Konzertjunkie

OK, let me first point out that the concerts were great - the kids concert was a bit boring, but great for a start, the "real" concert in Bergen was a blast, and the one in Haugesund was not as intense, but still a lot of fun. And meeting everybody (again) was also fantastic. If you want to read more about the concerts, check the reports on skambankt.konzertjunkie.de.

Still, all in all, the weekend sucked big time.

It all started out at the airport in Germany. I was sitting there, reading, waiting for the plane. Nothing happened - but okay, it happens quite frequently with RyanAir flights that boarding doesn't start before the time the flight is actually supposed to leave. Suddenly, a car of the fire department turns up in front of the gate... hmm. Well, let me just check my schedule so that I don't have to worry whether I can catch my connecting flight... And: No problem. I got two and a half hours in Sandefjord, which means my flight can easily be two hours late, and THAT won't happen.

At least that's what I thought. Then the announcement: "Your plane will arrive here at 11.45, and we'll start boarding as soon as possible." The flight was supposed to go at 9.45! Of course, there was no wifi at the airport *grr*, so I called my mom and asked her to find out the number of Widerøe, so I could check about my connecting flight (see if I still have to check in and what it will cost to change it to another flight when I miss it and if there IS another flight at all). Got the number, called them, got the info that there were indeed other flights and that apart from that, the guy "didn't know". Uhm, yeah, why should you know about the policies of the airline you work for?!?

Anyway. So I decided to go to Oslo and then see if and how I can go on. Otherwise it would be a quiet weekend in Oslo... But then the other problem: I had arranged with some people to meet them in Bergen at a certain time - but I didn't have their number, and I didn't remember the e-mail address. But in the end I managed to find an internet terminal - didn't really work, every page loaded for hours, my e-mails didn't show up right. But in the end I managed to get the message through (and by then, my flight had been moved to 13.10 already, so it was obvious that I definitely couldn't catch my connecting flight to Bergen). So then, when the plane did actually go, I could get on quite relaxed...

After arriving at Sandefjord, I went to the Widerøe check-in, explained everything (in Norwegian), heard (in Norwegian) that they would just book me on the next flight without extra cost and was incredibly happy and proud of myself (because I had managed it in Norwegian! ). Some phone calls, and then I made it to Bergen without further problems. Everything was kinda hurried, of course - I had planned to be there two hours earlier, after all. But it was okay, I made it in time for the kids concert, and as written above, the evening was really nice.

The next day was kinda hurried again, but still okay, and then it was time to go back to Germany. This time from Haugesund. The plan was: Take a plane from Haugesund to Oslo-Gardermoen, wait two hours, take a train from Gardermoen to Sandefjord, wait two and a half hours, take a plane to Frankfurt-Hahn, take my car home for two and a half hours.

Problem #1: I had no clue where the bus to the airport would leave. Or rather: I had a pretty clear clue, but there was no sign whatsoever. But hey, I can ask at the hotel, right? Wrong. There was nobody there at the hotel. Breakfast was do-it-yourself style. "Please put the food back in the fridge after the meal." Uh... okay. So I had to be ready pretty early to be prepared to look for the bus stop if necessary. Didn't turn out to be necessary because there was a lady waiting for the bus already, but I couldn't know that before.

So I took the bus out to the airport, went in, looked at the monitors: "10:40 - Oslo CANCELLED!" No! Hey, that can't be! That's not gonna work out, I'm not gonna get home!? And no, I wasn't very friendly to the lady at the counter. Still, I think that she could have been a little more helpful than just telling me "I won't discuss this. It is your problem if you have a connecting flight with another airline. It's all because of the weather." Great, thanks for the help. How about looking up if there's maybe a flight from Gardermoen to Sandefjord that you could offer me? Or by just being a tiny bit sympathetic and telling me that you're sorry but it's all a big hassle? No. Instead she booked me on the WORST place in the whole plane. Sure, my fault, why did I have to complain?

So that meant almost four hours at Haugesund airport. Where there is literally NOTHING to do.

After checking my print-outs of the train schedule, I found out that I had a very slight chance to actually catch my plane at Sandefjord. The train would leave at Gardermoen at 15.08 - and my plane was supposed to arrive at 14.50, so that was possible. The train would then arrive at the Sandefjord airport train station at 17.28, then there was a connection bus (about 8 minutes), which might get me to the airport around 17.40. My plane was scheduled to leave at 17.45 - and as mentioned above, it happens quite frequently with RyanAir flights that boarding doesn't start before the actual departure time.

So I was on the plane to Oslo hoping all the time that I would manage to catch my train. (OK, and that I would survive the flight without one of my legs dying off - as I said, I got the WORST seat on the plane... *grr*) Of course, my seat was at the very back of the plane and the back door was NOT opened, so I was one of the last people to get off. Still, I managed to catch my train.

Then I was on the train, all the time praying that we wouldn't be delayed. In the beginning, at the bigger stations, I could still check with the displays whether we were on time or not. Turned out that we were two, three minutes late at the beginning, but we caught up. Then I didn't have any possibility to measure anymore and I could just hope. At 17.28, we arrived in Tønsberg. Which is close to Sandefjord, but at that time, we were supposed to BE THERE. So I asked the conductor how much we were delayed. "Delayed? We are not delayed!" - "Uhm, we were supposed to be at Sandefjord Torp five minutes ago..." - "Yes, but it's the second station from now!" - "Second?!? And you are telling me that we are not delayed???" - "Well, maybe ten or fifteen minutes..."

To cut it short: We were at the train station 17.45, at the airport 17.55, and my plane was gone.

So, for the second time this weekend, I ended up at an airline booking booth, telling them that I had just missed my flight. They told me that the only flight to Germany that night would go to Düsseldorf. "But you have to decide RIGHT NOW, because check-in ends in five minutes!" *argh* I thought quickly, remembered that there are airport busses from Düsseldorf to Hahn, and decided to do that. Just to remember right after that RyanAir does not fly to Düsseldorf but to Düsseldorf-Weeze, which is something like Oslo-Torp or Frankfurt-Hahn - basically middle of nowhere. But it was too late then, I had already paid the ticket fee (and I was REALLY annoyed, because the lady talked about 700 something kroner all the time - less than 100 Euro - and on the bill lateron it said 126 Euro. But by now I saw that they only withdrew 80 Euro, so it's okay.).

And again, I was in a big hurry, because they started boarding incredibly early. So I had no time to see how I could get home from there - which means the flight really wasn't relaxing for me, I was just pondering about how to get home afterwards.

When I finally arrived, I went to the info booth and asked for trains/busses to Frankfurt-Hahn. Result: I could leave three hours later and arrive at 4.45 in the morning. So I decided to get a rental car instead - I had no clue where I was, it cost way too much, but I really didn't want to spend another three hours waiting, change trains twice and hope not to miss them, spend two hours in Cologne waiting for a bus, just to come to "my" airport early in the morning without any sleep.

So I got the car, drove three hours to Frankfurt-Hahn, got my car, drove to my parents' place to tell them I had actually made it this far, and drove another two and a half hours home. Arriving at 3.30, and going to work the next morning.

And all this for three Skambankt concerts. Was it worth it? I don't know... The worst part is that when I think about this weekend, I won't remember the concerts at all. And that I'm really scared of the next time I go to Norway to see Skambankt. Because when something goes wrong, it's always when I'm going to see Skambankt. But that deserves another entry...