OH Canada!

WE FINALLY MADE IT!

So our trip to Toronto start at 3 am on Monday morning when our alarm clocks went off – I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep but Joonas was awake the whole three hours we had of potential sleep. So we got up, showered and then started carrying all our stuff downstairs and packed it into the taxi that was waiting for us. Luckily everything fit without any problems and we were off! 

Everything at the Helsinki airport went very well, Bugi was handed over to the ground staff and we went through security and straight to the Moomin shop to get a Moomin soft toy as a gift for our host family’s 2 year old son. Then it was just a case of grabbing a coffee and walking back to our departure gate which was at the opposite end of the airport in terminal 1. We went to sit by the window so we could see Bugi being loaded into the plane but once her cage came into view on the tarmac we both realised that it would have been a better idea not to see it at all! I have to say that my anxiety levels shot through the roof while I was watching her waiting for her turn to be loaded into the plane – her travel cage looked ridiculously small next to the plane and the little box looked so lost! But nonetheless, we had to board the plane before we saw her being lifted into it so all we could do was keep our fingers crossed that everything went well during loading. 

After the three hour flight, we landed safely in Munich and were ready to head of to breakfast and then to an AmEx Priority Pass lounge to get some shut eye but our plans were shot by the two airport staff waiting for us outside the arrival gate. We were told by Lufthansa customer services during several different calls that upon arrival Bugi would be transferred to the dog ’lounge’ at the airport where she was be fed, watered and allowed out of her crate for our eight hour layover. But alas, it was not to be! Turns out, the Munich airport doesn’t have a dog lounge and we had to check ourselves and her our of the airport and hang around until we could check back in to the next flight. Dissapointed and tired we headed out of the airport to the luggage collection area to wait for Bugi to be processed through the ’Bulky Baggage’. Bugi was obviously ecstatic to get out of the crate and see us, which made our dissappointment of not getting to go to the lounge disappear within a second! So the three of us headed for breakfast and hung out at the airport until it was time to head back into the terminal – Bugi was allowed into every restaurant we visited and was actually offered water before we were even asked what we would like to eat or drink. She slept under the table and collected tens of smiles by passersby! 

After we once again handed Bugi over to the ground staff – who seemed to think she was a shady character as she was swabbed and tested for explosives – we headed to our departure gate. The long flight to Toronto went by very fast, at least for me! I was crazy tired and passed out before take off only to wake up 7 hours later and realize we were already flying over Canada! Joonas on the other hand was so psyched by the tonnes of movies available and stayed up for the whole flight watching movie after movie. 

Tired, bloated but super excited we stepped off the plane and headed for immigration. First we went through passport control where the officer wrote some codes onto our declaration card and coloured it with highlighter. After that we were told to go to immigration where we got into the queue and waited for about 40 minutes before we it was finally our turn. We were met by a super friendly immigration officer at booth 5 who went through our paperwork and handed us our temporary residence permits while welcoming us to Canada. Then we headed to the Service Canada desk where we were issued our social insurance numbers which we were told not to show anybody every, as they can be used to commit fraud in our names – all the while I was holding onto my LifeFactory water bottle for dear life because some little kid decided it was his and wouldn’t take no for an answer! During this whole ordeal, our bags and Bugi had been waiting for us for over an hour at baggage claims and so it was just a case of picking them up once we got through the exit. Bugi handled herself like a true champion, she was patiently waiting for us at the lost and found where the officer said he had had to check she was okay because she hadn’t make a single noise during the whole wait. In our happiness over being reunited with her, I let her our of her crate and walked her to the next check point where an extremely cranky guy told us to put her back in her cage because she was not a service animal and might shit on the carpet. So we did as we were told, put her in the crate and headed to secondary customs where we went to declare Bugi and pay the $35 importation fee. Then we headed outside to the fenced in dog park equipped with plastic grass to let bugi go to the toilet. 

We were then finally ready to leave the airport. We headed for Budget car rental where we picked up our ridiculously huge Hyundai SanteFe Sport and then it was onto the highway and west toward Hamilton. We made a last minute dash to Walmart to pick up some bread and breakfast stuff and then to our Airbnb apartment. All three of us pretty much passed out from exhaustion as soon as we got inside and fell into an almost 10 hour coma. 

All in all our trip, although long, went better than expected! Now we’re here and ready to start setting up our lives slowly but surely! 

-Elli