No one can predict which challenges may rear their "adorable" little heads when you are travelling, but it is best to develop a good sense of humor and a bundle of patience in these matters. For instance, in Greece a few years ago, I was using my flat iron with the converter on my hair and I heard a strange sizzling sound and smelled a putrid burning. When I removed the iron from my long thick hair, I noticed with horror that my locks had been singed off up to my ear! A quick trip to an unknown hairdresser created an unexpected new short do to fix the damage. At the time, it was pretty traumatizing, but now it is fodder for my blog. Another time in Vienna, with my travel buddy Kelly, 400 of us taxied out to the runway, along with Bob Dole, sat there for a few hours and then taxied back. Then they told us we would not be flying anywhere that day. As Senator Dole jetted off in a private jet, the rest of us lined up for hours and tried to rebook with the sole frustrated airline rep available on a sleepy Sunday. All's well that ends well, since they gifted each of us with our own private room( a welcome experience after being in close quarters for nearly two weeks) and a gratis dinner and breakfast at the airport luxury hotel!
On this trip, we discovered that Easy Jet ain't so easy. I kept receiving persistent notices by email for weeks from Easy Jet, the airliner that travels between the European countries. They were warning me to check in with our information and get our boarding passes up front. It was a complicated process that I thought I had negotiated with success. When we arrived at Rome's airport after a ride in a cab driven by a frustrated Monaco GP race enthusiast, we were confident it would be an easy trip to the gate with plenty of time to peruse the Italian shops and perhaps pick up some designer frocks for me (lol) and have a final plate of pasta. Were we ever wrong! KO and I had decided to economize by taking only one behemoth suitcase for our two week journey and a small backpack for each of us with personal items. The attendant told us sternly that first, our bag would have to be unloaded to the tune of 20 kg and even after that, our half empty valise could only travel on this plane to the tune of 35 euros! We stepped to the side and started taking out what we thought would be 10 kilos, only to return three times and be turned away or threatened with having to pay 13 euros per kilo in excess weight!!!! , plus the 35 euros, of course. Sweating profusely, and baring my packed silky undergarments for all to see, we finally managed to squeeze the overage into our Moms market bags and backpacks to lug around the enormous airport to our gate. But wait, we weren't done yet! As we passed through security we were flagged for my backpack. I was confident as the guard searched my Kelly green mini knapsack. Suddenly he extracted the adorable foldable fork, knife and corkscrew combo we had purchased as gifts for travelling macro friends. OY VEY! Wonder of wonders, it turns out you can not take a knife on a plane. This was one of the weighty items I had removed to reduce our excess weight. Sadly he tossed this nifty 20 euro each gift right into the rubbish pail. And finally as we arrived in Bristol, in the UK., we approached the customs authority and he looked at our forms with a cautionary face. What could be wrong this time? It seems that our profession of Vegan Chef was causing his some dismay. A vegetarian himself, he had noticed a plethora of new healthy restaurants cropping up and was concerned that we might be seeking employment in his country. Since my return to the US tickets were in my checked luggage, he kept us there for many uncomfortable minutes as he peppered us with questions regarding our travel plans. Finally convinced we weren't here to pilfer employment from the locals, he let us pass, with a recommendation for a veg restaurant he had enjoyed in Bristol recently.
When you leave the comforts of home to enjoy the cultures of the world, you have to expect the unexpected and be ready for whatever crosses your path. The captive dryer that stole half our clothes in Paris last year and the pickpocket women who lifted KO's phone( see 2013 Paris blog), my singed hair in Greece or rolling heavy suitcases through the hilly streets in Switzerland with my daughter, only to find out it was a holiday and the buses weren't running to the airport....all are just part of the "baggage" of travel.
I have thought of my sister, Joan, frequently on this trip. She prefers the comforts of home and her familiar life of knowing what to expect. Travel is not for the faint of heart. It takes energy to walk for 10 hours around the ruins of Italy or to lug your suitcases up and down the stairs in the London tube. It takes flexibility to deal with lost reservations and missed flights. It takes patience to deal with your travel partner after about a week of close quarters. It takes cash to pay for luggage fees you had not anticipated. But the rewards greatly outweigh the costs. We get to experience the food, peoples and cultures and history of foreign lands most people only dream about. I wouldn't trade that for anything.
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