Jumping Off the Midnight Train to Georgia!
Friday 31st May 2019 (evening)
Hooray, the train started moving and slowly the boiling hot cabin started to cool down slightly. The carriage attendant came by checking tickets. She had already checked them against passports when we got on the train, but now she wanted the counterfoils. Then she came round handing out customs forms and finally a sealed bag with sheets and even a towel.
Steve went to the toilet and came back looking bemused....he said the cubicle was worse than the bathroom we had to endure at the 'shithole'.
Steve lay back on his berth and tapped into my local SIM card to catch up with news, send messages etc... I too checked messages and reflected on what had been an amazing few days. I sent a picture of my berth to a friend back home.
My passport was clearly visible on the berth and Steve's can be seen on the white table.
I thought I should use the time to start doing some long overdue blog entries so I got my tablet out of my backpack and settled down for an hour or so of blogging. While seeking some wordy inspiration, I glanced at the table. That's strange I thought, what has happened to the front of my passport, all the gold embossing has rubbed off?! I had been carrying my passport around mostly in my pocket for the last 5 days (Foreign Office advice was to carry your actual passport at all times in Azerbaijan) and had not noticed that the gold lettering had been rubbing off. Then I thought, oh maybe it is Steve's passport...but his was sat on the table near him. I picked the passport up and thought, why is it so thin? Thin compared to my passport that it.
I was sat on the midnight train to Georgia holding a passport that did not look or feel like mine. Confusion set in. Then I opened it up. OMFG the picture staring back at me was not me, nor was it Steve. It was Aaron and he was still in Baku, flying out to London in just over 18 hours....or maybe not now!!!
I cannot adequately describe exactly how I was feeling/coping knowing I had Aaron's passport. But then I thought, hang on, they checked my passport against my ticket and I distinctly remembered them checking my name. Where was my passport!? It was there, right next to me!
Steve looked at me when a string of expletives left my mouth. Some confusion on his face and then nervous smiling as he asked me what I was going to do?! That mostly echoed what was going thru my head, "WHAT THE F**K AM I GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS???" I was on an International train with no scheduled stops in Azerbaijan and from what I had heard, the border was not the sort of place you would want to get stuck near.
(Note: I can only assume that the cover of Aaron's passport had slotted into the cover of the tablet when I retrieved it from the safe in his room just before catching the train. When I got my tablet out of my backpack on the train, I initially put it on the table in the cabin. It as only after about 30 mins of typing did I look up and notice the passport that did not look like mine or Steve's )
Immediately I sent Aaron a message I knew would make his eyes pop out of his head and his heart race.
My brain was racing with possibilities. I knew emergency passports were possible to get but I was about to find out that the earliest a call could be made to the British Embassy was on Monday morning...in 56 hours time! Also, new flights would have to be booked, more hotel and food/beer costs, loads of phone calls home and possible major issues with his employer no doubt!! The enormity of having Aaron's passport in my hand hit home big time!
Meanwhile, the train continued on it's steady journey towards Georgia.
I messaged some friends back in the UK to see if they could help search for courier companies in Tbilisi that could maybe get Arron's passport back to Baku before his flight on Saturday evening. The search did not result in a good answer. I then looked at flights back to Baku from Tbilisi but the only one that was possible left at 11:50 and our train was not due into Tbilisi until 09:00 and this train was notoriously almost always 2 hours late arriving. There was no way that I could guarantee catching that flight and it would be too risky. But, it might be a risk I would have to take. But then, the fatal blow to that plan!!! I had already used my one time use visa for Azerbaijan and although I could try for an emergency one within 3 hours online, it would be impossible because I needed a scanned copy of my passport. Try as I might (albeit with shaky hands too), I could not get a decent picture of my passport page because of light being reflected off the plastic veneer across the page. Shit, shit, shit, this was all going wrong!
