The Great Tour de Norway (part one)

My trip to Norway did not start well. At all. There I was, arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport in a somewhat timely fashion, with my overpacked suitcase filled with items that will prove to cold for Oslo in November. A little flustered, I got in line for the check-in, which is not too slow this particular afternoon, and I was very happy to present the little piece of paper that states that I have an e-ticket to go to Copenhagen. Today. Unfortunately, the lady at the check-in desk disagreed. Apparently, SOMEHOW, my booking got cancelled on October 12. I just looked at her in disbelief, not really knowing how to react. It did WHAT? Yes, your ticketing agent seems to have cancelled your trip. And today's flight is compeletly full, so I can't reinstate you. Reinstate my #@**&*. So - and thank god for cell phones - I call my travel agent, who is luckily at work at 5 pm at a Saturday afternoon, and after a lot of back and forth we end up concluding that Scandinavian Airlines screwed up. Not that that helped anything - the best they could do was still to give me a standby-ticket and tell me to cross my fingers that someone did not show up. Lucky me. Bad bad start. What have we learned from this? Always, always book your own tickets. Always get a paper ticket. Always call ahead to make sure everything is ok. And always bring your cell phone, with all essential numbers.

And yes, someone did not show up. And I got to sit next to a very talkative middle-aged Suede with plans to take over the world, and a Danish mother with a very unhappy little 16-month old monster. But I am in Norway. And I am very happy to be here.