We travel a lot and our friends and family are a bit jealous. But I have to remind everyone that we don’t have a stress free life. We have a lot of fun and see a lot of cool places, but sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes we are stupid or ignorant or sometimes we just hit some bad luck. It is inevitable for delays to happen but sometimes things are a little worse than that…. Our last 3 month trip in Europe was fantastic but we ended up with a pretty big list of things that didn’t go quite as planned.
- The person behind us on the flight to Europe had a stomach problem bad enough that the plane turned around over the Atlantic, and make an emergency stop in Newfoundland to get her to a hospital. 3 hour delay
- We got out of the train in Budapest to a downpour. My worn beach shoes couldn’t handle the slick marble stairways and I tumbled down a stairway with my bags right outside of the train station. Not seriously hurt, but our first stop that night was the shoe store before I got to eat dinner.
- I used an European adapter to plug in my American beard trimmer. A big spark and lots of smoke and the beard trimmer was a goner. We also blew a breaker so we didn’t have lights in the bathroom for 3 days.
- We both got colds in Budapest and then Zagreb. Just the common cold but it is frustrating when you only have a few days in a city and can’t go out to see it. Luckily we were able to heal quick enough that it didn’t affect seeing the major attractions. Sort of enjoyed the challenge of finding a pharmacy and asking for cold medicine in different languages.
- We realized that we had no way to get from Ljubljana, Slovenia to Rovinj, Croatia because the buses only go every other day. We were able to reduce our time in Slovenia and add a day in Rovinj so problem was solved. But then a rainstorm hit Ljubljana hard in our 2 days there… We need to get back to Slovenia sometime so we can see it on a good day.
- We showed up to our Airbnb near Plitvice National Park in Croatia and there was no key in our lockbox. Not sure what happened but we may have been double booked. The host texted us a new room to try. It took us a while to find the new place and we were super hungry with no restaurants nearby. We turned on the oven and it filled the place with smoke. We aired out the room while we found a convenience store with sandwiches.
- Jammed bike chain on a rental bike made for a long day in Rovinj, Croatia. story is here.
- I got bit by a friendly kitten in Sorrento that was visiting our patio every night. Yes, I know better but…. It swelled up pretty good but luckily I have a wife that carries antibiotics that worked like they should.
- A string of bad events in Paestum, Italy including, no taxis, no buses, a broken luggage wheel, terrible rental bikes and closed restaurants. story is here.
- Walking in Syracuse my sandal just fell apart. The strap was beyond repair and I was at least a mile from our airbnb. We found a shoe store a few blocks away (seemed like a womens shoe store?) and bought the only shoe that had in my size. The Italian ladies working at the store were so lovely, but a bit confused. Problem solved.
None of these were that big of a deal and we successfully handled them all. Everyone that travels like we do ends up with stories like this. It hasn’t stopped us from traveling yet. We have stories that go back years.
One our our first trips together was to the Yucatan peninsula in the early 90’s. We had rented a car that had no license plates. The rental car company said that was OK in Mexico. I was driving on a dirt road trying to find the ferry to Isla Mujeres and there weren’t any street signs anywhere. This was way before google maps so we had to rely on paper maps. I was a little frustrated and then we got pulled over by the Mexican police. They didn’t care about my lack of license plates but said I was going a little too fast. I don’t think so, but I had to bribe them $40 to get my drivers license back and they let us go.
Cars often cause me problems in other countries. I have successfully driven a stick shift on the left side of the road in England and in South Africa. It isn’t easy shifting with your left hand and remembering to drive on the wrong side of the road. I am kind of proud of that. But my biggest traffic fine happened in Switzerland and I am not proud of that at all. To get through a tunnel from Switzerland to Austria you were supposed to go buy a window sticker at a gas station before going through the tunnel. There were signs…. in German. I thought it was a toll but I expected a toll booth somewhere. Before I could figure it out, I got pulled over. It was over 200 euros which we luckily had on hand so we didn’t have to go to the police station. Although the guards were carrying semi-automatics across their chests, so it was a bit tense. My fault obviously, but this was before we all had the internet on our phones that can help us avoid those situations.
We also had a pretty big problem on a boat that was in the early days of mobile internet. We were taking a 3 day ferry from Bellingham, Washington to Skagway, Alaska where we were renting a motorhome to explore the Yukon and Alaska with our young kids. The first night, we were woken by the fire alarms at 2am. We woke to see the ferry surrounded by other boats and an announcement from the captain that everything was going to be OK. But you should be prepared to evacuate, because there was a fire in the engine room. They got the fire out that night but the boat barely made it to Ketchikan and we had to get off there… We found a flight to Juneau and were able to take another ferry to Skagway to get back on schedule for our Alaska motorhome trip.
Airbnb’s also can be difficult. We were staying with our teenage kids in Istanbul, Turkey on the 4th floor of an apartment building. The street entrance to the stairs had been unlocked the 3 days we were there because there were businesses on the first 2 floors. We had to leave on the last day early to catch a flight to Athens so we called a taxi. We left the keys on the table, locked the doors and walked down the stairs with our luggage. Then we discovered that the door was locked. We were trapped in the stairway. We could hear our taxi driver outside. It was early so the arirbnb host wasn’t answering his phone. We were mildly panicking but our boys were able to force the doors open and get us out. There is always a way….
On that same trip, we also had an early ferry out of Athens. We woke to discover that there had been a power outage and there was no lights to help us get ready to make our 8am ferry. We were able to pack up using cell phone lights to get out of there on time. Another close call….
When we talk to other people that travel like us, these are the types of stories we like to share. They are funny and it is great to hear that they happen to everyone if you travel enough. Everyone has stories of tough travel situations that they eventually make it through. Not really bad things… just frustrating. These things aren’t going to stop us traveling…