By this time an emergency WhatsApp group had been set up and messages were pinging all over, people making suggestions, offering help etc....it was all great, but in the end I had to be the one to actually do something. While my stress levels continued to climb, I noticed the train was slowing down!!! I had to be sure to stay in Azerbaijan and then get back to Baku, I could book another flight home from Baku. I had to make sure that Aaron made his flight at 18:05. The train felt like it was actually going to stop, just where, I had no idea. It was pitch black outside and I negatively assumed we were going to stop at a red signal. And then, the train STOPPED!! We had been going for just under 2 hours. I bolted to the end of the carriage, the door was open. I peered out and saw we were at what looked like a rudimentary station!! There were some passengers who had got off the train to have a smoke. I saw the carriage attendant and tried to ask her how long the train would be stopped for. She just ignored me and went into her little room and slammed the door shut!
There was only one real option. I had to get off the train. If I got off the train, I would have at least 14 hours to get the passport back to Aaron in Baku. The train was only 2 hours from Baku, so I should be able to get back in time, shouldn't I?!
I had to get off the train!!!
Not knowing how long the train might be stopped for, I dashed back to the cabin and announced to Steve that I was getting off!! I threw my stuff together, gathered the 2 passports (making sure they were Aaron's and mine....not Steve's!!) and rushed towards the open carriage door. The carriage attendant saw me coming and stood in my way, she looked determined not to let me off the train! I showed her my passport, then I showed her Aaron's and said, pointing back the way we had just come, "Baku!!". She immediately understood, still looked confused but she let me jump off the Midnight Train to Georgia!!
I climbed down to the ground (there was no platform) and glanced across the tracks and saw a dimly lit hut with some men standing near it, including what looked like a policeman. The carriage attendant shouted over to him basically explaining (I think!) that I had to get back to Baku!
I looked for a footbridge to get over the two sets of tracks between me and the dimly lit hut where the policeman was. He just indicated that I should just walk across the tracks. Remembering my Green Cross Code, I looked left, I looked right, I looked left again...and then went for it!
One of the guys near the hut suddenly got in my face and thought if he shouted at me, I would be able to understand him! Haha. He just worried me as the enormity of my predicament started to sink in. The train was still stopped and I could see Steve and others looking out of the windows at me.
I thought I had better share my location with the Emergency Whatsapp group and was so thankful that I had purchased way too much data for my local SIM card just before the match on Wednesday (see earlier blog entry)!! I was going to need to stay connected with the outside world for as long as I could!
There was much arm waving and pointing and then thankfully the policeman pushed the shouty man away, I am sure the shouty man was only trying to help but he looked a bit scary to be honest.
Then with hand gestures and pointing at my watch, it looked as if the next train to Baku would be in 5 hours time at 4am. This was also confirmed around the same time by the Emergency WhatsApp group. The station looked more than grim, there was hardly any lighting and there were lots of mosquitoes too. There was no way I was going to stay there for 5 hours in the middle of the night. I optimistically asked the policeman, "Hotel?" and the funny look on his face clearly indicated that was not going to be an option.
I then asked the policeman, "Taxi?" and he seemed to understand and nodded. I looked around and all I could see was a knackered old Lada with a flat tyre and missing the left front wing. It was a rust bucket loosely held together with some flecks of paint! I pointed at it and shook my head vigoursly from side to side, NO! The policeman laughed out loud and indicated that it was not the taxi he had in mind!
While trying to converse with the policeman, I heard the train moving!! As it pulled away, I was wondering, "WTF, is this really happening?!" There was no option but to get back to Baku now!!
In the dimly lit hut, there were some plastic chairs and dodgy looking tables and I pointed indicating I wanted to sit down and get on the internet. I did not have any local currency on me, just STG£. The policeman would want to know how I was going to pay for any taxi...after all Baku was 2 hours away by train! They did not look too happy that I did not have local currency or US$. I gestured that I needed a few minutes to do some searching. Despite having no local currency, I was given a delicious cup of the local tea as I worked on my tablet and phone trying to answer all the messages flying back and forth!
