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Our epic travel fail vacation started out on such a good note. We were all set to visit the wonderful island of Palma. It was going to be a few days of rest and relaxation. Set on a stunning mediterranean island, Palma, the resort capital of Mallorca was going to be our playground.
Fun in the sun, Lots of food, drinks and taking in the wonderful scenery of nearby towns. What could go wrong? Right!!! It started off on the right note. We had found wonderful house sitters. The dogs loved them, and we left home in plenty of time to make our flight.
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Travel Fail and losing money:
Travel Fail: How we lost money on the flight:
It all started to go wrong once we got to the airport. I had made reservations for parking and was saving over half the usual amount for the week stay, which was a good thing. We parked and got to the departure terminal with an hour to spare. All l had to do was show our boarding pass for our Ryanair flight so we could pass the security control.
My phone stopped working completely and would not connect to the wi-fi at the airport. I tried to use my own cellular data, with no success. Federico tried his too..and nothing. I had checked in with the Ryanair app and had to log in to retrieve the booking with the scan code. Zip..nada.. it just kept spinning as the time ran down and we saw the plane take off without us.
Tip going forward: If you are using an app, take a screen, take a screenshot of your boarding pass. Had l done that, we could have used that at the airport.
It’s amazing what happens to you when you start to panic. My ability to think out of the box ground to a halt. We went to the Ryanair counter, and explained what was happening. We were told there was nothing they could do at the counter. They could not reprint the tickets, even at the extra cost we were willing to pay.
We had to go to their counter that was just after the security control. See our problem here? We could not pass security without the bar codes to get to their counter. We offered money to someone else to try on their phone..and you know what?..frozen too.
It was almost as if the airport had some sort of throttling. Only the phones were working, not the data. Needless to say, we watched the gates close and ended up missing our flight. Money down the drain. It was the first time trying to use the app but my printer had run out of ink :-(, so l thought l’d try it.
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How we lost money: Hotel
I was disappointed to say the least. The domino effect started. The hotel in Mallorca which l had booked the day before was non changeable and non refundable. We were out hundreds of dollars for the room. Gone was my spa day, my massage, pedicure, manicure and facial 🙁 .
Federico initially wanted to go back home. He was however in a foul mood, and he would have ended up ruining things for the sitters. It wasn’t their fault that we had been unable to make our flight. They were a family of four and it would have been way too uncomfortable for all of us. I had to come up with a plan B, and quick.
These men were preparing for the Semana Holy Week in Cordoba, l assume. It is considered an honor to carry the Virgin statues. Heavy work indeed.
Plan B in effect to salvage our travel fail:
I suggested we visit somewhere else instead. Luckily, being in Seville, we were close to several wonderful cities, some l mentioned in my previous post. The Seville airport is one-third of the way to Cordoba, so we decided to just keep driving and visit Cordoba sooner than expected. The drive went smoothly.Ever optimistic, l was sure it would be easy to find a hotel room.
The old center of Cordoba is extremely hard to navigate with a car, and would never attempt it again 🙁 . The first hotel we found where we could pull in had one last room, but it was insanely expensive, even for us..and with no breakfast..and a $22 additional fee per day for parking. I was tired, and told him to just take the room. Still stinging from our loss, he said no..that we would find someplace else.
Related: La Mezquita Cordoba
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We drove around for over an hour before finding a spot to park (on the sidewalk illegally, but so were other cars and we decided to risk it). We then walked around for over two hours looking for hotel rooms.
Nobody had vacancies! Nobody..over 14 hotels, and we could not find a single room!!!! We then followed a road sign for a big chain Hotel, figuring we would find a room there. It turns out to be about 8 miles outside of the city center and was just as expensive as the first hotel. It was made worse by the fact that to catch the bus into town, you had to walk almost half a mile.
We decided to go back to the first hotel and just suck it up and pay the outrageous fee. I know you’ll find it hard to believe 😉 .. the last room was taken! It was now dark and l was cranky as hell. I wanted to just get the hell out of Cordoba.
