In Spain a couple years ago, I was alone in Salamanca for a few days. Coming home, I had a super early flight from Madrid so I decided to take a late bus from Salamanca to Madrid and then sleep in the airport. The place where I was staying had a computer in the lobby, which I used to check in for my flight before heading to the bus station. Then I tossed out my carefully created itinerary for the trip with all my hotel info and stops, since the trip was over and surely I would no longer need it.
Ran outside, grabbed a taxi, told him to basically step on it, go careening up to the hotel, grab my passport, hug the desk clerk, dash back to the taxi, give him a massive tip, run inside, grab my suitcase, and race onto the bus. The last bus out for the night, I might add. Meaning if I had not noticed the missing passport when I did or not made it back to the station in time, I would not have been able to leave until the next morning and would have completely missed my 6:30 AM flight.
I never get rid of my itineraries before I arrive home anymore!
Post by Wanderista on Aug 20, 2015 10:37:17 GMT -5
I have to really dig into my memory for examples because I honestly haven't made any mistakes per se since college. I did get ill while traveling in Egypt but I wouldn't exactly call that a mistake. I visited a doctor whose recommendations and medications worked. I should have gotten traveler's insurance for that trip, but everything was ok.
I do vaguely remember once forgetting my luggage in the luggage storage area of my hotel in Brussels. I stayed in Brussels a lot and on that particular trip I was staying at a pretty nice hotel that was walkable to much of the city center. It was a bit of a lengthier walk to the Eurostar train station at Gare du Midi but that was a walk that I did fairly frequently. At the end of my trip, I remember walking to the train station to catch my train back to London when I realized I had forgotten my bags in a holding room in the hotel. I had to sprint back to the hotel in a panic. Fortunately, someone from the hotel gave me a ride back to the train station which is the only reason that I caught my train. I'd nearly forgotten about that but the hotel's service was very nice. It was especially important because there ended up being transit problems throughout the system later that evening if I remember correctly. Anyway, the hotel was the Hotel du Congres in Brussels. I gave the driver 5 euros for his trouble and he was hesitant to take it, just very nice service.
I just remembered one of my worst, reading these is jogging my memory.
H and I just arrived in Rome. H was a really bad flier then and was a complete jello-y zombie. He's a foot bigger and has 100lbs on me. It was so hard to get him to our rental apartment. We arrive. I go through all the instructions with the owner who speaks little English. They leave, H goes to sleep. He is absolutely useless until he sleeps off his the medicine.
I decide to go out and explore the neighborhood and pick up a few groceries. The Apartment requires one key to turn the power on, one to lock the door. I didn't understand that I needed both keys. I didn't want my H to wake up in the dark. I go shopping come back and realize I am locked out. H is dead to the world and can't hear me knocking. I have no phone. I have some money but no passport. I'm trying to decide if sleeping behind the little olive tree planter will be ok. Then I grab my guide book and see a hotel is not to far away. Walk to the hotel. I have no passport. :/ I'm exhausted and not thinking clearly. The hotel lets me use their computer. I am talking to my friend on gchat when she goes...don't you have the owners number in your emails? Get the hotel to call for you! OMG friend.. i love you. I was so mentally tired I couldn't think. I was thinking of going to the train station since they are open 24/7. Luckily my friend could think clearly and I got to sleep in a bed that night.
We took the bus to Plitvice in Croatia in the off season. We didn't think we needed to book a hotel ahead of time. Bus dropped us off as it was starting to get dark. First hotel was closed for the season. Second hotel closed for the season. There was only one more hotel. Starting to get nervous. On our way through the parking lot to see if that one was open, some guy pulled up in a car and said he would drive us to his house where he had rooms for rent. We decided to go for it. Thankfully, he was not a serial killer and the room was fine.
We had a similar incident near Plitvice. We were driving in from the south and Rick Steves had said there were plenty of B&Bs around the park. First town we went into was completely deserted. Next town had a big hotel so we figured we'd try that (it was getting dark already). Full. A guy sees us and doesn't speak a word of English but gets we're trying to find a place to stay so walks us to a few places that were also full. We're convinced we're going to be sleeping in the car. Finally he finds his daughter who does speak English and calls a friend who lives a mile out of town and has a room to rent. He also wants us to get in his car. Luckily we had our own car so we just followed him and it worked out fine and we had a blast at the bar in town that night.
On that same trip, we took a day trip to Montenegro from Dubrovnik. We'd driven all the way around the Bay of Kotor and were in the town of Kotor. We were told we could save some drive and continue around the bay and catch a car ferry across. Turns out that road was under construction. One lane road for miles with no traffic control, just a free for all. We made it about 2 miles in for a bus caused a compete traffic jam. We ended up having some locals drive our car out of there and took the long way back.
Some of these stories are STRESSING ME OUT! Killing me!
The worst for me, sadly, was my first time overseas. To add insult to injury, I was alone. I typed in "Oslo" when booking my flight. Easy, right? Well, the shitty student search engine gave me flights to "Oslo" Torp, 2 hours away from the main airport. I had no idea I wanted OSL, but got TRF.
I had instructions on what bus to take, where to go, FOR THE WRONG AIRPORT.
I found my way eventually, after sitting at a bus stop for 2 hours out in the cold, then taking a $100 cab ride (though in retrospect this must've cost more).
