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Monday, June 2, 2008

The adventures of the world traveling bag

As I journeyed to Slovenia to visit some of my closest European friends, I became a victim of lost baggage. My flight from Jacksonville didn't arrive in JFK until 4:15. That is over 2 hours past 
the originally scheduled arrival time. Due to this delay, my bag never made it onto the plane with me. Apparently, when JetBlue flights are 
delayed, they only half load the plane with baggage in a piss poor 
attempt to make up for their lost time. Unfortunately, I was one of those 
people whose bag is still in Jacksonville. After calling my dad and 
discussing the wonderful situation I was in, we made the executive 
decision to forgo the baggage entirely and make a run for it. Thanks 
to Raph (our strength trainer) I was able to move close to the speed of light and make it to 
the air train to take me to terminal 1. The Austrian airline workers 
were anticipating my arrival, no idea how, and were able to get me all 
checked in and through security. After sprinting through the crowds of 
people, I located my gate: at the end of the longest terminal ever. Of 
course. Now: sweating like an overweight man. Seat 22a.
My flight from JFK to Austria wound up getting in a few minutes before schedule. That would be 
great if I needed to hurry through baggage and customs, but 
considering I have no luggage and therefore nothing whatsoever to 
claim, who cares that we're early?

JetBlue took responsibility for losing my luggage and shipped it to Nina's house...after 2 weeks with them, I left to go to Maribor and they left for Spain. After a few failed attempts to retrieve the bag with Sara when I first visited her in Ljubljana, conveniently the same day the bag arrived there. We filled out the requested paperwork and wrote a document stating I only have personal items in the bag; we were told that this action would speed up the process. They lied. My mom kept tracking the bag and calling the local Slovenia branch of FedEx and finally told me to talk to Cory and Andreja for them to help contact the Ljubljana FedEx and allow me to get my bag. 
Nejc and I drove in circles around a town outside of Ljubljana before finally stopping and asking for better directions than were provided to us by the FedEx woman. A few suspect left turns later, Nejc pulled up to the store and we went in to request my bag. Reaching our destination, we went in and requested my bag. While Nejc conversed with the manager in Slovenian, I was able to play a convincing dumb-American role, responding with a confused “no?” in response to their requested payment. There is no way I would be playing for my own luggage. 
In the farthest back left corner, behind a car and boxes lay a 
familiar black duffel bag. Victim spotted! After checking the tags and 
tracking number for about the millionth time, I received sole custody. 
I signed a paper, dating it 6/2/09, 16:30 as the retrieval date. 
Package signed and delivered! Never again will I do international 
business win FedEx. After spending just shy of two weeks without clothing, I had been reunited with my belongings.



Here are the many places it has traveled:
May 18 my house, Ponte Vedra, FL
May 19 JIA, Jacksonville, FL
May 20 Jamaica New York
May 21 Newark, New Jersey
May 22 Paris France
May 23 Frankfurt Germany
May 24-June 2 Ljubljana, Slovenia
June 2, 16:30 Nejc and I picked it up from FedEx