On our way.... to Luton!
Trip Start
May 26, 2006
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Trip End
Jun 04, 2006
Luton, United Kingdom
Saturday, May 27, 2006
It was the last day of his first job for MV Ltd and he had a few 'loose ends' to tie up, which meant that he didn't get home until 7:30pm. By then I was climbing the walls - I had already stuffed a load of gear into my bag (which was full to bursting) to give me something to do, and now what?
When he finally got in, he was clearly in a relaxed mood (I can't imagine why - it's not like he wouldn't be out at work again for the next 3 months or anything!) and there was all a bit too much sitting down and chatting going on for my liking - I wanted to see action, preferably frenetic - and nothing less.
To cut a long story short, we managed to get all we needed into our bags and out of the door by 11pm and there was a pretty small amount of arguing and grumpiness involved - which was amazing.
We did have a slight problem though - we were on our way round the M25 and Julie texted me about something or other and said that they hadn't brought any alcohol, but that we could always drink the stove fuel if it came to it. WWOOOOOah. We needed gas for our stove (well, we don't - it runs on anything, but I hadn't packed anything other than the gas bottle 'bits') and I mean gas gas, not gasolene. Turns out that there had been a slight confusion (call it translation error) and that R&J had bought Meths for everyone! Lucky that we out at that point, and not sat in a wood somewhere with a bag of dried beans to cook! Anyway, it was broadly decided that it would be OK, and that we would be able to get gas in Stockholm before we caught our train north. Fingers crossed eh?
Back to the journey - I had booked some kind of "Sleep & Fly" package in Luton - a mere £10 more expensive than parking alone, I thought that getting a few hours sleep in a nearby hotel and being so much closer to the airport would be a great idea. Until we got there.
Welcome to the Swallow Hotel (formerley the Chiltern Hotel apparently - and stated everywhere like it was some kind of selling point) Luton. First impressions count, so the 6 or so buckets in the foyer not very carefully positioned to catch the water dripping through the ceiling were not a good start! It didn't really get any better.
There was a hen party or something going on in the room opposite, and the walls/doors of the hotel were generally rubbish - totally too thin to shield us from the noise of their drinking fun (although, what kind of party is it when you are in your room in the Swallow Hotel in Luton at 11:30pm on a Friday night??) the concrete canopy over the front door (directly below our room) seemed to create some kind of odd wind tunnel effect, which meant that the few bed hours I had was spent mainly lying awake (OK, so that's not all that unusual), listening to the bizarre howling and whistling of the wind, and the cackling and then throwing up of the girls opposite.
Great.
Also, I was worrying - generally - about everything. Most heavily on my mind was the amount of chocolate bars we had with us, and whether we should ditch some of them early doors because it was just too much. Jon reckoned not - he thought that the fact that I had half of the Aldi chocolate selection stashed in his rucksack, and that Julie & Robin also had much chocolate was not a problem - in fact, it was a bonus. So the chocolate stayed.
Didn't stop me worrying though......
