The joys of travel are; in my opinion, what happens after you've arrived at your destination. It's well documented that I am not a fan of flying and honestly, the whole business of flying is so draining to me. The checking in, the security, the waiting, the cramming into a metal tube with tons of strangers... and then there's the flight. So yes, in this sense - it's IS absolutely about the destination and I can care less about the journey, let's get it over with!
Our flight from Oslo to Amsterdam was smooth - we were able to literally walk across the street to the airport in Oslo, got all checked in and through security, boarded our flight and about an hour and a half later, we were in Amsterdam! Amsterdam's airport is HUGE and our gate was quite a ways away from where out first flight came in... and we wanted to purchase some wooden tulips in our short layover, so we were booking it! I mean - I did take some pictures of the Delft Teacups and Elephant...
We got our wooden flowers and made it to our gate - and I immediately noticed that even though we were set to start boarding in less than twenty minutes, there was no plane at the gate to actually board. The anxiety bells in my immediately started going off... but I was trying to tell myself it could be any number of reasons and it didn't mean that I wasn't going to be sleeping in my bed that night. But the longer we waited and the farther past 12:00 the clock got, the feeling just got stronger.
And sure enough - they announced that because our plane had maintenance issues, it had been cancelled. We would have to go to another gate where we would be given a number and we would eventually be given food and hotel vouchers, as well as be re-booked on a different flight. Well, I guess my emotions got the best of me because I just burst into tears... and I would keep bursting into tears throughout the LONG afternoon that was spent waiting to get confirmation of our new flight and obtain our vouchers. Finally, around 6 PM (that's right - it took six hours) we made our way to a shop in the mall to grab toiletries, catch the bus to the hotel and try to have a relaxing night before our newly assigned flight left early Sunday morning!
We decided to try and make the best of it - the hotel we were put up in was quite a nice hotel and really unique; it had a gift shop and multiple restaurants and was honestly gigantic. We were even given toiletry bags with all sorts of wonderful items, so we really hadn't needed to buy the items at the shop! However, I was really thankful to have new undies and a shirt to sleep in, ha-ha! The hotel had a huge buffet set up on the fourth floor and even had a sign letting us know it was the stranded flight buffet, ha-ha! Like I said - you make the best of the situation, right?
We snapped pictures in the lobby - because hey, if we were going to be in Amsterdam for almost 24 hours, we might as well have some pictures to memorialize the moment, right? Sure it's not canals and the Anne Frank House... but I bet other tourists to Amsterdam don't have a stranded flight buffet picture or a picture with a giant cheese wheel, do they?
Blessedly - the showers were amazing, the bed was comfortable and when we got up on Sunday and got to the airport, our plane was at the gate. The flight was from Amsterdam to Atlanta and at 9.5 hours long, was the longest flight I've been on to date... it was also the bumpiest flight and well - I won't even get into that. I'll just say I'm glad that it's done and I don't have any flight in my near future.
We arrived in Atlanta with about an hour to go through customs, go through security again and then ride the train to our gate - but luckily everything went as smoothly as possible and we arrived to our gate in plenty of time. Soon enough, we were landing in DC - granted, we were landing at Reagan and not Dulles, so we had to ride the Metro to the Reston station, call an Uber to take us to our car and then finally, we made it to my parents and the last leg was just getting to our house! We arrived to the view below - two kittens literally hanging from our destroyed blinds - but I was so happy to be home, I didn't even care, ha-ha!
The trip to Norway was amazing and the memories we made will be ones I'll cherish for a lifetime. The last 24 hours of the trip were less than smooth, but I suppose all's well that ends well, right?
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