Planning with Dominoes

A failure to plan is a plan to fail. Right?

But, imagine spending hours online crossing back and forth from a variety of your favourite travel websites, the different ones you have for trains, planes, busses and accomodations (as well as the ones that combine all at once for a premium). You backtrack and re-search to find the perfect route, the perfect place to stay, the perfect places to go.

After hours, sometimes a few hours over a few days, a plan is created. You have figured out the place(s) you want to go, the route that is going to be both fastest and cheapest, and the place to stay that is flexible, affordable and yet still beautiful.

It's like dominoes are lined up, waiting for the start of the trip when you can finally push the first one down, and all the following details will fall into place. Every "I" is dotted and every "T" is crossed. The ducks are in the tidiest row.

In November, I made my perfect plan. Destination: Amsterdam. A short bus to Bilbao and an even quicker stopover in Munich would take me to the "Venice of the North" to celebrate my best friend's birthday.

I started my trip by waking up for my 7am bus... at 7am. Whoosh. My delicate house of cards crashed down on the table, so flat that I couldn't see it anymore if you were eye level with the table. My 7am bus was the only one to make the two-hour drive and get me into Bilbao on time for an 11:30 am flight. I was pretty sure the 11am bus wasn't going to cut it.

Naturally, as I do when I have any problem or free time, I called my mom. Immediately, we got on online, on opposite ends of the world and opposite ends of the day to find a new flight. My light at the end of the tunnel came in the form of a  one-way flight from Bilbao to Amsterdam, with an overnight stay in Paris, landing me in the Netherlands at 9am the next day... two and a half hours before my ticket to the Anne Frank House that had been booked a month in advance. With the new flight, a new bus ticket to Bilbao, and a  hotel room in Paris, I was en route. Exhausted and with a thin wallet, but en route.

And despite all my "if-one-more-thing-falls-through-I'm-not-going" thoughts, I am still SO glad I went. (Truly, a 10/10 trip. I'll write another post soon for you to hear all the good stuff.)

In the meantime, as grim as it is, I still have to tell you how the good stuff came to an end. Sunday morning, I was ready to head back to Bilbao to catch a bus to the second leg of my trip, Salamanca. But I couldn't check-in. In fact, the gate agents told me that I wasn't even included on the flight, despite having my printed proof of purchase in-hand. This was when I learned my lesson in buying the "departure" and "arrival" flights in the same booking. Pro tip: don't.

By buying my flight to Amsterdam and my flight from Amsterdam in the same booking, I was automatically cancelled from my home-bound flight after missing the destination-bound flight. A few phone calls and many misunderstandings later, I found myself booking a flight to Madrid that would leave the next morning and a hotel room inside the airport. I figured it would be a little difficult to take my bus from Bilbao to Salamanca, so I booked a new one from Madrid too. I still thank my lucky stars that I made it to my Air BnB in Salamanca, on-time and with zero issues the rest of trip. :)

Bottom line? Well, I really don't know where to place it. Do I say "make sure not to plan too much"? Or, do I say "make sure to plan well but just wake up on time"? I think I'll leave it up to you to take what you will from it.

(Fun side fact: an email to Lufthansa ended with a refund of my original flights, as well as a refund of additional expenses incurred as a result of being canceled from my flight home. Simply put: I've been a happy camper ever since... and for those looking for someone to write a few "clarifying a misunderstanding" emails, you know how to reach me.)

Until the next post,
Al