In travel, moments of pure serenity, unending calm and satisfaction occur. Those moments when you realize why you travel are what help most part with home. I am no different, but I tend to find the mishaps of travel all the more rewarding.
A travel mishap, in theory, may sound like something you avoid. Being scammed on the streets of Mumbai isn’t really high on a traveler’s list. However in those failures, when the travel world shows it true colors, I learn the most about myself and even more about why I travel.
Oh no, there's travel trouble up ahead
Throughout 2010, I have had my fair share of travel mishaps, things that go wrong, plans that change, people you didn’t think you would meet and be so affected. In hopes that you will also find the silver lining in your own travel mishaps in 2011 rather than acting out like a redhead might, here are a few of my travel mishaps I am eternally grateful for this year.
Renting an apartment in Florence that took me for all I was worth
I would complain and complain about how ridiculously expensive my apartment in Florence for the summer was, adding up figures in my head of just how much the owners must make a year. In the heat of summer, I wouldn’t turn on the fan to save on electricity. It didn’t matter. The owners had some strange system to keep track of utilities, a million euros for laundry, and another million just to use your key. Perhaps I am exaggerating a little, but despite overpaying for accommodations this summer, I was able to discover a new area of Florence and spend my money wisely elsewhere.
A surprise connection with an iceman
Thinking I would be spending most of my summer solo, my sister surprised me and came to Florence for a few weeks. I didn’t plan on visiting northern Italy during my three month adventure. However, we decided to just pick a city in northern Italy and go. Luckily, after selecting numerous other cities, we finally came upon Bolzano. Bolzano was one of those surprises, those mishaps that turn out with the best possible outcome. I met Ützi, an Iron Age backpacker discovered in the 1990s near Bolzano incredibly intact. The ties with a traveler from another time, far from my own, were incredibly unexpected. I think we tend to think history is this distant time, and the people back in the day hold no connection to us. Ützi challenged that notion in me. I was fortunate to stumble upon Bolzano and their 5,000-year-old iceman.
Spending the night with a Portuguese Mafia Don
It sounds much worse I suppose. I pulled up to my ridiculously cheap accommodations in Portugal. Near Lisbon, this hotel appeared to be on the coast, affordable and seemingly like staying in a 5 star hotel. Giant walls encased this hotel in the middle of a nothing town. A man complete with gold chains and greasy jet black hair greeted me and my friend. We appeared to be the only ones staying. The hotel just didn’t feel right. You wondered where this man acquired so much money in the middle of an impoverished town. Perhaps my imagination created most of this travel mishap, but when he told us he would be heading to New York and Miami soon for “business”, I was glad we were only staying one night.
Eating vegemite with an Aussie in Florence
If you frequent travel blogs at all, you probably know Chris from The Aussie Nomad. He has a Vegemite Challenge where he totes his vegemite wherever he goes in hopes of spreading what he calls “tasty” all around the world. I had never tried vegemite until that day and I will never try it again. However there was something remarkable about sitting in an Italian Renaissance city, with some of the greatest food in the world, and selecting to try vegemite with an Aussie. That is one connection travel is good at lending, the strange and out there.
Wandering around Valencia in 109F temperatures
I can’t even begin to describe just how hot it seemed in Valencia that day. Christine of C’est Christine got overly ambitious, deciding we should trek out through Valencia at the hottest part of the day. I began to feel much like I did in third grade playing the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz. I very well could have melted that day and this is what is left of me. In the process, I learned complaining about the weather when you travel is probably one of the most idiotic things you can do. Delays and the like due to poor conditions or nearly passing out on a Valencia bus due to extreme heat are all things you can’t control.
Valencia, it may look nice, but it was uncomfortably hot
What are some of your favorite travel mishaps of 2010?
At least I let you talk me into overcoming my fear of buses on the way back! And I think you got some nice color from the sunshine–my tan certainly improved!
I think the greater travel mishap in Valencia was paying the ridiculous sum of 23 Euros to see the most depressed sea animals in history.
Love this idea! I have a couple if that’s cool:
1) My buddy Ryan and I decided to stay out really late in September in Paris the night before we were going to take an early train out to Normandy to see the D-Day beaches. The odds were not good of us getting up early anyway, but when the hostel worker at Oops! in Paris brought in a whole basket of fresh croissants at 3 am and told us to “have at em”, we did and of course stayed up too late and overslept for our train.
2) We went to Lake Bled in Slovenia for the day to hike and take a boat out to the island in the middle. I had never rowed before and ended up making our boat do circles in the lake and then invade a section of the lake roped off for swimmers. I will be detailing this story in an upcoming blog as well, it was priceless.
Scott
It’s great that you can look on the bright side of things, especially overspending for the apartment. Comfort is very important, though, when you’re staying long term. I’m sure you did the right thing.
What would travel be without the mishaps?
I’ve written a whole list of mine over on my blog about the injuries I acquired while I was in Spain and Portugal. Clumsy and travel just don’t go together. Or maybe it’s clumsy and life that don’t.
There was one funny thing that happened to me recently, I almost made it through the year!
A couple of weekends ago I took my last trip with work to Vienna for the Christmas Markets and as we were counting up the students I suddenly remembered that I FORGOT my PASSPORT! I wouldn’t have time to go home and get it… so I went to my fellow tour guide and friend (who happened to be taking a different group to Switzerland) and whispered the secret. She cracked up, telling me she had forgotten hers too! We are always told “don’t be the tour guide that forgets your passport! That’s for the students to do” and of course we would on our LAST trip! Thankfully, our buses never got stopped. I suppose a bus full of 50 Americans in Austria isn’t worth the hassle.
Vegemite is by far the grossest thing I have ever, ever, ever tastes in my entire life!
Here’s to some mishaps in 2011! they make travel fun!
Oh man, can I ever relate. Writing a similar post soon, I think.
Oh Suzy don’t deny you secretly loved my Vegmite 🙂 I’m sure you had tears of joy and not tears of OMG I’m going to be sick.
Oh and Matt if we ever end up in the same city at the same time your so trying vegmite again, call it a travel mishap for 2011 if you will 🙂
Great idea. Although this year was relatively mishap-free, not too long ago, I allowed a Cuban restauranteur to offer my girlfriend and I lots of “free” mojitos with our dinner one evening. Thinking we’d be quite tipsy by the end, our bill arrived with a lot more on it than we’d eaten or drunk. But actually being pretty sober, we realised what’d happened — but had to pay up nonetheless due to the restaurant having emptied out and noone but the manager and a few heavies remaining!
It can be a tough balance to strike between opening up and being friendly with locals and keeping your guard up in case you’re being taken for a ride…
Oh, travel mishaps. As much as I would like to say the idea is foreign to me, I know how those go! I have a bit of an imagination as well, but in Portugal that guy must’ve been in the mafia. Most definitely 🙂 Fun reads Suzy!
I had two main mishaps, for which one the Aussie Nomad was present. First–I stupidly didn’t realize a 6 o’clock flight was at 6 a.m., not 6 p.m., while in Melbourne, which caused me to stay up all night at the Crown Casino till my 3 a.m. shuttle to the airport for my rebooked 6 a.m. flight the following day. Chris was still in Oz then and stayed with me until about 11 at night when he had to work the next day to keep me company. Stand-up guy!
The second mishap also involved a flight. I somehow booked the second half of a flight from Philly to St. Lucia the next day, causing me to pay an extra $600 to get on that day’s flight. I was with my boyfriend’s parents who I had just met, which made it extra embarrassing.