My first hiccup was losing my brand new wallet the day before departure. I had purchased a gorgeous silver wallet that would be perfect for travel. However, somewhere between work and home it disappeared.
Another friend, Ala, had exchanged some dollars for euros in San Diego. However, when she landed in Europe she realized she left the euros at home.
Darius broke his cell phone completely while in London. He was on the treadmill when his phone fell down and it was crushed by the machine. He upgraded to the international plan prior to leaving the USA but it won't be any helpful without a working phone.
Pedro booked his Anne Frank House/Museum ticket online prior to leaving home in order to avoid lines. However, when he arrived in Amsterdam, he realized he purchased a ticket for a day that had already passed two months ago.
Super Nel and I somehow forgot to print our airline tickets for our Easyjet flight from London to Amsterdam. And of course we didn't realize it until 5 minutes before we had to leave the hostel.
Everybody experiences challenges while traveling-it's inevitable. Our friends Jose, Maria, Chris and Adele experienced an interesting challenge during our departure from London to Amsterdam.
We departed our hostel in London 1.75 hours prior to our flight gate check in time. We did not have to check any luggage and the train/tube ride from the airport was about 1 hour. When we left the hostel, we encountered hundreds of people out on the streets shopping so it made it somewhat difficult to navigate the streets with our backpacks.
Once we reached the tube some of us had to buy tickets or add money to our Oyster cards. Luckily, we had all reviewed the directions on how to get back to Gatwick airport so we had decided to keep going independently since it would be easier and faster than trying to move as a group during all the rush hour chaos. So Super Nel, Pedro, Josef, Shane and I took off on the tube. What we didn't know is that our other friends had their first delay when Chris's tube card would not allow her to pass the gate. The machine kept saying "seek assistance" however there were no employees around at that time. She finally found someone to help her and they continued the journey. When they tried to get on the tube it was so crowded that Adele ended up getting separated from the group. She was on the tube but she was going in the wrong direction!! She corrected her mistake but wasted precious time. Luckily, Adele took the Gladwik Express hoping to make it to the airport on time. The express train cost more money but would guarantee she didn't miss her flight. When Adele arrived at the airport she met up with us at the shuttle. We were still missing Jose, Maria and Chris. We rushed to our gate hoping they had somehow beat us there. Sadly, the only people at the gate were Darius and Freddy. It turned out that the two people who are notoriously late arrived to the airport first.
Darius and Freddy were at the airport hours before us!
Our flight would leave in 25 minutes and there was still no sign of Jose, Chris and Maria. Everyone was feeling anxiety that our friends wouldn't make it. And there were no refunds on this flight. Three minutes later-our friends came running up to us out of breath and covered in sweat. They had made it. Turns out they also had more hiccups along the way. They had purchased the wrong type of train ticket. So when they arrived at the airport the security officer fined them and took his time writing individual tickets.
We were so happy they made it on time. Jose said they were freaking out the entire time and he was so scared they'd miss the flight.
Our flight ended up being delayed by an hour-figures. This was our first easyjet flight. The carry on bag guidelines are pretty strict but I saw tons of people breaking the rules. Next time, I'm carrying my backpack and my purse instead of packing it into the bag.
All the stress was worth though-when we landed we were in Amsterdam and very excited to be here.
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