By venturing out of one’s comfort zone to see and explore the world, a person can experience amazing adventures, meet interesting new people and explore entirely new places. However, sometimes things don’t always go as planned and one can also find themselves in uncomfortable, sticky and even scary situations. The best way to get out of these situations is to:

1. Keep your wits about you;

2. Be flexible and adaptable; and

3. Think quickly on your feet!

I have experienced any number of travel mishaps and hiccups.

There was the time I was traveling by train from Bratislava, Slovakia to Budapest, Hungary:

I was loaded with luggage (my very first international trip solo at the age of 20 and I did NOT pack light). I do not speak Slovakian, I do not understand it and my four go-to phrases when visiting a new country of ‘Good morning,’ ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and ‘one beer please’ did not help me for train travel in Slovakia. I realized ten minutes into the trip that I had gotten on the wrong train, going in the completely wrong direction. I panicked and somehow convinced the ticket collector to get the conductor to slow the train down enough for me to jump off (with ALL my luggage…he said he couldn’t stop it) and I walked the 3 miles back to the station to catch the right train. Thankfully, I made it!

‘my four go-to phrases when visiting a new country of ‘good morning’, ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and ‘one beer please’ did not help me in train travel in Slovakia’

Later in my solo travel through Europe I was at the end of my trip and attempting to catch a train from Barcelona, Spain to Brussels, Belgium and then on to Frankfurt, Germany, where I was going to catch my plane to return home to the United States. The evil Spanish ticket agent claimed I had cheated on my Eurorail pass and would not accept it. He wanted to charge me $750 (it was 1996 and I was 20 and had a $700 limit on my college student credit card) to get my much needed way home.

‘then I remembered that Barcelona had three train stations, two of which were international’

On another trip (this one was on a bus) in Mozambique. My friend Leena and I were on our way to the border town of Tete to cross into Malawi. The border closed at 5 pm and our bus broke down 20 minutes from Tete and 30minutes until the border closed. Our luggage was on top of the bus with everyone else’s and we were stuck and it was hot and we were not going anywhere anytime soon. Suddenly, as luck would have it I saw a mini bus pass by and it looked empty. I looked around and none of the other passengers noticed it. I flagged the driver down and convinced him to let me and Leena on to take us to Tete (this was all arranged in Portuguese mind you). He had room for maybe 13 and our bus had at least 20 forlorn passengers all wanting to get to Tete. I told Leena to get the luggage from the bus as sneakily as possible so no one else would notice and then to throw it down to me. She would then run to the minibus and hold it for me, while I ran as fast as I could with all our luggage to get on the mini bus without drawing attention.

While I was weighted down with all our luggage, the other passengers noticed and made a beeline to the minibus and piled in. Leaving no room for me..but Leena was in. I pleaded with the driver and said it was me who arranged this ride. I yelled at the other passengers telling them they needed to make room for me. There was no one who was willing to help. I jammed myself in with Leena’s and my oversized backpacks clinging to me and told a little boy to shove the door shut, thereby sandwiching me in against the door and all the passengers. They complained, they sneered and they grumbled. It was at least 120 degrees outside. I simply looked at them with my face full of sweat and said in Portuguese, “Are you all happy? I’m the uncomfortable one and I got you all this ride!”

I then led them in a popular children’s song and we all laughed and sang the entire way to Tete. I just made sure that there was someone to catch me when the door opened upon our arrival in Tete, so I wouldn’t fall out of the mini bus.

‘She would then run to the minibus and hold it for me, while I ran as fast as I could with all our luggage.’

Travel mishaps happen. Things don’t always go our way, but that is all part of the journey and makes for wonderful stories.

Of course, if you would like to avoid any of this, you can always get yourself a good travel advisor like Heather Lane Adventures…I will always help my clients out of a bind!