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It all began on Thursday 26th, with the snow falling heavy
on Milan since the very early hours...
2006: Snow Odissey
Erminia was supposed to be the first one getting on a flight
that day, her flight was due to land in Milan at 19.30, but
was canceled. Germana was already on her way to the airport
to pick her up when she got the bad news, so went back to
pick Sonia at the train station.
It was really difficult to drive in the storm, the ride home
took one hour instead of 20 minutes, so we were really worried
about missing the flight at 6.40am to Copenaghen the morning
after. Erminia’s new flight got delayed repeatedly,
until it was canceled and she had to stay overnight at the
Cagliari airport, hoping for a flight in the morning.
But nothing landed in Linate that day, so even our early morning
flight was cancelled, and we received the news from Laura
with a sad sad phone call... what to do now? Sonia and Germana
leave from home some time around 11pm, not knowing what the
roads would be like. Got to the airport parking 10 minutes
before 1am, and they didn’t want to bring us to the
airport, told us to stay in the car and wait until 4am....
NO, we must get to the airport!! and so we convince them,
and a few minutes after 1am we’re in. All flights cancelled,
people sleeping everywhere, and we slept on a conveyor belt...
(you know, those were you put your bags at the check-in...).
4.30am we wake up (not that we had slept much) to the news
that yes, the flight is canceled and no planes will land in
Linate today. Luckily a very nice SAS officer, Alberto, tells
us we’re gonna be transferred to Malpensa, because planes
are still landing there and there might be a flight to Copenaghen
at 11.10am. Erminia is still in Cagliari, hoping for a flight,
things are starting to get a bit complicated as she would
have to land in Linate and somehow get to Malpensa to reach
us. Alberto’s comment on this: “it’s gonna
be hard”.
5.38am finally Laura arrives at the airport, right while we’re
“checking in” for the bus.
SAS gives us a voucher for breakfast, and even the bar opens
with half an hour delay...
8.00am Alberto sees us on the bus to Malpensa, and we wave
bye bye
9.40am we get to Malpensa, and got the news that our plane
hasn’t left Copenaghen yet, the estimated departure
time gets shifted forward hour by hour, and it keeps snowing
really hard.
Later we had lunch at McDonald’s... haha... we needed
some fat :p and went in vane searching for an internet point.
We were worried about our rental car at this point (it was
booked and payed), but we had to give up the idea of reaching
Goteborg by car. Around 1pm our flight is officially canceled,
but we heard that there was a chance a flight from Oslo might
land in Malpensa... and it was our only hope to get out of
that airport. Happy news, but came at the same time of a sad
news, that Erminia had given up and was going home.
So all of our hopes were on this flight from Oslo, had it
landed in Milan they would’ve redirected us to Oslo
and then somewhere else... it was one hour of tension, we
followed minute by minute the whole story at the SAS ticket
office... landing would’ve been extremely dangerous
for the people on the plane, but it was our only hope to get
out of Malpensa and reach Goteborg somehow... in the end the
captain of the flight decided to land in Nice, and our hopes
to make it on time for the Goteborg show went down the drain.
All flights in and out of Milan were canceled, the airport
was officially closed and they kept shifting the re-opening
time... 2pm, 4pm, 6pm... until they said it was closed until
the morning after. We heard that *maybe* there would’ve
been a special flight at 1pm on Saturday but nothing granted
so we started considering alternative options, like taking
a train out to Switzerland and then fly from there, but also
ground transport was in chaos.
Then a little light... weather forecasts are getting better,
and maybe the 11.10am flight could be there on Saturday...
so we booked the flight from Copenaghen to Goteborg, and just
kept waiting. At this point Sonia receives bad news from home,
and we have a feeling that maybe this trip just wasn’t
meant to be. This was possibly the lowest point of the odissey.
No hope, no strenght.
4pm Sonia decides to try and go back home, which wasn’t
easy at all, so of the 4 girls only Laura and Germana are
still there hanging on...
We try to make a few phone calls, but we got the Storan wrong
number, and Kajsa’s wrong number, and the hotel is always
busy... but then we finally manage to talk to them, and also
get the Storan right number. So we called the Storan and talked
to a very nice woman who tried to get us in contact with Andreas,
but apparently he was busy with soundcheck. We leave a message
for him, and she gives us a phone number, it’s the mobile
of one of the technicians. We sent a couple of txt’s
to him, but got no reply, tried to call him and got no answer,
and we start to doubt a bit...
