My Top 10 Travel FAILS! (So far...)
Coming from someone who's a bit of a perfectionist at the best of times, one of the things I hate the MOST is when my travel plans flop! Of course, this would frustrate any normal human being, but for me, I think it's worse, lol much much worse. I love to organise things. I love to have everything in place. I love to know what I'm doing and when. Come to think of it, as I'm writing this, I'm sounding more and more like a control freak (?) but I promise you, I'm not as bad as I sound. I think...
Anyway! Drum roll please *drum roll* - here are my top 10 travel fails so far (I say 'so far' because I'm pretty clumsy and will probably end up adding 10 new fails to this list in the next couple of years)!
Watch this space...
1) That time our hire car was given to someone else in Sicily...
So we planned a girls trip to Sicily - hooray! Everything was planned down to a T.. flights, accommodation, hire car, activities.. My friend Sasha saw a few good deals with hire car companies online (which I wasn't too keen on for various reasons) but after a lot of convincing and putting her argument forward, I gave in and we decided to book it! We were due to pick up the hire car from 3pm after we landed in Sicily (or so we thought), only when we got there, the lady at the desk told us she had given our car away as we missed our slot! We were flabbergasted and put up a good argument before I read the small print again and realised that we were supposed to pick the car up at 3pm and not from 3pm! You couldn't have slapped the embarrassment and frustration off of my face if you tried! In the end, we had to explain what had happened to our host who kindly picked us up and offered us a discounted car through his contacts at his brother's hire car company! Life saver.
2) That time I decided to climb Mount Etna in sliders in Sicily...
This one sounds so stupid already lol but yes, for some strange reason, I thought it would be cute to go to Mount Etna for the day wearing my Nike slides. I should have know that would have been a bad idea but I thought I was being smart since we weren't actually climbing all the way up and took the car. Thank God I was able to rest my tootsies in the car every now and then but by the time we got back to our house, my feet were black (the sand on top of Mount Etna is black)! I literally had to scrub my toes for ages with warm soapy water to bring them back to a more.. presentable state and as for my slides, the soles remain dirty, stained with black sand and the stitching has started to wear ? RIP cute slides.
Viewing Point on Mount Etna
Chereece and I on Mount Etna
3) That time I got whacked in the face on a truck in Dominica...
This happened some time ago now but long story short, myself, my sister, my mum, aunt and cousin were riding in my uncle's truck when we visited Dominica for a family wedding (this didn't happen on the day of the wedding). My sister and cousin decided they wanted to ride on the back of the truck - in the Caribbean it's quite common to see people sitting and riding in the back of a pick up truck without seats or seat belts. Or even standing. There's 11 years between myself and my sister so for good reason, my mum thought it would be best if I rode inside the car where it was safer but of course, if my sister was riding on the back of the truck, I wanted to too. So eventually, probably to save the embarrassment of shouting at me in front of the family, my mum gave in. I thought I was living life, feeling the breeze hit my pits as we drove though the country roads and fields. The problem with Dominica is that there are banana trees EVERYWHERE. And whilst I was lapping up all of my new found freedom, I didn't notice a particularly large tree we were approaching. Before I knew it, my face had made a sweet connection with some of the branches/leaves in that tree and it almost took my bloody neck off! After that, my face was red and tingling with shame but I played it off like it didn't hurt. Boy did it hurt. Until this day, my sister has never let me live it down. Thanks Lou!
4) That time we were forced to listen to another couple get 'jiggy' in Magaluf...
Ok so we weren't exactly 'forced' to listen. Rashad and I decided to spend a few days in Magaluf during the non-peak season where it's a lot quieter and there's generally less crazy, drunk, horny people about. Well, we were wrong. Sadly, our hotel room was right next to the room of a rather.. 'active' couple who we could hear (quite clearly might I add) through the apartment walls! Morning, afternoon, evening. It seemed they spent quite a lot of time in that apartment and unfortunately, since we were running out of money and the weather got crappy, we did too! Cringe.
5) That time we got fined for 'trying to smuggle money' into Jamaica...
So we've just landed after a LONG flight from the UK to JA. Hot, tired and sweaty. Only to be escorted to one side in the airport and asked to explain why we have not declared our money. Huh?! I was so confused and had slept for the latter part of the flight so I had no idea what the security guards were talking about. On the plane, we were given little cards and asked to declare the goods we had. I can't remember the wording exactly now but there was a question that asked about the amount of money we were carrying which I must say was poorly phrased and very confusing. I'm talking hella confusing. I remember most of my family (all the adults I travelled with) asking each other ''So does it me we tick if we have it? Or tick if we don't?'' A question to which none of us knew the answer and we were told by staff that they could not help us with it so of course, we guesstimated. So when it came time to be quizzed on this at the airport when we landed in Jamaica, I thought I had answered to the best of my ability. Apparently not. The airport officials were not trying to hear our story about how we had obviously ticked the wrong box and decided we were all liable for a fee. After feeling like I was talking to a brick wall, I thought 'You know what, I really don't want to end up on one of those embarrassing TV programmes where people don't declare their goods.' So we paid the fine and were just happy to be able to leave without things going further. Handy tip: don't mess up the declaration forms. Jamaican airport staff are NOT lenient!
