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Feb. 5th, 2009 10:40 pmMy holiday this year is in serious jeopardy.
I've been trying to find a place to stay in Mariehamn while the Island Games are on in late June and early July, but everywhere I've tried so far is full. It seems likely that a tour operator that is the Games' official partner has block-booked all the accommodation in town, and of course the athletes probably fill up a great deal of it. I've emailed the tour operator to enquire about accommodation and they simply aren't answering my emails. (I think that's because the Games website says this tour operator will book your travel and accommodation as a package, so I included a note explaining that I've already booked my travel. If you've, in all innocence, already booked flights and just want accommodation, it seems you can go hang.) So unless I can somehow find somewhere to stay - perhaps in another town on the main island, incurring taxi fares back from Mariehamn every night - my trip is going to be kyboshed. My last resort will be sending a new request to the tour operator without saying anything about already having booked travel, paying the extra to let them book travel for me and letting the flights I've paid for already go. Worse, I've already paid for my flights and, being Ryanair, you can't get a refund or exchange.
My holiday is the one and only thing between now and October that I've got to look forward to, so in my present emotional state having that go for a burton would be catastrophic.
On top of that, I had several people on the phone tonight who depressed the hell out of me. One woman who was about to make an appointment when she suddenly said "We're not interested" and, when I reminded her it was the same survey she'd done for two years, said "No" and hung up; a woman who, before I'd even finished the introduction, said "Will you please keep away" and hung up; and an elderly woman who replied to everything I said with "I don't want to do it." Even when I asked her her reason for wanting to drop out (she'd done it twice before) she again just said "I don't want to do it". She's like a fucking record with the needle stuck.
I'm losing my will to carry on.
I've been trying to find a place to stay in Mariehamn while the Island Games are on in late June and early July, but everywhere I've tried so far is full. It seems likely that a tour operator that is the Games' official partner has block-booked all the accommodation in town, and of course the athletes probably fill up a great deal of it. I've emailed the tour operator to enquire about accommodation and they simply aren't answering my emails. (I think that's because the Games website says this tour operator will book your travel and accommodation as a package, so I included a note explaining that I've already booked my travel. If you've, in all innocence, already booked flights and just want accommodation, it seems you can go hang.) So unless I can somehow find somewhere to stay - perhaps in another town on the main island, incurring taxi fares back from Mariehamn every night - my trip is going to be kyboshed. My last resort will be sending a new request to the tour operator without saying anything about already having booked travel, paying the extra to let them book travel for me and letting the flights I've paid for already go. Worse, I've already paid for my flights and, being Ryanair, you can't get a refund or exchange.
My holiday is the one and only thing between now and October that I've got to look forward to, so in my present emotional state having that go for a burton would be catastrophic.
On top of that, I had several people on the phone tonight who depressed the hell out of me. One woman who was about to make an appointment when she suddenly said "We're not interested" and, when I reminded her it was the same survey she'd done for two years, said "No" and hung up; a woman who, before I'd even finished the introduction, said "Will you please keep away" and hung up; and an elderly woman who replied to everything I said with "I don't want to do it." Even when I asked her her reason for wanting to drop out (she'd done it twice before) she again just said "I don't want to do it". She's like a fucking record with the needle stuck.
I'm losing my will to carry on.
