Crossing borders: England to Northern Ireland with the Travelling Snowman

Since the beginning of this blog, and my subsequent travels, I have not spent a Christmas at home in three years. My last Christmas was in 2011; prior to travelling to New Zealand. This year, I am home, with my family and friends, and it is lovely.

About four years ago, the UK had some of the largest dumping of snow in years, and as usual, the country was not prepared, so I had a long two day journey to get back from England, which was a rather long, unplanned and stressful overland journey. 

This year however, I decided to do a similar overland journey, all because a flight would have cost approx £200-300 one way, at the time I wanted to travel.

My mum later told me, that she had a voucher for a free crossing from Cairnryan to Belfast. Sweet, I thought; and booked it. Thing is, Cairnryan is in Scotland, a mere 640 or so kilometres from where I was living (Essex, South East of England).

 

No problem, I told my dad (who regularly travels most of England and Scotland, as a truck driver) when he questioned my travelling route, I got a ticket on a mega bus to Glasgow, and I’ll figure getting to the port later.

Booked, and paid for, about one week prior to my departure; I was out shopping with someone I met in Chiang Mai, Thailand, when I spotted a hugely oversized snowman onesie. It had built in gloves, and sock, and cost £7. Sold, without much thought. I thought that it would keep me toasty and comfortable on the bus; plus it would be spreading some festive cheer.

This idea of just wearing the snowman onesie on the bus, rapidly progressed into, ‘I’ll wear it everywhere’, and I started to implent the hashtag #TravellingSnowman for people to follow my journey.

So after work on Friday, December 19th, I left work, and changed into the onesie. My first port of call was to London Stansted airport, to return the car I had been hiring, to avoid an awful commute to my temporary job.

Driving the 20 or so minutes to the airport from work, I felt secure and un-phased by my baggy new onesie. Then I had to park up at a fuel station, to refuel before returning the car. I initially sat in the car, thinking; ‘ok – you’ve come this far, and raved about this, on all your social media sites, get out of the car.’

Other customers refuelling the car didn’t seem phased as the filled their cars up. The attendant at the desk inside, smiled at me, and said Merry Christmas – so far, people didn’t think I was a nutter.

I then dropped the car off; and got complimented by a staff member at Enterprise rentals. Car dropped off, I took some photos outside, and headed into the terminal to try and upload using the free WiFi, before my bus into the city.

I got a few smiles and odd looks, but as I sat with my tablet computer and iPod, I wasn’t bothered.

The next stage in my journey, was a bus from Stansted to Victoria coach station. The bus was warm, and comfortable, but delayed. So an almost defrosted frosty, had a mad dash into the train station, to collect tickets, grab an unhealthy KFC for dinner, bottle of water, and use a clean toilet.

The coach station was packed full of Christmas travellers; eager to get on their way. I wolfed down my KFC, and grabbed a seat at the back of the coach, beside the charging point. Every seat was taken, so it was to be a cosy journey indeed.

I past the time by trying to sleep, watching movies, or listening to music.

I had hoped to spread more festive cheer in the places we were stopping in, but the stops were short, and other passengers were not allowed off.

My journey became a little more bearable when some passengers got off in Manchester, and I got a few seats to curl up.

6.31am; Glasgow Bus Station. It was raining, and very cold, and we were ushered off and given bags. I had a train to catch from central station in an hour, so walked the 10 minutes there, through the empty streets. My first point of call, after the toilets was to get food and a strong tea. I felt exhausted.

I saw a group of guys in the station all gathered with crates of Beer, wearing very festive jumpers (sweaters), and thought ‘I’ve outdone you all’. The train station looked very festive, and I was excited about returning home.

After being teased a little by the Scot Rail staff about my outfit I boarded the train from Glasgow to Ayr. A 1 hour to the South East. At that point, I realised that I probably should have got a ticket from London to the ferry terminal (costing about £45).

At Ayr, I had two options; a train to Stranraer, or a bus direct to the ferry terminal. However, the bus driver was unsure if there was a seat for me, and wasn’t able to let me on, until after the train departed; so I chanced it on a train. Another 1 hour and 20 minutes of a journey. I was starting to feel pretty jaded.

Arriving in Stranraer, I started to feel quite silly, dressed in my snowman onesie; as locals gave me strange looks, but the tiredness created a ‘quite frankly, I couldn’t give a damm’ persona.

By this point it was 10am, and I had 1 hour to get to the terminal. I thought I would have to get a taxi; but fortunately, there was local bus, that took me there for £1.80.

 

At the ferry terminal, and checked it. I had a lot of laughs with the security staff, who had their first experience of frisking a snowman!

 

The ferry to Belfast was packed, with barely a seat in the place. I spent my time, mainly reminiscing, as I had completed this journey several times, with my dad, and going to and from Scotland and England, on family holidays, as a child.

 

After sleep, a good feed of pie and chips and walking up on the windy deck of the ship, I heard the announcement ‘we’re now approaching the Port of Belfast.’

After about 21 hours since leaving work, I was almost home.

I was met by my mum, and she swiftly ushered me to the car (to avoid embarrassment perhaps?).

A one hour drive, up to the North Coast, and I was finally home.

A shower, clean clothes and a good cup of tea, ended the journey.

It is good to be home.

Wherever you’re spending your Christmas, I hope you have a happy, and blessed time.