I opened Google Maps and searched for the 'nearest ATM' fearing the worst. I needn't have worried, the nearest one was just 100m away!!! I showed the search result map to the policeman, showed him my Debit card with Visa logo and he understood! The situation was improving.
After 10 minutes another gentleman arrived and the policeman indicated that he was the taxi driver....although he did not actually have a taxi, just his own private car (which to be fair was reasonably nice estate car). The conversation was not easy when I suddenly remembered I should be using Google Translate! So a conversation began between me and the policeman!! Hooray. It was not perfect but it helped enormously! I asked how much the taxi would cost so I could get just enough from the cash machine. He typed 50....wow, I was expecting something nearer 250 especially as I really was not in the best of positions to negotiate!
I explained to the Emergency WhatsApp group that I had found transport and would be on my way shortly. After all the assistance the policeman had been given me I knew that in this part of the world a small gift would be appreciated. The problem was, what to give him? I had a bag full mostly of dirty laundry, a tube of Extra Strong Mints and 2 Snickers bars (which had been to Napoli and Valencia!). Then I remembered I had travelled with a small tin of Nescafe Azzuro Americano blend instant coffee that I had not opened. So I gave it to him, explained what it was via Google Translate and he gave me the thumbs up. He then escorted me to the waiting 'taxi', opened the door, shook my hand and saluted. What a tale he would have to tell his colleagues the next day.....possibly the most exciting thing to happen with the Midnight Train to Georgia in ages!!
We set off for the cash point....the moment of truth, would it work!? I had three card options. I put in the Visa Debit card and English came up on the screen. I asked for 60 and hooray, Natwest Bank back in the UK that had probably never had a cash request from this particular cash machine, gave me the money and a receipt!! Thank the Maker! The 'taxi' man was happy, I was happy(ish) and we set off for Baku.
The town was not so big, so we were soon on the highway, it was really dark and I could see thousands of stars. I had sat in the back of the car, not because I did not trust the driver(!) but because I needed to communicate with Aaron and others and also to re-book a flight home as there was no way I was going to make my original flight out of Tbilisi and I did not want the tablet screen to distract the driver! Amazingly, I was able to book a seat on the same direct flight to London as Aaron, I tried not to look at the cost as I booked it and I got a confirmation whilst in a car in the middle of Azerbaijan, with a driver that I had to trust, passing oil rigs and oil refineries by the side of the highway and a 4G signal all the way into Baku!
Aaron was tracking my progress and kindly asking if I was OK. I think my jumping off the train had taken everyone by surprise (including me to be honest!) but once Aaron knew I was 'On my way, on my way, back to Baku, I'm on my way!" he started to relax and told me he would see me at Finnegans when I was back in Baku!
When I arrived outside Aaron's hotel in Baku, I actually gave the driver the 60 he had originally asked for as he was a good driver, drove safely and knew how to use his satnav! He jumped out of the car and shouted at a random guy walking down the street. I have to admit, I thought something dodgy was about to happen, but it wasn't. The taxi man just wanted the stranger to take a picture of the two of us!! 😀
Totally relieved I had made it safely, I made my way into the hotel. Cheekily, I booked a roll-a-way bed to go into Aaron's room and managed to leave my bag in the room and get to Finnegans as soon as I could!
What a journey but most thankfully with a happy outcome!!!!
My over-riding aim was to do right by Aaron and to make sure he got home on time and with his passport! Thankfully I achieved my goal.
I wish the Arsenal team on Wednesday had been as determined as I had been to not 'lose' when all seemed against me and to make sure I got a positive result.
I am so sorry Aaron for putting you through hell for a while!! I am sure this is a story that will never be forgotten!
I sincerely acknowledge the excellent support and encouragement I got from Aaron, Angus, Kieran, Kenton, Elliott and Joe during my slight moments of crisis in Azerbaijan.
