Travel blog Caribbean Sea

Day 3, Kingston: Who knew that flying here would be as big of an adventure?

30/12/2015

The first thing that I have to say: now when I’m finally here, on the other side of the Atlantic, I’m not going back anytime soon. Yes, my decision may have something to do with the fact that I already love the Caribbean climate, nature and lifestyle, but it is also because it was sooo hard to get here. With J we laugh about it now but really, our trip from Helsinki all the way to Kingston was quite an experience. Based on our previous travels together we already knew that usually E + J + holidays = bad luck with the weather but this time we were worried that our bad luck equation would apply also in general (by the way, no complaints about the weather so far!). Luckily that doesn’t seem to be true after all, so far we are very much enjoying our holidays.

So all good, we took the plane from Helsinki to Paris. But that is when the problems started. Having lived six years in Paris we also know that Paris/France equals trouble and we have adopted a “go, fight, win” -attitude to deal with it. How good to be back on this familiar battlefield after for me one month and for J a bit more time spent in Scandinavia. Still, it took us by surprise how challenging it was this time. By the time we had finally arrived to Kingston Menley International Airport we had also learnt:

To wait until being away from Europe before posting a “bye bye Europe” -post on Facebook. It is not fun at all to see the dozens of likes while being stuck at CDG.
To check twice before trusting an airport officer who says that your flight is delayed so you will miss your connection, and asks you to follow her to the other end of the airport. It might be that she is lying and tricking you as far as possible from the boarding gate because the flight is actually overbooked and she has just happened to choose you to be denied to board the plane (aren’t they supposed to ask for volunteers?)
That even if it is against an EU law to transport a passenger’s luggage in case he or she doesn't board the plane, it may still happen that your suitcase is at high speed on its way to Miami while you are still killing time in Paris.
Related to the previous case, to always put a winter coat on even if traveling to a warm and sunny destination – you may end up in New York instead and in New York it may snow in December.
That when there are tornados or other weather-related problems, all flights are cancelled or delayed and you are not the only one queuing at an AA service desk at JFK. This also means that all the hotels near the airport are fully booked. Waiting, waiting and waiting...
That even if you have got a boarding pass and are already one step from being inside the plane, they may still tell you that there are no more available seats and make you go back. Again.

Long story short, we traveled for more than 48 hours before arriving to our destination, Jamaica. We stayed in countless lines trying to get whatever information we could from sometimes nice – often not – AA officers. Eager to get to Jamaica we were at times on the point of a nervous breakdown but then sometimes managed to just chill and take it easy. When, after all the trouble, we were on our flight from JFK to MIA (and had – without success – tried to change our seats on the plane in order not to miss our connecting flight to Kingston because, of course, we were sitting on the very last row) and a super friendly flight attendant guy asked us exactly the right question, we finally felt like something was going right and we could start to enjoy our holidays. And what was that question? Of course: “Girls, do you drink wine?” The rest is only a blurry memory and we and our luggage are now well arrived in Kingston! Let the adventures continue and our travels officially begin!

Here’s some pics so you can laugh at our misery. :)