Schoolies Day 12 - Part 2 - Winter is Coming!

To continue on my last theme - it’s cold here.  Like really cold.  Like I’ve never been this cold in my life.  After finishing our tour we were dropped back To our hotel and with 6 hours until pick up, normally we would be out and about exploring the city.  Today they was not going to happen.  What we wanted to do was just find somewhere warm inside and have a rest after the exhaustion that comes from touring the camps we had visited.

We started with a burger for lunch and then walked through the Christmas markets again, before taking some time to walk down to the old Jewish Ghetto area, where there is now a memorial commemorating the heroes of the Ghetto.  That hour out in the cold and wind was enough to drive us back indoors to Starbucks for a holiday special and, defeated we went back to the foyer of our hotel and sat in the warmth for 3 hours surfing the net on the free wi-fi!

However while waiting we noticed that the snow was falling heavier and before you knew it, there was a beautiful carpet of snow all over the city.  Now snow is pretty but Hayden and I both learned also how very dangerous it can make things.  Shoes slip in snow.  Ice forms under snow, causing even slipperier surfaces.  After a few near misses (particularly getting in and out of the car at the airport) we arrived at the RyanAir visa check desk.

Now we had been a bit cheeky - when we checked in, we were meant to print off our boarding passes.  No way of doing that here, so downloaded a copy to my phone.  Ryanair website says if we don’t have it printed it will cost us €50 each pass printed.  Played the dumb Aussie twice, smiling and apologising for my ignorance and got all four printed off for a cost of a smile and a thank you!

But Karma bit back quickly this time as our flight was over an hour late leaving due to the weather.  As we sat on the tarmac waiting for approval, they announced they had to de-ice the plane.  From what we saw, this involved spraying (we presume) warm water over the wings to ensure the flaps are free of frost.  Pretty cool to watch.

Wheels up and we are onto the two hour trip home, missing the last train from Stansted to London, at which point I start an internal meltdown that I just don’t know how to get home the 50km from the airport.  It’s almost 1am, I could pay £120 to get a taxi or an Uber.  And then google maps saved us - we could catch a coach for £20 and then tube it home as the night tube operates on Sat/Sun night.

Hayden managed to talk me down off the ledge and I was able to get an hour of sleep on the coach.  So after a 3am arrival a sleep in is on the cards for the morning.