Drama Getting Back From Steemfest2 - planes, trains & automobiles
Well, I'm back from Steemfest2 & am planning a few posts about the brilliant people I met, the things I learned & the experiences that I had. However I thought I'd start backwards & describe my experiences getting home yesterday!
It all starts long ago in September when I was uncharacteristically organised & bought flights way ahead of time. Unfortunately my return flight was on Monarch Air which promptly went bust (apparently this wasn't covered either by Expedia that I bought the ticket through, or my travel insurance). I managed to get another flight coming in to Heathrow, then planned a trip to Euston station by tube before a final 100 mile train journey back to Birmingham & a short Uber home.
I left the lovely Hotel Fenix Music at about 11am & wandered around in the glorious sunshine for a while. I MIGHT have also had a Pasteis de Nata.
Then it was onto the Metro (thanks for my free Metro card team Steefest, we were spoiled by you guys from beginning to end) to the airport. Don't take a taxi... they cost 35 Euros I'm told!
Unfortunately this is when things went wrong. I arrived 2.5 hours before my flight to find I couldn't get a boarding pass from the machine. A short queue later and I was told my flight had been cancelled. So, off to join the long queue at the TAP service desk. Almost 2 hours later I finally get to the front of that queue ...my only respite being a chance meeting with the lovely 
The flight was great, free food & onboard movies (I didn't even know they still did that). However by the time I'd got to Heathrow (and then taken a full hour to get out of the damn place)...I was running seriously late, but I also see on my App that many trains from Euston are delayed...there's hope!
A long tube journey later & I'm at Euston to see the ZERO trains are heading north out of London (so that's why the App said 'delays') due to an accident on the line. (the old guys was right after all, bad news DOES come in threes). Things were getting desperate, it was now past 9pm & I still had a 100 miles to cover. I hot-footed it across London to Marleybone Station, the only other line which goes to my city, and managed to squeeze onto the last train out of London that night. It was an uneventful journey (I passed it researching Smart Media Tokens on YouTube) ...by the time I'm in Birmingham it's around midnight...but I'm on the home straight, I can walk the last few miles if I have too! A short Uber ride & I stumble through my door weary but glad to be back.
Was it worth it to have been to Steemfest2? Hell yes.