A 24 Hour Fiasco

Our flight didn't leave Madrid until 7:30 pm, but Pauley left for the airport on Sunday morning. In just a few minutes after him leaving the apartment, we missed him. The place, and Spain in general, just didn't feel the same without him. It sounds kind of silly, but it's true. Transition periods are always weird. 

We had been told by our Airbnb host that we needed to leave the apartment at 12 pm, as she had to clean for another guest arriving later that day. We waited around for her, so that we could take advantage of the wifi as long as possible. When she wasn't there by 2:30 pm, we decided to grab some lunch and then take off for the airport. It had begun to drizzle so we took our grocery store lunch finds to the tree lined atrium of the train station. There we consumed our picnic lunch and played Hanabi until it was time to take a train to the airport. It was fun. 

Our picnic lunch. Oh, and there's a partially drunk bottle of red wine in that white bag. 

It was good that we arrived at the airport early, because lines for checking into our airline were long. Niki Airlines did not have an efficient check in system at all. We weren't checking any bags, but still had to wait in a huge line just for our tickets. This inefficiency continued with chaotic boarding of the airplane. Between that and a gate change we took off at least 20 minutes late. Not impressed. 

Good thing we had arrived at the airport early. Because, I also got stopped at security, because of a bag of rice I had in my backpack that couldn't be identified in the scanner. A partial bag of rice? Yes. Costing only 1 euro? Yes. The security people were also a bit incredulous. But, hey I didn't want to buy more rice in the next city to make meals if we had a perfectly usable amount left from this part of the trip. It was legal to bring through the airport, but they ran some tests to be sure there weren't traces of bomb dust or something. And, I got to practice my Spanish with the security staff. The rice, my backpack, and my Spanish were all passable. Yay. 

We were happy to arrive in Vienna, and ready to make our way to our Airbnb. I had mapped out our train route, and we found the ticketing area. Frustratingly, the ticket machine was supposed to take credit card, but would not accept that or change of 20 euro and higher. We ended up having to buy a small fry at the McDonalds in the airport to split the 20 euro bill and buy a ticket. Arrgh. 

After the ticket was in hand we discovered that our late arrival into Vienna had caused more issues. It was late enough that the trains were not running frequently. The next train out of the airport wasn't until 12:08 am (40 minutes later), and we weren't sure if the next train we needed to catch would still be running. We frantically used the free wifi to figure out other public transit options. Vienna has a confusing maze of trams, buses, trains, and subways. There are several maps, but not one that shows all the forms of transit. It's difficult to figure out how they all connect. The website directions were difficult to piece together as well. Arrgh. 

We ended up getting on the 12:08 train when it arrived and seeing where it would take us. We got off at the stop suggested in my directions, and managed to board our next train, which left one minute later. It was the last train of the night and we had caught it just in time. Whew. We were very thankful. 

We had one more train to catch, but we quickly saw that the one we wanted had stopped running for the night. Brandon determine we could walk 3.5 miles to our Airbnb from the station. With our backpacks it would probably take us an hour. I was hesitant, because it was late at night, we were tired, and we didn't know what kind of neighborhoods we'd be walking through. We saw signs for taxis and decided to price those out first. Thankfully, there was a line of taxis at the station. And, for just 15 euro we could make it to our destination. We gratefully accepted, and I told Brandon this might just be the best 15 euro we spent on our trip thus far. I was so happy to reach our Airbnb. 

As a side note, we found out the next day that if we had walked we would have been walking down streets surrounding a royal palace. Very upscale, and not scary at all! But, you never know. 

Our Airbnb host had given us wonderfully specific instructions on how to enter the house at our late hour. Everything worked easily, and we soon found ourselves enjoying our little oasis of a room and bed. 

But, our trials were not over. Once having wifi we discovered that our Airbnb in Munich was cancelling our reservation due to water damage. And, we were arriving in Munich in four days. And, there was a major Oktoberfest event going on in Munich making it difficult to find affordable Airbnb reservations. And, there was the Bauma expo further reducing accommodation options. Seriously? It felt like we were having a cursed 24 hours. 

We went to bed and dealt with it in the morning. Airbnb offered the amount we had paid for the Munich accommodation plus 10% to help find a new place to stay. I sent several polite, but clearly irritated emails to Airbnb stating that 10% was not enough in this difficult situation. I also started making requests to various Airbnb hosts. I found a great accommodation option, but decided to wait a couple hours to book it in the hopes that Airbnb would get back to me with a better offer than 10%. When Airbnb did get back to me, it was already booked. I was annoyed, but more mollified when I saw that Airbnb had refunded the amount paid for the Munich accommodation and sent me a $200 coupon code to help find a new place. 

Despite the $200 my remaining accommodation options were dim. It was difficult to find a place for three people (Brandon, my brother, and myself), so I had to start looking for two person places that had couches and beg them to accept three people. A few people responded with sympathy, but it was clear that everyone was jacking their prices up due to accommodation being a hot commodity. There were several people advertising their living rooms for twice the amount I had paid for the accommodation that had fallen through, a large bedroom with actual beds for three people. Brandon checked hotel prices and they were even worse. 

I was feeling defeated, but I was persistent. I checked every few hours and hoped new listings would pop up. Finally, I saw a new listing for a full apartment with a double bed. The couch in the apartment looked small, but I hoped we could scrounge for other things in the apartment to fashion a bed for my brother. At least we wouldn't be in the host's way if we had the apartment to ourselves. And, the price wasn't doubled like so many of the others since it was a new listing. I sent a message immediately and explained the situation hoping that we would be accepted. Within half an hour the host responded with sympathy to my plight and we were able to book the place. Huzzah! She even offered to see if she could find another bed somewhere in the basement for my brother. So kind! 

Instead of being just 3 km from where my parents are staying in Munich, the accommodation is nearly 7km away, but it is on the same subway line. Other pros include: 

• We have the whole apartment to ourselves
• The booking ended up being cheaper than our cancelled place due to the coupon code
• Our train arrives in Munich at 6:10 am and our host is allowing us to check-in anytime between 6:30 am and 9 am rather than waiting until more normal afternoon check-in times 

Are all these pros worth the stress of finding a new accommodation on short notice with mostly limited, expensive options? Definitely not. I'm just glad all this is behind us, and hope we don't have anymore last minute cancellations or transportation nightmares. Our 24 hour fiasco of high stress appears to be over, and we can actually enjoy our time in Vienna now. 

Enjoying tea and Manner hazelnut creme filled wafers provided by our host to welcome us