Airports are a bit of a faff, aren't they? There's all those queues, you have to unpack your carry-on and put it in little plastic bags, walk ages to your gate, deal with delays and flight transfers in foreign languages and visa issues. All sorts of problems happen there.
But most people can at least manage not to screw-up booking the flight. Poor Dutch backpacker Milan Schipper dreamed of going down under. He really wanted to go to Australia and when he saw a cheap flight for only £800 instead of the usual £1000, he was so excited to book it.
Milan didn't realise there is more than one Sydney. There's the one down under, another city in Canada as Milan found out, one in North Dakota in The States, another in South Africa, and an island in the Pacific.
Credit: PA
Milan ended up in Nova Scotia, Canada. With an average temperature of 1.5C, it's not exactly Byron Bay.
He told Canada's CBC Radio: "I thought I was going to Australia but that turned out a little different. I was planning on going backpacking, working over there and just enjoying the land."
Amazingly, Milan didn't realise until he transferred flights in Toronto.
"I saw the plane [to Sydney] and it was really small. So I figured, would that make it to Australia?," he said.
Oh Milan. Why did you book an Air Canada jet and think you were going to Australia?
"I checked the screen on the seat in front of me and I saw the flight plan was going to go right and up left. That was about the time that I realised there was another Sydney," Mr Schipper said.
Took you long enough.
"I felt terrible. I think I swore in my head for like 10 minutes. But there was nothing I could do about it because I already was up in the air."
Amazingly, he wasn't the only person to make the same mistake. He met someone on the plane who had thought they were going to Australia, too. She was really upset too. Neither could see the funny side. Both should have studied geography at school. Or at least googled where they were going.
When he got home, his dad picked him up from the airport. "He felt really sorry for me but he thought only I could do such a thing," said Milan. That makes me think it's not the first time that he has screwed up in an epic fashion.
Luckily for Milan, his dream of going to Australia is finally going to be happen. The airline felt so sorry for him, that they are giving him free tickets.
He'll be on those beaches in no time.
Featured Image Credit: GoFundMe