 approximately but departed like 10 minutes ago..."
So there I was, stranded for a second time in the same day, but this time in a different city that I didn't knew either, that day it was getting better and better. After hearing this, I asked to the taxi driver if I could borrow his phone to make a call (again) to the company and tell what happened (again), I guess that he saw me so desperate that he agreed, so we called.
This call was picked up by a lady (not very helpful if you ask me) she asked me the same question "what´s your ticket number?" and I awkwardly answered I don´t have it and also don´t know the e-mail where I send it, but I explained her that the person that answered the last call helped me with only knowing my last name and how much did I pay for my ticket, she told me to hold and we stayed that way for at least 2 years! (probably for like 15 or 20 minutes but until today I fell that I waited 2 years...) and after all that waiting she finally answered "sorry we can´t do anything" basically she said "dude you are screwed, bye".
If you think that that was not enough, after finish the call, the taxi driver told me "sorry man I have to go back to the station and can´t take further than here" actually I understand because is his job and he was wasting his time and for a taxi driver time means money, so I asked him for a last call and hope if someone else pick up the phone and be more helpful. This time a guy answered the phone, so I quickly explained him all the problem and what happened in the last two calls, gave him my personal information and he told me to wait, but this time we only waited for like 2 minutes, and when he came back he said the most beautiful words that I´ve ever heard "Hello, we have already booked a taxi with the instructions to pick you up and take you to Lincoln, you don´t have to pay for that taxi, we will pay for it, and for your left luggage and the other taxi refund you have to give us a call tomorrow" After hearing that I said thanks to the taxi driver and got off the taxi, he told me to take care and then he left. Now in the side road I started to check if I still my few belongings with me, yeah I had everything on me except... MY FREAKING COACH TICKET! I LEFT IT IN THE TAXI.
When I realise this, I started to shout in the middle of the road a lot of things that I'm not proud of now, even 2 guys that were on the shop come to me and asked me if I was felling ok and if I needed any (mental) help, I just told them that I forgot something in the taxi and that I was very upset about it, and they were like "okay... well if you need something just let us know". It was good luck that there was no a bridge near there because otherwise I would have hung myself from there. But well after wait a bit, the taxi finally arrived.
"Are you the guy from N.E.?" she asked, "yes that's me" I replied, so I get into the taxi and told her to take me to Lincoln, I supposed that I locked so depressed that she asked me "you alright?" I just replied to her "Ah no, but it doesn't matter I just want to go home get some sleep please". We arrived to Lincoln at 9:15 pm, so I sent to my family a text saying "Hey! I just arrived to Lincoln, EVERYTHING WENT FINE I just need you to send me again my ticket so I can get my luggage back (someday) please"
Until this day my family does not know anything that happened that day and I want to keep it that way at least until I get back. Also if you are wondering what happened to my luggage, well, that's another story.
Also just to show that people have this weird situations too, I'm going to leave 2 links where you can read about Passengers Stranded Because of a Nap in the U.S. because the driver didn't care I went to sleep. And the other one about passengers stranded in the Eurostar in the Dark. With this I can say that everyone has their own problems.
Thank's for reading.
And before you go, let me recommend you a Latin song that was very famous few years ago and that I really like, so if you want to hear it there is the link. Enjoy.
Sincerely: A Mexican Abroad
Reference List
Hutchinson, J. (2016) Passengers were left stranded on a Greyhound bus for FOUR HOURS after the driver got out and went for a sleep in a hotel [online] U.S.A: Mail Online. Available from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3390449/Passengers-left-stranded-Greyhound-bus-FOUR-HOURS-driver-got-went-sleep-hotel.html [Accessed 7 April 2016]
Mann, S. (2016) Eurostar passengers left stranded in darkness on board train which was delayed for eight hours [online] U.K: Evening Standard. Available from: http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/eurostar-passengers-left-stranded-in-darkness-on-board-train-which-was-delayed-for-eight-hours-a3164431.html [Accessed 7 April 2016]