How to get an unforgettable experience in London in just 10 hours
Every city has at least 2 faces: the tourist trap face, and the real face. On the internet, you’ll easily find lots of guides “How to see the city in 1 day”. Well, it’s usually a tourist trap, watch out. I wanna share with you a truly unique guide that I tested myself: “How to get an unforgettable experience in London in just 10 hours” 😉
Intro
I was on a business trip to Lisbon. And I thought it would be too simple if I went home directly, so I decided to have some fun and visit Copenhagen on the way home. I wanted to have adventures. So I searched for the cheapest flights “Lisbon -> Copenhagen -> Kyiv” and found the one with a transit through London.
“Ok”, I thought, “That works, the stop in London is just for 2 hours, and I’ve heard that for a transit flight, I don’t need a visa”. In a hurry, I didn’t notice a small philosophical sentence at the bottom of the ticket: “The visa might be required”. Because who reads that boring instructions?
With a big smile on my face, I was walking towards the passport control. The first strange thing I noticed was a big pompous sign “UK Border” right after the airplane. “Strange”, I thought, “during the transit flight I’m not supposed to cross the border…”.
I gave my passport to an emotionless lady at the passport control. Soon she started flipping the pages like she was looking for the private key to the biggest Bitcoin wallet.
— Where’s your visa? — she asked. 🤔
— I don’t have a visa. I’ve read on the internet that I can stay up to 24 hours to be able to make a transit flight — I said. 😳
Her next words stroke me as a lightning: ⚡️
— I’ll check, but I’m pretty sure you need a visa.
But I still couldn’t believe her, I thought it’s some kind of a joke or misunderstanding.
In a few minutes, she returned back with an officer and announced the verdict. Yes, there is such a rule that under certain conditions visitors can stay in the UK up to 24 hours. Among the conditions is to have a European or US passport, or US visa, or a bunch of other conditions that you can meet. And you know what — there was no single word about a Ukrainian student who has an unhealthy attraction to Danish hygge. And you know what it meant for me — that I was an illegal immigrant in the UK without the right to be there. And you know what the authorities do with such people? Yes, correct, I was arrested … 😱
The detention
That day, I recalled all the movies I saw about cops. They took away all my belongings, left me with nothing. The officers carefully searched through my pockets, even checked my shoes from the inside. I was left in a white room, where the table and the chair where welded to the floor. I assumed they interrogated the criminals in that room.
First I wanted to panic and worry, checking the time every minute, hoping that it all will get resolved soon and I’ll catch my plane to Copenhagen. How naive I was to underestimate the abilities of the British bureaucrats to slow down procedures and print documents. Every half an hour or so the officer arrived, asked some questions, recorded them and printed new and new documents for me to sign. That lasted for a few hours.
What really saved me was my previous business trip. I was very tired and simply fall asleep on the chair between the visits of the officers.
When I mentally said goodbye to my plane to Copenhagen that took off without me, … that traitor … I became fully relaxed and tried to enjoy the moment.
Waiting room
After all the interviews I was put to another room to wait for my sentence.
It was already too late. My friends were waiting for me in Copenhagen, and probably were worried, as I didn’t send them any notice. The officers kindly offered me to make a phone call — that’s all I could expect for. The use of any other electronic device was forbidden, including the smartphone. And you know what, I recalled all the numbers I knew by heart. The total sum of all of them was … 1 — my own. So the phone wasn’t very helpful.
At first, it was pretty nice, I was alone in the room with lots of books. But soon the officers brought 2 guys in the handcuffs. They were big, dark and looked suspicious, like criminals. When they sat down, I understood it was a chance I couldn’t miss. I collected all my wit, sit closer to them and asked like a true gangster: “Yo man, what for are you here for?”. I always dreamed about it.
They were not too wordy, though. The only thing I discovered that they were Romanians who earned money by doing cigarette trafficking for years.
Another person that made the waiting more interesting was a student from Albania, who was in exactly the same situation as me. He was traveling to Stockholm and didn’t even know the plane stops in London. The officer later shared that they have such cases every day. So, my friend, it’s your chance to repeat this experience if you want.
In the evening, after the whole day being imprisoned, I was sent back to Lisbon. The officers had to obey the rules and send me back exactly where I came from. When I received the plane ticket (for free, btw), I understood that not only the bus tickets in Ukraine but the boarding pass in London can be handwritten on a piece of paper as well.
It’s even better then the postcard.
Late in the evening, I arrived safely in Portugal. The first message I wrote to my friends was “I forgot to buy souvenirs in Lisbon, so I returned back”.
Thanks to this coincidence I received even more adventures that I could hope for. So that I could relax, go to Denmark and enjoy the hygge.
How did I get to Copenhagen? Well, it’s a topic for another story…
Lessons learned:
- Read carefully the instructions! 🤓
- Learn a few phone numbers of your friends/relatives by heart! ☎️
- Enjoy every moment, even when you’re detained 🙂
