The Kindness of Strangers

I’ve learned a fair deal about Sweden from road tripping with 2 Swedish girls for the last couple of weeks. Aside from the ‘Swedish Word of the Day’ and ‘Did You Know This is Swedish?’ games that we play everyday, I’ve learned that if there is one thing that Swedes brake for, it’s Ikea. After finally being freed from Beaudesert when the post-flood local roads re-opened, we once again [and FINALLY] resumed our adventure north towards the Whitsunday Islands. Our path ran through Brisbane, which of course, has only 1 of 5 Ikea stores in the nation. There was no way that we weren’t going to stop.

Although we had only planned to stop long enough to eat some yummy Swedish food and admire all the lovely furniture that we would never be able to 1) afford or 2) fit in our car/home, our car had other plans for us. Just as we pulled into the Ikea parking lot, ol’ Johnny (affectionately named after the Chuck Barry song) decided that he wanted to throw a wrench in our smooth-sailing plans. Therefore, he freaked the f*ck out and decided “hey bitches! I’m so0o0o not going into gear for you anymore AND I’m going to make some weird noises just to mess with your heads!” And how did we respond to this? Push the car into park, go into Ikea, look at some cool furniture, get lost, lay down on the beds (which is the ultimate seduction after sleeping 3 people in a car for almost 2 weeks) and eat a lot of chocolate. Then try the car again. We know how to prioritize.

Well, swing and a miss. Against our greatest wishes, the car’s freak out and our subsequent panic pulling into the parking garage weren’t in fact, a fluke. Our car—which we had just sunk an additional ~$650 in for repairs and registration—was done-zo. A few phone calls with our amazing mechanic back in Surfers [not so] Paradise revealed that it was probably a problem with the clutch, which new parts would cost about $1100. Oh, and getting the car towed there was another $150. NOPE sorry Johnny we’re not paying almost double what we paid for you to drag our sorry metal ass an hour from here and get you fixed. Well, shit. Then what are we supposed to do in a town where we know no one, have no experience when it comes to disposing of a car, and have no idea how the hell we’re going to get north by our due date in 5 days?

So, the three of us sat in the car park of Ikea on the verge of tears with not a clue of what to do with this 1 ton metallic headache, when we decided that MAYBE there would be a chance that Ikea’s security would let us sleep there in the car overnight while we formulated a plan of what to do. (heck, and maybe if we smiled pretty and the gorgeous Swedes showed enough cleavage we’d be able to sleep on the comfy mattresses inside!) Classy. I sauntered up to customer service (well, maybe ‘sullenly walked’ is a more appropriate choice of words than ‘sauntered’), and when they accepted my challenge of answering a very weird question, I have to say that I did indeed stump them, being the first person asking if I could basically have a sleepover with my friends in the parking lot (NO SHAME NO DIGNITY…no idea what to do…). From this point forward, I’m going to give the sequence of events in terms of “Amazing Things.” ‘Cause that is literally the only classification that our subsequent life events falls into.

Amazing Thing #1: The two women there first off started by contacting the head of security and clearing it with them. Oh my god. Even if this is a shitty day, I could be one of the only people I know to ever say that I was given full clearance by security to stay overnight in a corporate store. Ok, crappy circumstances but maybe we can turn this into some kind of Home Alone scenario!

Amazing Thing #2: Then, one of the women gave me 3 Ikea hotdog vouchers just because we were clearly having a shitty day. Ok, crappy circumstances but OMG we get to eat even more delicious food out of pitty!

Amazing Thing #3: While Googling wreckers that we could sell our car at in the area, Mikky, the customer service rep, asked where we were staying. Upon learning that we were dirty backpacking bums living out of our car and being a former—although slightly less dirty and homeless than us—backpacker herself, Mikky insisted that we stay the night at her house, take showers (Knights of Columbus you can’t imagine how precious a shower is unless you’ve been living out of a car and go without for 3-5 days at a time!), and use her internet to figure out what we’re going to do. Ok, crappy circumstances but HOLY CRAP how insanely generous AND we have a place to sleep tonight!

Amazing Thing #4: Security allowed us to leave our car in the parking lot overnight. Ok, crappy circumstances but even Johnny has a place to sleep tonight!

Amazing Thing #5: After pushing our car to a more remote location in the parking lot and gathering up our things to stay the night at Mikky’s, a security guard came up to us and asked us what was going on, where we were headed, all the normal things you ask 3 people who are clearly in crappy circumstances. Awesome Security Guard Aaron started looking at the car, he started listing off all the things that he hoped that he could do to help us and frantically started thinking of all his mates who are mechanics or would know what to do. When we sounded like a broken record telling him how thankful we were for his help, he simply said, “hell, I keep thinking about if my sister were in a foreign country with a broken car and of course I’d want someone to help her!” Crappy circumstances, but wowie zowie are people helpful!

Amazing Thing #6: Learning that we are trying to get 12 hours north to the Whitsunday Islands by Wednesday so that the girls can go on their cruise that they won, Aaron insisted that if we weren’t able to get the car fixed, “I’m going to get you guys up to the Whitsundays by the time you need to get there no matter what.” Turns out he knows a lot of (reputable, non-sketchy) truckers that make trips up north, and if we were ok with it we could hitch a ride up with them. Crappy circumstances, but how awesome of an adventure would that be!?

