First Time Home in a Year

Due to the pandemic and working my summer job, I wasn’t able to go home during the summer as usual. Previously, the longest I had been away from home was 6 months, so this 11 months was quite a stretch.

On Sunday, December 20th we began our travel. You read that right: we. For this trip, my girlfriend was able to come home with me! Traveling to the United States for the first time while COVID-19 was surging wasn’t ideal, but nevertheless we were glad to travel together. First we took the train to Helsinki, spent the night, and the next day used her sister’s car to drive to Tampere, where we dropped off Orion with their dad. We weren’t too worried about leaving Orion since my girlfriend’s dad had raised him as a young puppy, and he’d be with his litter mate as well as birth mother. It felt like we were dropping off Orion at camp!

The next day we drove back to Helsinki and took a COVID-19 test, which was recently added to the list of requirements for entering the United States. Finally, we left on Wednesday, December 22nd. Our original route had increased from 11 hours to 15, with a 3.5-hour layover in Copenhagen before flying to Chicago. Due to this, we stayed overnight in a hotel near the airport, and the next day my parents drove us home to St. Louis.

Upon arrival in St. Louis, we had to introduce my girlfriend and Star, the family dog. Star isn’t usually one to make friends, but we were surprised how well she warmed up to my girlfriend! Treats were truly the answer. For several days Star still barked whenever we left and reentered, but overall Star was friendly and we didn’t have any problems.

The next two weeks were filled with family, friends, and visiting various places in St. Louis. Check out the pictures and captions to read more (not all pictured)! Of course we kept COVID in mind and tried our best to be as safe as possible. We wore masks and took a total of 11 COVID tests (9 rapid and 2 PCR) between us while in St. Louis.

Early on Monday, January 3rd, my parents drove us back to Chicago. Our first order of business was getting a COVID test, which was frustratingly required for our layover in Sweden yet not for return to Finland. Luckily one of the recommended free testing sites worked out, and we were able to cancel our $95 each booked tests for the next day. With COVID tests out of the way, we had the rest of the time to explore Chicago, easily accessible by our downtown hotel. We were pleasantly surprised that people in Chicago even wore masks while walking around outside. In fact, the day we arrived was the first day of the public health order requiring individuals over the age of 5 to be vaccinated to enter dining / entertainment establishments.

After a great visit home, we headed back to Finland on Tuesday, January 4th. Our first flight from Chicago went smoothly, but from there it was a train wreck.

When we purchased the tickets, we should have arrived back to Helsinki in 10.5 hours. However, it ended up taking 21, double the expected time.

Next is a brief account of what happened:

• Not knowing we had to go through security again upon exiting the plane, we had saved the yogurt and juice from breakfast. The people at security rummaged through my entire bag, with the gloves they had been using with everyone else, removing items and dumping out my water bottle, which I disinfected immediately.
• We went to the SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) Service Center to ask about an earlier flight because yesterday it had been cancelled and rescheduled from 9.55 to 16.45. They called Finnair (our second flight airline) and said we could check in with them. To do this we had to retrieve our bags, exit the airport, and go back through the departure hall.
• The catch was that no Finnair representatives were available until check in for the 13.15 flight, the one we hoped to board. After waiting hours at the crowded airport entrance, Finnair told us that there were no availabilities on the flight.
• Finnair told us they couldn’t do anything and that we had to talk with SAS, so we talked with SAS, who told us they couldn’t do anything, so we talked with Finnair. In the end we just had to recheck our bags for the same 16.45 flight. After arriving in Sweden at 7.30, we weren’t able to reenter the airport (which required going through security again) until about 12.30.
• After walking to our gate, we attempted to use the meal vouchers (that we also had to go back and forth to get) and found out they weren’t even valid at restaurants due to lack of invoicing information. Defeated, we ordered anyway. Then we found a quiet area of the airport and waited there for several more hours (5+) since the flight was repeatedly pushed back.

The whole experience was terrible, but the worst part was the confusion with trying to get an earlier flight. If SAS had just initially told us that no seats were available, we could have at least relaxed in the airport (or possibly a hotel) for those hours instead of standing and being surrounded by so many people (an uncomfortable amount of whom – even employees – were not wearing masks diligently). We will definitely be requesting compensation from the airlines for this severe violation of time as well as health.

Update: The compensation request was denied since the delays were caused by weather, which is classified as an extraordinary circumstance…

After 12 hours of waiting for a 45 minute flight, we finally landed around 21.00 to a snowy Helsinki. I couldn’t be happier that our next flight is direct!