My top 5 epic fails when traveling
Published in
2 min readSep 18, 2018
- Forgot to turn on roaming before my trip to Italy. It happened quite recently when I had to change my tariff plan after 10 years of using the one with automatically enabled roaming option. Just imagine: you arrive abroad, turn on your phone and theres no network. You restart it hundred of times, you play with the settings, you go mad. And then it comes to you… I was lucky enough to find wifi and log into my account but… Bad luck. When you enable any option online you need to enter the code sent my sms (sms, Karl!!!). In the end I called my operator from the hotel which cost me a lot of money.
- No local coins for luggage cart. Once I arrived in Istanbul airport with 3 giant suitcases, headed to the carts and boom! It came to me that I got no coins for luggage cart. What to do? I tried all the other coins I had and yoopi! swiss francs did work!
- Lost in translation. In Hong Kong I spent a lot of time trying to pronounce “for seasons” and “intercontinental” so that taxi driver could finally get what I want from him)) And then on the contrary guys from the hotel reception tried to tell me in 10 different ways “fo na”, which actually sounded for me all the same, until I got that it is supposed to be “four nights”!
- Again Italy) Honestly in this country of mess with the transport schedules and late trains I cannot imagine how one can travel in a smooth and relaxed way) It is absolutely impossible! So I had a connection in Rome when flying to Florence. Important part: I did have my luggage. Unfortunately))) Soon you will find out why. I arrived to Rome and learned that my flight to Florence is delayed till next day (!!!). Just FYI: it takes 55 min by airplane and 1:30 by train. Of course I wanted to get my luggage and use train instead of waiting for the next day. But “lovely” Alitalia refused to give me my luggage as it was “already on the way to the plane which will bring you to the Florence tomorrow”. How lovely right?) The guy from Emirates which heared all my dialog with Alitalia by chance gave me a great advice — to declare the loss of baggage. Brilliant! My bag was with me in 10 minutes)
- And last but not the least: you should always ALWAYS check sunglasses case before put it in your bag. I did not and I spent 2 unforgettable weeks in Vietnam with no shades with me. And yes it was impossible to find any in our lovely village)