Hooray, the train started moving and slowly the boiling hot cabin started to cool down slightly. The carriage attendant came by checking tickets. She had already checked them against passports when we got on the train, but now she wanted the counterfoils. Then she came round handing out customs forms and finally a sealed bag with sheets and even a towel.
Steve went to the toilet and came back looking bemused....he said the cubicle was worse than the bathroom we had to endure at the 'shithole'.
Steve lay back on his berth and tapped into my local SIM card to catch up with news, send messages etc... I too checked messages and reflected on what had been an amazing few days. I sent a picture of my berth to a friend back home.
My passport was clearly visible on the berth and Steve's can be seen on the white table.
I thought I should use the time to start doing some long overdue blog entries so I got my tablet out of my backpack and settled down for an hour or so of blogging. While seeking some wordy inspiration, I glanced at the table. That's strange I thought, what has happened to the front of my passport, all the gold embossing has rubbed off?! I had been carrying my passport around mostly in my pocket for the last 5 days (Foreign Office advice was to carry your actual passport at all times in Azerbaijan) and had not noticed that the gold lettering had been rubbing off. Then I thought, oh maybe it is Steve's passport...but his was sat on the table near him. I picked the passport up and thought, why is it so thin? Thin compared to my passport that it.
I was sat on the midnight train to Georgia holding a passport that did not look or feel like mine. Confusion set in. Then I opened it up. OMFG the picture staring back at me was not me, nor was it Steve. It was Aaron and he was still in Baku, flying out to London in just over 18 hours....or maybe not now!!!
I cannot adequately describe exactly how I was feeling/coping knowing I had Aaron's passport. But then I thought, hang on, they checked my passport against my ticket and I distinctly remembered them checking my name. Where was my passport!? It was there, right next to me!
Steve looked at me when a string of expletives left my mouth. Some confusion on his face and then nervous smiling as he asked me what I was going to do?! That mostly echoed what was going thru my head, "WHAT THE F**K AM I GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS???" I was on an International train with no scheduled stops in Azerbaijan and from what I had heard, the border was not the sort of place you would want to get stuck near.
(Note: I can only assume that the cover of Aaron's passport had slotted into the cover of the tablet when I retrieved it from the safe in his room just before catching the train. When I got my tablet out of my backpack on the train, I initially put it on the table in the cabin. It as only after about 30 mins of typing did I look up and notice the passport that did not look like mine or Steve's )
Immediately I sent Aaron a message I knew would make his eyes pop out of his head and his heart race.
My brain was racing with possibilities. I knew emergency passports were possible to get but I was about to find out that the earliest a call could be made to the British Embassy was on Monday morning...in 56 hours time! Also, new flights would have to be booked, more hotel and food/beer costs, loads of phone calls home and possible major issues with his employer no doubt!! The enormity of having Aaron's passport in my hand hit home big time!
Meanwhile, the train continued on it's steady journey towards Georgia.
I messaged some friends back in the UK to see if they could help search for courier companies in Tbilisi that could maybe get Arron's passport back to Baku before his flight on Saturday evening. The search did not result in a good answer. I then looked at flights back to Baku from Tbilisi but the only one that was possible left at 11:50 and our train was not due into Tbilisi until 09:00 and this train was notoriously almost always 2 hours late arriving. There was no way that I could guarantee catching that flight and it would be too risky. But, it might be a risk I would have to take. But then, the fatal blow to that plan!!! I had already used my one time use visa for Azerbaijan and although I could try for an emergency one within 3 hours online, it would be impossible because I needed a scanned copy of my passport. Try as I might (albeit with shaky hands too), I could not get a decent picture of my passport page because of light being reflected off the plastic veneer across the page. Shit, shit, shit, this was all going wrong!
