Off to a Rough Start!

At Pearson Airport before our misadventures.

Our very expensive three bed suite.

From our third and final flight. 

Drying laundered money from Shayna's purse.

Wednesday, September 18th. 

Off to a Rough Start!

Back story:

We booked a tour of Slovenia and Croatia. Shayna booked the flights to Ljubjlana, Slovenia and I booked the flights from Dubrovnik home. A few weeks before we were to leave Air Canada pilots threatened to go on strike, plus they changed our connecting flight from Frankfurt to Zurich. We were afraid of losing our tour so I booked a back up flight through Lot Airlines of Poland. Then the strike was averted at the last moment so I canceled the Lot flight. 

Shayna and I took a fast and efficient cab to the airport, arriving in plenty of time. We got there at 5 and the flight was to depart at 8:30. Customs was easy too. Then things changed, not for the better. Our flight changed gates 4 times before it was announced that it had been delayed due to ‘mechanical problems’. We lined up at Air Canada customer service and were told that it would hopefully leave at 1 am and our connecting flight would be reorganized while we were in the air. They issued us $60 worth of food vouchers. Now we had five hours to chill. After expressing our frustrations we settled in to wait, amusing ourselves with eating, complaining, reading, movies on iPad, and music. Still no boarding time was announced by 12:30 but we went and sat in the lounge anyway. Shortly after they announced the plane was approaching the gate and just needed a little cleaning and refueling. We boarded at 1:30 and it took off at 2 am. When Shayna tried to take her sleeping pill and put in her earplugs she somehow wound up with an earplug in her water bottle and had to give it to the stewardess to try to retrieve it. We both took a sleeping pill and slept through dinner and fitfully through most of the flight. We arrived in Zurich at 10 am our time, 4 pm their time. When we got off we had to line up at another Transfer kiosk to find out what had happened to our connection. The Lufthansa agent gave us 4 boarding passes and told us that we had to fly to Frankfurt and then onto Ljuljana and then to go the Transit kiosk in Gate A. On the way I checked the boarding passes and found the flight to Frankfurt was at 8:00 pm tonight and the flight to Ljubjana is at 9 am tomorrw morning!! So when we got to the kiosk I asked why we couldn’t just take the flight to Ljubljana tomorrow from here and was told it was fully booked. So they issued us vouchers for 62 Swiss francs or $99 Canadian for food and told us we would have a hotel for overnight in Frankfurt. 

So, we went and bought two sandwiches, two salads, some watermelon and a fruit muesli dessert, which used all but 1 swiss franc, in other words $100! Then we waited until 8:30 to catch our extra flight from Zurich to Frankfurt. It went as planned and we landed by 9 pm and went and found the Lutfhansa guest services kiosk to get information on our hotel. They told us that since it was Air Canada’s fault for being five hours late, they are the ones who should have booked a hotel for us, and that Lufthansa could not do that despite what the other guy told us in Zurich. They gave us Air Canada’s number but told us that no one was available at the airport from AIr Canada as their last flight had flown and they had left the building. We were not able to phone the number as we were not going to turn our cellular on and incur Rogers roaming fees. So, I asked if there were hotels attached to the airport and she pointed us in the right direction. We tried the Sheraton, but it was fully booked, so we went to the Marriot who had no basic rooms available just a Club suite. So, with no other choices we booked that for about $600 Canadian and we have three beds! So we have a room to sleep in before tomorrow’s 9 amflight and two free apples and a free breakfast in the morning. Our flight boards at 8:55 tomorrow. Shayna set the alarm for 6:00 and we crashed shortly after.

Friday, September 20th.

I woke up at 3 and couldn’t get back to sleep for a while. But I woke up with a start and yelled at Shayna ‘Get up it’s 7:40!!! Her alarm was set to Canadian time. We were up and dressed and out in record time, dropped the key at reception, and ran back across the bridge to the airport. A water bottle had leaked in Shayna’s purse and her passport, boarding passes and money were all wet. Thankfully going through the luggage check at check-in was fast and efficient and then we had a long rush down the hall to gate B where we found our lounge, with a half hour to spare. They loaded us onto a shuttle bus for a long drive to our ‘nice but small’ plane. The flight was uneventful and on time and flew over some beautiful mountains. We were met at the airport by a young man who drove up into the city centre of Ljubljana. He told us some interesting facts: population 2 million people, 25% of whom live in the city; most people speak at least three languages here: Slovenian, English and Croatian, the second most fluent country behind only Switzerland; and Slovenia has more green space and natural places per capita in Europe second only to Finland. We arrived at our hotel, and Shayna gave him some wet American dollars as a tip. When we checked in and went to our room we found that someone else’s bag was in it. So I left Shayna and went back down to tell reception and he spent some time trying to figure that out before eventually giving us an upgrade to a suite on the floor above. When I came back up Shayna had all of her wet stuff drying all over the room and I had to tell her to repack as we were moving. When we got to our new room Shayna discovered that her conditioner and lotion had leaked out in her luggage. What else?!?

It can only get better from now on right? Here’s hoping!!

It’s all in Adventures Abroads hands now. The next post should have something to do with site seeing, fun and less stress!