(Nerd prequel: If you don't get the name of the 'blog, click on the video link just under the title to get the full Monty Python goodness. If the video link isn't there, then click here to see what I mean.)
First, let's set the table a little bit. Mary Beth and I are going to be spending a significant amount of time this June in Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, and Sweden.
Why Finland? Well, Mary Beth is a doctoral candidate at UNO, and her department is part of a conference in Joensuu (pronounced yo-en-suh), Finland. Mary Beth was invited to be a part of UNO's team for the conference, and I am tagging along for a chance at adventure. Once the conference is done, we are going to take advantage of our circumstances to help complete our Legacy Tour, where we attempt to visit all of the countries from which we have ancestry. Thus, we visit Italy (for me), Luxembourg (for Mary Beth), and Sweden (for both of us) before heading home.
The intent of this 'blog is twofold. First, it will help our friends and family stay connected and participate in some way in our great adventure. Second, it will force me to slow down and think about everything that is a part of the trip, hopefully making me enjoy and appreciate it more. Travel can be a bit of a whirlwind, and it is my hope that by stopping and reflecting on everything via this forum, I will process and remember it better.
Before I get into some of the (ahem) challenges in Mary Beth getting to Joensuu, here's the itinerary of our trip:
June 04: Mary Beth leaves for Joensuu
June 11: Patrick leaves for Joensuu
June 18: Mary Beth and Patrick arrive in Rome
June 22: Mary Beth and Patrick arrive in Luxembourg City
June 24: Mary Beth and Patrick arrive in Stockholm
June 26: Mary Beth and Patrick return home
So, Mary Beth is now safely in Joensuu, a town of about 40,000 people in eastern Finland. Those inclined can see it on a map here. But to get the joke out of the way now I asked her and, no, you can't see Russia from the hotel room. But getting there was a bit of a struggle.
First of all, her flight was scheduled to leave at about 7:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning. Which was, of course, right after the TorCon 7 storm on Tuesday night that brought the Weather Channel's Jim Cantori to Omaha. So, unsurprisingly, that flight got cancelled.
Solution found, though, as the doctor who is running the trip was able to get everyone re-ticketed to fly out of Kansas City to Chicago and make their connecting flights. The only slight problem was that the re-ticketed flight left KCI around 7:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning. Which meant, of course, leaving Omaha at 4:00 a.m. Wednesday morning to get there on time.
Still, that wasn't too arduous, and the UNO team was able to make their flight and head on their way. The next challenge, though, came at JFK when Mary Beth was about to board the flight to Helsinki.
Initially, she was told that her passport "came up" listing her as a Mr. Carsten Runge. A cursory glance at her passport would demonstrate the factual inaccuracy of both the "Carsten" and the "Mr." part of that, of course. So Finnair ultimately realized that their problem was that Mary Beth was listed on the manifest as Mr. Carsten Runge.
Ultimately, they fixed the issue and got Mary Beth on the plane. But no one really wants to be standing in JFK wondering if they are going to be stranded without a ride to their international destination until moments before the plane takes off.
But yes, they did allow Mary Beth on to the plane -- and once that story had a happy ending, humorous references to Mary Beth as "Carsten" can now commence from now until the End of Time. She made it from Helsinki to Joensuu without incident. Without Diet Coke as well, as apparently the only soda available there is Coke, Pepsi, Coke Zero, and Pepsi Max.
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