Troubles That Make Us: Part II

August 2022. We are travelling internationally after three long and mostly locked-down years. We have planned everything to a tee - there is a Google Doc to prove it, but it's a four-week holiday and COVID can still suddenly become an issue, so nerves are running high.

After a smooth start and an incredible three nights in Rovaniemi, we encounter our first trouble. And then a few!

Helsinki: A Damp Arrival

Our flight from Rovaniemi lands in Helsinki at around 6:30 pm. After a 40-minute wait at the carousel, our bags arrive, wet! We head to the train station - to platform 10. But there are only two platforms!!! We go back upstairs - no one knows where platform 10 is! We decide to head back downstairs and check the train lines again. One of the boards shows that the next train is going to Central Station. We buy single-journey tickets from the ticket machine. The train arrives shortly. We get on.

Even though the Airbnb is only 1.5 kilometres from Central Station, we are so disoriented and tired and wet (from the wet backpacks) that we just take a taxi from Central Station and reach the Airbnb in less than 10 minutes. We check in and realise that the flat is probably the family residence of the host. Although we have the flat to ourselves for eight nights, it looks like they left in a hurry! We feel like we're trespassing!

We are hungry. There is a small supermarket nearby, thankfully. We buy groceries and some frozen, microwavable meals for dinner - lasagne and meatballs.

We go to bed, our mood as damp as the weather. We don't really like Helsinki, and we have to spend seven days here...

...Helsinki did grow on us! And we did figure out later that platform 10 was actually bay 10 and located at the bus station.

Tallinn: SOS to SAS to No Avail

The night before we are due to fly from Tallinn to Stockholm with SAS, Rakesh enters our booking number for online check-in and is told our booking has been cancelled. As it is well past midnight in Australia, Rakesh decides not to contact our travel agent and calls SAS instead. SAS confirms that our booking has indeed been cancelled. Rakesh asks the consultant to run a search with our last names. He does, and nothing comes up, or so he says. Rakesh goes ahead and buys three new tickets for three times the price of our original tickets. We repack our backpacks so that only one goes as checked luggage and the rest as carry-on because each piece of checked luggage requires a separate payment. Rakesh messages our travel agent before we go to bed.

We hear back from the travel agent at around 2:00 am Tallinn time. We are told the system churned out the wrong booking number, hence the issue. This can happen, apparently. We are given the correct booking number, but it's too late anyway. We are advised to follow up with SAS, but our travel agent also offers to cover 50% of our new tickets.

The following morning, we arrive at Tallinn Airport early. We are more curious than anything else to find out what happened to our original booking. The staff at the counter says we have two bookings and six seats! She doesn't know why the man on the phone couldn't find us the night before. It all feels like a scam!

As we wait at the gate, we wonder if our previous seats will be empty. When we board the plane, lo and behold, two of them aren't! SAS sold the same seats twice but never refunded us our original booking fares!

Stockholm: An Arm and a Leg for Supermarket Foods

After Helsinki and Tallinn, Stockholm seems huge. The airport bus from Arlanda to St. Eriksplan, which is where our Airbnb is, takes about 40 minutes. Our host kindly meets us at the bus stop and walks us to our home for three nights, just 10 minutes away. When we enquire about the nearest grocery store, he directs us to the ICA Supermarket Fridhemsplan. Quite literally just around the corner, it's a large supermarket with an extensive deli section. Along with some frozen, microwaveable meals, fruit and eggs, we buy baked salmon and a sort of Asian noodles, and some treats. The price? Equivalent to 106. 22 AUD. For food that would probably last us two meals - three at a stretch.

Even though the frozen meatballs with mashed potatoes in a tray are the best frozen meal we have ever had and with decent portions, we are relieved to find Coop just a few hundred metres from the Airbnb. The prices are much, much cheaper there.

The Netherlands: Customer Service? Never Heard of It!

Schiphol Airport

The Netherlands is the final country we're visiting on this trip. We have been warned about the coldness of the Dutch, but our Airbnb host seems warm. And thank goodness for that!

Why? Because had it not been for the guidance of our host, we would've been stuck at Schiphol Airport for who knows how long. The lack of signage and information kiosks was so frustrating that I felt Schiphol could be dubbed the most tourist-unfriendly airport. (Later, I would wonder if the 'tourist-unfriendly' label could be extended to most of Amsterdam!)

