To start, and avoid misunderstanding, the rest of my trip went relatively problem-free and was very nice. I met loads of old friends everywhere, some that I hadn’t seen for several years. I had a lot of strawberries and ice cream, learnt a Finnish game that I totally rocked (not beginner’s luck because I also totally lost the first round). So overall I had a very good time.
So now. It was my trip home from Finland that made me endlessly sigh, roll my eyes and complain (by writing this blog).
To make you understand what flying home is usually like, I will give you a very short description: you arrive, you go to the terminal via an airbridge (this so even if you’re flying with EasyJet or any other low-budget company). I then hurry downstairs because unless you’re at gate 1 (the closest one), the luggage will almost always already be circulating when I arrive downstairs on one of the three conveyor belts we have. So basically a very fast service. Oh, and there will usually not be very many people, because I hurry out and am a lot faster than the confused-looking tourists, and because the service is so fast most other passengers will be already gone despite having landed on similar times.
But now when you live in a small country you can understand that everything has to be quite small, including the airport. Although I have recently said to a lot of my friends that we don't have a tourist season anymore because now there are tourists here all year round, unlike the olden days, that is not entirely true: tourism is causing this poor country to explode, price-wise, time-wise and else, and we who actually live here are forgotten by our own nationals because of their greed for tourists' money.
So yesterday when I arrived there were not enough gates (i.e. airbridges) for all the airplanes, so we had to exit by stairs and take busses to the terminal. In all the travelling I do back and forth all the time, this has never ever happened to me here!!
I then tried to hurry, but could barely get anywhere for changes (no, not enlargements of the airport, just changes!) and tourists, literally! I went to conveyor belt no 3 because that is where it said luggage from Helsinki would arrive. For your information, some three other airplanes had their luggage arrive at the same belt. The same can be told of the remaining two belts.
I admittedly regret very much that I checked in my bag solely out of laziness, as it was actually hand-luggage fit. I always avoid checking in my bag if I can, because it’s faster, but I didn’t realize things were this bad so I thought: it will be fast anyway, it will save me dragging 11 kg around and taking all liquids out in the security etc. I blame it on a friend who tempted me to do this because he had done it when we went to Finland. Never ever again!!!
Anyway, so while I stand there, they call out in the speaker system that “all passengers from Zurich, luggage will be arriving to belt no 2 and 3”. Already there you can hear that things are messed up and overloaded. One more destination was later called to arrive at both belts, but not Helsinki.
After one unbelievable hour, and aircrafts arriving after me having been taken off the screen because everything had been delivered, I went to the ground services and asked if all luggage had arrived from Finland.
‘Er, yes, I think so…’ she said while typing in stuff, seeming to check it up.
‘Well, I still haven’t got my suitcase,’ I said, quite annoyed by this time. I would have been at my doorstep if I hadn’t checked the damn thing in. And would have been in the process of turning the TV on to watch the Swedish royal wedding.
She started to take down my information when a customer next to me asked if I had come from Helsinki.
‘Yes.’
‘Try over at belt no 1. At least I found my stuff there’.
You-are-kidding-right?
Thankfully I did, but that really says something about the overload of tourists, or at least the undersize of the airport.
The dumb thing is, I can’t believe they haven’t done something about it yet! They did seem to be making enlargements to the check-in and arriving area, but not in the duty-free area at all, there it is just a matter of changing stuff to…make things cooler? I don’t know. But why I’m saying “done something about it yet” is that these renovations and enlargements were not ongoing when we got back from Tel Aviv less than a month ago. Yet at the beginning of the year the government estimated a record of tourists that would arrive during the year, the first time we would hit over one million. So why did they not start these changes in the winter?! When people weren’t everywhere! Now not only are the renovations in passengers’ way, but the passengers must also be in the workers’ way! This is what I call shit planning.
Fine. We’ve had a crap winter. But honestly, spring started a bit earlier than now…
Sadly, I have no solution nor suggestion for improvement. Making the airport bigger is such an obvious thing that I don’t need to say it, but except for that?
Prices and other things that used to be daily life for us living here are all getting out of reach because of greed. Everyone is changing a room or their whole apartment to an airB&B, even in apartments that are not meant for short-term lettings. I really get the “greed”, but have some respect for your neighbours too. It sets the whole building at bigger risks for break-ins, nuisance, or whatever else, for inviting new strangers every two nights. And my friend told me people are setting the prices so high. Even in Paris you can find 20€ per night, and that’s an expensive town. But here, people are setting the prices to €60-70!!
Going to the pool, which is something the average person does like once a week, has become more expensive than in countries where the pool is not a weekly nor cultural thing. Partially it is due to inflation but I swear that not all of it can be! You can see this because the pools in the suburbs (other municipalities) are cheaper. And tourists don’t follow our standards and rules of showering naked so not only do our pools get more expensive, but also more dirty.
And sorry, but last but not least, speaking of rules, they don’t check up on rules concerning being here. This makes less common sense, because you wouldn’t do this in a new country. But if you’re going up on a glacier, you would be smart enough to check up weather conditions, or the condition of your car (just the fact that you only have a car tells you you shouldn’t be going in the first place). You need to check the traffic, because even at this time of year some roads are closed and still dangerous. To illustrate, if I remember correctly, last year we set a record in the amount of money spent on rescuing actions on tourists getting lost on the glaciers. And we’re not just talking records because we didn’t usually spend much, but a record by far! And last year, I think…some 5-7 people died in traffic over the whole year. Yes, whole year. This year, 5 people have already died in traffic (and we obviously still even have winter left!), three of whom have been tourists. Admittedly, not tourists up on glaciers, but it just sounds so sad to say that they just crashed in a ditch, but that seems to be truth.
I know many countries, UK, Italy, France etc. have many more tourists that we have per year. But when a country is this small, and this is something that only quite recently changed, the proportion of tourists is just so much bigger and the impacts much more visible. I don’t have a solution. Tourists have a tendency to be a bit stupid at times, or at least look like it, of course not all, but on average. I don’t know what to say. I’ve said all. Complained enough. Just trying to share that: try to have some respect for the locals. Warn and tell friends to be careful if visiting. Follow standard and if you see a local do something, do it too. Even if it requires you to stand naked in a shower. But I believe I’ve said it before: fewer people will give you evil looks then. If you get naked, you will be like a local, and after all, isn’t that what an ideal tourist would want to do?
I’ll end on more positive notes by a photo from my much-so strawberry themed stay in Helsinki, where strawberries were part of the breakfast, brunch and dinner dessert all days.