Ok so the amount of things going wrong on this holiday is getting ridiculous! This post was meant to be about our day and a half in Paris but that will have to wait because yesterdays events can't be ignored. I'll run through all the horrible things that have happened so far in order..
1. Just before we left, our travel agent noticed that I had booked my ticket under my name Torunn with two 'n's which is the way I've spelt it all my life, but on my Australian passport and only on that passport is it spelt with one 'n'. For some reason this 'n' was a huge problem so it had to be changed and ticket rebooked costing $230!
2. Despite requesting vegetarian meals on all flights, China Air had no record of this.
3. After checking and rechecking with our travel agent that China Air would have accommodation for the two of us in Beijing for the stopover, upon arrival we discovered they only had a hotel voucher for one of us. This left us with half the bill at Beijing 100% Perfect Hotel which wasn't very cheap!
4. When we arrived in Sweden we had to get a large sum of money out to pay for our apartment which could only be done in cash. Upon trying one of the ATMs the little screen told us it couldn't connect with our bank and no money was available. We realised later the ATM had withdrawn $750 from our bank account and so begun the quest to get that money back from the greedy bank.
5. The airline strike
Lastly, quite possibly the worst
6. While having lunch in an idillic town in the south of France our hire car window was smashed and my camera bag with my digital SLR, two lenses and flash was stolen, not to mention two of my favourite brooches!
At this point it's hard not feel a little down, but all you can do is try to put it in the past and enjoy the rest of our holiday. Luckily my little digital camera wasn't in the bag so I can still take lots of photos!
1. Just before we left, our travel agent noticed that I had booked my ticket under my name Torunn with two 'n's which is the way I've spelt it all my life, but on my Australian passport and only on that passport is it spelt with one 'n'. For some reason this 'n' was a huge problem so it had to be changed and ticket rebooked costing $230!
2. Despite requesting vegetarian meals on all flights, China Air had no record of this.
3. After checking and rechecking with our travel agent that China Air would have accommodation for the two of us in Beijing for the stopover, upon arrival we discovered they only had a hotel voucher for one of us. This left us with half the bill at Beijing 100% Perfect Hotel which wasn't very cheap!
4. When we arrived in Sweden we had to get a large sum of money out to pay for our apartment which could only be done in cash. Upon trying one of the ATMs the little screen told us it couldn't connect with our bank and no money was available. We realised later the ATM had withdrawn $750 from our bank account and so begun the quest to get that money back from the greedy bank.
5. The airline strike
Lastly, quite possibly the worst
6. While having lunch in an idillic town in the south of France our hire car window was smashed and my camera bag with my digital SLR, two lenses and flash was stolen, not to mention two of my favourite brooches!
At this point it's hard not feel a little down, but all you can do is try to put it in the past and enjoy the rest of our holiday. Luckily my little digital camera wasn't in the bag so I can still take lots of photos!