By this time an emergency WhatsApp group had been set up and messages were pinging all over, people making suggestions, offering help etc....it was all great, but in the end I had to be the one to actually do something. While my stress levels continued to climb, I noticed the train was slowing down!!! I had to be sure to stay in Azerbaijan and then get back to Baku, I could book another flight home from Baku. I had to make sure that Aaron made his flight at 18:05. The train felt like it was actually going to stop, just where, I had no idea. It was pitch black outside and I negatively assumed we were going to stop at a red signal. And then, the train STOPPED!! We had been going for just under 2 hours. I bolted to the end of the carriage, the door was open. I peered out and saw we were at what looked like a rudimentary station!! There were some passengers who had got off the train to have a smoke. I saw the carriage attendant and tried to ask her how long the train would be stopped for. She just ignored me and went into her little room and slammed the door shut!
There was only one real option. I had to get off the train. If I got off the train, I would have at least 14 hours to get the passport back to Aaron in Baku. The train was only 2 hours from Baku, so I should be able to get back in time, shouldn't I?!
I had to get off the train!!!
Not knowing how long the train might be stopped for, I dashed back to the cabin and announced to Steve that I was getting off!! I threw my stuff together, gathered the 2 passports (making sure they were Aaron's and mine....not Steve's!!) and rushed towards the open carriage door. The carriage attendant saw me coming and stood in my way, she looked determined not to let me off the train! I showed her my passport, then I showed her Aaron's and said, pointing back the way we had just come, "Baku!!". She immediately understood, still looked confused but she let me jump off the Midnight Train to Georgia!!
I climbed down to the ground (there was no platform) and glanced across the tracks and saw a dimly lit hut with some men standing near it, including what looked like a policeman. The carriage attendant shouted over to him basically explaining (I think!) that I had to get back to Baku!
I looked for a footbridge to get over the two sets of tracks between me and the dimly lit hut where the policeman was. He just indicated that I should just walk across the tracks. Remembering my Green Cross Code, I looked left, I looked right, I looked left again...and then went for it!
One of the guys near the hut suddenly got in my face and thought if he shouted at me, I would be able to understand him! Haha. He just worried me as the enormity of my predicament started to sink in. The train was still stopped and I could see Steve and others looking out of the windows at me.
I thought I had better share my location with the Emergency Whatsapp group and was so thankful that I had purchased way too much data for my local SIM card just before the match on Wednesday (see earlier blog entry)!! I was going to need to stay connected with the outside world for as long as I could!
There was much arm waving and pointing and then thankfully the policeman pushed the shouty man away, I am sure the shouty man was only trying to help but he looked a bit scary to be honest.
Then with hand gestures and pointing at my watch, it looked as if the next train to Baku would be in 5 hours time at 4am. This was also confirmed around the same time by the Emergency WhatsApp group. The station looked more than grim, there was hardly any lighting and there were lots of mosquitoes too. There was no way I was going to stay there for 5 hours in the middle of the night. I optimistically asked the policeman, "Hotel?" and the funny look on his face clearly indicated that was not going to be an option.
I then asked the policeman, "Taxi?" and he seemed to understand and nodded. I looked around and all I could see was a knackered old Lada with a flat tyre and missing the left front wing. It was a rust bucket loosely held together with some flecks of paint! I pointed at it and shook my head vigoursly from side to side, NO! The policeman laughed out loud and indicated that it was not the taxi he had in mind!
While trying to converse with the policeman, I heard the train moving!! As it pulled away, I was wondering, "WTF, is this really happening?!" There was no option but to get back to Baku now!!
In the dimly lit hut, there were some plastic chairs and dodgy looking tables and I pointed indicating I wanted to sit down and get on the internet. I did not have any local currency on me, just STG£. The policeman would want to know how I was going to pay for any taxi...after all Baku was 2 hours away by train! They did not look too happy that I did not have local currency or US$. I gestured that I needed a few minutes to do some searching. Despite having no local currency, I was given a delicious cup of the local tea as I worked on my tablet and phone trying to answer all the messages flying back and forth!
