Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

January Meme: My worst travel experiences ([personal profile] ffutures)

Jan. 11th, 2023 05:34 pm
selenak: (Tourists by Kathyh)
[personal profile] selenak
A day late, due to Darth Real Life. Well, first of all, what I'm about to report are all First World/Privilege problems, which I'm aware of. Also, in retrospect these are all funny, so there's that. With these caveats, here's a hit list, subject to change according to mood.

1) By car: a more recent excperience, from September last year. The Aged Parents and yours truly spent a very enjoyable week on an island in the Northern Sea. En route back, however, and this is a long trip under the best of circumstances because I live in Bavaria, which is far, far away from ther Northern Sea, we had the misfortune of getting stuck in a traffic jam caused by the entire highway needing to be blocked due to chemical spillover. For eight freaking hours, until we finally made it, at snail's pace, to the next exit. (An additional problem was t hat the roads away from the Autobahn from the next exit were currently getting repaired, so there was basically just one tiny country road for the entire Autobahn traffic. You get the picture.) We had cause to be grateful that we skipped breakfast that morning - we originally wanted to do a late brunch in a highway restaurant instead, having left really early in the morning - because not only were we stuck, we were not allowed to leave the cars. I know because at hour 4 or so, I tried. And wouldn't you know it, a highway patrol was after me, admonishing me that walking on a highway was still illegal. Back into the car with my full bladder I went.

2) By train: This happened about a decade ago and was a work related trip from a small place near Essen, which is in the Ruhr area (i.e. the North-western German industrial area) to Memmingen (in the south), where I had to be in the evening. The original plan was to take a taxi to the train station in the small town, go by local train to Essen (which is a big city), and from there directly to Memmingen with a fast train. So far so good. Except that my taxi wasn't there in the morning, and since I had a big suitcase with me, and since my hotel wasn't anywhere near the train station, I couldn't walk. So a hotel employe (may he eternally be praised) gave me lift, and I caught my morning train to Essen. In Essen, however, my direct train to Memingen was announced to be late. Okay, I thought, still not a problem, since it's a direct train, so I don't have to catch any others, and I can call (Person who was going to pick me up in Memmingen) via mobile and say how late I am. I deliberately took an early connection so I would have some time in Memmingen to stroll around, get to know the city, so I'm flexible, a half an hour lateness isn't bad.
...and then it was an hour. And then it were two hours. By then, I could have of course taken some alternate connections, only for those I would have to switch trains repeatedly, there was no other direct connection, and as mentioned, I had this heavy suitcase. Then the Memmingen train finally arrived, the troop of fellow pilgrims to Swabia who had like me not taken some alternate connection stormed inside, and we hadn't been sitting there for five minutes when a train employee saw us and said: "But why didn't you take an alternate connection? This train only goes as far as Ulm!" (Which of course had not been announced at the Essen railway station.)
Still, Ulm at least was in the same province, and from there it would be just another hour or so to Memmingen with one of the local slow trains which stop at every village. Except, of course, the connecting local train from Ulm to Memingen which I was supposed to take started from the other end of the railway station. I raced. By some miracle, I arrived in time. Jumped on the train. And immediately found out that it was the wrong train, because as luck would have it, two trains were leaving from one and the same platform, one from platform 4a, one from platform 4b, and I had taken the wrong one. At this point, I burst into tears, and because it was early December and a lot of people had been doing some Christmas shopping in Ulm, a kind lady handed me some chocolate to lift my spirits. (Praise her with great praise.) I got out at the next village, and took the next train in the other direction, and then FINALLY arrived in Memmingen... half an hour before my work engagement started. (Person who was supposed to pick me up), whom I had constantly updated via mobile phone, had bought some chocolate as well and drove me directly to the place in question. Bless.

3) By hotel: This was a hotel in a Cologne suburb during another work related trip, which means I hadn't booked it. I arrived and immediately found out that ) evidently all the rooms must have been chemically disinfected not too long before, because you could still smell it, and b) there was no toilet in my room. Now, this was no youth hostel. Or a university campus. It was a hotel. And my room still did not have a toilet, so I had to use the one across the floor. It was late, I was there by train, not by car, and I had to leave early lin the morning, so looking for another hotel was out. This was before the age of mobile phones, which is important. Since my room of course did not have either a landline or something resembling a watch, I asked the hotel guy who checked me in whether someone could wake me up tomorrow morning. When, says he. 6:30, says I. No way, says he, and btw, there's no breakfast before 8.

How do you like your hotel? the person who had booked it for me later asked me. A short conversation ensued. But at least now I have an entry in this category as well. :)

The other days

Date: 2023-01-11 07:41 pm (UTC)
hannah: (Travel - fooish_icons)
From: [personal profile] hannah
My worst train experience was being stuck on a commuter train heading home for a few hours, while day crept into night, knowing that the train was delayed because the local authorities were investigating a body on the tracks to determine if it was a suicide or homicide. It's one thing to be delayed because of machine failure or track traffic, and another for a genuine crime scene.

