Dumb Stuff

When we were in London last month, we stayed near the Mansion House tube stop. My husband, who is directionally challenged and has a less than stellar memory, and my step-son, who was on his very first trip to Europe and not yet super familiar with making transfers, got on the tube after a pub tour. They should have been back at least an hour before me, but when I returned after a musical, no one was there! Now, it can't all be blamed on the pub tour, because they were both in full control of their capacities when they finally got back to our aparthotel.

Instead of transferring from the Northern line to the Circle or District line to get to Mansion House, they got on the Piccadilly line and went all the way to Manor House! They both thought the ride was awfully long. When they exited the station, they obviously knew they were at the wrong stop! After finally getting back to Leicester Square, they were so embarrassed/frustrated/mad at themselves, that they walked back to the aparthotel rather than trying to transfer. Lesson learned! Manor House and Mansion House are two very different stops!

I have one! We were in Paris back in 2017 and had been taking the metro with no issues. We get to our stop we push the button, the door opens and out we go. Or I think the door opened automatically, can’t quite remember. Well, we got on the metro to go to Montmartre. Our stop was coming so we walked up to the door. We got to our stop, stood by the door and waited for it to open…nope! The door stayed closed! There were a bunch of tourists like us just standing at the door and we all looked at each other puzzled?! We looked and the door had that funky knob that you had to turn to open the door. By the time we realized what we needed to do, the metro pulled away! I think there were a bunch of locals watching us smirking lol.

So we got to the next stop, managed to open the door and proceeded to walk to the other side to take the train back to our original stop. We got to our stop, got out and noticed the elevators were out of order! We thought, ok no biggie, we’ll go up the steps! Well about 100 steps or so later, we made it to the top! I think this was the Abbesses stop. Older locals were passing us as we huffed and puffed our way up. I must say, that was one unforgettable Paris metro adventure.

A relative of mine booked a hotel in the wrong Roseville, Minnesota instead of California.

Was traveling in Italy (halfway between Rome and Sicily) and copied the train schedule so I could see what trains were leaving at 1:00 in the afternoon. There were a number of them so I didn't think anything of it It wasn't until I looked at the yellow master schedule on the wall at the train station that I realized that all those trains that were on my copy of the schedule were at one in the morning --- NOT 13:00! That was worth a good laugh.

Mike I once mistook 18:00 for 8pm when I was guiding 20 university students in Argentina. We're standing at a bus station in Mendoza, our overnight bus to Bariloche having departed 90 minutes prior, tickets useless with no cash value return, dark and nowhere to go. 40 young eyeballs looking at me to fix it.

Screwing up travel logistics for yourself is bad. Enough; try it for a big group of people who are depending on you. It worked out, but man was I sweating there for a while.

Back in pre-Internet days, when you weren't so likely to encounter the warnings that are common now, I checjed the departures board and saw that my train from Luxembourg (city) to another town in that country was departing from Track 1A. I found the train on Track 1 and hopped on. The train pulled out pretty much on schedule with no onr else in my car. SoMe minutes later a railroad employee walked through, did a double-take and informed me the train was out of service. The train stopped at a rail yard, where I was booted of to walk back to the city--without luggage, fortunately.

Interesting. I started a similar thread this morning. If you make enough decisions, you are bound to make a few mistakes.

"Are these things normal or do I need professional help?"

Maybe yes, maybe no.

edit: I'm just going to show a couple of examples instead of my not-so-good remembering.

Those signs could also be a serious warning sign, everyone of our age knows this. All you can do is get checked for general conditions. Perhaps mention it if you have a Doc you trust at the next regular checkup.

edit: Looked around and here's a couple examples:

https://news.stonybrook.edu/newsroom/press-release/medical/scientists-identify-critical-midlife-window-for-preventing-age-related-brain-decline/

[snip]
Their findings reveal that the brain networks degrade in a manner that follows an S-shaped statistical curve with clear transition points, rather than either the late-life clinical onset or gradual linear decline previously assumed. The effect is first seen around age 44, with the degeneration hitting peak acceleration around age 67 and plateauing by age 90.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/aging-window-interventions-cognitive-decline-most-effective

I ride public transportation every day. At least once every 10 days my mind is in the clouds and I get on in the wrong direction. Its normal.

