Let them be good ones
One of my first overseas misadventures involved not being prepared for the weather. Mom and I packed our bags for Prague and Austria based on what we wanted to bring (which for us meant what we bought for the trip), not what the weather dictated. When we arrived at the end of May, Prague was a cold, rainy city. We had one cropped rain coat and no umbrella or waterproof shoe between us.
We bought a small, cheap umbrella for 5 euros to share, and slogged along. Even with the umbrella, we were soaking wet. After 2 days of pouring rain, we finally broke down and bought a raincoat for mom and better shoes for me. Of course the next morning the sun broke through and we had great weather for the rest of our trip.
This memory is one of our favorites, and more than 10 years later, it’s still a favorite story to tell.
Embrace the misadventures
On our recent trip to Italy for our tenth anniversary, things started going wrong almost right away. First, weather delayed the incoming plane. Okay, no big deal, but it started a chain reaction that had multi-day ramifications to our trip. In (relatively) rapid succession, our flight left late (naturally), we missed our connection, added an extra stopover in Frankfurt, and only just barely made our final flight to Venice thanks to a courteous security escort through the back hallways of the airport.
We were hours late from our intended arrival. While we were thrilled to have finally arrived, we were less than excited to hear that our bags were still in Toronto. It was not surprising given our wayward path. With our carryons and our mildly helpful complementary overnight kit from the airline, we boarded a boat and headed to Venice. Silver lining alert! With all our misadventures resulting in lost luggage, we didn’t have to bungle our way into a boat or up and down the many foot bridges of Venice lugging big suitcases. That was actually fantastic.
When the misadventures continue
I’ll have to say, when our bags didn’t arrive in Venice, I fully expected them pretty early the next morning. After all, our flight from Toronto to Venice would have arrived at 9am local time. Surely our bags would take the same overnight flight that night. I was even trying to figure out how to fit “meet bags at apartment” into our full itinerary. As it turned out, that was far too optimistic.
Undeterred, however, that next morning after a shower with no hair conditioner, no makeup to put on, and only minimal clean clothes to don, we ventured out for our first real day in Italy. It was amazing! We toured Rialto Market, learned the history of the city via tours at the Clock tower, the Doge Palace, and St. Marks. We saw centuries old instruments, beautiful spice displays, boats and gondoliers galore.
We had hardly given a thought to our lost luggage until the 5pm lull in our itinerary. The airline had not called, so we called them shortly after 5 o’clock. “Help desk closed” the automated message said. Great.
Make or break time
Well, that’s not what anyone wants to hear on vacation. We had now been in Italy for over 24 hours without our stuff, our carefully cultivated, perfectly packed and organized stuff, much of which I’d bought just for this trip. My husband confessed after we finally got our bags that he was pretty impressed I’d held it together for so long without completely breaking down. Me too actually.
But now we’d come to the make or break point; I’d packed a few things in our carryons for just such an occurrence, but no one who checks a bag (we had reasons we couldn’t completely carry on) prepares for a multi-day adventure without their luggage. It was either find a way to deal and forge ahead with energy and excitement or have a meltdown.
I’m happy to say that we opted to carry on, embrace the misadventures and the opportunity to buy some new clothes! We stopped at drug store for some personal care items and headed to H&M. It’s not my favorite store, but the other options were luxury designers (I wish) or a few questionable European shops.
Happy endings
There are hardly words to express our delight upon receiving a phone call at 9pm that our bags were on their way. Oh the wonderful feeling to take a real shower with hair conditioner (other curly heads can relate!) followed by fresh clothes and makeup.
We made quite a few memories we didn’t plan to make with our misadventures, even more than could be relayed here, but all recounted in my journal. You no doubt have had or will have such stories yourselves. In the moment, it could seem like your dream vacation has been derailed. However, I implore you to let your misadventures make amazing memories, even if they were the ones you’d planned to make on your trip.
Had a misadventure on one of your travels? I’d love to hear about it!