Views from our Hotel Room in Jamaica
Views from the Private Beach in Jamaica
6) That time I was chased by a goat uphill in Dominica...
Haha. When I look back on this moment now, I genuinely so laugh, but at the time this was no laughing matter. As some of you may already know, I have slight zoophobia (fear of animals) which I am constantly working on. One time, my sister and I were in our native island of Dominica. I have no idea what we were doing I remember walking uphill towards one of my cousins' house and hear an awfully close bleating noise. When we turned around, there was a very malnutritioned and hungry looking billy goat staring and bleating right at us! At first we thought if we just continued to walk slow, it would go away (there are goats all over Dominica and I have never actually seen them trouble anyone). Well, I'm guessing he sensed the fear because he pointed his horns down and began charging at us! Before I knew it, my sister had taken off and was sprinting back towards the house. There was me, asthmatic and wearing flip flops trying desperately not to get shoved in the butt my this angry goat. I was literally crying and running and you could hear my shoes flip flopping up the hill. There was a point where I though I was about to get a good shove from this goat but then one of my younger cousin appeared out of nowhere from the bushes. He stamped his foot down on the ground and shouted "MASH!" The goat literally stopped in his tracks, looked at my cousin, turned around and walked away. My sister and I were were panting on the side of the road, gobsmacked! Until this day, I can't stand the sight of a goat!
7) That time we got stuck 100ft in the air above a volcano in Sicily...
This particular event happened on the same day that I decided to wear my slides on Mount Etna. We must have gotten halfway up before deciding to stop and take a little ride on the cable carts. For anyone who doesn't know, cable carts are little cars that transport you (usually on a mountain or ski slope) from one side to the other in the air. They go pretty slowly to allow you to see all of the sites below and around you. They are attached by cable hence 'CABLE' carts and you are usually at least a few hundred feet above the ground. Once you are inside the cable cart, you cannot usually control the speed or bring it to a stop yourself. Our ride lasted approximately 20 minutes however, halfway through we came to a sudden stop and were left hanging in the air. It was so quiet and that chickens that nobody wanted to shake or more the cart too much as we had visions of all four of us falling and crashing to the ground which was at lease 100 feet below. One of my friends very nearly had a panic attack and literally would not move or even talk because she was so scared that we would plummet to the ground. I guess this was a bad time to tell the rest of us that she also had a fear of heights! After what seemed like 15 or 20 minutes of being frozen in the sky on top of Mount Etna, we started moving again. Whether it was 15 minutes or five minutes I literally have no idea but it seems like a lifetime and after what happened the previous day at Gole Alcantara, I was still pretty shaken up and just couldn't wait for my feet to touch the ground..
Before the Cable Cart came to a Sudden Halt!
Views from Above
8) That time we missed our flight to Italy...
I had never been late for a flight before, NEVER. Until the time someone in our little girl group to Italy decided we should get to the airport an hour and half before the flight. Again, me being 'miss organisation' thought this was a bad idea as I normally arrive at an airport at lease 2.5-3 hours before my flight but unfortunately, I was outnumbered and was also playing taxi for half of our group. So we set off, we weren't actually 'running late' until we pulled up at the airport and realised we were not in the right section to park the car (I drove and pre-paid for airport parking) although the sat-nav took us there. We still had a little time on our hands so I asked one of the members of staff if they know how to get to the airport car park. He gave me the most complicated directions! Something along the lines of “Yeah it's not far love. Come out of here and take a right, follow the road until you get to the round about, then take the first exit, at the next round about take the second exit, then turn right, then take the second exit at the next round about and you're basically there. It takes about 15 minutes.” Our faces were literally like :O :O :O !!!
After asking him to repeat again and everyone trying to remember a different part of the directions, we set off, only to get lost again! It took us way longer than 15 minutes to finally arrive, then we had to locate my other two friends, park and walk across to the shuttle bus stop. We still had just enough time to spare, however, there no sign of the shuttle bus and we had no idea when it would arrive so we did all we could do, we waited. Eventually the bus came and it started to dawn on us that we may actually miss check in! We made a plan to get our cases ready like, now, dart off the shuttle and sprint to the check in queue! It only took one of us to get in line as our tickets were on each of our phones so one person ran ahead and the others scurried behind with the bags. We actually made it to the queue and waited in line with a few other people who looked just as hot and bothered as we did. A few minutes later, a lady came out ad said that the queue for check in was now CLOSED! ….WTF?! We quized her on how she could possibly close the queue whilst people were still in it and she gave less that satisfactory answers. She literally showed no remorse and said “That's too bad. You'll just have to buy another ticket.” and walked away... We were baffled and couldn't fathom what was happening. I could understand if we joined the queue after the time that baggage closed but we literally joined the queue with minuetes to spare! There even people in front of us who were told they would have to buy another ticket too.
