I think I give some people the wrong impression.
I’ve traveled to five of the seven continents. I’ve spent a decent amount of time in places I never quite had the opportunity to call home. I often write about the experiences I’ve had while navigating the journeys I have found myself on.
Nonetheless, I am, for the lack of a better explanation, not a directionally-gifted individual. I am… quite the opposite, if I do say myself.
Along with being directionally-challenged, I often get a lot of other things wrong, too. Some of those things being: train times, admission guidelines, historical references, and so on and so forth.
I am not one of those “savvy travelers” who can orient themselves after the second day of arriving in a new place. I don’t research all the landmarks and historical buildings in each city I visit. I’m not someone who has every detail nailed down before taking off.
Needless to say, I love traveling, but I have a few flaws that are usually the reason why I have one (or two or three or more) hiccups when in a foreign country.
Allow me to explain:
I took a solo trip to Florence, Italy while I was living on Lake Como last year. I mapped out what trains I needed to take, what hotel I’d stay in, the general plan for the three days I’d be there, and did my best to prepare for the adventure.
With that said, my entire Florence trip was amazing. Just incredible. I loved, loved, loved Florence, and to be completely transparent, I didn’t have high expectations for it because I felt like it was a very hyped up city. While there, I learned it deserves all the hype it receives.
However, despite how fabulous the three days I spent there were, naturally, something took a left turn at the very tail-end of my journey.
*Cut to the train ride back to Lake Como*
Before even leaving the Lake, I bought my return ticket home from Florence to Bellano. I was going to take the same route I took on my way to Florence, in reverse. Easy peasy, right?
Wrong. I’m destined to mess something up because, well, it just wouldn’t be a Taylor-sponsored adventure if I didn’t.
Anyway, long story short, Ms. Smarty Pants over here disembarked the train a stop early and screwed up the entire itinerary home. What was supposed to be two seamless train rides from Florence to Bellano turned into four.
But that’s not where the headache ends. That’s where it begins.
Of course, the stop I wrongfully got off at had no trains that would take me to the stop I needed to get to in order to course correct my mistakes. That would be way too easy of a fix.
So, I had to wait thirty extra minutes to catch my second train, which wasn’t all that bad after I fumbled through figuring out how to buy a train ticket in Italian.
Up next was my third train. It was another hour and a half wait. At that point, it was close to 7PM, the time I would have been home had everything gone swimmingly.
Thankfully though, my third train came, picked me up, and before long, I was at the train station in Monza, forty-five minutes (by car) from Bellano. When I arrived, I got off the train and checked to see which “binario” (track) my fourth train would be arriving into. That’s when I heard the news.
My fourth train was delayed. And delayed. And delayed to the point where I questioned if it were even coming at all.
I will say, I’ve cultivated a patience like no other the last couple of years, so waiting wasn’t a big problem for me. It was the fact that I had 10% phone battery left, I hadn’t eaten since 9AM that morning, every bathroom at every train station was out of order, and I was by myself in a city I knew nothing about.
Luckily, I have a record of finding myself in situations like this, so I wasn’t panicking, but I was very tired, hungry, in need of a bathroom STAT, and wondering where my train was.
To curb at least one of my problems, I spotted a vending machine from the other side of the train station. I decided to make my way over to grab a snack, but when I approached the machine, I noticed it was—you’ll never guess—filled with dog food.
I audibly cackled. Like full-on belly laughed by myself. Dog food?! Dog food?!
“Okay, no problem,” I thought. “I’ll just find another one!”
Which, I did! I hangrily pressed the buttons on the next vending machine to order a Kinder bar, and lo and behold, it got stuck.
I probably looked like I needed medication in the Monza train station because I was crying laughing at the series of my unfortunate events. I could not help it. First the dog food, then the Kinder bar. It was just one thing after another that day.
As the story goes, my train was incredibly late. It ended up arriving at 10PM. I was grateful it decided to make an appearance as it was the last train of the night, but for a while, I was sure that at any point the arrival board was going to say, “Train to Bellano: Canceled” (except in Italian).
What’s humorous about this whole story is had I just paid a little more attention to the stops on my first train, I could have avoided the slew of issues that unfolded thereafter. However, it’s never a cake walk with me. It’s more a, “food-fight-and-run-for-the-hills” when I’m in charge.
I tell you this for two reasons:
To be transparent that I, too, screw up when it comes to directions and logistics.
Even though I had, what seems, like a nightmare of a journey home, it indeed was not. Not because I knew I’d be okay but because someone else did.
My boyfriend at the time was the eyes and the ears behind the entire operation. He was the one tracking my train, calling the station it was departing from to get more accurate information about why it was delayed, giving me updates in real time, reassuring me that if anything were to go wrong, he’d hop in his car and come pick me up.
It was he who had my location on WhatsApp, who told me to preserve my phone battery in case of an emergency, who was waiting at the Bellano train station when I arrived, who grabbed my backpack off my back and my rolling carry on the minute he saw me. He was the one who had dinner waiting for me at 11PM, who forfeited his lunch for work the next day so I could eat a proper meal, who asked me how I could be so calm when everything was going wrong.
He was the reason. I knew I wasn’t alone, even when I was. He was manning the whole thing behind the scene, so no matter what, I knew I’d be okay.
I could laugh at the dog food and the chocolate bar that got stuck. I could patiently wait for the trains and overlook the fact that I got home four hours later than I originally planned. I’m not a superhero or someone who can navigate high-stress situations completely unfazed. I definitely do a better job now than I used to in the past, but regardless, it’s not because I’m invincible.
I took everything in strides that day in large part because of him.
~
So, if I’m to be as authentic with you as possible, I must admit that I don’t just float through my travels unscathed. I would love to say I do, but I don’t.
I have a lot of people to thank who have extended their generosity and graciousness to me when I’ve been in a pinch… see what I did there? 😉
And although I’m not exactly a “savvy traveler”, I am one who welcomes the journey with open arms, an open mind, and most importantly, an open heart.
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