Before I say what actually happened, I'll quickly bullet point what should have happened:
.8pm arrive at the airport,
.9pm queue up at my gate ready to board the plane
.9.35 german time, plane takes off
.10.20 english time, we land at Stansted
.Catch the train at either 10.30 or 11.02 to Sawbridgeworth
.Before 11.45, at the latest, get back to my sisters flat.
Every time I return from a holiday on my own there always seems to be problem, and this time there were no exceptions. Within half an hour of waiting in the airport, a notice came up on my gate saying that the plane has been delayed by 10 minutes. From then on, things started to go down hill. In the end we took off from Munich airport at about quarter past 10, german time, and because the pilot took a shortcut, we landed in Stansted at about 10.50.
At this point I began my rush, off the plane, through the terminals to passport control, where I did have a stroke of luck. Due to my passport being new and having the computer chip inside, I was able to use the electronic passport control machines, instead of having to queue up with everyone else, in the very long queues. Because I could use these instead of queuing I was able to get through within five minutes, allowing me five minutes to find my way out of the terminal, find the train station and get on the train. Even though I managed to find the station two floors below, find my platform, and run right up to the train, just before I pushed the button to open the door, the doors locked and the engined revved up ready to pull out.
My next stroke of luck came, when I discovered there was a train 10 minutes after my previous train, due to having been delayed, and so I didn't have to wait an hour and a half, for the next scheduled train.
From that point on, I had just one change over at another station, however when I got there my connecting train was just leaving, meaning that I then had to wait for the next one 30 minutes later. After I finally got on this last train, and got off at my last station, it was then only a 10 minute walk back to my sisters flat. I couldn't do anything about the delays or missing trains, its just the case of Sod's law, that you hope nothing goes wrong because you have a schedule to keep, but instead loads of things do.
If I took anything away from that night, it'd be to make sure you give yourself enough time and don't rush, to not worry if things do go wrong, and to also make sure you have a back-up plan, just in case.
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