Traveling to South Africa and Mozambique: Shock Changes
The entire route of the trip to South Africa and Mozambique, as well as useful tips, costs and conclusions, you can read Here.
To the previous travelogue -> preparation and useful tips
The perfect plan B
Shock changes or how Plan B turned out to be more perfect than Plan A.
With a program and luggage so perfectly and professionally organized by me (see the previous travelogue), secured documents and an arrangement with my parents to take me from Plovdiv to the airport in Sofia early in the morning, here is what happened literally hours before the first flight from Sofia to Paris:
– 48 hours before the flight – Declaring a strike by ground staff at Paris airports – mostly Orly Airport and Charles de Gaul (which was my flight to Nairobi)
– 18 hours before the flight – cancellation of the Paris-Nirobi flight due to a strike. No re-routing or change suggestions. So on the Kenya Airlines site I found a phone number to contact on WhatsApp and started trying to contact someone. There is also a Bulgarian number and email listed there, don't rely on them - they answer within a few days, and sometimes they don't even answer. So, on WhatsApp, only the chat bot was initially turned on, then supposedly it kept redirecting me to a live agent, but one never appeared on the line. After a few hours (!) attempts, the situation finally moved and I started writing with a living person across the street. The woman managed to re-certify my ticket for the next day after the strike, and for a morning flight with their partners - in this case, Air France. That way I would arrive in Nairobi in the evening and although I would have missed everything I had planned to do in the Kenya capital on that day (when I was scheduled to arrive early in the morning and have a full day there) it was still wonderful that at least I was able to get on the next flight to Johannesburg and the journey went smoothly on.
- 10 hours before the flight, the flight itself from Sofia to Paris is canceled! Basically, he had to be at Orly Airport, which was given that he would not be so damaged by the strike, but alas, the flight did not take place. This happens while I'm still trying to adjust the intercontinental flight to Nairobi. Amazing! While I'm still arranging the long 8-hour flight to Kenya, I immediately open the Ryan Air, Wizz Air and Bulgaria Air sites and start looking for suitable connecting flights at a normal price at the last minute. I still had to leave within hours! I liked a flight of the Bulgarian airlines, which arrived early on 26.04 with a short time to contact my next pre-routed flight. Its price was BGN 200 more expensive than cancellations, but by the time I wrote my names and data, the tickets at this price ran out and remained only for BGN 1000+. No, thank you!
Do you realize that all this is happening at 9-10 pm in the evening, and I already have an appointment the next morning early at 5:30. To travel to Sofia to catch my flight! Yes, but which flight in this situation?
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It seemed to me that there are no good options to Paris and in the end I got a ticket with the violets (Wizz Air) from Sofia to Brussels on 25.04 in the morning. And from there I had to somehow get to Paris. I would think about it later, how exactly. The last-minute ticket with all the necessary luggage included (1 checked 20 kg + priorities) cost exactly BGN 40 more than the original one with Ryan. I bought, checked in, even around midnight, printed and went to sleep shortly after that action night.
At such moments, one is tested how much one wants something. Whether he will bend to tension, obscurity and fear and give up or tighten up, make the necessary corrections and overcome obstacles. The truth about this trip is that apart from that first stressful day and the shocking start, everything was extremely calm and even wonderful.
A miracle even happened! According to Regulation No. 261/2004 of the European Parliament, in the event of a canceled flight due to a strike, I am not entitled to compensation, but only for cashing in extraordinary expenses incurred by me - overnight stays, food, transport. The distance between Paris and Nairobi is more than 3,500 km. And with such a long flight, the compensation is generally 600 euros. After I got home from the trip, I wrote to Aeroisk and other intermediaries about my case, but they cut me off immediately for a reason that it was a strike (although the strike was canceled late in the evening the day before). From the Kenyans, I had an email that the flight was canceled due to a strike. That's why I wrote to them about the overnight stay in Paris and to reimburse me for the expenses for it, and after about a month after the trip I received an answer in which nothing was mentioned about the reimbursement of these costs, but they voluntarily tell me that I am entitled to compensation of 600 euros according to the European regulation, as The reason for the cancellation of the flight was a technical malfunction. Well, well, as long as you give 🙂 Within 2 weeks, 1200 BGN was in my account, which covered much more than my flights to Africa.
And why should the plan B be actually the perfect plan? Well, very simple. With Plan A, I had a whole day planned in Nairobi, and with Plan B - that was missing and only the overnight stay there. I think it turned out perfect because what I saw in Nairobi on the way to the hotel and back, I didn't like it and even worse - I would be startled if I had to be there all day. In reality, for the 2nd time, Kenya is slipping away from me, and apparently there is a reason. There will hardly be a third time in such a case.
THE BEGINNING
So, the next morning instead of at 5:30, we left at 8:00 to Sofia Airport. Yes, it wasn't the beginning I had planned for months, but it was still the beginning of the realization of a big childhood dream of mine. The flight to Brussels was from 12:50 and arrived at 14:45 BGN. I traveled with 1 medium suitcase (full of 100% with donations) + 1 small suitcase (2/3 also donations) and one medium backpack with My baggage. I thought with a backpack on your back, back pain and 2 pull-up suitcases, it would be a mission impossible, but it wasn't that complicated at all. On the contrary, the pains decreased!
On the way to Sofia, I organized the transport from Brussels to Paris, and then, while riding a bus to Paris, I organized the overnight stay in the French capital. For the first time, I had to act so quickly with reservations in a few hours.
From Sofia to Brussels to Paris
So, Wizz Air's flight to Brussels Charleroi was perfect and arrived on time. This was followed by a shuttle bus Flibco from the airport to Midi Station in southwestern Brussels for 19 euros. From there with Flix Bus to Paris Bercy Seine for 30 euros. In total, the entire trip with the two buses from Charleroi Airport to Paris lasted 6 hours. In general, in normal situations, there are both faster and cheaper ways to get around, but when over 1 million people are affected by the strikes at the Paiardi airports, the places and opportunities for alternative movement end quickly. For example, there were no train tickets for that day. None for any hour! The good thing was that Ryan Air subsequently covered my tickets with Flibco and Flixbus, as well as the price difference with Wiz's new ticket.
Without planning, I added one more country to the list of countries visited - Belgium. Although for a few hours there, looking from a bus, I reported several facts about Belgium (the area around Brussels):
- the Belgians are super calm drivers. There is no beeping, no rudeness on the road.
- it's clean. Everywhere. in the city and outside the city.
- It's colder. At the end of April it was 7-8 degrees and windy compared to 18-20 degrees in Bulgaria.
- It's green. There are no overgrown grasses and bushes.
– It is cycling. Both in the city and off the city roads there is a marking for cyclists. Almost everywhere.
Entering France to land, it continued to be green and clean, but the closer we got to Paris, the more garbage began to be seen in the streets and graffiti on the fences and buildings. But I fell in love with the French villages with churches in the center. There were also no overgrown grasses and bushes in France. But on the other hand, there was nearly 100% arable land.
The hotel I ended up booking in Paris was Hôtel CIS Paris Ravel. It cost quite a bit - 160 BGN (!), included breakfast and was far from the airport. All the closer hotels were either filled, or hostel type or even more insanely priced. Overall it was a decent hotel, with a comfortable bed to rest.
Despite my great desire to move economically, in Paris both next to the hotel in the evening and to the airport the next morning, I was traveling by BOLT taxi due to fatigue and quite a bit of luggage. And Charles de Gole Airport turned out to be really huge. More - in the next travelogue.