Care to share your story about a trip that just did not go as planned?
Horror stories encouraged, as well as near-miss stories, and any other that might be entertaining as well as helpful.
And the final part, as any good teacher would tell you, would be to add how you resolved the problem(s), and did the experience(s) change anything about how you would travel in the future.
I visited a friend in Paris a few years ago and had a ticket on the Eurostar for London. I got the time wrong (24 hour clock) and arrived at the train station just has the train was leaving. I went to the ticket office and told my story and must have looked pitiful enough. The nice ticket seller gave me a ticket for the next train at no charge. I then had to find a place to buy a phone card to call my cousin in London that I would be arriving later. I had way too much luggage and it was a struggle to manage everything but I finally did find a shop and bought a phone card and called my cousin. Two lessons learned: practice using the 24 hour clock and pack lightly (which I have on five subsequent trips to France).
Cool thread.
Drat moments:
Walking around the Jewish quarter in Prague, wondering why it was so quiet, then realizing it was Saturday...
Going to the train station in Vernazza, watching the arrival/departure time for our planned train come and go, then realizing we were there on the start day of Daylight Savings Time, and had missed the train by an hour...
Arriving in Frankfurt airport, smoothly getting a train ticket at the automated vending machine, and realizing 30 minutes up the rail that we'd gotten on the commuter headed toward Cologne, instead of toward Wurzburg where our reservations were...
As these weren't big issues, the biggest thing I learned was to laugh at my own mistakes. There is no reason to let a planned mistep cause anxiety that can ruin a trip. Laugh, adjust, move on.
I'm sure I'll think of some that weren't so easy to laugh at.
My wife and I went on a trip to Branson,MO and decided to fly to Little Rock, rent a car and drive through the national forest. When we got to Little Rock, my bag made the trip...my wife's didn't. That trip made me a carry on only traveler. Now if I can't fit it in one bag, it stays home.
My friends and I had been traveling without hotel reservations in the shoulder season (Oct-Nov), which wasn't a problem at all and gave us a great deal of freedom with our itinerary. We then hit Rome on the first of November not knowing that it was a national holiday. The city was packed, we couldn't find a hotel, the Vatican was so crowded we wanted to cry. So...The moral of the story is: know your holidays before you travel.
This reply is more on behalf of my husband.
His most stressful, trying trip was our first international trip as a couple (we went to Paris and Luxembourg). He apparently had some weird, foreign notion that "you don't have to see it all" and that one could actually relax on vacation. On about day 5 in Paris, as I was rattling off all the things we should do that day, he wearily looked at me and said, "Um, honey, can we talk about our travel style...?"
Resolution: we compromised. And by that I mean he now sees things my way. :)
To celebrate my husband's 50th birthday, we had planned an around-the-world trip. We started in London (our favorite destination)It was wonderful- we got to celebrate with them when they "won" the 2012 Olympic bid. Then on the day we were to leave for Hong Kong on a night flight, we decided to take the train to Windsor. We overslept and missed the train by literally seconds. He was furious with me. We decided to just wander around the markets instead of catching a later train and were walking across Paddington to head to the tube when an announcement was made "Anyone wishing to leave London, please board the train on platform ___. This will be the last train out of the city." It was only 9:00ish in the morning. We turned to each other and said that there must have been train wreck and started to go down the steps to the tube and practically ran into a line of bobbies- the tube was shut down. We quickly headed back to our hotel room and turned on the TV. There we watched, horrified as we heard of the bombings- one of which was just outside Paddington's tube stop. It was July 7, 2005. We quickly packed our bags and decided to head to the airport- hoping we could still fly out that night. It was an "interesting" black cab ride (our first and only)to Heathrow! We spent the day at the airport- finally reaching family to reassure them we were ok- and got to fly out at 8:00 that night.
We had a great trip anyway and still tell others not to worry& don't let terrorists keep you from traveling.
It was to become my first trip solo. I was 19 and studying in Europe. I was in Germany and my friends were studying in Europe and we were going to Greece. I told them that I was leaving on the last day of class on an overnight train to Greece. They were catching a plane the day after the end of class to Athens an would arrive before me. Two things were really wrong with our calculations. First, even though we were attending the same college--Lawrence University--the last day of class was not the same day. Secondly, I misread the schedule. It's not 22 hours to Athens from Stuttgart, it's 46 hours! So, I arrived a day, but figured they would come back the next day, but in reality they weren't arriving until the day after I arrived. Good Grief. I was so fortunate to have a father who insisted on emergency addresses and to discover the friendliness, helpfulness and caring of the Greeks. I spent a week and a bit in Athens doing day trips and then coming back to have dinner every night with the son of the family that parents knew.
Ultimately, I worked up the nerve to travel alone to italy, at which point fate played a role. My friends were on the same ferry to Corfu. Unbelievable. To this day I adore Greece and the Greeks and hope that their economic problems get resolved soon.
