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South of France: I wanted a cup of coffee and walked in to a small cafe. I sat down at the dining table inside the door, and placed my order. Took me 3-4 minutes to realize I had walked into a private residence and was sitting in their dining room. The coffee was very good and the homeowner was lovely, though she didn't speak English and I do not speak French.
i travelled alone and spent 3 weeks in Peru by myself, when I was in my 30s.
at the airport when I landed in Peru, and also at the airport when I was leaving Peru,
both times, men who worked at the airport asked to marry me so they could come to America. they literally proposed marriage.
I was talking with some friends in the waiting lounge going on the same American Express flight in the Longview-Kilgore airport ( only two gates there). I saw a plug nearby and thought it was a good idea to charge my phone while waiting for the plane. I went ahead and boarded the plane when I realized that I had left my phone still plugged in in the waiting area. I got up and told the stewardess that I needed to go retrieve my phone. She said I couldn't leave the plane without having my bags taken off and have to rebook another flight ( only two a day to DFW). Then she said that someone will go and bring it on board to me. After a while, the PILOT brings it on board and the stewardess gives it to me. I felt like such a fool forgetting it but it ended up okay.
A travel companion and I (actual fault hotly disputed) locked the keys inside our rental car in Big Bend NP, over 100 miles from the nearest locksmith in Alpine. Luckily, a park ranger had a handy bar and popped the button.
I once put my luggage in the trunk of my car predawn, then headed for the airport with the trunk still open.
I was a wee bit rudderless in my late teens. A local guy would regale us with tales of his adventures overseas doing some government work. He highly encouraged I seek similar employment opportunities. I figured what they heck, might as well. If I don't like it, I can tell them to **** up a rope.
They required a mental test and a physical. I aced them both. They got me a free airline ticket to their crash course for all new employees. I was told basically to pay attention to the training, not say much and under no circumstances draw any attention to myself. I found that advice a bit odd, but I rolled with the punches, as they say.
The plane lands then everything become a blur. I should have written BLUR. Next thing I know multiple people are screaming at me. They are maligning my intelligence when my test scores showed I was quite capable for the challenge. Then the hazing began. I was held down in a chair while my head was shaved. I was given various article of clothing to wear. All the clothes were either too big or super small. They forced us to make our beds to some NASA requirement degree of accuracy. After a few hours of this torture, they let all of the new trainees sleep.
After our beds barely warmed from our body heat, some clod comes screeching in the room banging a metal trash can on the floor while simultaneously slamming the metallic lid on the abused trash can. We are forced marched and fed food items of uncertain origin. I don't recall exactly what I ate. I vaguely remember items such as mystery meat, cream of lump soup, brown surprise and S&*T on a shingle. They had us do exercises until the walls of our exercise den dripped with condensation. Next stop they tortured us with a noxious vapor that caused our noses to run uncontrollably while stinging our eye sockets as if we were jabbed with red hot pokers.
We eventually accepted our fate and situation. After a few weeks it ended. They gave us clothes that fit and sent us packing for parts unknown. As luck would have it, I got packed off to Italy. By the time I stopped working for them, I had traveled to 45 different countries. Each nation I visited made me appreciate the fact that I was fortunate to have been born in America.
This occurred over 40 years ago. Even today they show their appreciation for my efforts by sending me a check every month.
The IRA setting off a pair of bombs, one killing a guy. All train stations in London were shut down on the day I was to fly home. Took a taxi to Gatwick at considerable cost and nearly missed the flight. This was over Presidents Day weekend, 1991.
We booked a vacation rental stay in Spain just before covid came on the scene. When the border closed (we were already at our airport 5 hours away) we asked for the guaranteed full credit voucher.
The owner refused to issue it, and the booking agent VRBO, would not stand behind us, but left us out to dry. There went $4,397 (for 2 months in Marbella on the ocean).
I also got serious heart problems while in Portugal from a reaction to that nasty HCQ drug (for arthritis). Luckily, a house-call doctor fixed me up and got it under control over the next couple months. Being barely able to breathe on vacation was no fun.
Other than that, it's been all good, lol.
Oh, we did get pulled aside by TSA for having crystal stevia in our luggage. Took an hour before they decided it wasn't some illicit drug, ugh. But we made our flight...
In 1978 I was at my first stop of a round-the-world backpacking adventure and was staying at the International Student House in London (a high-rise student dorm building). My onward flight to Frankfurt was in the morning so I got up very early to head to the airport.
At the entrance there were two sets of glass double doors. I went through the first set which closed behind me, then pushed on the second set. They were locked and I was trapped in between the two sets of doors. I pounded on the doors and yelled but no one heard me (Dorm rooms were on the upper floors). Finally I got in my backpack and found my pocketknife. I was able to slip the blade between the doorframe and hasp and got the outer door to open and went on my way.
I thought about that event many times in later years, wondering what would happen if they ever had a fire? I suppose someone could kick their way through the glass if desperate enough.
South of France: I wanted a cup of coffee and walked in to a small cafe. I sat down at the dining table inside the door, and placed my order. Took me 3-4 minutes to realize I had walked into a private residence and was sitting in their dining room. The coffee was very good and the homeowner was lovely, though she didn't speak English and I do not speak French.
1) The friend I was visiting in Chicago was confident of his abiilty to get me to the airport in plenty of time, even though we were taking the bus. Oops. Wrong airport!
2) On another trip, I left my coat, with my wallet in it, in the airport waiting room. I didn't discover that fact until I went to check in at the hotel, a thousand miles away. With no wallet, no money, I had a difficulty getting back to the airport I arrived at, but I did, and contacted the airline's customer service agent, who contacted my home airport, where they found my coat and wallet, and returned them on the next flight.
3) I didn't understand you are supposed to tip the bathroom attendants. I was really confused about why this woman was screaming at me in German.
4) The 6 am train to Machu Picchu from Cuzco. We're waiting in a brightly-lit train station. The sky is just beginning to become light when the train pulls in. We have assigned seats, and the seat number is embossed, not printed, on a little piece of metal above the window, and there are no lights on inside the rail road cars. So everyone is trying to find their seat. Chaos everywhere.
I've been in Peru long enough to recognize this situation, so I hold back, away from everyone else. I'll worry about my seat later.
After we get going, people all around me are noticing "Hey, my wallet's gone!" "Someone stole my camera!"
Everyone but me, it seems had something stolen. The thieves are in the railcar, lined up in the aisle, and they pass the merchandise to each other from under one poncho to another. The stolen equipment goes out the rail car door like a fire bucket brigade.
Downtown Macchu Pichu had four or five second-hand stores filled with cameras and hiking equipment.
This was in the 80's, I don't know if it's still like that.
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