Disaster

Well today has been absolutely horrendous. So bad that I wanted to just hop on a plane and come home.

On Friday I left Reykjavik on my way to Menorca for my last dig. I couldn't fly straight to Menorca. Instead I had to fly from Reykjavik to London on the 19th arriving at 8pm and then at 7am on the 20th I would fly from Luton airport to Menorca.

When I arrived from Reykjavik at Heathrow airport, I straight away hopped onto a bus for Luton airport. The plane had been late arriving and I didn´t have long to get to my bus, so I raced there and got there with 2 mins to spare - only to find out that there had been a big accident on the motorway and the bus was delayed 45 mins. *sigh*

I finally got to Luton airport around 10:30 and transferred to a hotel so I could get a few hours sleep. I managed to get about 5 hours sleep before I had to be up and at the airport.

I arrived at Luton airport a little over 2 hours before my flight left. I thought it would be quiet, but there were masses of people at the airport and in fact it took me 40 mins to get to the check-in counter. When I finally got to the counter I was informed that I needed to collect my tickets from the ticket office before I could check in. So, I had to get out of the queue and find the ticket office. When I got there the woman told me that I didn't need a ticket because mine was a ticketless flight, so they'd just wasted my time and then I had to push back in to the front of the check-in queue (which always pisses people off because they don't know what's going on). Finally started to check-in and was asked how many pieces of carry-on luggage I had. When she found out I had 2 I was informed that Luton airport was extremely strict and I wouldn´t be allowed through with more than one piece so I would have to check-in one of my pieces of hand luggage. I was informed that I could try my luck with security but would more than likely be sent back to the check-in desk and I would end up missing my flight. So I had to make the quick decision to check-in my day pack and just carry my laptop case with me and shove as much into it as possible. I was trying to do it in a rush and I was panicking a bit so I grabbed out everything I thought was important and then checked it in. I told the woman that I was really worried because it didn´t have a lock and there was no ID on it, but she said it would have to go like it was, so all I could do was wind a paper clip through the zip and hope it stayed closed. Then because I´d checked-in a 2nd bag!!!!!!! I had to pay an extra fee for the second piece of luggage.

Getting through security was a long process and they wouldn´t let anyone through with more than one piece of hand luggage.

It wasn´t until I was on the plane that I realised that I´d forgotten to take my camera out of my day pack and put it into my laptop case. I just had to hope it would be ok.

When I arrived at Menorca I raced through immigration to get to the luggage belt and my daypack was one of the first off. I searched through it and guess what I couldn´t find!!!!! My camera was gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was freaking out.

I could tell that my bag had been rifled through because of the way the contents were and the paper clip was gone (which isn´t something that could have just gotten knocked off). So, one of the baggage staff had obviously gone through my bag and taken my camera.

I was in tears. My camera was gone, but not only that, all my photos. Because my laptop hadn´t been working (a story for another day) I hadn´t backed up my camera since I left Rome so I´d lost all my photos from Ireland, the Faverhsam dig, France and Iceland.

As soon as my suitcase came off I headed straight over to file a complaint. The Spanish lady pretty much told me there wasn´t anything that could be done. All they could do was file a report with the airport and then I should just report it to the police.

I was really pissed off.

I managed to find the Thomspon Fly office. The woman there was very nice and sympathetic and helped as much as she could, but even she had to admit that I wouldn´t see my camera again.

By that point I wasn´t so much pissed off about my camera, but more about the fact that this person would go unpunished. That the airline/airport wouldn´t do anything about it. They weren´t even considering contacting HR and letting them know that their staff were stealing from people and putting the word out that this wouldn´t be tolerated.

I´m still pretty upset. I´ve lost heaps of photos and the camera that Mum and Dad bought me for Christmas. It was such a great little camera as well.

Dad is having to find out from the travel insurance people what I need to do to get a replacement camera.

I am going to contact Luton airport as well and let them know how unhappy I am with the way they operate and the stress they have caused me.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
There isn´t much I can do about it now.

I´m on Menorca now, the people on the dig are very friendly and we start the hard work first thing in the morning (so no rest for Casey).

It is a very small group. There are only 7 students split between 2 areas - 3 at the Necropolis and 4 at the Roman City.

The place we´re staying is nice. We have a housekeeper who prepares very nice meals and we´re not allowed to do the washing up! The apartment can accommodate about 18 people, but there are only 8 of us in it, so we have plenty of room. It would be extremely squishy if it was full.

Anyway, I just needed to rant a bit. I´m feeling ok now. I´ll have to find some time to get myself a new camera this week.

I promise I´ll post again soon (and hopefully something positive next time).

Casey.