Pam
Pam
What a fun topic!
The worst vacation we ever had was going to Mackinac Island in Michigan for the 3rd time in about 7 years, back in 2004. At the time our children were 8, 5, and 1. Since the toddler was too heavy for my wife to carry around all the time, it was my job, and he was fussy. He wouldn't sleep in the car (strange child, then). He was "off" the whole time.
So here we were, seeing a place we had been to twice before simply because we couldn't think of any place else we wanted to go (or could afford to go) because after all, it's summer and there is a law that says you have to take a family trip somewhere, right? And even though it's not that far from home and it's only 7-8 days, it's still costing a fair amount of money, and the whole time, I'm thinking about how the money we are spending isn't really buying us anything because we're no place new. And it just seems like nothing but an obligation to me.
The whole time I was driving home I was thinking "There is no way we are doing this again. We are not going to throw money away to do something just because it's a family expectation. I would rather spend MORE money on it just to make it meaningful" (click! the light bulb went on in my head). So when we got home I sat the better half down and proposed the idea;
"Dear, I think we should take the children to somewhere in Europe, maybe for their first trip somewhere easy like England.....But in order to afford it, we'll have to take very small, close-to-home mini vacations for maybe two years first."
She bought it. What a relief. We took a very pleasant mini-trip to the north shore of lake superior the next year and saved so much we went to Disney in 2006 to reward the children. Then it was England, 2007. That went so well that we have since reprioritized our lives to save more money and have gone to Europe each year since. This year is trip #4. The kids are great & we love it.
We visited Ireland last August for the 2nd time. The trip started well....and then: On day 6, at the deserted village on Achill Island north of Westport, my wife wore her dressier shoes, and due to the terrain, wet rocks, and wrong shoes, fell down and broke her shoulder and upper right arm. Luckily we had travel insurance. The Drs. advised us to stick it out and finish the remainder of our 15 day trip, rather than hassle her injury right away by going thru 3 airports on 2 long haul flights. So, she did a lot of windshield sightseeing, and we had to modify our schedule to accomodate 2 additional check-ups at the Dr in Castlebar, to see that everything was starting to heal properly. Moral of the story, wear proper shoes for the day's activities. I thought our dangerous day would be day 5, when we climbed Croagh Patrick! We made the most of it, and saw many of the areas of NW Ireland that we had planned. Dan
I will never travel as a solo female again anywhere in the Caribbean. I would only consider going back if I was with my boyfriend. The local men seem to think if you are on your own and a woman, you must be looking for some "male companionship for the evening" (aka a Booty Call) and they make it very clear they are willing to be that special man. It's annoying and gross to be harassed when all you want to do is go shopping or read a book on the beach with an umbrella drink!
Took my daughter to Southern California years back to a concert for her favorite band as an 8th grade graduation present. We were going to have the weekend in Pasadena.
Made reservations at a 3* hotel (according to AAA), only to arrive to find out it had turned into a residential hotel, and people cooking in the rooms, smoke everywhere. Awful, awful place.
Decided to try to change hotels...no problem? We had brought only my ATM/Visa card, but we had plenty of money in the bank...except when I tried to use it, it said declined. Turns out someone had stolen our credit card info and my account had been drained...not even $20. We had left all other cards at home.
Kids were hungry, so we walked up and down the main street in Pasadena until we found a bagel shop so at least we could buy a couple of bagels for dinner between the 4 of us.
But at least we still had the concert that night. Daughter was still so excited, and was busy getting ready at the hotel when the fire alarm went off, and we had to leave before any of us had a chance to change our clothes.
Concert was great, only to return to the hotel and my son came down with the stomach flu. Still had 2 days ahead of us.
Frugal eating was an understatement until we were finally able to transfer some $$ to get us home and got everything straightened out.
This trip will live in infamy in our family's minds! We can actually laugh about it now, about 12 years later!
This is why I always wear a money belt now:
I was robbed on Christmas Eve standing in front of the Christmas window displays at Printemps Department Store in Paris. (by a man in a nice suit but with a knife) He got my entire purse with all my credit cards and cash. Since it was a holiday, I could not quickly get replacements for my cards. For the rest of the vacation I had to ask my husband to use his card or money for every purchase...And I had to hear, "do you really need to purchase another XYZ, dont you have some of those at home?"
Now, I keep my own "fun money" and cards in my money belt.
Oh, there's lots of these. My husband getting pickpocketed in Prague comes to mind, getting on the wrong train in Germany (luckily we caught this quick and changed at the next station), taking several wrong turns when driving in a new place, putting a big 'ol scratch on our rental car in Ireland this summer.
