Travel with me ...

All good Euromeets come to an end and now it was time to go home. I packed before breakfast, and along with my friends was ready to leave by 9.00. We had to walk out through the Sea Gate with our luggage as no vehicles are allowed in the Old Town. There we were picked up by a friendly taxi driver for the short drive to Tivat Airport.

We arrived around 9.30, too early to drop our bags, so found a table at the outdoor cafe. When bag-drop opened, around 10.30, we went inside to find total chaos. The longest queue was for security and passport control which coiled right around the fairly small check-in area. We had to squeeze through that to join the rather shorter (but still long) queue for the EasyJet desk. Eventually we reached the front of that and could drop our bags.

We then joined the end of the coiled snake which by now had developed two tails. Any thought of settling down in departures for a coffee or maybe doing a bit of last-minute shopping, went out of the window. We shuffled forwards for an interminable time, made more frustrating as we couldn't properly hear the regular announcements about flights for which passengers should jump to the front. Where the two tails merged we did so amicably, but later a big row erupted behind us with accusations of pushing in. Some degree of that was inevitable given the chaos however, and we knew we'd be called forwards if necessary.

My rather low quality video captures some idea of the size of the queue (taken soon after we joined it):

It wasn’t, as we reached the front just in time. Security was fairly speedy although they inexplicably took my handbag for a second scan. But at passport control we encountered another issue when it emerged that the passport of one of my friends hadn't been stamped on entering Montenegro four days previously on our transfer from Dubrovnik. It must have been overlooked in the pile of ten, as the remainder were all stamped. After some time the border officer accepted the fact that his wife and I had stamps, AND a bus ticket from Dubrovnik, as proof that he must have come in by that route.

By now our flight was boarding so we had to go straight to the gate. Once on board a friendly member of the cabin crew apologised to me for the chaos, even though it was no fault of EasyJet.

We took off a little late and I had great views of the bay and some of the towns including Perast which we should have visited on Friday.

Despite the late take-off we landed ten minutes early. Passport control was fairly quick and once through that the bags were already starting to appear on the carousel. Luton may not be the most convenient airport for me to get to, but its small size comes with benefits.

I said goodbye to my friends there as they were driving back up north. My journey home went smoothly, with a shuttle to the station, train to St Pancras and then the tube. I was back by dinner time, regaling Chris with tales of our ‘adventures’ and catching up on home news.