I opened Google Maps and searched for the 'nearest ATM' fearing the worst. I needn't have worried, the nearest one was just 100m away!!! I showed the search result map to the policeman, showed him my Debit card with Visa logo and he understood! The situation was improving.
After 10 minutes another gentleman arrived and the policeman indicated that he was the taxi driver....although he did not actually have a taxi, just his own private car (which to be fair was reasonably nice estate car). The conversation was not easy when I suddenly remembered I should be using Google Translate! So a conversation began between me and the policeman!! Hooray. It was not perfect but it helped enormously! I asked how much the taxi would cost so I could get just enough from the cash machine. He typed 50....wow, I was expecting something nearer 250 especially as I really was not in the best of positions to negotiate!
I explained to the Emergency WhatsApp group that I had found transport and would be on my way shortly. After all the assistance the policeman had been given me I knew that in this part of the world a small gift would be appreciated. The problem was, what to give him? I had a bag full mostly of dirty laundry, a tube of Extra Strong Mints and 2 Snickers bars (which had been to Napoli and Valencia!). Then I remembered I had travelled with a small tin of Nescafe Azzuro Americano blend instant coffee that I had not opened. So I gave it to him, explained what it was via Google Translate and he gave me the thumbs up. He then escorted me to the waiting 'taxi', opened the door, shook my hand and saluted. What a tale he would have to tell his colleagues the next day.....possibly the most exciting thing to happen with the Midnight Train to Georgia in ages!!
We set off for the cash point....the moment of truth, would it work!? I had three card options. I put in the Visa Debit card and English came up on the screen. I asked for 60 and hooray, Natwest Bank back in the UK that had probably never had a cash request from this particular cash machine, gave me the money and a receipt!! Thank the Maker! The 'taxi' man was happy, I was happy(ish) and we set off for Baku.
The town was not so big, so we were soon on the highway, it was really dark and I could see thousands of stars. I had sat in the back of the car, not because I did not trust the driver(!) but because I needed to communicate with Aaron and others and also to re-book a flight home as there was no way I was going to make my original flight out of Tbilisi and I did not want the tablet screen to distract the driver! Amazingly, I was able to book a seat on the same direct flight to London as Aaron, I tried not to look at the cost as I booked it and I got a confirmation whilst in a car in the middle of Azerbaijan, with a driver that I had to trust, passing oil rigs and oil refineries by the side of the highway and a 4G signal all the way into Baku!
Aaron was tracking my progress and kindly asking if I was OK. I think my jumping off the train had taken everyone by surprise (including me to be honest!) but once Aaron knew I was 'On my way, on my way, back to Baku, I'm on my way!" he started to relax and told me he would see me at Finnegans when I was back in Baku!
When I arrived outside Aaron's hotel in Baku, I actually gave the driver the 60 he had originally asked for as he was a good driver, drove safely and knew how to use his satnav! He jumped out of the car and shouted at a random guy walking down the street. I have to admit, I thought something dodgy was about to happen, but it wasn't. The taxi man just wanted the stranger to take a picture of the two of us!! 😀
Totally relieved I had made it safely, I made my way into the hotel. Cheekily, I booked a roll-a-way bed to go into Aaron's room and managed to leave my bag in the room and get to Finnegans as soon as I could!
What a journey but most thankfully with a happy outcome!!!!
My over-riding aim was to do right by Aaron and to make sure he got home on time and with his passport! Thankfully I achieved my goal.
I wish the Arsenal team on Wednesday had been as determined as I had been to not 'lose' when all seemed against me and to make sure I got a positive result.
I am so sorry Aaron for putting you through hell for a while!! I am sure this is a story that will never be forgotten!
I sincerely acknowledge the excellent support and encouragement I got from Aaron, Angus, Kieran, Kenton, Elliott and Joe during my slight moments of crisis in Azerbaijan.
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