We fly standby, so our trip always starts stressful, sitting in the airport, watching everyone else getting on, wondering if we're going to get on the flight. We've only gotten bumped a couple of times. We just have to be flexible, not much choice in the matter. I know we don't make it fun for other people on the plane, though, since we travel with kids now and have to have at least one adult with each kid, which means sometimes someone has to move. But we'll take that middle seat that no one wants, so sometimes it works out for the best for that other person.
We did make it to Berlin (after a couple of rescheduled flights) a few years ago, but our bags did not. They ended up on another airline and took almost a round-the-world trip. We spent a day at KaDeWe buying clothes, shoes, underwear, and a suitcase. I didn't tell my credit card before we left where we were going, so they freaked out that someone went on a shopping spree in Berlin and closed my account. Luckily, we usually use cash on our trip, so we were covered. And we had suitcases full of clean clothes when we got home. :)
95% of ALL our trips incl. those on this continent and those to Europe are combined with family visits. And THAT brings its own stresses.
What I've learned from that? Never ever stay more than a week with a family member, even if it would save you a ton of money and even if it's your own parent ...
My worst trip: travelling alone with a 11 months old and a 3 year old to celebrate my stepfather's birthday in an beautiful hut in the German Alps during the winter. Both kids got sick right from the start. The little one nursed hourly to cope and of course also with the same frequency in the night. The hut was snowed in so we had trouble getting there but eventually made it. The birthday "boy" was the only one with snow chains and spent the day driving back and forth to get all his guests up to the hut. Once there we couldn't leave and the plans for tobagganing or even walks outside had to be scratched as it snowed too heavily. If I look at the photos from those days I can hardly recognize myself with those dark circles under my eyes. Would I do anything different the next time around? No, sometimes this is just the way it goes.
It was my husband’s first European trip and we started in Venice. When we got to our hotel the front desk said they would have to take us to a “nearby” apartment because the room we had reserved had developed a plumbing issue. This “nearby” apartment was not nearby; it was a good 20 – 25 minute walk to the apt; it was dark and we were very disoriented.
The next morning we way overslept and missed our scheduled private tour. We wanted to call our guide to reschedule but we did not have a cell phone with us and there wasn’t a phone in the apartment. So my husband went downstairs to find the nearest pay phone to reschedule our tour. He finally finds a phone and realizes he needs a phone card to make a call, so now he has to find the nearest tobacco shop selling phone cards so he ventures out a little farther. When he tells this story, my husband accurately describes himself as a lost tourist who speaks no Italian and cannot communicate with the locals.
Eventually he contacts our tour guide, reschedules, and believes everything is fine until he realizes he has no idea where he is on the streets of Venice. He tries to find our apt in the unmarked residential streets of Venice but he doesn’t even have an address for the apt. He does, however, have our itinerary with the address of the hotel we had originally booked so he goes there and asks for directions to the apartment. Condensed version of his journey: he gets lost again (actually he was always lost), calls our tour guide again, goes into numerous shops to get help and finally makes it back to our apartment at 8:00 PM….he left the apartment at 1:00 PM that day.
Meanwhile, I’m in the apartment with no food, no key to get out because the apartment had only 1 key and my husband used it get out and lock the door behind him thinking he would be gone but 10 minutes. At one point I even tried knocking on the front door of the apt. hoping the people in the next door apt. would hear me and rescue me.
In 2004, 11 years after leaving University, my husband's former professor asked him to present some of his research at a conference in Poland. She was going to be there and set up places for us to stay and also some work for me. As departure day neared it became clear the details weren't quite as firm as we hoped.
First of all she found some random guy at the University and talked him into picking us up at the airport in Warsaw. Then after a very long day during which we realized she still hadn't arranged accomodation, she took us to her colleagues home (she often stayed there and knew they were in Italy). Prof left the house that evening, I was in the bath and my husband was in the living room when the homeowner's daughter came to water the plants. She had no idea who we were or why we were in her parents' home; she had no English and we knew no Polish. Thank God she didn't call the police but came back later and spoke to our Prof. My husband was really tense about the whole thing but I always figure if I have a valid credit card we can work out anything.
She arranged for another colleague of hers to take care of us on "off" days and sometimes that felt like a kidnapping. The woman took us to her parents' cottage somewhere in the countryside but didn't tell us it was overnight until we were shown our bedroom. She also "arranged" for me to have a really scary massage from her Russian massage therapist (a story all its own).
But we met many truly interesting people on that journey and I learned on only my second trip to Europe that most people in this world are good and kind, to be wary but not afraid and that when you have an opportunity for an experience grab it with both hands.
This is slightly off topic, I suppose, but after a few bad experiences traveling with someone else, I made it a rule that before I would consider marrying someone, I needed to take a trip with them first. Traveling almost always has a level of stress to it. If you both do well together on the trip, that is a good sign and your relationship might last. If your styles don't match, however, that is a sign that you two might not be suited for each other (or should plan for a lifestyle where you never, ever traveled anywhere together, and good luck with that).
