Matthew's Journal

...or "There and back again".

The journey out began at 03:00 when my alarm went off. I was out of the house by 03:15, and met MWW and beckyc at the bus station. We caught a coach to Stansted, and got onto a Ryanair flight to Porto. It was a newish plane, or at least had been re-fitted in Ryanair "colours"; as far as I can tell, this mean removing the facility to recline the seats at all, removing the set-back pockets, and making the seats harder. The whole experience caused me to remark to several people as to how I am becoming disenchanted with "budget" airlines even for short-haul flights - the prices quoted bear no resemblence to reality, and they really do make no efforts at all to make your journey more pleasant. And that was before the return journey!

Anyway, we then had to get from Porto to Porto Salvo, where the hotel was. The Porto metro doesn't quite reach the airport yet, so the journey went roughly:
Bus 87 to Pedras Rubras Metro
Metro to Porto Campanha
Intercity train to Lisbon Oriente
Metro to Cais do Sodre, changing at Alameda
Suburban train to Oeiras
Bus 120 to Porto Salvo
Walk to Hotel
We arrived at 16:20, making it a 13-hour journey. The Porto metro is quite shiny, really, although it owes more in appearance to trams than the tube. The metro gives you a view of some of the vast range of environments in which the Portugese live, from shiny new developments to ramshakle smallholdings; I get the impression that at least some of the rural Portugese live in quite serious poverty, still; parts of Porto are little better than slums too, it rather seemed. The intercity was one of the new tilting trains, and reached a maximum speed of 223 km/h. It was comfortable, and cheap - €23.50 to cover some 200 miles. If public transport was that cheap and pleasant to use in the UK, maybe fewer people would be in cars!

After a bit of time to crash and freshen up, there was dinner. I've not eaten bacalhau since I was last in Portugal, which I think was just before Porto was European City of Culture in 2001, and it was great to be able to do so again. The chocolate cake was good, too, as was the availability of wine :) I did seem to spend much of the latter part of the evening having rather earnest discussions of issues relating to my work with people who I was introduced too. I took off to bed fairly early, so as to get a decent night's sleep.

Sunday dawned bright and clear, in contrast to the sporadic rain we'd seen on the previous day. There were many photographs at the hotel before we departed for the ceremony, and I admired foradan's ability to smile through them all! We were then bussed to the venue, which I think specialises in such events. There was a pleasingly short and simple civil ceremony, and then a drinks reception, with plenty of Churchill's dry white port :) That was followed by a substantial and very tasty dinner. The top table all looked fabulous, and it was nice of them to come round and talk to us all during dinner.

After dinner, there were speeches, a short ceilidh, and then Even More Food. A sumptuous buffet was laid out, and I think I was not alone in not really being able to do it justice. Things were rounded off with dancing to increasingly cheesy music. I had a grand day, although did find myself thinking "I wish atreic were here" from time to time. I flopped into bed at around 2am.

beckyc, MWW and I set out after breakfast on Monday morning, leaving the hotel at 10.30. The plan was that we would all go to Lisbon Orient together, and then MWW would head off for a railway tour of Spain, whilst beckyc and I would head home. Our expected arrival time in Cambridge would be 1-2am, giving me time for a bit of sleep before aiming for the 8.15 train towards Canada. What actually happened was more like this...

We reversed the outgoing journey as far as Lisbon Oriente, and parted company with MWW. He saw us onto our train to Porto, which was a slightly less shiny intercity train (and so a bit cheaper), but still comfortable. Pedras Rubras had been a bit obscure on the previous journey, so we decided to catch a bus all the way to the airport from Porto town center. So, we caught a suburban train to Sao Bento station, which has some lovely azulejos, and walked up the hill to Jardin de Cordoaria, where the airport buses were meant to go from. Alas, they'd re-done the timetable without updating much of the information, but we eventually managed to find where the right bus went from and at what times. This gave us a little spare time, so I persuaded beckyc that a wander to the Ponte de Dom Luis I was a good idea. Since I was last in Porto, they've put metro tracks along the top tier of this bridge, instead of the road that was once there. Still, you can still walk out along it, and look down to the river some 200 feet below. It affords great views over Villa Nova do Gaia, and I was very happy to stand there and take it all in again while my companion took some pictures. I must go back to Portugal at some point!

