I mention in each travel day post that I dislike air travel. It feels chaotic and uncivil in ways other forms of transport avoid. Each airport and airline has its own system that you can’t possibly know about if you have not been there before. Sometimes your experience is extremely different due to the people you encounter. Add in tight time constraints, and I have a recipe for stress.

To combat my airport anxiety, we usually leave much earlier than we need. This is especially true if we are staying in a residential neighborhood and we don’t speak the local language. Thankfully, my Uber app works in Norway. An actual taxi shows up to the house in under five minutes (I no longer have to think about bus routes ….and back up plans…..).

I relax as we pull into the small airport. We have more than enough time. Too much time. That makes me happy. There are no workers visible as we make our way to baggage drop. Hmm. We realize that we have to get our own baggage tags, but we aren’t sure where. We find the self service kiosks after wandering around for awhile. There are literally no workers helping anyone. In fact, I don’t see any employees. The lines are long. An elderly woman asks for our help. I help her get her documents and we wait for our turn. I put in our information and we get boarding passes ….but no luggage tags. I try again and again on a different machine… still no tags. This is an issue as we are going to Oslo and we want our bags to come with us.

Now what? I go to the only human that looks official. She standing alone, aloof, and looking at her phone. She tells me she only works for her airline ……not ours. Find your sign she says. I look everywhere and see a board with dozens of small emblems over in the corner. Another worker pushes past me in the crowd, I try to ask her…she keeps walking. I notice that several other passengers are in the same situation. We are all bewildered.

Finally a worker that I track down (as she races away from me) tells me to get in line for counter three. We do, and are 8th in line. The line for counter four is 30 people deep. We wait. Twenty minutes go by and the worker is still assisting the same family at the front of the line. The crowd grows restless. I leave my husband in line and go try a ticket machine again. It is still not working… I ask for help from a passing person in an airport jacket, and am again ignored. Someone appears and is randomly helping people in the back of our line. We wait. Forty minutes and the line finally moves forward.

We are second in line now and an agent appears and moves the people in front of us over behind a tape barrier. She asks why we are in line. I tell her we were unable to get baggage tags. She tells me I have to go to a machine. I tell her I have. She gets mad and tells me to come with her to a machine. My husband stays in line, we are not giving up our place as there are now dozens of people in line behind us.

I follow her back to a kiosk. She tells me how to work the machine. I tell her I have already done the things she suggests multiple times and was actually able to help others print their tags. She yells, “I am trying to explain to you.” I say okay. She tries again. It doesn’t work…again. She says “maybe it was out of paper the first time, lots of people have this problem, I need to understand what is happening to help.” I try not to smirk as she finds herself unable to help…just as I explained earlier.

I am sent back to the line and we are moved behind the tape barrier. She then turns and proceeds to tell the many people in line behind us that they have to move to the end of the even longer line four. This is when the mutiny happens.

People who have been standing in line for almost an hour with no movement and no assistance are being told to move into a line that doesn’t even show they service the correct airline. They refuse to move. The airline agent tells them she needs to clear the aisle for safety. They refuse. She tells them they have to listen, that she is in charge. They refuse. She keeps saying I understand……I know it is unfair ……but you have to do as I say. They refuse.

I honestly don’t know what happens next. It takes all of two minutes to print our baggage tags once we get to a live person at the ticketing counter. I suspect if employees spent as much time opening a new computer and actually assisting as they spent avoiding and yelling at passengers who could not navigate faulty self service equipment they could have cleared the ticketing area in twenty minutes. I can’t believe there are only two counter agents in an entire airport trying to cover needs of passengers for over a dozen airlines. Welcome to the post technology hellscape of travel.

Security lines are long but moving. For whatever reason everyone with a camera is being detained and having a residue check. So I wait. There is no actual room to wait so I shield my belongings and dodge passengers dashing to their planes. Eventually my coat and very old camera are released.

Finally, a few hours after we get to the airport, we are able to sit and have a croissant. Our plane will board in the next 10 minutes. We made it. Not the leisurely breakfast I had in mind.

The view of snow on the fjord from the airport windows makes the Tromso waiting areas among the most beautiful I have ever seen. Unfortunately, the inside of this airport is chaos. The tagline for tourism social media here is Tromso love. My hot take on the airport is Tromso airport hate.

It all becomes a little clearer when the same counter agents from downstairs appear to check in passengers for at least three flights in a row (all different airlines). Three, maybe four, people are providing check in service and boarding services for a dozen airlines! I predict in the next iteration of cost cutting, we will be self serving snacks (which you have to pay for on a domestic flight) and possibly serving as co-pilot. Welcome to the modern age of travel.