Lisa wins this round. On your first day, being locked in an apartment for 7 hours, with a missing husband and no way to communicate with him? That beats my camping outside New Orleans, with sounds of thrashing alligators in the dark, and a giant spider outside my tent.
In the mid 90's, my husband and I spend a near perfect week on Isla de Margarita off the coast of Venezuela. We went to the airport to depart and when we handed the gate agent our boarding pass, she says, "I'm sorry- there are no connecting flights to the US today. (we were supposed to connect in Caracas). So we were like, "And? What now?". The gate agent simply directed us to the check in area to talk to the airline.
So we get there and no one speaks good English, we don't speak good spanish and no one could give us a good explanation of what was going on. We finally latched onto a tour group and found out that no one knew what was going on, but we would have to come back the next day. The airline, Servivensa, put us up at a hotel and told us they would contact us, "sometime".
We're in this lovely luxury hotel and could not enjoy a minute of it because we had no idea how we were getting home. Late that night they called we finally got someone who told us to come back for a flight to caracas the next day, but no guarantee of a flight to the US.
We get to Caracas and it is a night mare. The line in front of the ticket counter looked like the NY stock exchange gone mad. It was also the first time I'd been in an airport where the police carried machine guns so that was a bit disconcerting. We got a tentative boarding pass, but had to wait for 12 hours until all of the sudden the airline just called us and said the plane was leaving NOW. There was no gate agent, they just walked us down a flight of stairs, put us a school bus and drove us- escorted by armed police officers- to the runway where we boarded the plane and took off.
Although we never found out the true cause of the delay, we did learn that the FAA had issues with the maintenance of the Servivensa planes so we think that was the issue. Moral of the story- never fly a second tier carrier!!
It was a trying experience but we are much more savvy travelers as a result!
Beatrix's rule about not staying more than a week with family members reminds me of a saying that I heard. "Guests are like fish, after a few days they start to smell". I always try not to over stay my welcome.
I have to agree that Lisa has the best (WORST!) story. Lisa, I can't imagine what you went through that day. I imagine it was pretty awful for your husband too, but at least he knew where you were.
I thought Andrea's story was the funniest and oddest. I'm sure it wasn't so funny at the time, but I bet you get a lot of laughs from it now.
My bad experience isn’t nearly as bad as many of the others here, but I think I learned some valuable lessons: I arrived at the Perugia bus station at the foot of the hill on which the historic city center is located well before check-in time so, as it was a beautiful day and I was in no hurry, I decided to forgo the city bus and walk leisurely up the hill. Well of course the hill was steeper, the road longer and more winding, and the day much warmer than I had anticipated. As I trudged on, my backpack weighing more with each step, a light perspiration turning into a full-on sweat, I noticed a certain odor. The dye in my special new shirt I had bought just before my trip mixed in a most unfortunate way with what was now a proper flop sweat. When I finally arrived at the hotel I was red faced, pouring with sweat and reeking of what smelled like cat urine. The desk clerk backed discreetly away as she handed me the key. I immediately took a shower and changed clothes before heading out.
Feeling refreshed, I was enjoying the view of Assisi in the distance when an elderly gentleman approached and started to tell me about the view and his beloved Perugia. He offered to show me around town. As he seemed very kind and harmless, I thought why not. Well long story short, the charming elderly gentleman turned into a dirty old man. I made my excuses to get away from him and went and hid in my room for the rest of the day. The next day was great and I quite enjoyed the rest of my stay in Perugia.
What I learned: always wash new clothes before your trip; take public transport to the hotel and store your backpack/luggage with them until check-in time and take your leisurely walk burden-free; as for the charming old man, I was never in any danger and it could have been the beginning of a beautiful friendship. As it was, it was something to tell my friends, so I wouldn’t change that:)
Angela, now you know what it's like to fly stand-by! We get used to being bumped and know the plane schedules like the back of our hands. But, if I had paid full fare and had to go through all of that, it'd be a different story.
I forgot about the sick kid one -- my son started running a fever a week in to our 2-week trip this past summer. I thought it was the same little bug my daughter had the week before the trip, but it wasn't. It turned out okay, his fever stayed down during the day and he made it through sightseeing in Dublin by riding my husband's shoulders most of the time. When we went on to Germany, he started getting worse, but we were staying with family, so he could stay in their house and sleep for a few hours during the day while we took our daughter out. The fever was gone for the flight back, but, more fun, he developed horrible diarrhea.
The good part of all of that was that our apartment in Dublin (Brookman Townhomes, big shout-out to the manager, Naomi, she's very helpful) had a directory that came with the place that listed the number for a service called Doctor on Duty. We called the service, had a doctor AT OUR APARTMENT in 90 minutes, and paid 70 euro for the service. Luckily, it was just a virus, but it was good to know that before we flew to Germany. Oh, and now we also know what to give a kid for a fever in Ireland and Germany.