Date: 2023-01-11 08:10 pm (UTC)
ffutures: (Default)
From: [personal profile] ffutures
Thanks - never had anything quite as bad as your rail experiences though I've come close a few times.

My worst road experience was my motorbike's engine seizing up in the fast lane of the M1, Britain's answer to autobahns, and having to push it to the side of the road with heavy traffic overtaking on both sides...

The first few conventions I went to were at a hotel that sounds a lot like your experience - incredibly bad and unhelpful staff. Fortunately that convention eventually found better sites, but I've been to other cons at hotels that sucked big time - the one I particularly remember had me stay in three different hotels over five nights because of an idiot running the room bookings, the worst of the three hotels gave me a room that had a wash-basin but no lavatory, with an anchovy stuck to the ceramic of the basin. It was still there when I left two days later. I did not leave a tip.
Edited (typo) Date: 2023-01-11 08:11 pm (UTC)

Date: 2023-01-12 01:54 pm (UTC)
ffutures: (Default)
From: [personal profile] ffutures
The first one was a very cheap hotel, even by 1970s prices, most of the con attendees were students, it had a hall big enough for a couple of hundred people, and was about a four minute walk from the station. The hotel they moved to was better as regards accommodation etc. but a lot more expensive and the location was nowhere near as good.

The con with the room booking problems was one of the Eastercons (national SF conventions) and they were using a hotel which somehow managed to double-book nearly a hundred rooms, and didn't handle the problems well.

Date: 2023-01-11 09:48 pm (UTC)
likeadeuce: (Default)
From: [personal profile] likeadeuce
When we were looking for hotels in Paris, an American friend warned me to 'make sure there's a toilet in your room' because apparently he'd run into a shared bathroom situation when he was traveling. I was wondering if this was a more common situation in Europe but it sounds like not. And I can't believe they didn't have a phone or a clock available!!

(By the way, Hotel Lorette in the 9th Arrondisement is lovely if you're ever looking, and it does have phones + and bathrooms :D)

Date: 2023-01-12 02:44 pm (UTC)
mildred_of_midgard: (Default)
From: [personal profile] mildred_of_midgard
YMMV, but I've stayed in hotels in Leiden, Warsaw, Berlin, Munich (twice), Prague, Vienna, Zagreb, Pécs, Budapest, Venice, Naples, Rome, Florence, and Ischia, and I've always had a bathroom. I've had some WTF shower experiences, and some unusual toilet designs, but always a bathroom of my own. Good to know about Paris!

Worst bathroom experience: a day trip to Bratislava, where we got off the tour bus and were given the opportunity to use the restroom...which involved standing in line outside the restroom, so we could pay an employee to push out 2 squares of toilet paper in the gap under the glass window, we then carried into the restroom. Soap turned out to be a bar hanging in a mesh bag above the sink, which you just reached up and rubbed between your hands until you got suds.

Let's just say 1) post-Iron Curtain poverty in Slovakia was a major feature of the tour, 2) I was fortunate that 2 squares of toilet paper were adequate on that occasion. Not everyone thought so. (One person confessed to grabbing squares meant for other people, forcing the employee to dispense more toilet paper. He would dispense two or three sets of 2 squares at a time onto the shelf, so if you didn't get caught, you could steal some.)

That was definitely an unusual European experience, though! It may be more common in the poorer countries, which as you can see I generally did not visit.

Date: 2023-01-14 08:42 pm (UTC)
jesuswasbatman: (Default)
From: [personal profile] jesuswasbatman
I stayed relatively recently in a nice but very old-fashioned (although it did have wifi) hotel in Vienna which had shared toilets. First time I'd stayed somewhere with shared toilets since university, and of course I once forgot to lock the door...

Date: 2023-01-11 10:57 pm (UTC)
ratcreature: FAIL! (fail!)
From: [personal profile] ratcreature
My worst travel experience was arriving fairly late in Calgary after a really long flight from Germany, only to find out that the youth hostel somehow lost my reservation, despite me having even pre-paid them. And they did not have any bed available, this having been peak tourism season. Because it was late and I was too exhausted to figure out something else and this was the era before mobile phones or internet, I ended up spending the night on the floor in some spare storage room. Though at least I had a sleeping bag with me, and was in my early twenties without back issues.

Date: 2023-01-12 08:21 am (UTC)
ratcreature: Flail! (flail)
From: [personal profile] ratcreature
At least I found out early that the then new fangled internet advance reservation through the international youth hosteling web site was glitchy. IIRC for the rest of the trip I called in advance to confirm my reservations by phone despite having booked the whole thing in advance. I was doing budget travel but not spontaneous, as this was my first overseas trip alone. This snafu rather hiked up my anxiety.

Date: 2023-01-12 03:16 pm (UTC)
davetheanalyzer: (Default)
From: [personal profile] davetheanalyzer
I remember me and my family coming back from some event but it was raining so hard you could only see the tail lights of the car ahead of you and it was slow driving. I suggested to Mom to take a early exit, which wasn't far at all from our usual exit but we wanted to get out of that situation.

