Trip - Szczecin, Inaugural flight, London

It's always nice when a trip ends on a high note. This one ended on such a high note that only dogs could hear it. After getting to the bus station early, I found out that it was actually an hour earlier than I thought (daylight savings) so I had even more time to explore Szczecin. While it's not quite up there with the likes of Llandovery, Birmingham, and Belper/Nottingham as the most special places, it's definitely in the next tier with some pretty great places. I liked that city a lot, even though it was obviously a significant step down standard-of-living-wise from the other countries I visited on this trip, and had a frustrating lack of English speakers. One endearing quality of course was the prices. They were comprable to those in the U.S., if not lower on some things. It's nice to know that not everywhere in Europe is a rip-off. But the best quality was that it was the most foreign city I've ever been to.

Then when I arrived at the airport the real fun began. The Szczecin airport (figuratively) had Ryanair written all over it. It was an hour away from the city, out in the middle of nowhere, and only had one gate! Inside was even more interesting. The Ryanair staff were all dressed up in traditional Polish costumes! Not only that, but they were handing out Polish beer to everyone in the security line. And it just got more wacky from there. The gate was filled with TV reporters, photographers, people dressed in Polish costumes, a live band playing traditional Polish music, and tables loaded with all kinds of free food and drinks.

I later discovered that the party was for us. My flight was Ryanair's (and probably the airport's) first ever flight from Szczecin to London! I was burned by Ryanair a few days earlier when they wouldn't let me on my flight, but they redeemed themselves with this.

More fun on the flight. I sat next to some Szczecinites who didn't speak any English. Yet somehow we were able to communicate. It was like that Star Trek episode where Picard was stuck on a planet with an alien who didn't speak English but they somehow found a way to communicate. After arriving at Stansted, I ended up escorting this family to their hotel in London, which was right next to Paddington station where the trains to Reading leave from.

It's so sad. These were not rich people at all. They probably saved up for a while to get their one chance to go to London on a $10 flight. When they found out it was £10 (£30 [$53] for the three of them) just for the bus ride from "London" Stansted Airport to London, they were shocked and dismayed. It was about 10x more expensive than the similar-length bus ride to the Szczecin airport, and probably 2 or 3 times more expensive than their flights. Welcome to the cold hard reality of the UK.

I don't even want to think about how they must've felt when they first tried to buy food in London.


(click to enlarge)

posted by Matt @ 11:59 PM