Mine isn't a vacation, it's business.
I was flying B-52s on Guam when my first child was born. When my wife was about 3 1/2 weeks from her due date, I was told to get to Loring AFB, Maine to pick up a B-52 and bring it back to Guam.
We started by catching a military hop to Hawaii, took a military bus to the commercial terminal in Hawaii, a commercial flight to Chicago (no reservations), another commercial flight to Boston (no reservations), a commuter flight to Bar Harbor (no reservations) then Presque Isle (?) and a military bus from there to Loring in the Northern tip of Maine.
We arrived on August 1st and flew out August 3rd. It was snowing as we taxied to the runway. The joke in Maine is, "We had a great summer this year, but it was last week."
We flew to Castle AFB, CA and discovered the plane had class D fuel leaks, which precluded flying across an ocean. Each day for the next two weeks, we checked out of our hotel each morning - expecting the plane to be ready, arrived at the base and learned maintenance had discovered more leaks and needed another 24 hours to fix it, checked back into our hotel and waited another day.
Needless to say, my wife wasn't a happy camper as one week, then the next, dragged on.
Fortunately, the plane was finally ready to go and I got back in time to be there for my daughter's birth.
Another time we were seeing Mexico by the ultimate backdoor method - bus. It may seem crazy but the premier class busses are cheap and great with literally no tourists on board.
We were near the end of a 30 day trip and were catching a bus from Tepic to Tijuana. I noticed they were announcing the departures so got comfortable in the waiting area and I listened to the departure announcements.
When the time came, and went, for our bus to leave, I went out and asked. It turned out they were only announcing departures for one line of busses (Mexican bus stations are more like our airports with multiple competing companies). Your ticket is like an airline ticket. If you miss your bus, you're out of luck.
Like someone else said, we must have looked pitiful enough that they put us on another bus. It would have been fine, except the air conditioning went out and the company decided not to replace the bus. We drove through the Sonoran desert in August with no a/c and windows that don't roll down. The trip was probably 32 hours and half of it was miserable.
I would definitely tour by bus again but would fly to Guadalajara or Mexico City and start from there to skip the longest and least fun leg of the trip.
Bad day (and night) on the Rhine.
We stayed in St. Goar. The day opened with a morning shower in a coed bathroom at the St. Goar hostel full of young women. My wife swears half of them had only towels wrapped around their wastes and I swear I didn't notice (really). It would have been fine except for a white-haired woman who kept peeking through my shower curtain.
We were planning on taking a KD line tour from Bacharach back to St. Goar. We got on a regional train to Bacharach. When it was time to get off we headed toward the door, my wife led the way, kids in the middle and me in the rear. For some reason my wife couldn't get the door open. I'm not sure why. By the time I realized it and went to help, the train was moving again.
We got off at the next stop and found the next train back was an hour away. We grabbed a picnic lunch and walked (almost exactly an hour) back to Bacharach. We bought a ticket for the KD line. As luck would have it, the boat was completely packed and they weren't letting anyone on so we got a refund and missed the boat ride. We pretty much wasted a day.
On a seperate business trip, I had added a week of vacation before flying home and was in the same area. I stayed at a Pension in St. Goar and took a train to a restaurant I wanted to try in Baharach. I checked times for the return train and went to eat.
At the restaurant I met a group from Seattle who were starting on a RS tour. We had a nice conversation and I stayed late because I "knew" there was a late train I could catch. I walked back to the station but no train. It turned out the later trains only run on Fridays and Saturdays (should have read the schedule more carefully). There was no life in the area so I walked the 14 km back to my pension.
Yes, that first day in Venice was our worst “joint” travel experience. Still, Venice is one of my favorite cities to visit. I experienced the whole spectrum of emotions locked up in the apartment for all those hours. (At times I imagined that perhaps my husband had fallen into a canal but realized this wouldn’t really be an issue because he’s a great swimmer).
When the key finally turned on the front door of the apartment I told myself not to get too angry because my husband’s day was likely just as bad as mine had been. I could the see the misery and weariness on his face…we both just looked at each other and didn’t say too much. We decided to go out for a nice dinner, put the whole event behind us, and not argue about whose day had been worse.
We’ve taken many subsequent trips without a cell phone to keep in touch but with always a plan on how to meet up if we get separated, directions to make it back to our hotel (no more apartments for us…actually, we never wanted an apartment in the first place)…we may break down and do cell phones our next trip.
I have (fortunately) avoided many of the misfortunes listed in this thread so my bad experience might not seem so bad. Simply put, I was not prepared for the heat/humidity I encountered in the summer in Italy. I swear, I felt like the first tourist on the sun. The combination sapped my energy and the difficulty I had sleeping in those conditions in hotel rooms without air conditioning compounded the problem. I got used to it after a few days but...