(Though the phrase "first world problem" is problematic, as explained here. Long and short of it, even people from developing countries deal with mundane hassles.)

Date: 2023-01-12 05:52 pm (UTC)
mildred_of_midgard: (Default)
From: [personal profile] mildred_of_midgard
My worst travel experience was my first time traveling internationally on my own. Nothing bad happened, it was just *a lot*.

My contact declined to meet us arriving grad students at the airport because "It's super easy! Just take the train from Amsterdam to Leiden, take the bus to the nearest stop, and walk a block. You don't need me!"

Well, great in theory, but that presupposed that we all knew how to:

- Go through customs.
- Buy a train ticket.
- Read a tran schedule.
- Take a train.
- Take a bus.
- Read a map.
- Find a European (Dutch?) street address.
- Dial a European phone number at a pay phone when you give up on finding the street address.

Which neither I nor the student I thankfully ran into at the airport knew how to do. He wasn't much practical use, but he was great moral support, because he couldn't do any of the things I couldn't do either! Which made me feel less embarrassed. And at least if I somehow ended up stranded, I wasn't alone!

Also, he brought a map, which turned out to be critical for the bus part. I had not, because I was told it was super easy, and I could always call my contact if I couldn't figure out what to do!

- We eventually figured out that we should just walk through customs since no one was there, and we didn't know of anything we should declare.

- The other student eventually asked for instructions on how to buy a train ticket when we couldn't figure it out.

- After like 20 minutes of us both staring blankly at a train schedule, wandering around, and staring at the train schedule, I puzzled it out almost on accident!

- Then it took another many minutes to get us to the right track (I think I was the one who eventually figured it out). I ended up proudly directing some other lost tourists using my new knowledge, about a minute later.

- We made it onto the train, off the train, and onto the bus together with a lot of mutual confusion and "I think this is right? If it's wrong, at least we're in this together!"

- I took charge of the map and figured out what stop to get off at (he was totally at sea here).

We made it to the right (long) block successfully!

...Then we spent 45 minutes walking up and down and around that block, trying to figure out which building corresponded to the address we had.

Asking for help from someone in a yard was not fruitful.

The pay phone was a complete mystery. He tried dialing several variants of the number we had, me looking over his shoulder making suggestions, and nothing.

I hadn't slept since Los Angeles, since you know I can barely sleep in my bed, never mind on a plane. I also hadn't eaten adequately in a long time, because airplane food. I was noticeably dizzy at this point. And we just kept walking.

Eventually, we were rescued by sheer accident: our contact happened to be sitting in a room with a window looking out on the street, and he saw the same two people walking back and forth looking lost. Eventually he came outside.

"Are you with the summer school?"

I still remember the "OH THANK GOD WE ARE SAVED" moment.

We later found out some of the other students had ended up at the wrong building entirely because of a miscommunication with our summer school contact!

I've had experiences since then that were in some ways worse, but subjectively, I think that was the most stress I experienced from travel.
Edited Date: 2023-01-12 07:45 pm (UTC)

Date: 2023-01-13 11:46 pm (UTC)
mildred_of_midgard: (Default)
From: [personal profile] mildred_of_midgard
All of this is so trivial if you grew up doing it, but to a number of us Americans in our early 20s, it was a *lot* to have to learn sink-or-swim style.

It never occurs to you that you might not know how to dial a phone number and you should ask *before* you get on the plane! The number looks unfamiliar, but you figure how to dial it will be obvious once you're looking at a European phone. I am *so* glad I ran into the other grad student in the airport, because I would be embarrassed to this day that I couldn't figure it out.

Also, "how to read a train schedule" should actually read "how to read a train schedule in a foreign language when you've never even read one in your native language." If the column headers had been in English, it wouldn't have taken us so long, but instead they were largely gibberish. We went, "...Wow that is a lot of numbers and letters in the grid" and treated the schedule like a crossword puzzle. The breakthrough, in the end, came when I was thinking out loud, "Well, a friend told me they should run every fifteen minutes or so...hey, these numbers are about 15 minutes apart! And look, none of them is bigger than 59. I bet this is the minutes column! That means the one before it is probably the hours column. And that means neither of these is the track number column. Now which of the remaining columns looks like it could be a track number?"

(Track 5, I still remember that, 17 years later.)

This was also the trip on which I learned to read a map, something I had previously been notoriously bad at. (By which I mean, often frustrating anyone who was traveling with me.) But he handed me his map and shrugged and made it clear he wanted nothing to do with the map (I think he felt at least as overwhelmed by this point as I did), and somehow I acquired a new skill in time for us to get off the bus at the right stop!

Btw, when I say some of us ended up at the wrong building, I mean about a mile away, not the wrong building on the right street. It was an adventure!

Profile

selenak: (Default)
selenak

July 2025

S M T W T F S
  1234 5
67 89101112
131415161718 19
20 21222324 25 26
2728293031  

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Page generated Jul. 30th, 2025 03:12 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios