This year, Chris' dad and stepmom very generously and kindly invited all of the kids and grandkids on an island vacation. This has been in the works for longer than we have known we would be moving to Vienna. Last November (2014), they confirmed the villa and we all started making plans to meet up on this island.
Chris' dad and stepmom each have two children, so the four units plus grandkids brought us to a group of 10 adults and 3 small humans under 5. We've been looking forward to this trip for a long time. BUT we've been especially looking forward to this trip since we moved to Vienna. Like I mentioned in my Months 1-3 blog post, its been a bit lonely here.
All of these factors made what happened on the day we were meant to fly out all the worse. Below is copied from my Notes on my computer where I wrote what happened the (early,early) morning of Saturday, Aug1.
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2015 Aug 1 (Sa) — nightmare day at the airport
Today was the day we were supposed to fly out to St. Maarten for the Campbell Family Vacation 2015. We woke up at 3:45pm and got on the U3 by 4:12pm and on the 4:27pm S7 to the airport.
We arrived at the airport with no major issues (super tired) and as we walked toward the airport, we found out on the Departures screen that our flight was CANCELLED! We had received NO alerts or anything, it was so unbelievable…
We went straight to the Air France counter (which was really not an Air France counter but an affiliate desk…) We got there around 5:15am and stood in line and finally spoke with an agent, Michelle and tried for (no joke) at least 45 min trying to find ANY flight that would get us to St. Maarten today (nothing), tomorrow (nothing)… Finally, the best option we could do was a flight to London Heathrow on Sunday 2Aug, and an overnight in London, then flying out of London Gatwick to Antigua, and then a small plane from Antigua to Anguilla. Anguilla is 45 min ferry ride away, and it would have landed us in Antigua on Monday at 5:30pm and the last ferry from Anguilla to St Maarten was at 6pm…SOOO ultimately, not really doable without a night in Anguilla which was not an option…
I should mention that during the time when Michelle was trying to help us find a flight, we caused quite the backup of passengers (who also had to rebook flights due to Austrian Airlines canceling the flight from Vienna to Paris that morning, without any alerts/warnings). It really pissed them off but we weren’t about to give up our spot to let them through (since we were still hopeful that we’d get on something, somewhere, somehow today). In the end the best option seemed like the one above. Michelle told us to come back in a couple hours and we could try again. At this point it was about 6:30am and so we went to Starbucks to get coffee and food. Then sat down to do some research on our own…
We almost immediately found the same flight we were planning to take today on Monday and tried to book tickets. We first called Nancy and she gave us a credit card and we tried booking but it wouldn’t let us. (Which ultimately was a good thing because it was business class ticket for the Paris to St Maartens flight and $5600…). Finally around 7:45am we went back to the counter to try and find more flights. We asked about why we couldn’t get the Monday flight (since we could see it on flights.google.com) and Michelle told us its because we have economy tickets and she COULDN’T upgrade us (she didn’t have the power). We tried calling Air France but they didn’t open until 9am. Michelle called a separate number and talked for a while but then was given another number and that office didn’t open until 9am. So we sat back down for another half hour…
During this time we found a slightly different option to the one we got from Michelle originally, which would still take us from Vienna to London on Sunday night 8pm, and fly out from London Gatwick to Antigua on Monday morning 1045am, then we take a propeller plane from Antigua through St. Kitts and finally to St. Maarten, landing at 7pm on Monday 3Aug. It was later than the other option but it would get us on the correct island. We figured if we could get that last flight it would be our best bet (if they couldn’t get Air France to upgrade us to business class for the Monday flight that matched our flight today).
At 9am we went back to the counter and Michelle called the second office and after a lot of talking, they couldn’t do anything… THAT was the infuriating part, it was their fault and Air France wouldn’t upgrade us so that we could arrive 2 (TWO!???) whole days late to our destination… So we ended up taking the option with the small propeller plane that takes us finally to St. Maarten on Monday night at 7pm.
Since we were staying over in London overnight due to the cancelation, we needed to get compensated for the hotel and they told us to go to Austrian Airlines for that. So we walked to the Austrian Airlines registration/booking area and get in line. At this point it is a little before 10am, and get in line. There were about 15 people ahead of us and three agents at the desks. We stood in that line for over an hour and a half, and finally got to the ticket agent at around 11:45am. We then explained our situation and that we wanted to know how to get our London hotel compensated. Frau Marianne Oth helped us with moving our London flight earlier (from 8pm to 5:15pm) and also made a note in the ticket file that we needed to get comped for our hotel in London. We need to go to the Austrian Airlines Transfer Office to get the voucher when we arrive.
After dealing with all of that it was past noon and we had spent 7 hours at the airport only to go back home so that we could again go to the airport tomorrow… At the time, it felt like some sort of twisted victory because ultimately we were able to figure out a (long-winded, twisted) way for us to get to the family vacation, but now it feels a bit hallow and I wonder if it is worth it… I’m sure once I’m there it will feel worth it but right now, its all the hassle.
We got back on the S7 and came back home. We got home a little after 1pm and we had lunch (that we bought at the airport Spar Gourmet) and took short naps on the couch.
Around 3pm we went to the Naekwon Asian market to see what they had to offer (U3 at Zieglergasse) and bought a cute Cuckoo rice cooker (yay!) and some other goodies. We got home and both slept on the couch until around 8pm. We went to Honobono for beef noodle soup and then for gelato at the Eis shop on Eslarngasse and now we’re back at home.