As we were leaving, we saw a tiny sign for a hotel/hostel (in all honesty, l had stopped him from inquiring at hostels prior to this because of my stupid elitist thinking, I can be a real twat sometimes!).
Federico pulled over and l waited in the car while he ran in. It was a tiny, tiny street, and wouldn’t you know it..a bus came by and could not pass, and he honked and honked. I made the mistake of moving the car instead of just waiting for him to come back.
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Once on the road, there was nowhere to stop all along without holding up the bus. I thought l could just go round and come back down…but l was foiled by one way streets and ones that just dead-ended!.
Over an hour later, l had gotten so lost in the little tiny alleyways and one way streets and had no idea how to get back. Not one single spot to park in, and a dead phone to boot because l had used it so much trying to find hotels.
You might like: Alcazar de los Reyes Cordoba
How we lost money: Cab and gas
To say l was panicked would have been putting it mildly 🙁 . I finally, mercifully got led out of the old city center and found a gas station. I pulled in and attempted to ask to use the phone. A flurry of Spanish from the attendant, none of which l understood, but which amounted to a no.
l saw a cab driver pull up. I ran up to him and almost tearfully explained that l needed to use his cellphone to make a phone call. I called Federico, who at this point was so panicked, he had called the cops and a search was now out for the foreigner who had been hijacked or taken since their calls went unanswered. What a mess!
The cab driver talked to the hotel manager who described where they were. I drove behind the cab back to the hotel, who mercifully had a room available in he hotel part. I was so grateful to the cabbie, l tipped him an extra $25. He saved the day.
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How we lost money on our epic travel fail: Paying for another hotel
The hostel hostess was so kind. She had been worried and was standing on the main street to flag down the cab. She called off the search party :-). She also gave us the room at half price since it was already 9pm and didn’t charge for parking either.
She additionally gave us the name of a wonderful eatery that was close by. We were starving. Thanks to her and the cab driver, the day was made better, and l am so grateful. So, really long, long story short, we stayed in Cordoba and make Schweppes Bitter Lemon from our lemons 🙂 .
What surprised me most about our failed travel plans was our attitude towards the whole rotten day. I made my peace with it once l realized were screwed! Federico, who l had thought was going to be bitter for the whole weekend, was actually quite nonchalant about the whole thing.
He was more worried that l had gotten in an accident or something horrific. We chucked it up to part of the highs and lows of traveling. It sucks to have lost over 600 euros between the flight, the resort stay and the other things like gas, and of course spent more money having to pay for the hostel and meals, but c’est la vie. Thinking back, we lost even more than that for the airline change fees while my brother was in hospital.
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Once again, the next time you see travelers telling you only about the good times with none of the bad, keep in mind that they are more than likely not fully telling you the truth. S**t happens. I will tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly. I want you to armchair travel with us through all the time 🙂 . I can’t tell you how many curse words l said while all this was happening!, in 3 languages even!!!! 😉 🙂 🙂 .
At this point, after this insane travel failure, l haven’t had the desire to visit Palma de Mallorca. Federico is ready to give it another go and l think we will make it happen within the next year. What could have turned out to be the most horrible days of our lives ended up being just a footnote, thanks to the kindness of strangers. My little Spanish completely deserted me when attempting to describe my predicament.
The cabbie took the time to listen, and helped, despite the language barrier :-), something the gas station attendant didn’t. Amazing what a difference a day makes. Come Sunday daylight, we saw plenty more hotels on foot and lots of vacancies as the weekend revellers had checked out. We decided to stay put in the hotel for the duration of our trip.
Protect your trip with the Right Travel Insurance
Update: Since we had this epic travel fail, one of our worst travel fails to date, we have learned to get travel insurance when we take trips. Fortunately, we haven’t had to use it, but it definitely gives you peace of mind and could have saved us hundreds of dollars on this trip. It’s definitely worth having.