A relative of mine booked a flight to meet us in Vancouver, WA. Ooops, ended up in Vancouver, BC. One day-of, exceedingly expensive car rental and several hours later, they joined us at our family event. My rule for life is, "I bet I'm not the first person to do that, and won't be the last." Has nothing to do with age - just ways to entertain your friends.

slbdaisy, I've done that. Just walked instead of a transfer or even public transportation in general. I just looked at the GPS on my phone and got in a lot of steps lol. It is funny to exit what you thought was the correct Tube stop only to realize something just isn't right, which usually doesn't happen until your outside.

acraven: Classic! That would have made a good episode of Seinfeld.

Hank, I'm an Air Force veteran so unlike most Americans I understand the 24 hour GMT time, but I had a friend who asked, "How many hundreds of hours is 6 p.m. from noon."

Oh, anyone else wait for a bus on the wrong side of the street? Or the public maps that say "you are here" and it doesn't help at all?

I finished up the things to do a bit early in the town I was visiting, so went to the train station ticket window and said: "I need two seats to Budapest". She gave me to pieces of paper and charged me 1800 fts. I turned and started to walk. WAIT, too cheap. Somethings wrong. I turned around and it hit me. "Excuse me, I need two TICKETS to go with these two reserved SEATS you just sold me". Almost screwed up and the train was leaving in 10 minutes.

I have never done anyting dumb. I have, however, been momentarily incorrect.

One of the articles I couldn't find that was similar to the ones I mentioned above said, "IF this was the period of more rapid decline" the articles talked about. Regular exercise (especially aerobic) would keep the body decline minimal, and recommended puzzles, games, etc. for exercise of the mind. They claimed it helped with those rapid(er) decline periods but those activities help all the time.

Booked a sleeper on wrong night from Naples to Catania. Car attendant looked at my tkt and said the space was open the night I showed up. I dodged my own stupidity.

Mike you were in the military and S**t happens. Get on with it.

I was in the Military as well, it's worth getting checked. Probably nothing.

On our last trip, I got on the wrong train to Vienna from Gyor. The train was going to Vienna but it was the wrong train company. I started to get suspicious when we couldn't find our seat numbers. And my suspicion was confirmed when the cranky ticket guy came by. Had to buy new tickets from him. But at least we made it to Vienna!

On one trip to Iceland I booked our rental car for the wrong day. We were supposed to pick it up upon arrival, but went to the rental office the next day. Thank goodness they held the car for us! We were a family of 5 adults so needed the larger vehicle.

On another trip, again with the family, we were going from Munich to Rothenburg. When we switched trains, we got on going the wrong direction and did not notice for about an hour, and that was when the conductor came through to check tickets. He was so nice and didn't hassle us, we just got off and hopped on the correct one a bit later.

BigMike, I do stuff like this fairly frequently.

This shouldn't reassure you at all, unfortunately.

Hank, I am curious how you resolved that situation.

Here’s mine. We arrived at the Rick Steve’s Best of Scotland tour hotel in Glasgow, checked in and went to the elevator. The hotel had a computer tablet in front of the elevator banks to choose your floor. As one of the elevator doors was already open we bypassed the tablet and stepped into that elevator only to discover after the door closed that there were no buttons inside to choose your floor. We were trapped. We used the emergency call button to call for help but none arrived. Luckily the elevators had glass on three sides and we were able to signal to a passerby that we were stuck in the elevator. The hotel manager arrived not long after and let us out. He addressed us like a couple of two year olds and said “The door was open and you stepped inside, didn’t you.” Our faces were very red.

Mary, since it was glass maybe you could've busted out. There is no way you were even close to being the first people to have done that.

Thanks, Mike. We still laugh about this mishap. Gotta love the Scottish sense of humor.

