I should be on holiday

This should have been the best weekend of my life. I mean, I still had a nice weekend, but not in the way I expected. Everyone said I did well not to cry and panic, but inside I was. Unsure what to do and what was going on. It was like a ghost town. It was like walking back through time through the pandemic days. Everything at a standstill. Everything black. One evening everybody chilling in the hotel room, and me not having anything to eat because the nearest food places where ages away and I didn't want to pay £8 for a sandwich.

When I woke up the next morning on 21st March, I had no idea what was going on. It was early and I didn't think to look at my phone for the news at the time. For a split second, I felt abandoned and neglected by the airlines, hotel, airport and travel agents. The flights were open the next day, but by that point I was already home like I was ordered to by staff. My dreams were already crushed. Airline says go to the travel agent. Travel agent says go to booking company.

I remember the blackout at Midnight and all the banging. I didn't know what was going on. I couldn't get any sleep. When I came out of the hotel there was nobody there. There should have at least been someone to come and tell us what happened. Lots of people got evacuated, why weren't we?

The airport was like a ghost town. All blacked out. Everything bordered up. Police and the little crew that were there told me to go home so I did. I was offered hotels and food but I had already reached home by the time I go the texts and there was no offer of refund or change of flights, they just changed the flight from cancelled to change without contacting me first.

Good news is that I am entitled to a full refund on the plane flight. Bad news is that the travel agent can't process it without me contacting the airline. I am currently 8 in the que and it's been slow. I think a lot of people are having the same issue as me.

I was lucky to get refunded on everything else and sell the gig ticket. It's just so frustrating and stressful ringing and texting around chasing everything. I just hope the endless loop will stop soon.

Despite everything that happened on Friday, I am now kinda glad that I didn't end up going. Because it showed the best in humanity that I saw in my friends and family. My parents took me to my favourite shop and treated me to breakfast in a local farm cafe.

I got to see a lot of my friends today and they made me feel better. All the things I wanted to do out in Finland, I got to do in town. There were times today when I wondered how things would have been like. It would have been amazing to see that rock concert, waltz through the streets and try the little bakeries.

The most important thing was that I was safe. That fire could have been a whole lot worse. The only thing left to sort out is the flight refund and then I can save up again and book the Finland trip another time. Maybe sometime in November or book a week off in the summer to be able to go.

And now I am number 2! Horray! Fingers crossed it will all be sorted by the time this post is up live.