I have heard numerous scary stories of friends like Terry needing medical help and Betsy with a medical emergency while out of their home country. Without travel insurance, the amount of money that would have to come out of pocket would have been devastating. Learn from our travel fail and protect yourself.
Pinnable:
Have you ever had such a disaster travel fail happen to you? Have you missed a flight or lost money due to circumstances beyond your control? Did you swear and curse like sailor 😉 , or were you cool as cucumber?
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Oh my god, what a complete shit day. Jeez, what else could go wrong. I’d have been just like Federico, pissed off as all hell.
But the whole flight thing – Jesus, nobody could help you print out a ticket? This is the problem with technology when it doesn’t work. Last year I made a bad mistake: I was at the airport hotel in Mexico City and could/should have asked them to print out my boarding pass for me. But I figured no problem, I’ll go to one of those automatic machines when I get to the airline counter, then I could just breeze to security (I only had hand luggage, no need to check anything in). But when I got to the Air Canada counters I saw there were no automatic machines and only 3 counters for a huge damn line. Waited for 2 hours and complained to the service customer non-stop…he said there was no other way. Meanwhile, across the aisle Continental had 8 automatic machines and people were breezing through…I was so f*ing pissed.
You’re right, not all is sunshine and roses and all kinds of shit happens. Travellers have very little recourse anymore with the airlines and they can f*ck us over in a myriad of different ways. British Airways gave me a hard time recently, but last year it was Smartwings that totally screwed me.
Sorry to hear of your awful weekend Kemkem.
Frank (bbqboy)
Thanks Frank. Oh, it was awful for sure. Ryanair has to be one of the worst airlines. They saw we had checked in online. It would have been easy to call the other side, have them print it maybe and get us through security, but they said they could not do that. Why would you put the printer on the other side when you can’t go through without passes. I usually print the passes too, but we had run out of ink and l kept forgetting to buy a new cartridge :-(. You’re right, when technology fails, you are totally and royally screwed..haha! I had forgotten about your Smartwings fiasco :-(. Yep..now, we are powerless against the airlines, hotels..etc..etc.. We are loving Cordoba though, so it’s a good thing. Today, we are going to the Mesquita 🙂 .
Oh my god! I couldn’t believe that bad things kept coming and coming. It was terrible and I can only imagine how Federico felt when you disappeared. Probably that thought alone was enough to make him realize that the lost money are not as important. You can never prepare for such horrible things and they do happen every now and then. It sucks, but you were both able to smile in those photos, so that’s all that matters. But, boy, what an adventure!
Yeah.. I think that put things into perspective. It was a nightmare. He couldn’t remember the license plate number so he called his mom in Rome who also panicked..and it was such a mess. The cops out looking on motorcycles. I thought Rome parking was horrible, but this beats it. After dinner, which was very good, it was a lot better. By the next day, it was laughable..almost :-).
What a nightmare, Kemkem! I always print out my boarding pass out of fear that my phone won’t work at the airport because I know it would be just my luck. And the day had such a monopoly effect…I’m so sorry! In a few weeks hopefully you’ll be able to laugh this off. I’m just imagining you cursing in 3 languages – lol. Glad that you guys generally kept your cool…a sign that you’re seasoned travelers.
You are wise! I always do too. He had been nagging me to order the cartridge, and l didn’t want to hear it :-). I thought it would be fine just this once.. Never again! It just kept getting worse, and also because we had been to so many places..they all rolled into one..and l couldn’t remember where l had left him, and me with my sense of direction?.. I was totally screwed. Anything more than take a right at the pink house, and l am lost 🙂 . Cordoba, on the other hand is quite beautiful and we are loving it :-). Yep..3 languages..funnier because l don’t even understand what the Italian words mean, l just repeat what he spews when he watches soccer 😉 .
