I was going away for my final weekend, but I had a problem. My suitcases were huge and unwieldy, but I wouldn’t have time to go back to London and pick them up before my flight out of Manchester airport Monday morning. (Why is a long story, let’s skip it and go straight to the action!)
So, I decided that before I went to Liverpool for shabbos, I should check my suitcases in at the airport, and I could just pick them up again Monday morning. According to the internet, this would cost me £20-£30 which was more than worth the hassle.
Ok! So I had to get from London to Manchester airport, Friday morning! Booking the tickets was fun. Because I was booking late, as usual, even the morning tickets were something like £110. Which is ridiculous.
But I noticed that none of the trains were direct. They all stopped over in Crewe or Manchester Picadilly. So in my only moment of clever train planning this term, I booked a ticket from London to Crews and Crews to the airport, saving myself over £50. Woot!!
Ok, the train was leaving Euston at 7:35. I wanted to take a train from King’s Cross, but no luck. Now, Euston isn’t that far from me. Imagine a straight line. On one end is my dorm. On the other end is Euston station. In between you have a few blocks of shops, King’s Cross, St. Pancras, the British Library, a Novotell, an office building and a student bar. Now, it is a straight line, and it only takes me about 20-25 minutes walking, most days.
But I wasn’t just walking. I was walking with the aforementioned wobbly suitcases. I arranged my morning to wake up at 5, and be out by 6. I figured, even with them slowing me down, an hour and a half should be plenty. But people did recommend taking a cab, which shouldn’t cost too much for that distance. I wrote down some local minicab numbers, just in case.
I decided to walk to King’s Cross and see how I was doing. The guard from my dorm helpful walked one suitcase to the first road with me, and then I began.
The suitcases were really heavy, and I needed to take a breather, but I figured I could do it in the amount of time I had. But the weight in one suitcase sliiiid over to one side, and the suitcase kept tipping over and wrenching my hand. It took forever to get it back up and not let the other one fall. By King’s Cross I was worried.
And then, revelation.
Outside King’s Cross, there were luggage trolleys! I paused, bcause I was pretty sure you’re not supposed to walk one of them quite as far as I was going, but there was no one to ask. I read the back of the trolley and they all basically said, “This trolly is the proper of Euston Station, if found please call —-” Euston Station? Perfect! That was where I was going!
So I grabbed trolly, hauled my suitcases on it, and off I went!
I got some weird looks, but let me tell you — it only took me another 20 minutes to get to Euston, despite the weight. 😀
Of course, the information boards in Euston weren’t working, but I was early enough that I didn’t care! I sat outside for a bit! I went to the information booth to ask where my train was leaving from at my own sweet pace! I started writing this blog post in my phone’s WordPress app! I was the only person I saw with a trolley. In fact, I didn’t see any trolleys at all, but I parked it neatly in the empty trolleys stop on my platform before my train departed.
Of course, the story doesn’t end there. The trains were the worst-constructed trains I have ever seen, first time I was seriously disappointed with the Virgin Empire. I requested a seat near luggage storage, no other requirements. So they gave me one…in the middle of the train car. Instead of big luggage storage at either end of the train, they had little ones scattered around the train. Great for weekend commuters. Bad for me. I dragged my suitcases down the narrow aisle to the nearest luggage thing. I’m only worried about getting off now – the train doesn’t terminate at Crewe, so I’m going to have to have my luggage ready when we pull up, but I have no idea when that is going to be.
Part one of MY ADVENTURE!
