I am a big planner. Totally type A. I heart spreadsheets, big time. It gives me comfort to have an itinerary drawn up and perfectly scheduled but sometimes (aka often)life has other ideas. Things don’t always go as planned and that is okay. Normally just some slight adjustments are needed and you are back on track. No harm no foul. Occasionally though something happens that just throws everything off and there is no easy recovery… Welcome to one of my worst travel experiences.
We were enjoying everything Ghent has to offer. Meeting locals, enjoying the beer and ambiance, having a great time. The next morning I woke up not feeling well. My first thought was I didn’t think I drank enough to be hungover, followed by I am going to puke, followed by this should be a Pepto commercial because I have all of the symptoms (nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea) all at once. It was awful. I couldn’t stop. My sister decided I must have food poisoning.
We skipped our trip to Antwerp so I could stay at the hotel and vomit until check out time. Luckily after 4 hours of expelling liquids from every orifice it started to subside and I was left with just an upset stomach and dying of thirst. We decided to move on to our next hotel which was in Brussels. So we put on our masks (this was at the end of the pandemic) and boarded the train.
I was so thirsty I drank a bunch of water. Bad idea. I threw it all up in the train bathroom. New plan: nothing goes in so nothing comes out. Made it to our hotel in Brussels. Plot twist: it isn’t open yet- as in it is new and has not opened to guests yet, but no one notified me so I had no idea. Luckily there were a couple employees there getting things set up. I worked with them and the booking site I used. This was one upside of getting sick. Had we been on our original schedule we would not have arrived until evening and may not have found such an easy solution.
Eventually we were moved to a partner hotel several blocks away. Bad news: since they aren’t in business they can’t call a cab for us. We start walking. Probably the slowest I have ever walked in my life. I had to rest every 100 yards or so. Finally we get to the hotel, check in and go to our room where I collapse into bed and don’t move for hours.
My sister explored Brussels a little on her own while I rested. By the evening I felt good enough to drink some water and try some bland food or at least the blandest food we could find, which wasn’t all that bland. The next day I was well enough to do some sightseeing but eating was still a challenge and drinking anything other than water or ginger ale was a no go.
The following morning my sister woke up and vomited for a couple hours. I guess it wasn’t food poisoning. I went down and got her some gluten free toast. Looks like we are skipping our stop in Luxembourg, too. We waited as late as we could to leave again. Luckily her symptoms were not as bad but unfortunately the train and bus ride was much longer than the one I had endured. She looked miserable and I felt so bad for her. We arrived in Trier and tucked her into bed. By the next day she was well enough to sightsee. Phew!
Fortunately we only lost two days of sightseeing. It could have been a lot worse. On the downside our stomachs were touchy for the rest of our trip. So we missed out on some experiences like wine tasting in Trier and trying local cuisine in Germany and Netherlands because of the havoc it would wreak on our stomachs. For example I tried bitterballen in Amsterdam which was tasty however not worth the stomachache I had for the rest of the day.
I am not a foodie but I enjoy trying the foods of the places I am visiting so it was disappointing that we had to stick to foods we were familiar with that were bland. We had no desire to even try to drink alcohol. It definitely felt like we missed out on a big part of the experience but we still got to see the museums, castles and tulips. Better to miss out a little than to miss out on everything.
As you can see traveling isn’t always picture perfect or Instagram worthy but we rarely hear about the bad stuff. Everything is always sunshine and rainbows online but in reality things go wrong. Shit happens (literally). Trains get missed, wrong turns get made, hotels lose your reservation. The important thing is not to let it ruin your entire trip. Be flexible. If a spreadsheet loving, control freak like me can adapt, you can too! You never know sometimes the worst travel moments make the funniest stories.
What are some of your worst travel memories?