Mine was on a return from Tokyo to Des Moines via Chicago. I left Tokyo in the late afternoon, and I'm not good at sleeping on planes, so I was pretty tired when I arrived in Chicago 13 hours later. It was snowing, but planes were still departing--until a snowplow took out the runway lights. Hotels were impossible to snag (this was before internet and cell phones) and there were 8,000 people in O'Hare overnight. The airlines still had blankets and pillows, but do you know how hard it is to sleep in O'Hare with 8,000 other people? For me--hard. It was spring break, so anyone wanting to go anywhere warm was pretty much out of luck when the airport finally reopened the next morning. Luckily I got on a flight in the early afternoon and arrived in Des Moines having not slept for something like 50 hours. No trouble with jet lag on that trip! I slept for 14 hours and was good to go.
St. Patricks Day 1990 Dublin and 4 of us made a bet to see who could hitch to Belfast fastest the next day. The bet was made over too many rounds of Guinness and Paddy whisky.
We broke into to 2 teams. My teammate and I struck gold right away and got a ride to Drogheda. We were there by noon and it looked like this was going to be easy.
We were on the far side of Drogheda and kept walking with our thumbs out. Hours passed and it was getting windy, wet and cold. We hadn't eaten all day. This was the middle of nowhere and starting to get dark. We started considering sleeping in a field or trying to flag down the Gardai.
Suddenly it was pitch black and we knew we were screwed. If we couldn't get a ride in the daylight, what chance did we have in the dark?
Just then our luck changed and a car stopped. An older gentlemen -- had to be late 80s or even in his 90s stopped and picked us up. We crammed into his tiny car and off we went.
We were happy to be warm and moving again. That sensation lasted for just a few minutes as we began moving to smaller and smaller roads and his speed continued to climb.
The oldtimer had such a thick brogue there was no way to have a conversation (I was living in Ireland so my ear was pretty accustomed to Irish English -- but not with this guy).
The roads were pitch black and he was flying around curves, catching bushes when other cars passed. I was 100% certain this was when and where I would die. I kept thinking I wished I was back on the side of the road again.
I can't remember being more scared in a car.
Finally he dropped us near the border (heavily fortified then). A Belfast teacher picked us up and got us across the border. On the outskirts of Belfast he propositioned us -- the fear meter went back up. Belfast could be a scary place in those days.
Thank God he dropped us off at our destination. It was around midnight and we lost the bet by 6 hours.
Who needs to watch Amazing Race?
My worse experience was during my first trip to Europe. I was with a friend who had backpacked before and since I was feeling somewhat intimidated by the whole experience (I was much younger then!), I tended to follow her lead. Here we were, in the Paris metro, massive backpacks on our backs waiting for the next metro car to come. We had just arrived in France and were trying to get to our hotel. My friend had the map, the address and the name of the hotel, I had nothing. The train comes rushing in, doors fly open, a throng of people get off and a throng of people get on. My friend steps in, there is no room for me (it was rush hour), the door slams shut and off she goes.............with the map! I have never felt so alone or desperate in my life. I lliterally did not know what to do, get on the next train hoping she got off at the next stop, or just stay there since she knew where I was and I didn't know where she was. Two American soldiers came up and asked what was wrong, the look on my face must have been one of sheer terror. I explained and the got on the next car, got off at the next stop and there was a girl sitting there. They went up to her and said "did you loose a friend at the last stop, if so she's waiting for you, ready to cry"! She finally came back and we made it through the next 2 months with no troubles. At about 3 weeks later, I could finally laugh about it. Lesson learned, always know where you are going and don't let just one person have all that information.
My story's not nearly as bad as most which makes me a really lucky traveler. I was on a solo trip to Belgium and The Netherlands in 2007. I had delayed the trip due to my elderly father's illness and when I finally left, had a terrible cold. By the time I landed in Brussels I really felt lousy. Made my way to Haarlem, where I was staying, and could barely get myself out of bed each morning. Usually I'm up and out by 8:00 am but this time I was dragging myself out at 10:00. When I was checking in to come home I asked the agent if there was a seat alone since I didn't want to give anyone whatever it was I had. She assigned a seat and when I boarded I found not only did I have my row to myself but the rows in front and back were taped off-best return flight ever except for the constant, hacking cough. I got home and thought "I'm glad I went but I don't think I'll ever go back". A few week later I decided to print some of my pictures and WOW! Beautiful! I'm so glad I made myself take the pictures. If not I never would have realized how beautiful both countries are. Now I hope to go back again some day when I'm well and not in a coughing/sneezing/hacking induced fog.
I would like to think that my lesson has a universal message..."always have and exit strategy".
Our problems always seem to revolve around a rental car - circling the Munich train station 18 times trying to find a place to return the car, nearly getting side swiped by a cable car not realizing we were parked NEARLY on the tracks, not printing directions for the place we are going to.
