Shit Happens

When following others online it’s easy to assume everything in their life is perfect. All the trips go smoothly and they just waft through life with ease. I’m part of the problem too because I generally only share the highlights of all travels. Most people follow me for my photography, so sharing things that are not aligned to that isn’t something I generally do. However I also want to share that it doesn’t always go smoothly and shit happens, in some cases literally. Let me tell you about my trip to Edinburgh last week.

My mum never been to Edinburgh Christmas markets and only briefly seen the city on a previous trip. She had a couple days holiday left so I decided to treat her to a quick trip. The plan was simple. We take the Caledonian Sleeper train over night, explore all day, stay in a nice central hotel for one night, late checkout, explore all day and a relaxing sleeper train home. All going to plan, we would arrive back Monday morning having had a great trip and go to work. As you’re about to find out, this plan slightly went off the rails, pun intended.

It started in Euston where we arrived a little early for our train and proceeded to wait nearby assuming the current train is the early one. A lady came up to us, checked our ticket and said this is our train and we need to get on now. We questioned why it’s boarding so early but she insisted this is ours. We boarded, got comfortable and began to settle in for the night when the inevitable happened… we were in someone’s seats. Turned out this wasn’t our train and we had to do the walk of shame back to the platform. An hour later we boarded the correct train and got settled in for the night. No matter how much we tried, we couldn’t get comfortable. I think I’ve sat in more comfortable bus seats than those on the sleeper train and regardless of what I tried to do, I couldn’t sleep. Also the aircon unit was next to us, so it was freezing. Safe to say we got zero sleep all night.

Things went from bad to worse when at around 3am my stomach started to feel funny. By 7am as we rolled into Edinburgh train station it dawned on me that I had full blown food poisoning. After getting off the train I ran for the toilets which is where I spent the next 4 hours. By lunchtime, the train station got packed and I couldn’t just run to the toilet without joining a lengthy line. So we decided to go to the hotel and wait in the lobby as check in wasn’t for another 5 hours. By some miracle the guy at the hotel said that our rooms are actually ready and we can have them now. I checked in and fell asleep.

I woke up in the evening feeling much worse and it was now coming out of both ends with probably the worst stomach pain I’ve ever experienced. At least the hotel was right opposite the Christmas market so I can watch others having fun. No matter what I took, nothing worked and the pain kept getting worse. I fell asleep and although I kept waking up every hour from the pain and needing the toilet, I managed to sleep a little.

I woke up at 5am with the pain being just as bad and I was on the verge of going to the hospital. I could only describe it as someone standing on your stomach. Having tried everything under the sun, I resorted to some aspirin that my mum picked up the night before. I fell asleep and woke up a few hours later about 80% better. As the morning went on I started to get a little better. In the end I was well enough to get ready and go for a walk round Edinburgh. We went to the Christmas market where my mum had their amazing salmon while I just watched with envy. I then took her to Dean Village followed by a chill walk back into town. Although I was feeling better, my energy levels were very low and I was out of breath after a short uphill walk. We decided that there is no way we are waiting for the sleeper train and gonna book a normal train home as I still wasn’t 100% and mum didn’t want to spend another sleepless night.

We booked the train, went to the station and were greeted with “all trains to King’s Cross are cancelled”. If you’re from the UK, this wouldn’t be a surprise to you. If you’re not from the UK and you plan to visit, be aware that our train network is a mess. It’s either broken or on strike but will still charge you a fortune for the privilege. By a stroke of luck one train was running, so we boarded, got comfortable and were happy in the knowledge that in 4 hours we would be home. Or so we thought.

An hour into the journey a lady came on the tannoy and told us that this train will now terminate in Newcastle due to issues on the track. We rolled into Newcastle, waited another hour and boarded another train to London. However it was Sunday evening and as you can imagine many others were also making the same journey. The train was packed. Really packed. People were sitting on floors and there was not an inch of space. It was like being on the tube in rush hour. So we stood for 4 hours all the way to King’s Cross. The icing on the cake is that we stood right next to a toilet… that was out of order. Thankfully my stomach behaved, otherwise this story would probably be on the news.

So there you go, £800 for my mum to try a piece of salmon, take a photo of Dean Village on a rainy day and for me to tell you this story. You have to laugh. As for photography, I got fuck all to show you part from these three shots from Soho the night we were leaving for Edinburgh.

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