A deer party that was canceled in Amsterdam due to the chaos at the airport embarked on a 230-mile adventure – providing wedding talk content for everyone. Alex Sisan, 29, took 13 of his friends to the Dutch capital on Thursday and spent two days drinking and sightseeing. The boys were due to fly home to Gatwick Airport on Saturday and arrived at Schiphol Airport five hours before they were supposed to take off. But their easyJet flight was canceled at the last minute, forcing them to find some other ways to get home to Worthing, West Sussex. They decided to take a train to Calais, France and then board a ship for Dorset, The Mirror reports. On the way, the children discovered the rules of hygiene and safety which mean that people are not allowed to board the ship on foot – but cyclists are allowed. Luckily the team stopped in Brussels, Belgium and Lille, France, so they frantically searched for bicycles to buy in the few hours they had in each city. All but one of the team managed to buy a bike in Brussels or Lille (Image: SWNS) They traded with used stores and searched the Facebook Marketplace for a good offer. All but one managed to get a bike until they finished their stop in Lille, but according to the theme of the trip, the friends faced another challenge. They discovered that the train service that took them to Calais only allowed passengers to bring folding bicycles with them. So friends had to hurry to find taxis to get them on their ship – at 350 euros (9 299) per car. Miraculously, the children arrived in an hour and managed to build their boat. The friends arrived at the ferry port in Calais with an hour left (Image: SWNS) The 14th lad who had not managed to get a bike persuaded a kind couple to let him sit in his car to cross the English Channel. The entire group returned to the UK by Sunday morning, although exhausted. Alex said: “Looking back, the experience was so stressful and like something from a Top Gear movie or challenge. “But it was so much fun and a brilliant story that I will tell at the wedding, and I hope to my children – and then to their children!” EasyJet apologized and said it intended to reimburse them for “any reasonable costs”.
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It comes as airports and airlines across the UK have been plagued by chaos in recent weeks as staff levels have failed to keep pace with rising travelers. Of the 10,662 flights scheduled for the Jubilee weekend, 305 of them took the ax, according to data from the airline Cirium (via the BBC) – affecting thousands of passengers. Realistically, the upheaval will continue for a while – before things start to look good. Jet2 CEO Steve Heapy told Travel Weekly on May 31: “This is as bad as it gets, I think everything will start to improve from here. “All the companies I know are working on hiring people, so things will get better.” Contact our news team by emailing us at [email protected] For more stories like this, check out our news page.