But the cake topper would have to be finding our hotel in Split, Croatia. We were staying a Vila Anna - which at the time we didn't know was the most tiny obscure place imaginable. We must have drove by it 13 times and could not find it. So in this very busy downtown area with no parking we are taking every back road/alley/vaguely-road-looking path TRYING to find this hotel. My husband loses it! He is wiping down alleys...RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT. Our path is getting narrower and narrower. We barely squeeze by a car without taking our side mirrors off only to find a full flight of stairs at the end. We had no where to go. And to say that there was some yelling...well hopefully it is understandable.
The lesson - don't make snap decisions. Slow down, take a deep breathe. Nothing good every comes from snap decisions. And most importantly - HAVE AN EXIT STRATEDY! :)
In the end a group of extrememly nice people helped us back our rental car thru that needle hole of an opening. I got out and walked until another extremely nice man took me to the doorstep of our hotel. We went out and got some beers and began talking to each other again (and we loved each other once again).
Villa Anna was great - I would stay there again. And despite the amount of hair I pull out with each rental car - I will probably do that again too! Makes for great memories - eventually.
1st trip to Italy, was going with a friend who was an experienced traveler. Didn't know more than 10 words of Italian, but I didn't worry too much about the details since my friend had been before, figured when I got there I'd learn by seeing & doing. My flight had a layover in Frankfurt, friend was going direct and would arrive an hour before me even though I left the US first. So the plan was to meet at luggage pickup. Bleary-eyed I go to luggage pickup in Rome and no friend. Ok, his flight is late, so I wait. Hour later, no friend. I go to an airline desk, his flight was on time. Uh-oh... Finally I remembered my cell phone and check my messages. Half a dozen, the gist being he missed his flight and would arrive the next day. On my own! Writing down the hotel name, I went to one of the desks in the airport where they arrange rooms and they were kind enough to give me a map and point out where my hotel was located. Having read RS's book to prepare for the trip I knew I could take the train into downtown Rome. But having read RS's book to prepare for the trip I was terrified because Rick warns of all the scams crooks use to prey on travelers, and if there ever was a vulnerable traveler (alone in a land where I understood nary a word) it was me! I took the train, certain that the nicely-dressed man who motioned to the empty seat beside him was one of the pickpockets Rick warns about, after the train certain I was about to get waylaid on the way to the hotel.
A few lessons... First, everyone needs to know where they're going in case they get separated. As other posts have shown, even people traveling together can get separated on trains or subways. Second, while its prudent to be aware of dangers, such knowledge needs to be balanced out with a belief that if you've taken reasonable precautions you probably not a target. I still see posts from folks RS has terrified about the Circumvesuviana, a line I've since taken many times with no trouble.
Be careful who you travel with. First trip to France on a tour with a friend. She never read any of the tour info and had no idea where we were going. Lost her a couple of times in the South of France. She had no hotel information on her and could have been lost all night if I hadn't found her. We arrived in Paris by train. I waited at the bottom of the stairs for her to get off because she had a bad knee. But she never got off. She had gotten out of the train at the other end of the car but didn't tell me. By the time I went back in to look for her, the whole tour group had left the terminal and went out to the bus. When I finally found the bus (in tears) she made light of me crying. In Paris, she was in charge of our "cab kitty" - 100 euros each, and she left it in the cab after our first ride. Someone got a good tip. Finally at the Paris airport, after several security checks, she said "I've lost my boarding pass." I said, well I'll see you at home. Luckily they replaced it for her and we were on the same flight. I can laugh about it now but that was my most exasperating trip.
Showing up at my little local airport 2 hours early for my flight to Venice, walked to the counter and the lady said "I hope you're not the xxxxx Family". Of course, we were. Flight cancelled, reticketed to flight to Charlotte, Munich, Venice. Arrived in Charlotte on time but Munich plane left early.
First one in line at airline customer service charlotte, 100+ people behind me. When they finally found me a flight I was the only one left in line.
Diverted to Gatwick then eventually to Venice...without my luggage which somehow went to Munich. 3 days later my luggage eventually caught up with me in Monterosso al Mare.
It was a very unpleasant start to my vacation!
The bright side is that we all got to buy new clothes in Italy, got our VAT refund AND the airline compensated us over $1000 for all those new clothes!
My Mom ignored my packing carry on only advice and decided to check her luggage, including her diabetes medicine. She's a dozen sizes and half a foot smaller than I am. It took two days to get her luggage to her. She was a very oddly dressed, very sick woman by the time we got her luggage.
She still won't take my advice about carry on and is proud of not carrying luggage through airports. :P
Once a very nice gent on a bike tour offered to set my tent up for me, but he did it very, very wrong. It was on a beach, and I have a camping hammock. It was so loose my back was in agony in the morning and I got about 5 minutes of sleep because while the view was great, it was on an exposed hillside and the wind was freezing all night long. Lesson learned there? Always set up your own tent.