We walked back up the hill to the bus stop, and it got us to the airport about on time, despite diversions round building works for the Metro. The plane left on time, and all appeared to be well until a little before our due arrival time of 23.35, when the pilot announced there was a problem. Stansted was foggy, and they were in the middle of upgrading the runway lights, so we couldn't land there. Luton was closed, so we were going to have to be diverted to Nottingham East Midlands Airport; we flew over Cambridge and landed at East Midlands at 00:00, in the middle of a DHL depot. This did not bode well. They eventually managed to find some buses to get us off our plane at 01:00, and dropped us in the terminal building. By 01:35 we were through customs. Ryanair announced that they would be bussing us to Stansted, as that furfilled their contractual obligations; any suggestion of stopping in Cambridge along the way fell on deaf ears. Still, I reasoned, it would take about 2 1/2 hours to bus to Stansted, by which point we could catch the first bus of the day at 05:05, which would get us to Cambridge in time for me to walk home, eat breakfast, repack, and head to the railway station.

I would later discover that Ryanair's person (singular) in charge of organising coaches was informed at 10.30pm that they would need enough coach spaces for 500 people (4 flights were diverted to East Midlands from Stansted). It appears that their contingency planning doesn't cover >1 flight being diverted at once (C-, try again), and that they really couldn't manage to find enough coaches in the 3 hours between being told they would have to and us getting through customs.

To return to the story, 2 coaches appeared shortly after we got outside the terminal building. They filled rapidly, and left. We were told that more coaches would arrive "soon". We were left in the dark, and cold, for some time; no-one knew what was going on, and even what they did know were reluctant to communicate to us. A lone coach turned up a little after 2am. The crowd surged forward; it was quite disturbing to watch what looked rather like a mob forming. A PR coup was then achieved by putting all the Ryanair cabin crew onto the coach first; it took about 25 minutes for that coach to be loaded, and then were were left again. By this point there were only 2 staff members left. They sat and ignored us; at 02:30 I was told another set of coaches would be with us within half an hour. At 03:00 I noted the passing of this half hour, and got the sob story about how there was nothing they could do, it wasn't their fault the plane was diverted, and so on. Finally, at 03:20, another couple of coaches turned up. The staff very nearly lost all control of the situation, so desperate were people to board these coaches; the fact they finally had just about enough seats meant that boarding passed off without anyone getting seriously hurt.

The coach drove past Cambridge, and arrived at Stansted at 05:30. The next coach to Cambridge was the 07:05, which wouldn't get me to Cambridge until 8 at the earliest, at which point I'd never get the 08.15 train (given the need to re-pack). So, I go and find the approved taxi company. "Might be up to half an hour", they say, and quote a painful price. I figure my grant can cover that to make sure I actually get to Vancouver, so agree (it is now 05:50). At 06:20, I am told "another 10 or 15 minutes". At 06:35, I am told "actually, your best bet would be the train", so I get a refund, and leg it for the train, leaving beckyc to get the bus and hoping it would get her back for her appointment. At 06:43, the train left Stansted, I changed at Bishops Stortford (as NRE suggested), catching a train from there at 07:00. I got a taxi from Cambridge station at 07:38, which got me home at 07:45, a journey time of 21 and a quarter hours.

There was little time to dawdle; I got in, repacked the suitcase, picked up my other hand luggage, and was out of the house at 07:50, enabling me to catch the 08:15 train from Cambridge, a tube to Heathrow, and make my 12.30 flight from there (plus 2-hour checkin). It landed in Vancouver at 14:15 local time (8 hours behind London), and a half-hour taxi ride got me to the hotel at 15:30, a journey time of 15 hours and 40 minutes. The time and distance make interesting comparisons with the above two journeys...

Flying Air Canada was quite pleasant, given how much I dislike long-haul flying. The "wings" on the headrests combined with my extreme fatigue to mean that I got a few hours sleep, which was much needed. When I shortly go to bed here, it'll be the first time since Sunday night in Porto! The food was quite nice, too!

The hotel room is vast, with a king-sized bed, en-suite bathroom, separate sitting room, and kitchen. There are down-points, too, though; you have to pay for breakfast (bah), there are no ceiling lights, so the rooms are a bit gloomy after dark, and the air-conditioning unit makes a heck of a racket for precious little cooling effect. That said, I'm glad to have actually got here! I ate dinner in the hotel restaurant, because I didn't feel up to finding somewhere in Vancouver; I might bump into people I know tomorrow, or that might wait until after I present on Thursday (that seems to make people find you interesting, and want to talk to you / find food with you).


Gosh, what a big entry. Anyway, I'm going to watch a bit of Buffy, then catch a good night's sleep with a bit of luck; I suspect my body clock is completely confused at the moment!

The Ryanair people said that we should automatically be compensated as we booked online; when this fails to happen, how to I hit them with sticks?