"One time, I was standing in line at security for an hour, one hour, can you believe that? One hour, then I got there and they took my pencil sharpener, can you believe that?". "Yeah, well one time I was in so much traffic that I got to the airport 30 minutes before my flight to Paris, I had to beg the agent to check me in and then I sprinted to the gate, sprinted- they were closing the door when I got there and I got them to open it back up". "Well, this one time I was so delayed I missed my entire vacation and I got the airline to compensate me for all of it!"
Just a snapshot of what was overheard yesterday while I was in line at security, waiting and casually observing, and also wondering how much of these are really true which is far more entertaining. Actually, this happens nearly every time I'm in an airport (which is a lot) and I wonder why so many feel the need to not only share, but one-up each other when it comes to travel tales.
I see this with groups that know each other, and equally with random strangers in line, and I'm sure I've even done it myself from time to time before I became far more conscious of this seemingly inherent need. Yesterday, in my head I branded it the Travel Olympics, and fortunately for those of us that love to observe, this happens daily as opposed to every four years. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy hearing the "best of the worst", and because I love travel so much, these are always entertaining to me. So, I put the medal contention out to you- what's your gold medal-worthy travel story? Did you have to stand in line at security for TWO hours? Did you have to hitch a ride on the back of a chicken truck? Ate something totally bizarre and lived to tell? Well, feel free to answer that need to share and tell us and fellow Explorateurs. Email us, post on Facebook or shout out on Twitter. We'd love to hear !
As for me, though there are countless stories that could make the cut, I'd have to list my medals in this particular order:
Bronze: Flat tire in the middle of a safari drive, lions on the prowl.
Silver: Boarding a ship for a 7 day Baltic voyage with no luggage which was lost en route, after paying US $280 cab fare from the airport.
And, my Gold medal-winning shining moment is still the 28 Euro quart of milk at a very lavish resort in Greece. Well, it was a big glass but still....