Travel Disasters

As much as I'd like to believe that travel is always rosy, never a pain, and usually a good time.... as a world traveler, I know better. For as many times as my life has changed in a positive way because of the experiences I have been fortunate enough to have while abroad, there are just as many that didn't turn out as planned.... Or to be frank, just sucked. For today's blog entry, I thought I'd compile a list of some of the worst experiences I've had abroad. Please feel free to leave us comments on your experiences as well. And to be clear, I've often learned as much from these experiences as I have the great ones... So this entry isn't all bad, I'm a better person now for having gone through them.

1. While walking down the street in Florence looking at a map, my friend and I were stopped by an unmarked car of guys claiming to be police officers. They were demanding that we show them our passports. Knowing that they had no reason to request them, we refused. They began shouting. Again demanding the passports, I again refused loudly and told them the only way they'd see them is if they took us to the police station. Getting angrier, they told us to get in the car. Again refusing, I said we'd only go there by following their car. Defeated, they left. Close call.

2. Having missed our bus to Eilat, Israel from Cairo, we I was stuck in Egypt with several friends without a way into Israel for a week. Needing to be in Israel by that next day, we managed to get ourselves on board a bus convoy of armed men heading to the closed crossing point of Rafah, Palestine to pick up their stranded countrymen for reasons I still do not understand. A very nice man wielding an uzi offered us a ride to the crossing point, where we'd be on our own to find our way through to Jerusalem. Long story short, we sat in an old warehouse in Palestine waiting to get our passports back for five hours. We weren't alone though! We shared some crackers and Coca Cola with a sweet elderly nun until we were let through. Good times.

3. A buddy of mine became deathly ill while in Salzburg, Austria with an unknown ailment. Upon reaching a closed hospital, we managed to commandeer a wheel chair to get him to the ER. BEcause the staff spoke no English, we spent many hours trying to get him admitted. We finally did, and three days later he was out. Scary, but we met some sweet people in the process.

4. I slept for a night in the new Thailand airport once. For any of you that haven't been there, it's gotta be the worst airport in the world to be stuck in. In addition to the fact that you cannot go to your gate and must wait in the absolutely enormous central reservations area, there are metal benches, air conditioning kept at about -56 degrees, and the loudest cacophony of noises and overhead announcements you ever heard stretching into the wee hours of morning. A tip from me to you: At the far end of the airport there is a gift shop that has fresh, hot noodles for about $1 that are served 24/7. Those noodles definitely got me through the night.