Series of Unfortunate Events

You can’t make this shit up. Really, you can’t.

What follows is a series of unfortunate events that resulted in 5 flights in 2 days to get from Lisbon to Amsterdam. 

I kid you not.

Sounds unbelievable? Well, read on and welcome to my life.

Let’s start at the very beginning. You might think that this has nothing to do with what subsequently happened but all will be revealed and all dots connected.

So the beginning of January I received a text message from the post office saying I had a package held up in customs. I was expecting a package at the time so followed the instructions in the text. Let me just state that I had received legitimate texts from that post office number before, telling me that a parcel delivery was on its way. Long story short, it was a scam and they emptied out my bank account mostly on gaming stuff. 

I went to the police, filed a report, and the bank canceled my card and gave me a temporary card while I waited for a new one to arrive and eventually refunded me my money. The new card has still not arrived more than a month later. And because I have been traveling for work so much, have not had an opportunity to follow up and visit the bank. You need to understand this part to make sense of the rest.

I was given a work assignment in Trondheim in Norway from the Wednesday to the Friday. My flights were booked Lisbon to Amsterdam then Amsterdam to Trondheim for the Tuesday before.

In the meantime I was given a short assignment in The Hague on the Monday and the Tuesday morning.  Great, I thought. Perfect. I would just change the Lisbon to Amsterdam leg of the trip to a couple of days earlier. How hard could that be? Sounds easy enough.

3 weeks of emails back and forth between me and the travel agent ensued. Eventually, a few days before I had to leave my flight was changed. Or so I thought. I was arriving back from Berlin on the Wednesday night and would be leaving to drive the 3 hours from the farm to the airport at midnight on the Thursday, leaving me one day to sort out things on the farm and get more pig food for when I was away. Not ideal, but I can’t turn down work as I know I don’t get any work assignments during the long summer holidays as schools are closed. I have to earn as much as I can now to see me through the dry, lean months.

This is the Year of the Dragon after all and so far this year the blasted dragon has seemed intent on breathing its venomous fumes on me. A farm and pet sitter I hired for one of my trips stole from me. I’m still finding small items gone besides the laptop and power station, but that’s a whole other story.

On close examination of my ticket, I discovered that not only was my flight to Amsterdam changed as I had requested, but my flight from Amsterdam to Trondheim had also changed. In a mild panic, I contacted the travel agent only to be told that the ticket can’t be split.

Damnation!

What to do next? I had committed to The Hague so I had to find a way to get back to Amsterdam from Trondheim.

I tried to book a return flight from Trondheim to Amsterdam but found that my temporary Portuguese bank card didn’t work for online payments.

Drat!

Time for Plan C.

The problem was that I had put most of my money into my Portuguese account to pay for the new flights. Now it didn’t work for online payments. What to do? I had small amounts in other accounts, so the only solution was to buy the cheapest possible one way tickets, using a different card for each flight. One card purchased a flight from Trondheim to Oslo. So in one day starting at midnight, I drove the 3 hours from the farm to the airport, caught a flight to Amsterdam, had a 5 hour layover in Amsterdam, flew to Trondheim and checked in again for my flight to Oslo, with a 3 hour layover in Trondheim. 

I then discovered to my horror, that not only did the temporary bank card not work for online payments, it also didn’t work outside Portugal.

Crap! Crap! Crap!

Most of my money was in that bank account and I couldn’t access it!

A night at a cheap hotel and up fresh and early for the next part of what was turning out to be a mammoth journey. This leg of the trip was from Oslo to Warsaw, with a 4 hour layover in Warsaw before the next flight to Amsterdam, bought with another card that had a few cents on it.

And that’s where I am now. In Warsaw waiting to fly to Amsterdam. I’ve managed to book a cheap hotel for the night and in the morning will take a train to The Hague and check into my paid-for hotel. 

What a nightmare!

And of course, unable to access my money in my Portuguese account, I did not have enough funds left in my other bank accounts to pay to get me back to Trondheim for the start of the next assignment. I had used all available money on the extra flights and hotels. Luckily, a very kind, awesome friend bought me a ticket back to Trondheim. It only involves a 2 hour layover in Copenhagen but after all this, that’s not a problem!

What a palava!

I could have just cancelled The Hague, but I had made a commitment and was determined to see it through.

So……

How is your Year of the Dragon going?

Mine seems to be going swimmingly.

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