Tomorrow, we have to leave for the airport at 2pm to catch our 5:15pm flight to London Heathrow (landing around 6:40pm), sort out our hotel voucher, hopefully near Gatwick airport. Figure out transportation between Heathrow and Gatwick (either for Sunday night or Monday morning) and then fly from Gatwick to Antigua Monday morning at 10:45am, landing around 2:10pm. Then there is a 3 hour layover in Antigua and we get on a propeller plane from Antigua to St. Maarten (with a stop in St. Kitts) at 5:40pm landing at 7pm on Monday night.
Ultimately 3 full days of travel (and trying to travel) is so exhausting. I’m really hoping that it ends up feeling worth it in the end. Bottom line is that I needed to get out of Vienna this week and this delay is terrible. I need a break from the constant culture shock and the constant inadequacy and uncomfortableness that I feel perpetually. I’m so exhausted and this was supposed to be straight forward but it turned out to be the worst possible situation that can happen. We found a solution, and it is doable but it sucks and I’m stuck in Vienna for another day longer.
Silver linings aren’t enough right now, all the things that I actually like about Vienna are not enough right now, the feeling of being here is so hard to explain. I just constantly feel exhausted and drained and wishing that I wasn’t here and feeling guilty but angry. Its been so hard being here. And honestly, I think very few people realize how hard. All my classmates (except Michael and Amba) moved from relatively close to here, and everyone else uses the same units. Its debilitating when you can’t even do simple small talk because you can’t easily comprehend what others are talking about without a conversion in your head which takes you out of the conversation. The culture shock has been enormous. I just don’t know right now…
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It is so extremely evident, even for myself reading this back, that I was so down-trodden and a bit depressed. What's worse is that it wasn't even the worst of it. The next day was just as challenging...
The travels on Aug2 (Sunday) to London were also filled with stress and struggles. We ended up going to the airport for our 5pm flight super early leaving around 1pm. Trying to check in our bags was a serious debacle. We got there before 2pm and the service agent wasn't able to get us checked in. He said something about our tickets "being valid" but that somebody had f*cked up (yes, he did drop F-bombs) while booking them and he couldn't access our tickets from his computer to check our bags in.
After about 10 minutes of him typing, typing, typing, shaking his head, typing, he got up and took our tickets out of view (presumably to the same Customer Service desks that we were at the day before). He was gone for over 15 min, it was probably closer to 30 min. He finally came back, confirmed again that our tickets "were valid, no worries, no worries..." and said that someone was coming to help. While we waited for this "someone" he continued to tap away at his computer, shaking his head... (We had gotten so annoyed at people staring at computers, typing, and shaking their heads...SO FED UP)
Also, during all of this time, the shift change was happening, so we had another service agent who was supposed to take up the desk we were at but she had no idea what was going on, so the original one was staying (but acting very much like he wanted to leave). Finally, finally, the "techincal" person came to help. Original service agent explained some things to her in German and then quickly departed. Technical agent then goes to town typing, taping, typing, shaking head.
Another 10 min or so of this and she hasn't said anything to us at all. Just keeps looking at the computer screen, typing and taping, occasional shake of the head. Then, out of the blue, she just rips up our tickets. *Fear strikes into both of us* Then we hear the printer printing and we're frantically screening the new tickets upside down, and our hearts sink because she's printed tickets for the later flight (that we worked so hard to get off of the day before). We quickly protest, and sort of forcefully tell her that wasn't what she was supposed to do. I start to bawl, up until this point, I'd just been stressed but not too emotional. I just couldn't hold it in anymore.
She then goes into super-quick tappity tap mode. Works for another 10-15 min and finally she gets us BACK on the flight she took us off of and also tags our bags. We spent over 1.5 hours at the bag drop counter... Becoming pretty typical of our trip so far. We finally went through security (no issues there) and still had over 1.5 hours before our flight, and I just sat at the terminal and cried. I kept wondering if I would feel like the trip would be worth all the hassle and stress and terribleness in the end. Chris kept assuring me that it would, but not very convincingly because he was obviously experiencing the same feelings.
We get on our flight t London Heathrow. No real issues with that flight. Arrive in the mausoleum that is London Heathrow and immediately try to find the Austrian service counter to get our hotel compensated for the night. We arrived around 7pm, and we were in line for an hour before we got to see a ticket agent (in the meantime, the one we were in line for randomly finished with the clients in front of us in line and without so much as a LOOK at us, just picked up her wallet and walked off for her break/dinner, WITHOUT A LOOK...typical of this trip). Once we got to the front of the line, we were ultimately able to get a hotel near (actually, attached to) London Gatwick airport and also meals comped and also a taxi between the two airports. It took until after 9pm to get everything sorted and we took the 45 min taxi ride to the hotel. Checked in, dinner at the hotel's cafe, and went to bed. exhausted.
The next morning we had the included breakfast and walked to the airport terminal. The lines were ridiculously long for bag drop but fortunately moved relatively fast. We made it onto our flight from Gatwick to Antigua with no issues. Arrived in Antigua and checked in for our propeller flights no issues. After 2-3 hour layover in Antigua, we flew to St. Kitts first (where there was a fire on the island, which was never mentioned to us), sat on the plane for 20 min while the unloaded/loaded passengers, then finally flew to St. Maartens, landing Monday Aug3 at 7pm.
We worked our way through customs and finally walked into the airport lobby area and saw Joe and Nancy. So relieved! We were there! We did get a little chastised for not giving flight numbers... they had a bit of hullabaloo figuring out which airport to go to... Pedro saved the day. (Apparently St. Maartens has two airports, who knew?)
We were there, and I just kept having this nagging thought in the back of my head... "God, I hope its worth it..." We had been through so much (not just the last few days but the last few months).
I'll share pictures from the actual adventures in my next post.
