Our story begins in midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, in December 2020. Our protagonist (Yours Truly) has just woken up, it is about 6am in Slovakia. It is pitch dark outside the window and quite cold. Definitely not the time you’d want to get up. But today is a special day because she has a plane to catch. It is quite unusual to leave the country these days but if it’s for education…
That’s right, this little naïve girl thinks that it’s the end of the pandemic in the UK and the second semester of her first year at university will be completely normal. Ah, if only she knew what is to come.
Anyway, after a 2-hour ride to the airport, she says her goodbyes to her crying mother, quiet brother and dissatisfied father (why can’t she just attend a uni in Slovakia) and passes the security. She’s quite excited, hasn’t been to the UK in the last 5 years. Not that she’s extremely fond of it but it’s a very much needed change of scenery. So she patiently waits at her gate. And waits… and waits. The plane is delayed. Are you kidding me? She made an amazing itinerary and while she did take into consideration the fact that the plane may be a bit delayed, she did not expect an hour! Now they can’t add any more minutes to it, that’d ruin her plan. Moreover, it would be expensive… The train tickets in the UK are insanely priced and she’s going from London to the north too. My oh my…
On board, she couldn’t sit still. She was constantly checking the time and to her relief, they arrived half an hour earlier than he’d expected. Hooray! Luckily, she had only a carry-on, so she dashed through the airport to the train station to catch her train to the central London. Oh, how much she hated London back then and this experience certainly can’t improve it much.
When she finally found her platform, she found out that because of the pandemic, there aren’t as many trains as usually, so she has to wait another thirty minutes. Well, good thing they arrived when they did. But, frankly, that first train ride wasn’t anything. The real test was using the Underground. She remembered some ticket machines from her previous trip but couldn’t find any. She was running around, stressing out about how to get on, as the time was passing by, minute by minute… and she had about 3 minutes to spare. Not even the employees helped her. Finally, another passenger told her it’s alright to pay contactless. She’s saved!
But wait, another challenge is before us! How to get to the entrance of King’s Cross three minutes before the departure. This other employee does deserve a pay rise, since he let her through the exit. And our protagonist successfully gets on the correct train to Newcastle. She’s tired, but happy. Then, she’s no longer happy when she remembers she has a reading to do for her seminar the next day. What a strong, independent woman she is!
And what happens next? Because we’re not done, the worst is yet to come…