Anyone who has travelled probably has a ton of these stories....
I have a few. It was 1971 and my mother was taking us to Berlin by way of London. There were 4 of us, my brother, sister and mother. We arrived in the UK and went straight to our hotel. I have no idea how she planned this trip, but we arrived, had our room and went to bed. After what seemed like a good night's sleep, my mother rushed us out of bed to make sure we got going and did not miss the Continental Breakfast. We headed to the dining area where it seemed like an awfully fancy kind of set up, waiters in black, menus, well-dressed folks eating...no continental breakfast in sight. My mother got the attention of the maître de. Where is the Continental breakfast she demanded. "I am sorry madam, you have missed breakfast". My mother, an easy to anger German who does not like men would have none of that. We are here on time she argued and showed her watch as proof. The maître de very politely pointed out that breakfast is only served until 10:00 am. We were demanding breakfast at 9:30 at night. We kept our mouths shut (my brother, siter and I). We knew that she could not be reckoned with. Back and forth they went until it suddenly dawned on her that we had not slept through the night. We had only slept a few hours. We slunk out of the dining room and headed back to our room to wait for morning, at which time a proper breakfast was indeed served.
More recently my wife and I were in Paris. I had rented a car to drive to Rheams and Dinant. The pickup was at a counter at the Louvre. We arrived with our bags and waited to be served. I produced my reservation number. The men working at the counter started conversing. After a bit, one of them politely informed me we were two weeks early. Somehow I had butchered my reservation dates. Of course I immediately thought "here's your damned bread", we are toast, but they were being polite and so was I. I did not do the angry German thing. I had hosed my dates and was apologetic, embarrassed and hopeful. They told us to wait. Half an hour went by. They asked where we were going, our route etc. I explained, out of Paris towards Rheams. Then on to Dinant, Brugge, points between, Amsterdam to return it. OK.... Another half hour. One of them came to the desk and asked if we would like help navigating from the Louvre to just outside of Paris and could we drive stick. Yes and yes. OK. They had a car. One of them lived in the direction we were going and he offered to go with us to make sure we got on the right road. When we actually got going, he drove us to his stop at which point I took over. This was Hertz and counter whatever you may have heard about the French (that bread) they went way beyond to help us out. They saved our trip and did so without a wince.
I can go on and on with my bonehead maneuvers (how about leaving a passport in a Malaysia border crossing to Singapore?) but I will leave room for the rest of you.

Appreciate the stories. It's okay to smile about them now and realize we somehow survived and have a great story to tell.

Clarifying there are precautions to reduce errors especially itinerary ones. Print out all the flight, train, lodging, car rental reservations, admission tickets, place the sheets in chronological order, then go through with a highlighter and match up all the times and dates and places.

This technique is based on decades of engineering practice. Mistakes WILL be made, so come up with a process to screen them out.

Having no procedures in place to catch itinerary errors is truly dumb, since these are unforced errors.

Having been called "truly dumb", I suppose I can go the rest of the way and confess to another fairly recent bonehead move, this time my wife's. We had been staying in Furth and were driving to Stuttgart to visit the Porsche museum. It was slow going, construction, rain, accidents, oddly heavy traffic. We were finally getting close and for some reason we were talking about ID. That was when the light went on. She had put her passport and some jewelry in the safe in our hotel room. I was not aware and we had checked out without removing it. After a call to the hotel, we were on our way back to Furth to hopefully retrieve what had been left behind. When we arrived several hours later, the Jewelry and passport were waiting for us at the front desk. Dope slap.
I worked in engineering, as an engineer, on multi-million projects, developments, project management..... yes to check and recheck, but I never met a single person who never made a mistake. Not once. I often had many dozens of engineers working for me and also worked with engineers from most of the top companies globally. **** happens.

Ages ago I used the when you get lemons make lemonade concept regarding theatre tickets. My dearest friend and I drove into San Francisco to see Beach Blanket Babylon. We’re excited. Got to the theatre and were turned away. Wrong night.

Laughed so hard I pulled a muscle. So we decided WTH, took a chance and booked a room at the Cow Hollow Motor Inn. Made a night of it dining at Mel’s Diner ( which was across the street ) and enjoyed new friends at the Horse Shoe Tavern.

Next day used public transport and our own two feet to explore the neighborhood. Walked to the Palace of Fine Arts. Returned to the motel, freshened up and cabbed to Beach Blanket. Afterwards late night diner at Cafe Sport.

Hank, I am curious how you resolved that situation.

I was able to put half of the students and our local coordinator on an overnight bus departing late that night. For the rest of us there were no bus seats available departing Mendoza for Bariloche until 2 days later. So I booked airline tickets to Buenos Aires, cheap hotel rooms near the bus station, and we took a bus at 4:30am the next morning.

Which was the most relaxing 14 hours of my life. There was nothing I could do but sit in that big comfortable bus seat and look out the window. It was nice and decompress.

It was also fun sitting around the counter of one of the cheap grill places near the bus station, eating grilled sausages and having a beer with the students. We watched River Plate a game with the local partisans there (bus station on the north end of town), good times.

toby, I also print out itineraries for trips. Some folks have looked askance at that and asked why I just didn't look at them on my phone. I don't know, but it's not the same. I keep a few documents in a slim folder and it adds piece of mind and takes up almost no space.

We have left things in a hotel but decided it wasn't worth the effort to go back for them. Life's Rich Pageant lol.

Hank, I understand the bus trip because as a coach once everyone was back on the bus for the return trip, the stress melted away, except dealing with equipment, uniforms, and so forth upon returning to school, and cleaning up the bus.