Traveling standby and trying to fly home from London years ago in my early 20's, I was told to run for the gate but found that boarding had just closed. I trekked dejectedly back through the endless hallways and realized I had to re-enter through immigration/customs. Could hardly explain through my tears to the officials how it was that my passsport was stamped as exiting England, when it appeared to them I was just arriving. Almost out of money, no credit card, traveling alone; it all worked out (didn't leave for two more days) but I never traveled standby again, even though my father was an airline employee and flying standby was virtually free. I traveled less and more expensively but with much less anxiety!!
Thinking back over 15 trips to Europe, I would say I was most psychologically stressed my first time there at 21 when I landed at Gatwick solo to start my 12 week trip in western Europe, and thinking a so-called friend of mine would be there to meet me as we had agreed upon (after working out the details in Calif). that was definitely the understanding. But after I got my luggage, cleared customs, I found out that he was no where to be found...he didn't show up. The plane landed at around 0510. Maybe I was unrealistic to expect him to be at the airport so early. So I waited there for three hours, thinking what am I going to do next and hoping he would show up...he did not.
I couldn't believe that I had been stood up, and I had made no contingency plan. Around 0900 as the airport shops were opening up, I thought enough of this sitting around at Gatwick and decided I had to get into London.
It would have been better had this happened to me in Frankfurt or Hamburg, instead of London. I would even have prefered it. So, I took next the Gatwick-Victoria Station train. It would be another 5 more hours before I found a student hotel at King's Cross, by which time I had gone more than 24 hours without sleeping. Those were the days...
Moral of the story: start moving if your original plan is frustrated. Don't just sit there.
Luckily not as serious as some listed here, but still stressful for us. We landed in London and I needed to use the facilities before we got on the train into the city. Hung my brand new coat and purse on a hook in the stall. Upon leaving, took my purse and left my coat and then walked out of the secured area. Half-way on the way to the train, I realized the coat was missing. Long, drawn-out process talking with Am. Airlines; getting security to let me back in -- of course the coat was gone and the cleaning lady spoke no English. Lost & found said to call tham after 1 pm the next day -- could never get an actual person on the phone -- had to get another new coat & gloves.
Get to Paris -- have TGV tickets to Reims the next day just for the day. My husband gets sick in the middle of the night and feels bad until about noon the next day. Missed out on that trip!
Yesterday we had tickets to take the RER train to Charles de Gaulle only to be informed that they went on strike Wed. night. Luckily the taxi stand was just a few feet from the metro station. But just another added expense -- but easier than hauling the luggage onto the train.
Overall it was a great trip even with cold, windy, rainy weather. A cold rainy day in Paris is still better than cold rainy days most places. I'd do it again.
We are learning to roll with the punches -- since they are always there in some form or fashion. Makes it interesting to see what will happen next!
My wife and I were staying in Haarlem (sp?) and went into Amsterdam on a day trip. We had agreed to meet at a certain time at a certain place. I sat at the appointed place at the appointed time for over 2 hours past the agreed to time and no wife. I was in a panic as this was our first time in Europe. I decided to return to our hotel in Haarlem while I could only guess what might have happened to my wife. When I got to the train station, there was my wife standing on the platform. I had waited at the wrong place! Boy, oh boy, what a relief.
My most stressful and trying trip was not to Europe. It was a Mexican cruise out of LA,, with two children under 2 and flying out of Vancouver B.C.
January 1993.
Spent night on SIL hellish hide a bed in Vancouver so we could catch early flight to LA.
Was freezing as she didn't heat basement properly. "Bed" was horrible. Got no sleep.
Snowed all night and we could barely make it to airport in blizzard that morning.
Flight to LA was cancelled. All flights cancelled but one was just leaving for Palm Springs. We had no cancellation insurance for cruise( we know better now, LOL ) so took flight to Palm Springs. One airport clerk helped us by carrying baby and running in front of us.. we ran to gate and followed her,, she had our baby! LOL
Baby vomited on flight, repeatly.Went through both changed of fresh clothing in carry on.
Two year old vomited the minute we landed.
Had to rent a car and get to LA for cruise which was leaving in hours.Had no map.
Got to LA, got lost in East La,, got the heck out of there, lOL , had no American change for a toll booth, worker would not take a Canadain dollar for a 25 Cent fee,, finally a stranger helped us, two year old vomited in car.
Arrived for Cruise, barely made it First two days at sea were very rough,, I was seasick whole time.. two year old was bored,, they wouldn't let him in childrens program ( too young), pool was closed as it was cold.
I hated that trip. It never got any better.
Moral of story.
No trips that involve flying internationally with children under 2 for us ever again. got an RV and motorhomed with kids for next 12 years. Loved having running water and clean clothes for children who seemed to spend first 3 years of life vomiting or having "accidents".. sigh.
I actually miss those days. :P
