A Night Wanderer at Gatwick Airport

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Traveling the night before Christmas Eve is chaotic, but I had a plan. But then, does at any time go things as planned? Rarely. This is one of those stories. Let me tell you about the night I spent wandering across Gatwick Airport in London.

21:30pm Initial Flight Departure

It all started in Geneva Airport. You might believe that the evening before Christmas Eve airports will be packed with families going on vacation, students and expats travelling back home or, well, southern people – like me – that haven’t get used to the Swiss winter and want to escape to a warmer spot. At least this is what I had in mind. But I was the only one at the security check (the only one, really!). Suspicious. When arrived at gate B44, I finally realized where everybody was – stranded and waiting for they’re delayed flight (or worse, searching for alternatives for their cancelled flights).

22:20pm Actual Flight Departure

Luckily, my flight had only an hour of delay and everything went smoothly – until we landed at Gatwick, London. Earlier that day, I had reserved a room in a Hilton hotel next to Gatwick – it had a special offer, so the double bed room was cheap enough for me to decide on spending the money in a proper bed. Of course, this was too good to be true.

22:55pm Flight Arrival in London Gatwick

When I landed in Terminal North and got my luggage, I went to the Information stand to ask for the directions to get to the Hotel: “You have to take the Shuttle and go to Terminal South, it will take you no more than 15 minutes”. I thought I had read in the internet that the Hotel was near to Terminal North, but anyways – I might had been wrong.

23:55pm Found out that I had booked the wrong Hotel

And I was. I wasn’t wrong about the Terminal – I was wrong about the hotel itself! Basically, I had booked a hotel that was about 16 miles away from Gatwick (why does Gatwick even consider it an Airport Hotel? Taxi fares would have been more than the double of the room itself – does that make any sense?).

Mental Note: Check 5 times before paying in advance for a Hotel, when you’re booking from a non-official site.

00:20am  Are there any alternatives out there?

With less than 6 hours ahead from departure, I wasn’t going to pay 100 pounds on cabs – so I went on to search for alternatives. Obviously, the pretty clean Hilton I was mistakenly sent to was full. I tried out Yotel, which are cabins that you can rent per hour (with a minimum stay of 4 hours) – but it was fully booked as well. There was no other choice left in Terminal South – so I went back to Terminal North, where I found a Sofitel. Although the rooms were prohibitively expensive, they were kind enough to allow me to hang around their Lobby (and even give me a 30 minutes of free WIFI check! Whoa!). Unfortunately, I got kicked out when the bar of the hotel shut down at 1:30am.

01:30am Officially Homeless

I walked back to an area crowded of night wanderers like myself – Most of them had crashed on a few seats, and some of them seemed to be enjoying a peaceful sleep (assumed from the snoring). Myself, I did not have seats to crash on and so decided to give the floor a try. I swear, this wouldn’t have been too bad if I had planned for it – that is, if I had a warm blanket and one of these airplane pillows with me. But instead, I had a huge (and when I say huge, I really mean HUGE) luggage, my laptop and a big empty handbag (you know, for the occasional shopping).

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03:30am Checked In my HUGE luggage

I woke up with the announcement with Easyjet opening its Check-In desk. At least this way I could get rid of the big luggage I had with me – one thing less to worry about. I passed the passport control and security check like a zombie, and crashed on the first 4 seats I found once inside the Gate area.

05:50am I need a coffee

No, it wasn’t time to go to my gate, yet. My flight was only leaving at 07:50am. But, seriously, it was so freaking cold out there that I couldn’t last too long. I did sleep during these 2+ hours, but I continuously dreamt about a big pain in all of my muscles – it felt like I had been sleeping on ice! And every time I woke up, my muscles were contracted. Damn, I really missed a blanket! I sat at the café for almost an hour, heating up with the cup of coffee. Why precisely a coffee? Well, I was also concerned that I would be falling asleep and miss my flight!

07:20am At least I'm in the plane

I got in and fell asleep (me, the one that usually can't sleep on planes). I didn't even notice the giggling girls next to me and didn't realize we had 30 minutes delay until the captain apologized for it on arrival. 

13:30pm I'm in Lanzarote, Canary Islands !

Did you get home for Christmas? 

Have you ever had this kind of complications? Did you ever have to sleep in an airport?

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By the way, check out My 2011 Goals at The Novelista Barista - I just got published yesterday :)