We follow our host's advice and take the 470 bus from the airport to Alphen aan den Rijn.

Travelling without a Ticket

The website tells us that ShNaajh, now 11, can travel for free with an adult who has purchased a full-fare ticket. Does the rule still apply if ShNaajh is an international tourist? No one knows. We board the train to Gouda as soon as we have dropped off the luggage in our Airbnb in Alphen aan den Rijn. Rakesh and I have tickets; ShNaajh is travelling without one.

Then the ticket inspector comes to our carriage. He is not amused that ShNaajh doesn't have a ticket. When we explain the lack of clarity on the website, we think he says ShNaajh should buy a daily rail pass for €2.50. Once he leaves, a kind passenger with excellent English confirms our understanding by repeating what the ticket inspector has said.

It is disappointing that those who should have the expertise and willingness to help a tourist are so pitifully indifferent.

Alphen aan den Rijn: An Honest Mistake

On our fourth day in the Netherlands, we receive a message from the host enquiring about our heater usage. His neighbour has reported hearing the gas pipes constantly. The truth is, we did turn on the heater in what the host called the 'chill out' room because that was where ShNaajh and the children of a friend of ours were chilling while the parents were chatting in the adjacent room. The room, however, took so long to warm up that by the time we went to bed, we'd forgotten all about it. I only noticed it when I went to that room the next morning and felt surprisingly warm. That's when I turned it off.

It is our fault. We offer to cover the cost of gas for the duration of our stay if the host can send us the breakdown. He appreciates the honesty and the offer although doesn't accept any payment.

Jetstar: A Zero-star Performance

Our flight from Singapore to Melbourne with Jetstar is on 23 September at 9:25 pm. We are notified via email at 7:25 pm that our flight is cancelled and that we have automatically been booked into the flight scheduled to depart Singapore the next night at 8:05 pm. After a frustrating three-hour wait outside the Jetstar counter, we are finally given the details of our accommodation for the night and food vouchers. We are told that our checked bags will be transferred directly to the new flight. We eat at the 24-hour food court, pass through Singapore Immigration, and check in at the hotel past midnight.

The next day, we arrive at the airport at 4:30 pm. The flight is still on schedule. Ground staff confirm that all checked-in luggage will be transferred automatically. The flight is delayed, unsurprisingly, and we leave Singapore at around 10:00 pm.

We land in Melbourne and wait at the carousel for over an hour for our checked bags. During that time, we hear the names of many of our fellow passengers being called. Then we hear our names! We join the queue at Jetstar Baggage Services and are told that our checked bags are still in Singapore. The pilot apparently should have announced this, but he chose to withhold the information to protect the crew on board and left the ground staff to deal with this mess. We are told that two more flights are arriving from Singapore later that day and will hopefully carry our luggage. We are not given any reference number to follow up. We leave the airport at 9:00.

I call Jetstar the next day. And on subsequent days. They either mute the call and then play a recorded message or offer to create a case even though there are probably already multiple cases. I feel like I'm on the warpath with the airline. My frustration is mounting because they have now started calling it 'lost' luggage instead of 'delayed'.

On 30 September, five days since our luggage-less return, I get a call from an unknown number at 3:00 pm. A lady from Baggage Services tells me they've found one of the bags and asks if it is green and grey. Yes, I say with a racing heart. She tells me all the paperwork was lost, but she found my number on a red bag tag. She calls back in a few minutes and confirms that one of our bags has been found. Then I go on to describe the other bags in meticulous detail - the colours, the brands, the sizes, the ribbons tied to them - and she calls back after another few minutes and says, I've found them all! What's your address and will you be home tonight?

The bags arrive at 6:45 pm.

We didn't know if the Baggage Services was Jetstar or SATS or another agency, but the lady, Dawn, was my hero that night! My other hero was the delivery person from Capital Transport.

If there'd been only clothes in those bags, we wouldn't have been so desperate. But they contained all our souvenirs from the countries that we'd probably never revisit, including a pocket knife with the handle made of reindeer antlers, and a block of Gouda cheese and cheese sauce.

Lesson Learnt?

To take these troubles in your stride, no matter how serious they seem at the time!