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Dutch teen heads for Sydney, Australia, finds Sydney, Nova Scotia

Milan Schipper found an inexpensive flight from Amsterdam to Sydney, unaware he was traveling to Canada's Sydney.

By Ed Adamczyk
Dutch traveler Milan Schipper boarded a plane in Amsterdam to visit Sydney, Australia. He ended up in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Photo courtesy of Marin Schipper/Facebook
Dutch traveler Milan Schipper boarded a plane in Amsterdam to visit Sydney, Australia. He ended up in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Photo courtesy of Marin Schipper/Facebook

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April 3 (UPI) -- A Dutch teenager set out for Sydney, Australia, but accidentally caught a flight to Sydney, Nova Scotia, he admitted.

Milan Schipper found a flight from Amsterdam to Sydney which as $300 less expensive than others, so he booked it. It took him to Toronto, and then onto a smaller Air Canada plane which took him to snowy Sydney, Nova Scotia, about 1,200 miles away on Canada's eastern coast.

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"The plane [to Sydney] was really small and so I figured, would that make it to Australia?" He explained that after he boarded, "I saw the flight plan was going to go right, not left. It was about that time I realized there was another Sydney."

He arrived in Sydney, Nova Scotia, wearing a T-shirt, sweatpants and a thin jacket, as the city of 32,000 faced a blizzard. Sympathetic airport workers directed him to a plane returning to Toronto. He then traveled back to Amsterdam, where his father picked him up at the airport.

"He felt really sorry for me, but he thought only I could do such a thing. He also laughed an awful lot, just like everyone else," Schipper told CBC Radio. "I only saw the parking lot of the [Sydney] airport."

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An online campaign to help the wayward traveler defray his expenses raised $155 by Monday morning.

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