Oh Kem Kem… Well played. I would have exploded into a ball of ash (and Pat would have captured it in photos!). I have never gone to the airport without a paper boarding pass (something which says I am old and technologically impaired). Just as I was convincing myself to rely on my cell phone……
Haha!! You had me laughing at the ball of ash. I’m with you, l will never trust the telephone again, and will stick to good old paper. No..no..don’t rely on the phone.. it sucks! 😉 . I’m just glad we were able to salvage it. Cordoba is not a bad runner up at all, even better than l pictured :-).
Wow what a story! I think when you travel as much as you do, things like that are bound to happen. And they do happen to everyone at some point, but it’s still a huge drag. Glad you made the best of it!
Yeah..we were due for a major mishap l guess 🙂 . The last time something like this happened, we missed the flight not once..but twice! :-(. First time my fault with military time confusion, the second time a huge accident. The only difference was that we were in Rome with his parents so we got to eat more home cooking, but definitely one of the most expensive flights ever as we had to pay full price 3 times!!!
Most times when I’m traveling I expect things to go one way and they turn out completely different! I guess it’s all a part of traveling but in the end the good always outweighs the bad!
You’re absolutely right. The good definitely outweighs the bad 🙂 . I try not to plan things way in advance as it usually does turn out differently. Thanks for the lovely comment 🙂 .
What a complete nightmare!!! I’ve had some bad luck a few times traveling but it wasn’t international. I can’t even imagine how much worse that was. I got stuck in two airports over 2 days a few years back because I was flying standby and just kept getting booted off of each flight. I thought I’d never get home. The only big cost was having to pay for an extra hotel one night and my sanity!
It sure was 🙁 . Yours sounds dreadful as well. I can imagine how frustrating to keep getting booted off the flights. Haha!!! Your sanity 😉 . The language barrier totally sucked as we are really in places where nobody speaks English. Sometimes, traveling sucks big time, but we have to keep keeping on.. Thanks for sharing your story.
OMG!!! What a terrible situation. I’m glad you all ended up safe. Being lost in a foregn country sounds terrifying. I’m sorry you lost money too. Thanks for sharing though so we can all make back up plans.
It is definitely worth having a back up plan. Federico now admits that l was right to have us go to Cordoba. It would have been horrible for the sitters to have us around and we ended up having such a great time there. He actually says he wants a return visit come summer! So the horrible turned into goody goody 🙂 .
Oh wow!!! I mean this is the stuff movies are made of. I’m so sorry the trip started put so horrible. Just think in a few months two can.look back on the ordeal and laugh.
Haha! A friend of ours said the same thing, that it sounds like a really bad movie. We are already over it thank goodness, as Cordoba proved to be even better than we had pictured it. We absolutely loved it and can’t wait to go back to explore some more.. 🙂
Wow that was pretty annoying! What happened at the airport? Scary! I cannot understand how the airport couldn’t ensure reliable wifi since they know many passengers now no longer print boarding passes! Then you getting lost, money wasted etc. Anyway at least the kindness of strangers made up for it and maybe the shock of you getting lost kind of brought home what truly matters- that you are both safe & well. I know, I know, coming over all philosophical now;-)
I’m glad it’s all ok now, on to the next adventure right?! 😀
It was like things were happening in slow motion at the time. The wifi finally worked after the gates closed! The weird part was that it did not let my data plan work either. I had used it just 3 days before as my sister flew in and l picked her up and we used it to communicate..but this time?..Nada! The kindness of strangers certainly made it all better. We ended up having an absolutely fabulous holiday and some mazing food. We are looking to go back with his mom in the summer because she would love it 🙂 . Lemonade from lemons..yeah!
You survived one of my greatest fears… I never use the barcode on my phone for flights. Never! I’m always afraid the phone will die or I will be in a dead zone. I can’t believe those airline people couldn’t help you! That’s ridiculous but I’m glad you took it in stride and made the most of your weekend.
Thanks for sharing your pics too. Beautiful places.
