Murphy's Law

So yesterday was by far the worst day I’ve had since coming to this country all thanks to the UK’s complete inability to deal with snow. After waking up at 6 so I could get a taxi at 7 to the train station for my train to York I arrived in London to some slight flurries. It did not seem to be sticking, but there was panic in the air so I called my parents despite the fact that it was about 5.30 in the morning their time to ask them to check if my flight had been canceled. I was told that it was still on time and my Dad reassured me that the snow would not be lasting into the afternoon so because my flight shouldn’t be effected. He was right about the snow stopping by about 1.30, but little did he know that because of 3ish inches of snow London would stop functioning. So I was pacified for the moment, and decided to kill an hour in the British Library because I had arrived much earlier than was necessary.

An hour later when I emerged from the library it was snowing harder in the nice, fluffy, romantic Christmassy snow it does when it the temperature is hovering just below freezing and there isn’t much wind so it is just gently drifting down. So I didn’t worry that much, took some Christmassy pictures, and made my way to the underground so I could travel up to Heathrow. There was announcement made in the underground station that people should call ahead to their airlines to check on the status of their flights because there were some cancelations or delays, but my Dad had checked with them only an hour and a half before then so I wasn’t that worried. The train ride seemed fine until it made an announcement halfway through the journey that we would be going a little slower due to the snow, but I had time so I thought nothing of it.

Then just before the last stop before Heathrow the train in a long tunnel we came to a sudden stop (like emergency break, I fell over, sudden), and an announcement was made that there was something wrong with the signaling and we would be waiting for some staff to walk down the tracks to us to fix it and not to worry. The train was also filling with smoke/dust and smelled of burnt rubber, but we were reassured that this was because of the sudden breaking. At this point I was starting to panic because this meant I would be really rushed once we actually got into Heathrow. We ended up stuck in the tunnel for two hours, and after some tears and a few false starts we were finally going again. We finally got to the last stop before Heathrow and we were told that it would be best if we got off because the train would not be continuing in the foreseeable future.

So I got off the train with a girl from Madrid who I had made friends with on the train, and we went upstairs to try and get a bus or cab. We were told at this point that everything in Heathrow was delayed or canceled until at least 4 so we need not worry about missing our flights, but we were now concerned that we would never actually make it to Heathrow. We waited in the snow for a while for a bus, but were eventually told the buses going to Heathrow terminals were closed due to the snow. There were no cabs around, so we tried calling some companies all who told us that they were either booked or closed. The girl from Spain even tried stopping cars in the street. Eventually we were told that the trains were running again, so we got on the train grateful to be eventually making it to Heathrow.

Heathrow was a complete mad house, with major traffic jams and giant masses of very upset people rushing in all directions. By now I discovered that there was nothing going out for the rest of the day, and after calling my Dad I was told I was booked onto a flight for Tuesday and had a hotel reservation back near Kings Cross station (all calls I’d been making to my parents all day had been in a massive panic that my phone would die at any minute because the roaming in the underground for 2 hours killed my battery and I forgot my charger).

I now needed to make my way back into London, and because of my bad experience with the underground and an announcement that the Heathrow express train into the city was shut down I tried to find a cash point so I could grab a taxi back. After wandering through the crowds with all of my luggage I gave up on this pursuit and resigned myself to a long underground journey back. I made my way back to the underground and took a very crowded train back to Kings Cross and finally made my way to the hotel. Finally at a little before 8.00 pm I was checked into a warm hotel room, with internet access, and a phone charger they let me borrow.

So the long day is finally over, and I’m now ready to spend some time exploring a Christmassy London because really with all of this snow, it really is just like Christmas.