Mishaps
You may think I’ve
been having nothing but fun and this is just like the most perfect trip
ever or something. Well it has certainly been a journey I will
never forget, and overall an overwhelmingly positive experience.
However, you should know there have been a few mishaps. I hope I
haven’t been posting too many lists lately, because here’s another one
that those of you who are into schadenfreude will particularly
enjoy. These are the major mishaps I have had on this trip, in
order of severity.
1. Before I left, I lost my passport. Trip delayed by one day. Set me back some money.
2. Had a lingering cold that finally ended up ruining about one day as I slept it off. I’m fine now though.
3. After a trip to the Coliseum (where Sara got separated from us
amidst a truly stunning crowd of tourists) and an hour and a half at
the Roman Forum, four independent thinkers in a taxi together trying to
figure out what to do next. You do the math.
4. In Bavaria, I had too much beer too fast. Two liter-sized
mugs’ worth in about an hour. Again, you can do the math.
5. Peter the Austrian, the talkative fellow that I mentioned before who
was my bunkmate on the sleeper car from Vienna to Rome, snored like a
chainsaw and when he took his shoes off the odor filled the room.
And the top bunk was hot. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep much.
6. We hired a car to take us to Mogielnica (where our grandfather was
born) on the way to Warsaw. The whole trip was supposed to take
four hours or less, not including the time spent stopped in
Mogielnica. By the time we got to Warsaw, we had already been in
that uncomfortable van for 5 hours. So we rushed through our
visit. This turned a what would have been sad experience into a
something of a bitter one, considering that I had dreamed of visiting
it since childhood. However, this ranks sixth on the list of
mishaps because we were able to go back the next day.