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At the Shetland Folk Festival back in April I had the good fortune to win a return flight for 2 on Atlantc Airways new route, to either Faroe or London. It's taken me this long to find a use for the tickets, but as I was keen to meet a friend from Norway and I had a free ticket to London, we agreed to meet up there for a weekend.

Atlantic even said I could use the other half of my ticket for another trip. They're very helpful.

The trip sooth was severely delayed due to fog in Faroe, and by the time we weary travellers got the news that the flight had actually departed Faroe and was coming our way knew each other well enough to have a few drinks of celebration together. By the time I got to Stansted my friend had been waiting there most of the day and was in a very sociable mood, having spent the majority of his time in the bar.

London was very enjoyable, but a bit too hot. We shopped a lot, and got some nice stuff in Harrods and Oxford St. It was my first trip to London, and really good to see all the things that I'd heard about all my life.

On Monday I got to the airport a few hours early, knowing that check in times and security took a long time. But the plane was fogbound in Faroe, and therefore cancelled. At this point I could have sat down and cried, and only just managed to hold myself together! I cheered up considerably when Atlantic decided to accommodate all 30 of us in the Radisson at the airport. A touch of luxury never hurt anyone! Dinner and breakfast included. The bed itself was about the same size as the room I had stayed in for 3 nights in Westminster!

Take off on Tuesday was delayed due to the late arrival of the plane (heard that one before somewhere), and we departed at half past 2. At Sumburgh we descended, caught a glimpse of the sea through the fog, and ascended rapidly again.

We were off to Faroe!! (or so we thought) At this stage in my journey I was resigned to whatever fate threw at me, and I reckoned it might be nice to stay in Faroe for a night or two.

We must have been only 10 minutes from landing when the airline radioed to say we had to be taken back to Aberdeen. How dissapointing! They had the idea to put us on the Northlink Ferry that night. Well, they should have asked the North Isles folk on board, because on a Tuesday the ferry goes via Orkney and leaves at 5pm, not the usual 7pm.

So we missed the boat.

They then had to find 15 passengers accommodation in Aberdeen on a Tuesday night, which sounds simple until you hear that this is the day the oil men change over, and that every bed in Aberdeen is booked up. We eventually ended up going to Peterhead in a taxi, an hours drive north of Aberdeen, and I shared a room with a girl from London. The room was actually the laundry room and had a boarded up broken window. But by that time we didn't care and just wanted to sleep!

Next morning (morning? middle of the night still) we were up at 3.45 to get the taxi back for the British Airways flight to Shetland that Atlantic had booked us onto. I didn't look my best, I can tell you!

Anyway, the flight left on time, albeit with only SOME of the passengers' luggage, due to weight restrictions. My room-mate was left bagless, which was a disaster for her as she was joining a research ship for 2 weeks out on the north sea. We landed fine in Sumburgh, but I believe the fog was to come down later in the day.

So some of the passengers arrived bagless and 3 days late in Shetland.

But Atlantic Airways was excellent, they kept us informed and took good care of us. If it had been B.A. we would have been told to go away and come back the next day for check-in.

Anyway, here's a few pics of London, even although most of my trip was spent in airports.