Unlucky Travels

As much as I love to travel, I have to say that I am one of the unluckiest travelers ever.  I recently found an article about what to do when your flight gets cancelled.  Sadly, this has happened to me before and based on this article, I did everything wrong.  It's just so hard not to get emotional and take out your frustrations on the closest available airline employee.  Logically I know it's not their fault, but that doesn't make it any easier to control myself in the spur of the moment.  I guess I'll know better for next time.

Of course my flight getting cancelled was probably the most normal thing that's ever happened to me.  Here are some of the odd things that have happened to me abroad:

• London/Brussels/Amsterdam:
• I was there for a tennis competition when I was 17 and we were split up into three groups to fly from London to Brussels.  I somehow managed to be in the group whose plane broke down and we had to wait 5 hours at the airport.  We had to miss the opening ceremonies with the rest of our team =/
• Italy:
• My sister and I got stranded at a mall for 3 hours and had to ride around on buses until we found our way back...this was in December and it was 40 degrees out.
• Israel:
• The airline lost my carry on bag with my passport (okay...that was partially my fault for leaving my passport unattended) so I was stuck at JFK until they found it, meaning that I missed the flight with the rest of my group to Israel.
• Once I was scheduled on a red eye, I was the "randomly" selected passenger to have my bags searched more thoroughly, shoes swabbed, etc.  Of course they neglected to tell me any of this and just started doing it.  I was freaking out!
• The guy sitting next to me on the plane decided to take off his pants...
• Once in Israel, I promptly got splashed in the face with water from the Jordan river and got a horrible eye infection.
• THEN, I got heat exhaustion and was delirious and nauseous and threw up at the top of the holiest mountain in Israel.  I couldn't eat for days.
• Was manhandled by a guy who apparently didn't appreciate my saying no when his advances became too intense.  Had a lovely bruise on my arm to show for it.  This sounds more dramatic than it was...he was just a prick but nothing I couldn't handle.
• On the way back, I decided to spend a few days in New York with my new friends and managed to miss my flight home.
• Hong Kong/Thailand:
• I was at the airport which happened to be the ONLY spot in all of Western Washington that was covered in fog.  My flight was cancelled and I blew a gasket.
• Finally got on another flight and my suitcase was "randomly" chosen to be searched.
• Got so horribly sick on my last few days there that I spent over 24 hours throwing up and sleeping when I could.  We almost had to cancel my flight back because I couldn't move.
• Iceland:
• Every single one of our excursions was cancelled and then our flight was cancelled due to bad weather.  In Iceland?!  Seriously?  How?!  Had to wait at the airport for 9 hours and then sleep at the Boston airport instead of heading straight home.
• Cyprus:
• This one wasn't that bad.  I was the "randomly" selected person to be searched...again.
• Oh and I got a horrible bug bite.  I thought my leg would have to be amputated.  It was disgusting!

You would think with all of this, I would hate to travel.  But I don't.  It's frustrating at the time but who else has these kinds of stories?  It keeps me from being that same old boring traveler with nothing more exciting to talk about than the fact that everyone drives on the wrong side of the road.

On a separate note: I went hiking today.  We went to Dirty Harry's Balcony (yes, that's actually what it's called).  It was beautiful.  Go see some of my pictures from the hike here.

The amazing view from Dirty Harry's Balcony.