Gdansk Group Trip – Day 6 (Alarmgate and the End of the Trip)
This was the final day for us unfortunately, with five of us flying back from Gdansk Airport and Richard going separately from a VIP terminal somewhere else in Poland. The plan was easy, a taxi was booked for 06:45 and that would give us enough time to get to the airport before we needed to board. It was evident that Susanna and Bev especially would want to be early, given missedflightgate at the start of their trip, and so everything looked like it would go perfectly to plan.
I think this sums up the situation nicely. The time difference means that the Polish times are an hour later. It’s not for me to gossip of course, but Steve, Ross and I had a long chat about the situation and it was evident that Susanna and Bev had stayed up late with a bottle of wine and then slept through their alarm. Ross and Steve were of course livid at their incompetence, but I remained calm as is clearly evident from my messages. The group were fortunate indeed to have my calm and steady approach to dealing with the trouble makers.
Susanna and Bev stumbled out of the hotel, actually literally, only 14 minutes late which was an impressive getting ready time and shows what they’ve capable of and I will remember that for future time keeping plans. They didn’t get their cup of morning coffee, but managed to collect body, soul, mind and luggage together in some form.
As the adult of the group, I was put in charge of sitting in the front of the taxi. Bev annoyed the taxi driver by getting muddled up with the seatbelt and he turned to me, smiled and said “women” which was probably a little sexist, but I could see why he was annoyed given that he had been standing about with us waiting for them so his patience was already frayed.
Luckily the tram didn’t move from its stand….
Bev was inside the car arguing with the taxi driver, whilst Susanna desperately tried to wake up. I’ve deliberately not used photos of them looking too worse for wear, as that would be unfair and inappropriate. And I would never sink to those lows.
Bev with her two coffees, that was her way of waking up.
After a morning snack and drink, the two miscreants were feeling remorseful but were back on top form.
Boarding the Ryanair flight, which was uneventful and through which I slept most of the time. I was nervous about using Ryanair, despite not having any issues with them over my decade of using them, but their service was always fine and I have no complaints. For £50 return, I thought I received excellent value for money.
The border looked chaotic, but we were through in fifteen minutes.
Ross had rushed to get an earlier train and that’s where this blog series comes to an end. We were all back in one piece, there had been no arguments and the company was marvellous. There are lots more trips to come and I think it’s fair to say that we all had an enjoyable time, with Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot not letting me down. Plenty of craft beer, decadent food, some football, history, culture and good company. All I have to do now is hope that none of the group take legal action against me for the content of the blog and I’ll call that a result.
