For Easter I planned going home. Not for a long time but just the few days I was off from work. I booked a flight (with Ryanair from its usual "in-the-middle-of-nowhere"-airport Oslo Torp in Sandefjord) on Wednesday April 8th afternoon to Düsseldorf's dessert-airport Weeze. This was only a one-way trip as I booked a ferry ticket with ColorLine from Kiel to Oslo in order to bring up my car.
On Wednesday morning I still went to the office where I also did already the online check-in for my flight. At 2 pm I left the office, went to the busterminal and paid the 180 NOK (≈20€!) to get within the next 1:45 hour to Sandefjord/Torp.
Arrived at the airport at ca. 4:15 pm, I dropped my luggage and proceeded to the boarding area where I suddenly heard that my flight - after many others before as well - had been cancelled... apparently due to bad weather conditions. My plane has actually never arrived in Torp. Ok, I admit, it was very foggy outside, but why could my colleague depart then (she took one shuttle bus later to the airport to fly - also with Ryanair - to Dublin)???
Well, what happened then was that all luggage was returned, simply thrown in the middle of the check-in area. All those passengers of the earlier cancelled flights had already proceeded to the information desk of the airport which was occupied by exactly 2(!) staff handling now the problems and questions of hundreds of people. When I finally picked out my luggage from the "mountain of suitcases" and went to the information desk I had to queue at the end of ca. 300 people desperately waiting in line for receiving information by these 2 ladies.
While waiting in the queue I could take from several loudspeaker announcements that many people were transferred onto flights to their destination leaving however from the Oslo International Airport Gardermoen. There were busses organised taking them within 2:15 hours all the way back to Gardermoen... and I was still queuing... without even having received the smallest piece of information regarding my cancelled flight.
My flight was supposed to leave at 6:15 pm and it was only at 8:20 pm (!) - after more than 3 hours in the line - that it was my turn to finally receive the first bit of information:
No, there were no alternative flights anymore that evening neither from Torp itself nor from Gardermoen. Flights leaving the next day to Düsseldorf Weeze or Frankfurt Hahn were also no longer available for me. Of course! They put already all those people from my cancelled flight onto those flights which were in the row before me. So what they offered me in the end was or getting my money back or booking me on a flight to Bremen on Friday. To Bremen! What the hell should I do with a flight to Bremen?! And only on Friday?
While being in the line I called home and talked to my parents and asked them to research for some alternatives for me. So when I refused the flight to Bremen my parents had booked another flight for me: The next day (on Thursday 9th of April) I would take a Brussels Airlines flight from Oslo Gardermoen to Brussels International (ca. 2 hours by car to my my home).
Ok so far. But for that moment I was still at the little airport in Sandefjord. As there was complete chaos at the airport one couldn't rely anymore on the shuttle bus timetables for busses bringing me back to Oslo city. In order not to miss the next available bus leaving the airport I waited outside - of course it was raining like cats and dogs and of course I didn't have an umbrella with me. And finally at 9:45 pm I managed to get hold of a free seat in a bus driving back to Oslo. So I paid again 180 NOK (if I knew I would go back to Oslo a return ticket would have been cheaper, but of course I didn't know) and drove again all the way between Sandefjord and Oslo. Not knowing which or if trams were still running at my arrival at Oslo bus terminal I went all the way back home by foot where I finally arrived after a long (shit) day at 00:30 am!!! I was supposed to be already at home in Germany by that time. But instead I scared my flatmate Mari when suddenly entering the apartment in the middle of the night.
Next day I paid another 100 NOK (≈11,50€) to get to Gardermoen to take the flight to Brussels. As my father lives in Brussels during the week he picked me up there and we drove back to Germany. I stayed at his and Andrea's apartment over night, because on Friday morning I had to go to my grandmother's place nearby for changing my winter tires before bringing my car up to Norway (I had my car and the summer tires stored there). After that I could finally drive really home.
Summary of the whole:
- I arrived at my mum's place with a delay of nearly 48 hours on Friday 10 April afternoon
- I spent a hell lot of money on all those back and forth shuttle trips, on a new flight ticket and on calls made from my mobile to abroad
- I had less then 48 hours left to stay at home and to get at least some of all the things done I had planned for the initial 4 days at home, because on Sunday I had my ferry from Kiel back to Oslo
My car fully stuffed with my summer clothes and especially with necessary things which are so much cheaper in Germany than in expensive Norway, I drove all the way from Bonn up to Kiel. The ship's departure was scheduled for 2 pm, so I left at 6 am in the morning. After a 5 hours drive I arrived at the ColorLine terminal in Kiel and still had a bit of time for a little walk through the city before the boarding.
Here some pictures of the trip:
On the way: the coastline of Kiel and surroundings
On the way: on board
On the way: little islands in the fjord to Oslo... and shit weather (in the morning hours)
After ca. 20 hours arrival at 10 am in Oslo.
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