We spent the night on chairs, now and then going outside to
check the snow situation, and it looked like it was improving
6am, wake up........ and it’s not snowing anymore, it’s
rain!!!
8.38am the flight from Copenaghen has taken off
We’re finally able to check in for our flight (while
the plane is still in the air), and we buy the ticket to Goteborg
(flight leaving CPH at 2.15pm). We go back to check in to
add the new destination, but can’t get the boarding
cards
10.35am flight lands in Malpensa!!!
Scheduled at 11.10am, the flight is delayed – PANIC.
We had only about one hour in CPH, so when the plane took
off at 11.59 we were really worried we’d miss the connection.
Lady on the plane says “don’t worry you’ll
be on the following flight” but NO!!! we MUST get on
that flight... the following one would be too late and everything
would be vane... We asked on board, and they said we had to
go to the transfer center to get our boarding cards, nothing
they can do about it.
1.45pm plane lands in CPH, we step over everyone to get off
the plane as fast as we can, we run a long way to the transfer
center, only to find about 50 people in queue. We ask the
man at the desk if he can please help us, but he says “sorry
take your number and wait in line” NOOO!!! some more
begging, lots more, and finally he listens to us
“we don’t have the boarding cards”
“then go to the gate!”
We were a bit uncertain to hear this, but rushed to the gate
and found they were already boarding the flight. A couple
of minutes in the queue, then when we reach the lady checking
the Ids we tell her that we don’t have the boarding
cards, and she simply says the most wonderful sentence we
could’ve heard... “it’s not a problem”.
All of the tension is finally released, after so many hours
of uncertainty we’re finally sure we’ll make it
to Goteborg, and at 2.10pm we step on the plane, to land in
GTB one hour later.
At the bus stop outside the airport we met the only other
survivor of the Friday 6.40am flight, who tells us
“you must have a good reason for doing this”
“we’re going to a concert”
- puzzled face –
20 minutes after landing we’re on the bus.
4.13pm we enter central station in Goteborg, looking for the
ticket office when we see on the screens that the train to
Alingsas will leave at 4.17pm, so we walk very fast to the
platform and step on the train just as the doors were closing
(they actually closed on our bag). At this point, our only
worry is that we don’t want Andreas to see us like this,
we were totally worn out by the previous 48 hours and were
in tragic conditions.
38 minutes later we’re in Alingsas, and a girl walks
us to the Grand Hotel which is right on the other side of
the road to the station.
5.00pm, we walk up the few stairs and enter the hall, and
there he is turning his back at us.
“OOOPS”
We both froze for a few seconds, silent. Then Andreas “feels
something” behind him and turns to us. And there we
stay, staring at each other in disbelief for a few endless
seconds until he finally says with a big smile “you’re
here!” (or something to that extent... haha)
So hugs and kisses and more hugs... he’s just too.....
*huggy*... that was the word ;p
He said he was sad we had missed the show the day before because
it had been a good one, but we replied we were just too happy
to be there that night.....
We were introduced to the band, and after a very quick shower
(20 minutes and we were both ready to go) we went to the soundcheck
and had the chance to listen to a few songs... Sunshine of
mine, The games we play, Show me xxxx, Shine... and maybe
others we can’t remember. Short chat with Jarmo and
with Andreas who came to us and asked “how are you?”
......easy answer: “extremely tired”.
Then it was dinner time for them, and for us later on. At
9pm we met Kajsa and waited with her, and shortly after we
also met Astrid and her mom.
Show finally began 15 minutes past midnight (maybe?), but
only a few of us were there for the music, the vast majority
of people was there to get drunk, and sometimes we had to
fight to keep our spot!
What they played:
Show me love
Shine
Caravan
The games we play
How big is America
What if
Fools like us
Pretty ones
Glorious
---
Brand new thing
Show me love
The gig was just too short, they were forced to play hits
and songs that kept the audience going, but they were clearly
having fun on stage and the sinergy between the band members
was very good. Too bad the crowd cared more about drinking
than about the music.
After the show we spent some time talking to Andreas about
his projects, the promotion plans in Europe and the US, the
Eurovision contest (much to Kajsa's disappointment :p)...
but time just flew... and they had to go.
They left for Stockholm that same night, on to the next show.
Saying goodbye has never been so hard but... we know that
this is not goodbye.
Bending Rules & Moonlight
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