Luckily, we were able to put our pennies together and buy “half price” tickets to Rome. The lady at the information desk told us there were fantastic train links in Italy and that we could easily get from Rome to Pizzo (the area we were staying), she said it wouldn't take long. So we booked it. The surprises didn't stop there though, when we got to Rome, we thought we would take a taxi and kill some time, however, the taxi drivers told us it would cost about 500 euros!! I almost fainted. I thought 'surely they must be confusing their numbers' as there was a strong language barrier. So we decided to get on a shuttle to the train station, when we got to the ticket stand, the machine show “6 hours” for the train ride to Pizzo... “You've got to be kidding me!!!!” is all I remember shouting. But no, nobody was kidding, we spent the next 6-7 hours half asleep on a train. It was so sad, we didn't even get to explore Rome as we thought we may have been able to. Definitely one travel fail I have learned from!
9) That time we got robbed over an iPhone charger in Magaluf...
The first time I went to Magaluf, Spain, I was 18 years old and stayed with my cousin Kerry, my sister Louise and Louise's friend Michelle AKA Tits (don't ask!!). One day we were getting ready to go to the pool when we heard a knock at the room door. It was the group of people staying next door to us, they were asking us if they could use an iPhone charger. Myself and Louise were the only ones with iPhones at the time and both of our phones were still charging so we politely said no. The girl at the door stood and stared at us for ages. We were confused. What was she looking at?? She shouted to her friends “The SAY they don't have one!” before fake smiling and walking away. We just thought she was strange. So after breakfast and a full phone charge, we went to the pool. That evening we were on our balcony playing card and saw some of the boys in her group from next door climbing like bush babies from one balcony to the other. I assume they were intoxiacted as they were shouting and laughing very loud and slurring their words. One of them slipped, narowly missing the edge of the balcony but continued to climb until he got to the other balcony. He then banged the patio glass and waited for his friend to open the door..
Of course, after seeing this, we made sure we double locked our balcony doors every time we went out. The day after that, we got back to our apartment to find that Tits' Blackberry was missing. Along with this, she was missing a large chunk of money and her suitcase was left open when she was certain she had zipped it up before we left earlier in the day. Immediately, we checked to see if any of our things had gone missing but it was just Tits'. A few things were knocked down as well, near the balcony/patio door which was now unlocked. Immediately, we put two and two together and called hotel security. A gentleman with a pen and pad came upstairs and asked us to relay everything that had happened the next day, which we did. We informed him about what had happened the day before with the girl at the door and her friends playing Tarzan outside. The security guard came to the conclusion that we “must” have left our front door open! Seriously? Who leaves there room door open when they are out in a foreign country with valuables lying around?? Not us! Something told me to test the balcony door. I sent my sister on to the balcony and locked her out, then shouted “Try opening it!”. She twisted the handle and low and behold.. the balcony door flew open! Now we were certain of two things:
The guys next door used the girl to distract us whilst she glanced into our apartment (when we thought she was just staring blankly at us) to see what we had in there, they then came in through our balcony when we were out, stole our stuff and left.
The hotel was about to get an ear full from Tits for putting is in a room with a dodgy back door!
We did lay into the security guard and after making him apologise for accusing us of being negligent with our front door, he properly dealt with the matter. Thankfully, Tits had pretty good insurance and had another mobile waiting for her when she got back to the UK.
10) That time I almost drowned in Gole Alcantara in Sicily...
This story is probably longer than all of the above put together so I have created a separate blog post for it here. Please be warned, I am very detailed with the way I described what happened during my moment of 'drowning'. If you get upset easily, please refrain from reading that particular post, but feel free to check out the best parts of the experience on my YouTube video.
Before the Body Rafting
Before the Body Rafting
Wrapping up on a more positive note, sometimes my travel flops have turned out for the best and I've managed to make lemonade from lemons – for example, missing our plane, having to then spend money on new tickets and spending 6 hours on a train, we found that we appreciated Italy so much more and really did try to make the very best of our time in that beautiful country! However, in other times, were there was no silver lining, well I guess those were just life lessons waiting to be learned.
Pssst. Affliate links have been used within this post, clicking on these links and making a purchase will allow me to take a small commission, but don't worry, everything I have just written about is all true!