Yes, we survived intact. I feel you with the phone, and as you say..nothing worse than a dead phone. I could have called him once l was lost and that would have saved a lot of time and worry and wasting police resources. Of course it was dead because of the fiasco at the airport earlier. I will never trust barcodes again. I have only used it once. I always print it..tomorrow morning first think is to buy ink for the printer :-). We ended up loving Cordoba, easy to see why Game of Thrones chose it to film in. 🙂
Sorry to hear about those hiccups. I had a bad experience with Emirates Airlines. I didn’t check in, missed the check in five 5 minutes and the counter rep wouldn’t budge. I missed my flight and onward flight as well as my money. I won’t fly Emirates again.
Don’t you just love it when they say “there’s nothing we can do” wen you know perfectly well that there is something they can do, but choose not to. It’s like they are envious of the fact that you are flying and they are stuck, so they want to ruin your day. I’m sorry that happened to you. It must have been so frustrating :-(. Thanks for sharing.
OMG I would have lost my mind. My attitude would be piss poor and I don’t even know if I could turn it around.
Haha! So, you would not have seen “the bright side of life”..like in the Monty Phyton movie eh?. I was just like…what..what..what… It seemed to be happening in slow motion..but my mind always works ahead..like what can we do..while Fede focuses on the present..and l always have to prod him towards solutions.. 🙂 .
Okay let me start my comment with the fact I like to see the bright side of things….. and your post had me smiling/laughing (much needed). I understand and hard the frustration through the post. I understand the fear of being in a foreign place and getting lost. All i have to say is YOU HAD AN ADVENTURE. I am also glad that you we not alone.
Haha!! You have no idea how much your comment means to me…really! I am so glad you found humor in it like l did. I am the eternal Pollyanna. I just really find the humor in everything for the most pat. It just felt like a bad dream, and yes..it was an adventure! I can’t tell you how relieved l was when l finally found a way out of the tiny streets in the center to the outer streets and was able to pull over when l finally saw the gas station. I am just so happy l had my glasses with me as my night vision sucks! Pretty sure l would flattened a few people and cars without them :-). Now, that would have been an adventure!!! Thanks so much for the comment. It made me laugh!!!
I just about can’t get my hand off my mouth to type! What-A-MESS! And when I thought it couldn’t get worse…???!!!!! Oh, man, oh man. I’m just trying to picture it all. And the cartridge was out of ink at home—-I mean, don’t you just wonder about this trip… Like the fates said it wasn’t going down (as in, not happening…). I will never forget this story. It will make my travels light-hearted, even in chaos! So sorry about the missed spa, though. Aaaaah. How good that all would have been!
Terri
It really and truly was a mess! It was just like slow motion movie..You’re right though, and l said it to Fede that l thought that particular trip was just not meant to happen. I was okay with it. There were just too many obstacles :-). he spa would have been good, my nails are in dire need…nail shops are pretty scarce, only seen one in all of Seville, and they only do nails and you have to stand. It’s just a counter at the mall…mmmm..No! 🙂 . Yeah..think of this whenever your travels go awry..hahah!
Standing nail job! No!
I know..right! It ain’t gonna happen 🙂
I should just start with the list of curse words that we’ve said after 3 years of traveling full time! I know about some of the unanticipated mishaps that can occur and outright fails too and I have to agree with you – who would want to read or trust a blogger that candy coats travel as one big success story? (Sometimes reading about what can go wrong is more interesting anyway!)There are days like yours where nothing goes right or a place you’ve traveled to sucks or your hotel room or AirBnB looks nothing like the picture and is cramped and dark or, true story, doesn’t even have a mattress on the box spring (true story – Cartagena, Colombia.) UGH! These are also the times when we take out our tiredness, stress and frustration and start sniping at each other which never helps. ARGH! I think all travelers (and expats too) have to have an eternal optimist in them (or a Pollyanna) that can get past the few fails and set off on each trip with anticipation knowing that it really will work out in the long run. Anita
Haha! There’s nothing like a few words to make things sting just a bit less. I’m sure you must have had a few hiccups throughout your travels. I totally would have lost my cool to find no mattress..hahah!!! What were they thinking? We have only had one truly bad experience with AirBnB thankfully. I always try to look for alternatives as soon as things go wrong. You do have to stay strong to travel full time, there are so many things that can go wrong, it’s actually almost amazing that it doesn’t happen more often. Yeah..we start sniping at each other too when we get frustrated. I just end up laughing hysterically and tell him it could always be worse. I always think of the Stan Ridgeway (love him) song “Can’t Complain”. I swear l always sing it in the back of my mind, and it always brings a smile. It could always be worse.
