A Very Eventful Birthday!

I am SO glad that Rhiannon will not remember her 1st birthday! It was an absolutely disastrous day. I will spare you all the details, but in short...

Rhodri was out of the country on business and Rhiannon and I were scheduled to go up to Tromso in the northern part of Norway on a "Teambuilding" trip with my group at work. Rhiannon was a little bit under the weather and I nearly canceled our trip but decided to go for it...big mistake! We ended up missing the flight because the taxi I called took nearly 2 hrs to come and eventually I gave up on it and asked a neighbor that I didn't know to drive us to the train station. So when I realized that we were going to miss the flight, I also realized that my wallet was gone! We had to borrow money in order to get off of the train and go through the turnstile into the airport. Fortunately there was a later flight up to Tromso so we got on that, but then the airlines lost our stroller! In the middle of all this, Rhiannon had a diaper blowout and I hadn't packed any spare clothes, so she was a stinky little birthday girl. By the time we got to the hotel (which was NOT a luxury hotel and actually I was expecting there to be no hot water or heating in our room but thankfully I was wrong!), it was 11pm and we had no wallet, no stroller; it was late and cold and dark and we were exhausted and hungry and Rhiannon didn't feel well and both of us were crying! So sad.

I found the silver lining in the kindness of strangers. The nice neighbor Lasse was offended that I hadn't asked him for a ride to begin with rather than calling a taxi. The train conductor mobilized some helpers at the airport to come and help me with luggage to get through quickly and try to make the flight that I ended up missing (of course, when I realized that my wallet was gone I told her to stand down the helpers because we were in no hurry anymore!). A Norwegian couple next to me on the train offered to lend me money to get to Tromso.

Then my friend Emily magically appeared at the airport! She bought us a cup of tea and a chocolate cupcake and we sat for awhile in the airport cafe while deciding what to do next. She ended up lending me money and looking after Rhiannon while I ran around changing flights and things like that. In the end, we made it to Tromso and Rhiannon got to have some chocolate cake on her eventful birthday but it sure was a grim ride.
Coming soon... northern lights and a wonderful evening in a Sami lavvo tent make the trip worthwhile!