I remembered another instance. We were driving the Dalton Highway in Alaska and stopped for gas in Coldfoot. There you have to leave your credit card at the desk, then go fill up. Yes, we drove away with leaving the credit card at the desk. We got miles down the highway when we realized, so had to turn around and go back. Now we know to leave the keys with the credit card so that nothing is forgotten.

First time taking the kids to Europe, we did a 5-week trip through Italy, France and Germany. I smugly used my oh-so-superior language and travel skills to guide everyone through an itinerary I had planned single-handedly. One day, our older daughter was ill, so she stayed at our lodging while the rest of us explored Meaux, outside of Paris. Arriving back at the train station, with a cursory glance at the departures board, I hustled daughter #2 and husband onto a waiting train on the correct track, over my daughter's protestations. Sadly it turned out to be the express, not the local train we needed. Didn't stop until we got to Paris. Had to turn around and take a local train back to the town we were staying in. By the time we got back, daughter #1 was plotting how to get ahold of her grandparents without a working cell phone (I was economizing on phone plans) and get them to send her a ticket home, as we had clearly met an untimely end. Very resourceful. Thankfully not needed, but I learned that the rest of the family also had skills I should tap. And I have done so ever since.

Nelly's mention of language skills brought back an all-time favorite memory. It was sometime in the 90's. Several of us had travelled to Munich to meet with a supplier of advanced robotic integration products. The supplier, a generous host, kindly took us to a very quaint restaurant that specialized in traditionally prepared wild game. This was a nice place and the service and atmosphere were outstanding. I have often wished I could remember where it was.
My colleague and I both spoke German, me a bit more fluently in that I had learned German as a child and he, a bright student, had polished his skill at the university. The menu was in German. No problem.
When it was time for him to order he proclaimed quite specifically that he wanted to have the "frisch geshisseness Reh" as his main course. The waiter maintained a straight face until I burst out laughing. Conjugation will get you every time. I am still laughing about his little slip. I think I went for the wild boar.

Mack, that's hilarious...I'll let you explain it to the non-German-speaking crowd...I'm still laughing.

I am happy that made someone laugh. I have enjoyed that story for a long time.
I don't think I will offer a translation.....I'm not sure it would fly.

mikliz97, how far away would you have been to decide to just cancel the credit card? I'm guessing 100 miles and I say heck with it.

Okay, for me it's a menu item. My wife and I and another couple are in a Brauhaus just west of the Marienplatz in Munchen, I think Augustiner? Anyway my friend Mark speaks no German, and I of course was fluent due to two night classes in Kansas. Hah! Mark looks at the menu, asks me "What is Maitjes Filet?". Using my massive vocabulary, I tell him, I don't know, but a filet must be a beef steak of some sort. When the cold, wet, whole fish, sitting on some lettuce arrives, we laugh our brains out (along with some nearby tables). Then we each enjoy some of our wive's meals. We've been laughing about that for 30 years now.

travelerguy, did you try the fish? I'm not sure if I would or not. Depends upon how hungry I was. I don't like food that is looking at me with forlorn eyes. I would at least apologize to the fish.

Big Mike, No, I did not try the fish. But I did kind of feel we four were being disrespectful to it with all our laughter. It deserved better, little sad fish-eyes and all.

I have a fish eyeball story from my first ever visit to Hong Kong, but the one that now comes to mind is a later first visit to Singapore. I went to dinner with some colleagues from our office there. Two of the ladies ordered what turned out to be a bowl of fish eyeballs that they picked away at with chopsticks. Having some experience with the fish eyeball (cooked) from my Hong Kong experience, I opted not to try them raw.

travelerguy good stuff lol.

Mack, what would a cold, fresh eyeball taste like, texture and all? Would you first look it in the eye?

I never found out about the uncooked ones. As much as I always try to go with the flow, that was an end point for me. The cooked ones that you find in a fish head soup, those are relatively tasteless, but when they pop in your mouth, there is a bit of a surprise for you to plan ahead for. The cornea is a hard object that you will need to contend with. Me, trying to be very polite and trying to make sure I was not overly picky, popped the damned thing in my mouth after considerable delay... I had assumed it was an object of some significance since my host and I were the only ones who were served one. After I put mine in my mouth and dealt with it, I was stunned that my host took the one from his bowl and flipped it into the ashtray. Damn. Lesson learned.
I did become somewhat of a fish head connoisseur. A grilled tuna head as found in red lantern establishments in Japan is a next level experience. The flavor is tuna nirvana. You fight over the cheeks, but the eyes seem to get overlooked.