Amazing Thing #7: Aaron and another security guard who came over to check out the hubbub all of a sudden exclaimed, “Harry! Harry’s a mechanic!” One phone call later, they had called in Harry, a security guard on his day off, who promptly drove over to check out our car. Crappy circumstances, but oh my god how are people so willing to go out of their way to help us???

Amazing Thing #8: Harry thought it was just a simple and not too expensive fix, and was going to take it to his friend’s garage for the night to check it out and get back to us in the morning about the status of Dear Johnny… Crappy circumstances but THERE’S A POSSIBILITY THAT OUR HOME MIGHT BE FIXABLE! And HOW IS SOMEONE THIS NICE!?

Amazing Thing #9: After exchanging numbers with Aaron, Harry, and Ikea security (how’s that for a name drop?), Mikky took us to her house, introduced us to her husband Nick, then took us to a barbecue at her parent’s house. Crappy circumstances, but we got to play with fluffy dogs (!), we got to eat food that wasn’t out of a can (!!), and we got to meet 2 more amazingly generous people (!!!).

Amazing Thing #10: At Mikky’s, we got to sleep in a bed for the first time in almost 2 weeks. If anyone has ever experienced the cramped discomfort of sleeping in a car…which becomes a humid hotbox with 3 bodies in it…you’ll know what an oasis a night in a bed is. Crappy circumstances, but for the first time in 13 days we’re not squeezed into a metal hotbox with no cushioning whatsoever. Slept. Like. Babies.

Amazing Thing #11: The next day, Mikky and Nick took us to a koala sanctuary nearby, where Lina and Johanna got to see koalas for the first time. Crappy circumstances, but IT’S SO FLUFFY I’M GONNA DIIIIIE!

Amazing Thing #12: When we finally heard from Aaron on the status of the car, he said that it wasn’t looking good. Even with the new slave cylinder that Harry so graciously sought out and installed, Aaron said that when he had left to test drive it 15 minutes before calling us that the car didn’t sound good. He offered all the help and advice that he could on what we could do with the car, registration refund, etc. that we could do to get as much money as we could, and even offered to take the car to a wrecker himself so that we wouldn’t get ripped off. Plus, he was still dead set on getting us to the Whitsundays. Crappy circumstances and dammit our car/home is dead to us, but even after everything that they’d already done, they were still willing to go out of their way to help us.

Amazing Thing #13: While we were still talking over our options with Aaron, he stopped mid-sentence and said “oh my god. You guys may be the luckiest people I know right now.” Harry rode in on his white horse (or more correctly, our maroon stationwagon), and THE CAR WAS RUNNING COMPLETELY FINE. Crappy circumstances but…WAIT. NO! The circumstances are no longer crappy!!!!! OUR CAR IS FUNCTIONAL ENOUGH TO GET US TO THE WHITSUNDAYS!

Amazing Thing #14: Mikky and Nick insisted that we stay one more night with them so that we didn’t hit the road at night time. Amazing circumstances, AND these people are STILL doing everything they can to help us.

Amazing Thing #15: The parts needed to fix our car were about $180, significantly less than what we were told beforehand. As well as this, Harry absolutely refused to accept any money for his time and labor. Amazing circumstances, and our minds are absolutely blown by the generosity of these people who have already done so much to help us with no expectations in return.

So, just a recap: that’s 15 utterly awesome, unreal, over-the-top Amazing Things that the 3 of us have wracked up in 24 hours. By our karma calculations, we’ve decided that we should each rescue at minimum 15 orphans from a burning building in order to repay the universe for all the goodness that came our way these last 2 days.

I’d just like to ask this question: would this happen anywhere else in the world, or is that just the Aussie way? I’ve come across my fair share of generous, kind, and helpful people in my 23 years and my 4.5 months here in Australia, but in this little hiccup, the people I’ve come across have fallen into a completely different league. HOW on earth did our lives intersect all at once with all of these people that have done such an extraordinary amount for us, no questions asked? Sure we would have had things work out for us in the end eventually had we not met them, but I can’t even fathom what would have happened to us if we didn’t. The fact that we were so well taken care of is just absolutely mind-blowing. I can’t even think of a way that we could possible express our gratitude towards these people (even though it is obviously such a big deal to have a name drop in my world famous blog).

To anyone who has made it through this diatribe, I implore you to someday help out a random stranger in need. Sure, there are some situations where it may be dodgy and potentially dangerous (petite single females, I don’t encourage you to stop at 3 am on the highway to ask the 4 bikers with the facial tattoos if they need help). But for the most part, people who look like they need help…are people who need help. You don’t have to go as incredibly far out of your way as the legendary Ikea staff has for us, but when someone is as stranded and in trouble as we were, any little thing helps. Give the poor dears a bottle of water, offer the use of a mobile phone, give a ride, call a tow truck, or just give them chocolate to soothe their emotional wounds of their decrepit car. As insignificant and mundane as your action may seem to you, as someone who has been in a serious pickle sandwich, I promise you that your generosity—no matter how big or small it is—is more than appreciated, and that unfortunate soul will be forever thankful for what you do. 

Oh, and go buy stuff from Ikea. Seriously.