OMG! I am so sorry all of that happened to you both, but I am so thankful the cab driver and the lady at the hotel were kind and helpful. I missed a flight out of Miami once because a friend was playing around on the drive to the airport luckily for her there were no change fees. lol
Haha! You got lucky! I bet you were furious at your friend for a bit 🙂 . Yeah, those two people really saved the day. It would have been horrific without them. She even left the counter and waited outside in the cold to make sure she could see the cabbie. The cops made sure l was okay. If it had not been for the kindness of strangers, l would have totally lost it, because looking back now.. he had gotten big bills at the ATM and we were going to change for small bills, but it was all still in his wallet..so l had like 20 cents euro on me…haha!
omg, that so sucks about the app freezing, i would have been sooooo annoyed! and it’s so true, once you start panicking it’s like everything just quickly starts spiraling out of control!
lol i’m booking a trip to jamaica tomorrow for my sister’s destination wedding, and this just inspired me to purchase the travel insurance…just in case! thanks!:-)
Yep! Once the panic set it, that was the kiss of death. Insane though that my personal data plan also didn’t work, and the guy that tried to help us also. I just think it was not meant to be, too many obstacles. Yeah..good idea on the insurance. I was booking our trip to go visit his mom yesterday for the summer. I asked him if l should get the insurance, and he was like..you even need to ask?.. Haha!!! Once bitten 🙂 . Hope Baby A. is doing well :-).
OMG! What a story! I’m so glad that you can look back and laugh. I can’t imagine it was any way remotely funny at the time!
You must have felt really frustrated when you couldn’t get into the airport and the Ryan Air plane swiftly flew off without you. Aaaargh! However, I think you and Federico losing each other must have been one of the most horrifiic experiences in your life together. No wonder he called the police. That’s love for you right there! 🙂 🙂 And thank goodness, it all ended well, the locals were wonderfully helpful, and you were able to have a somewhat nicer “break.”
Have I ever had such a disaster? Not all in one go girrrrrl! But as a well-worn world traveller. I’ve had plenty to give me food for thought over the years. And most of them were in Scotland. I love Scotland but there always seems to be something…! Anyway, the recent ones were in Barcelona last year and in Korea in 2014. We were supposed to be going to Qatar with a free 5 star hotel. Free visa. Free car and driver, and everything. But we forgot the change of flight time and missed it! To the airline’s credit, they were happy to re-book the offer. But 6 days later!!!! And we were due back to Berlin in 2 days. School, work, etc and we had already been away for more than a month so we HAD to go home sooner rather than later. I did write about it on my blog but I was so embarrassed ‘cos it was such a rookie mistake, that I didn’t say how much we ended up paying extra….€2,100…..!
I tried to stay cool and calm. “The Music Producer” was in shock ‘cos I’m usually so on top of things, and “The Tall Young Gentleman” was upset ‘cos we were running around like headless chickens and not really explaining the situation in order not to panic him. He was panicked anyway lol!
Yeah..you just have to laugh off the misfortunes that happen otherwise you would drive yourself crazy. I try to remind Federico often as he gets so excited…while l usually remain cool as a cucumber :-). I remember you mentioning the disaster that was, but didn’t realize what a big chunk of change it had been. It’s infuriating when things go wrong, but then l think about all the times things go smoothly and it comes out as a wash l think. Damn though…5 hotel, visa etc..that must have been cool for a second :-). You have awesome memories of other travels though as you have done quite a bit of it. In the end, it’s like Suzie Orman says.. People first :-). Thanks for sharing your story.