It was absolutely TRAUMATISING for 21 year old me, and it's really quite amazing that I've ever traveled again.
This was funny to us at the time, but sounds really mild and mundane to anyone else I'm sure. My mom, sister and I were in Italy. We stopped in Volterra and my mom wanted a panino. She went into a shop and tried to ask the person to cut it into 3 pieces so we could all eat some. So language barrier ensued and she came back with 3 giant panini. We saved the rest for later. We laughed so much on that trip!
I really can't think of anything. But in college, my sister booked her flight home for Thanksgiving for the week before Thanksgiving. Whoops! She ended up rebooking.
I have twice showed up at the airport at the wrong day/time. The first time was before 9/11 and security checkpoints and a time when you walked in the airport and went directly to the gate. So I went to check in and the gate person said "uh, this ticket is for next Tuesday, not today (which was a Tuesday). I was a whole week off! They let me on the plane anyway without changing the ticket since the flight wasn't full and I fixed the return flight later. This would NEVER happen today.
A few years ago I went to check my bag at skycap at maybe 6am and he says "you know your flight isn't until 7:30pm, right?". Um, no I thought it was 7:30am! Ooops!
The time our family showed up to a big get-together in Lake Tahoe with what we thought was food poisoning but ended up being the Norovirus. We got 5 other people sick who were staying in our cabin. I was mortified and so embarrassed. It's a terrible feeling to be laying in bed, listening to two different toilets going off all night.
We thought it was nothing more than food poisoning fom a potluck we attended a few days earlier. We thought it wouldn't be something that someone else could catch - We were wrong.
I still feel bad. Noro is no joke, you do NOT want that one.
I have had this too! I was in Hawaii in a hotel room shaking because I was so cold. I tried taking hot showers and nothing worked. That was in addition to the throwing up and not being able to keep food down. I don't blame you for feeling bad. My poor husband got it from me but fortunately his reaction wasn't as severe.
I made our tour guide in Thailand cry when I said something to the effect of "At least you will be around to see the next one" in reference to him not being alive for the coronation of the current King. The king was in his mid 80s at the time, I didn't think it would be offensive to tell someone under 40 that the king might predecease him, but I was wrong.
Yes, they love the king over there. It's nothing like how we think of our presidents
Post by majesty318 on Aug 31, 2015 13:24:44 GMT -5
I thought of another one. Last year for our HM, we spent a week in Italy (Sicily & Venice) and then did a Mediterranean cruise. When we got to Venice (a Friday), we happened to find a Laundromat (the kind where they wash for you). We figured, perfect opportunity to get clean clothes before the cruise. I stayed outside while my husband asked about price and I remember seeing the posted hours, which mentioned they were closed Sunday, but I also noticed that we were there at a time stated as closed, so I didn't pay too much attention. The owner then told my husband they were open every day until 4.
So we drop off our clothes and plan to come back the next day to get them. We got there mid-afternoon and it's locked up tight. I went into a market across the street and asked if they knew the schedule for the Laundromat and was told, "lunedi" meaning Monday. But we were leaving Sunday! So I start panicking in the middle of the street about how we will have no clothes for the whole second week of our trip. Someone from another shop across the street comes out and tells me this has happened before and luckily she knows where the Laundromat owner lives.
She walked us to this woman's apartment, and luckily she was both home and willing to come let us into her store.
The time our family showed up to a big get-together in Lake Tahoe with what we thought was food poisoning but ended up being the Norovirus. We got 5 other people sick who were staying in our cabin. I was mortified and so embarrassed. It's a terrible feeling to be laying in bed, listening to two different toilets going off all night.
We thought it was nothing more than food poisoning fom a potluck we attended a few days earlier. We thought it wouldn't be something that someone else could catch - We were wrong.
I still feel bad. Noro is no joke, you do NOT want that one.
I have had this too! I was in Hawaii in a hotel room shaking because I was so cold. I tried taking hot showers and nothing worked. That was in addition to the throwing up and not being able to keep food down. I don't blame you for feeling bad. My poor husband got it from me but fortunately his reaction wasn't as severe.
Yeah it finally clicked that it was something contageous when my 10 month old caught it and he had none of the food from the potluck. The next day the other people started coming down with a "slight" stomach ache that only got worse and worse. That evening and all night was bad. I don't think I have ever been stuck on the toilet while throwing up in the bathtub at the same time because the little bathroom trash can was just out of reach. Oh the horrible memories of that trip.
When I hear of the cruise ships dealing with noro outbreaks, my heart goes out to the passengers. It's a total nightmare.
On a European trip in 04 DH (then my BF) and I got off the Eurostar in Paris, had a guy who hustled us and convinced us to have him help us buy an unlimited subway pass. We couldn't exricate ourselves from the situation even though we knew something was fishy. We got to the hotel and didn't want to leave for the rest of the night. We felt overwhelmed not knowing French. Next day, I used the ticket he helped us buy, and of course it was a single use.
In that same trip, we decided to do some laundry at a laundry mat down the street from our hotel. DH does a load on the washer and puts it into a different machine to dry. Well, it wasn't a dryer but an oversized washer! It took over an hour for the second wash. We were there forever that afternoon! Hanging out on a laundry mat in Paris