Sweden: Travel Nightmare
Hi everyone from Sweden! I have had some unfortunate luck and thought it was worth sharing. It makes me laugh everytime I think about it because in all my travel around the world, I have never had this bad of luck! We were back in the states for a week after our trip to South Korea before departing to our 10 day trip to Norway and Sweden.
From the minute I showed up at the Cincinnati airport last Friday, I should have known this trip would be trouble. I showed up to the airport early and headed to Continental to check in. When I get there, they tell me my flight is canceled but they booked me on an earlier flight with Delta and of course, they said there would be no problem with checking my bag all the way to Oslo.
OK, so extra time for my bag to make it to Newark for our connection, right? So, they didn’t give me my ticket for the next flight, I have extra security check and no seat assignment. OK not so bad!
But then I get to Newark and have to go back out to ticketing. I wait 30 minutes because they can’t find my ticket in the system, then another hour in the snail-paced international line. Still OK, and eight hours later we get to Oslo — All 100 bags show up except for mine.
Thank goodness for gear we get on the trip, Kate Markgraff lending me clothes and my roommate allowing me to bum some of her toiletries. Three days later, I get my bag. Awesome. I’m a happy camper!
Now it’s Wednesday and as I’m going to the game against Norway, I realize my iPod is missing. Damn, I must have left it on the plane in my Ambien daze. The next day, as we’re heading to the Oslo airport to catch another flight to Sweden, I have a slight panic attack because as I’m searching for my iPod, I realize there was no passport sighting.
I always put my passport in the same place for this very reason. So I go and check and yep, no passport. Turns out, I didn’t leave my iPod after all — it was stolen along with my passport which apparently can go for thousands of dollars on the black market! I can do without the iPod but I am not flying anywhere without a passport.
So, we get to the airport and are already pushing it on time. Ironically, the travel agency booked eight of us on the 3 p.m. flight since our 9 a.m. was over-booked and I happened to be one of them. So at least something was working in my favor.
As we’re waiting at the airport, our security guard informs me that I must go get a passport photo, fill out new forms for an emergency passport and go to the U.S. Embassy by noon, “Good luck!”
So, as the coaches, staff, security guard and all of my teammates (except for eight of us) leave on the 9 a.m.. flight, I am left to do these things before my 3 p.m. flight. Feeling completely helpless and not sure where to begin, Heather O’Reilly graciously offers to go with me while the others scurry off to a hotel to chill.
We were like the blind leading the blind. We luck out and find a passport photo stand IN THE AIRPORT, then catch a train for a 25-minute ride which dropped us a few blocks from the Embassy. We find the Embassy, which was simple considering its the most guarded place around. After a short wait, we explain what happened, fill out paperwork, waste an hour walking around and sipping a lattes in a local cafe, train it back to the airport with brand new passport in hand, file a police report and done by 2 p.m. All in a days work!
Now that it all worked out, we made it to Sweden safely and I have a new passport. Truthfully, my day in Oslo was probably the highlight of the trip! Funny how things happen.
So that’s my week so far. We play Sweden on Saturday and take a charter flight to Stockholm after the game. Sunday morning we fly to Newark then back to LA! This is life on the US Women’s Soccer Team these days. Five days later we head to Denver to play Brazil on Sunday, July 13 on Fox Soccer Channel.
That is it for now. For such an awful bout of luck this trip, I sure loved Norway and Sweden. Hopefully next time I travel here, I can enjoy it a little more and have a better travel experience. Off to sleep for the game! Safe Travels…
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