When a trip goes "wrong"

Fact:

The memories we keep from our trips are, most of times, associated to something that went wrong!

Why?

To have a trip plan is normal, but it exists to be changed and adjusted. Well… those changes, those errors or detours from the initial plan are the ones that make a trip unforgettable. For example, the small village that was an amazing good surprise, while the city that all the guides were recommending were nothing special. To travel is really that! A jump to the unknown, with a mindset to adventures and experiences!

A sentence from the book “The beach” that lead to the movie with the same name, click it:

"search for experience, the quest for something different"

All my “peregrinations” have stories with examples of good and bad surprises and I will describe one of them to reinforce the initial catching phrase.

Italy, Summer 2001.

Oh oh, what a trip full of surprises! Although we planned the accommodation and tickets in advance, there were the amazing and unexpected episodes. Together with Tiago and David, we visited Rome, Florence, Naples with a short visit to the island of Capri, all in 15 days.

While we were programming our trip, a stranger hearing that we were going to Rome in August, was shocked with the heat that she knew that we would feel. The next dialogue occurred somewhere in central Lisbon:

Stranger – Are you going to Rome?!?! (Eyes wide open, voice a bit too loud)
David – Yes, we are! 4 days!
Stranger – Are you really going to Rome in August?!?!
David, Tiago and I – YES! (Looking to each other with suspicious faces)
Stranger – You GONNA BURN in ROME!!!! UUAAHHAHHAHAHH… (Eyes drained with red, hands in the air, changed voice and with those typical horror movies laughter)

Said and done!

Or she was a witch, or a sociopath or simply an experienced traveler, it happened what she said. We caught a heat wave on that trip, if we didn’t burn, at least we melted trough those kilometers we walked. We remembered that lady all the trip…

From all those Italian tourist clichés, I was only impressed and still keep memory of the Roman Coliseum and the cupula of the chapel Du Duomo in Florence, that has impressive roof paintings with images of Hell.

But going back to the unforgettable moments, the salt and pepper episodes of the trips:

Without expecting, we passed a terrific day at a huge lake surrounded by mountains, 40km north of Rome. It wasn’t planned, but an invitation of 2 new friends from Holland came in handy, to escape to the routine: roman ruins, pizzas, wine and art galleries with kilometers of paintings with “Madonna con Bambino” or Crucified Jesus.

Tiago and David together they are authentic musical stars of the improvising and of the stand up comedy. I recall that end of afternoon in the lake with a session of Fados (typical Portuguese folk song) improvised by David and followed by Tiago’s guitar. See yourself this mute VIDEOCLIP… real soon on the TOP chart of Youtube.

In the night in the way back to the youth hostel in Rome, we had to make a quick run to catch the last night bus. And why run around Saint’s Peter circular square, when was enough to jump over a small wooden fence and cross the square in straight line? While crossing that sacred place we notice the agnostic look of the people that were passing on the other side of the fence. We were just too in a hurry to stop and go back.

Bright lights turned on! They were from a police car on our left side! Those lights came closer till the car stopped in front of us, blocking our run. The window comes slowly down. After talking something in Italian, the officer decided to change to English:

Carabinieri – Where are you going? You jump the fence?
We – We have hurry to catch bus. We didn’t jump, it was open!
Carabinieri – Do you know is against the law crossing Saint’s Peter Square?
We – No!... Long silence… (Few seconds that seems hours)
Carabinieri – Ah! Follow the car!

Curious people were gathering on the limits of the square, to see who were the “wise guys” that challenged authorities and violated Vatican soil. Some shaked their heads, other made commentaries that we didn’t understand. We didn’t want to. And there we went, followed close behind by the police car with their lights “guiding” our way and to open the fences…

Humiliating? Hilarious? Ridiculous?

Doesn’t matter… we caught the bus!


The best story to finish. Train arriving to Florence. We saw a sign saying “Firenze” and: “Go out! Go out! It’s here! It’s here!

3 of us out of the train and we noticed we were wrong. It was train yard to fix carriages. The train restarts his run on the way to the right main station and all other travelers looking to us trough the windows with surprise expressions on their faces.

Now try to imagine what might felt or thought a worker from that yard when he saw the image of 3 lost souls, with their backpacks coming from nowhere in his direction in middle of the train tracks under a suffocating heat… One decided to come to us and tell us the way out of the train tracks to the streets. But not before we was “showing” us around to his colleagues to have a serious laughing.

Before finally we arrived to our accommodation, we still had to cross a highway running, walk some more kilometers, go out on the wrong bus stop and walk more.



Personal message to my fellows of that trip: A lot can be done with bed sheets taken from a youth hostel…

“Look out with the mosquitoes Tiago!” – “Nah…I will leave the window open, it’s too hot…”

Some years already pass, but these stories, I will never forget. And these are the moments and give us funny coffee conversations full of laughs.