It's so easy to travel... or?

How easy seems to travel when we read some travel blogs or leaf through a travel magazine. We see appealing destinations, exotic cuisine, interesting traditions and curiosities about the people living in a certain place. Travelling on the magic carpet of mind, helping ourselves a bit through the screen or that magazine we hold in our hands is so smooth. But if you think about it... do you remember any of your journeys being uncomplicated? Even if the major problem means picking the suitcase of the right size to fit the requirements of the airline you are flying with... or being a bit nervous about the possible turbulences? There is always something that brings a pinch of difficulty.

...

Ok, I have to admit that there were journeys where everything went well and no rant or complaint would come. Also, the more you move - the more experience you have and even the troubles are not striking that hard. The situations that in one moment seemed unsolvable with time became a good foundation for being calmer with every new adventure. Remembering some of the situations connected to our travels came after reading the post of @anixaeva (the post is written in Spanish, but it is worth translating and reading it if you don't speak that language). The inspiration for this post of mine is coming from there. (Gracias Anixaeva.)

She was there, spending a night at the airport after an already hard day, and in the end, she couldn't take the flight she wanted to. That reminded me of one of the many adventures we had.
It was about ten years ago when we had a flight from Valencia (Spain) to Zurich (Switzerland) and from there the connection to Budapest (Hungary).

{little note: I spent yesterday evening at least two hours trying to find old photos from ten or more years ago in the external hard drive. I got lost in many memories and photos, but I found just a few from our trips. The rest is in another external hard disc but today's schedule is not allowing me to start browsing there too.)

The flight from Valencia was delayed. Actually, we already boarded and were sitting on the plane but there were some issues with the number of baggage the airline had to take, the aircrew didn't get the necessary papers from the airport so we were just there, waiting in our seats... for two hours. Of course, we arrived super late at Zurich airport and the connection to Budapest was lost. The airline was a good one though, Swiss, where you used to get food, drink and a piece of chocolate included in the price of your flight. My son was small and every time we travelled he got some little gift from the aircrew (a book, puzzle, soft toy or similar... plus, once he was allowed to visit the cabin of the pilot and look around 🤓). Due to the lost connection, they provided us with accommodation in Zurich and we were given a dinner voucher to spend at that hotel. My memory is speaking - I remember it was 60 Swiss francs for the dinner to be spent (we speak of an adventure that happened a decade ago). If you think it is a lot you are wrong. It was enough for one big pizza and three small bottles of water 😂). We were so thirsty, as the hours of waiting were exhausting so we had to buy some extra bottles of water. The positive side of it - we got a free night in Zurich hahaha and continued our trip the next morning. The negative side - we had a friend that was coming to pick us up in Budapest. He already went there while we were waiting on the plane and was not aware we could not make it on time. He arrived there, waited for us, parked in the wrong place, and got a fine from a policeman 🤦‍♀😂.

Some other years we travelled with a different company, Wizzair. It is a low-cost airline (not that cheap anymore) where you have to pay an additional fee for the baggage, food, and beverages and in some airports, they don't have permission to board from the main airport building. You have to take a bus (or walk) to the place where the plane is and board there. It's not a problem unless it is very cold so you have to wait outside while freezing... I think the photo below was not from a winter trip, but it is what I have found in the old photos, to get an idea...

What happened? There was a dense fog over the airport where we had to land. I noticed that we were circling around the airport, and the aircrew was not announcing the landing. We realized that we will not make it in the chosen place. It happened an hour later, in Vienna (Austria) as it was the closest one to give permission to land 😂 Nice! We got several hours of travelling back by bus, to reach the city we were supposed to land, and then, several hours of driving to reach the other city where we actually went.

But it is not always that we choose to fly to our destinations. We combine them with long-distance driving adventures, and to be honest, I prefer now looking at the road through the car window instead of looking at the wing of a plane.

However, road trips also bring higher pressure in some situations :D

Imagine being on the road, somewhere in France, in the middle of the night and your car just breaks down. Major stress at that moment, of course. Now, just memories of a few extra days spent in Beziers that I really like to remember. Or being trapped in a huge traffic jam on a highway in Germany... We lost several hours before reaching Munich but then we enjoyed that city and the company of our friend a lot. Many other anecdotes could come, like when the handle of the car froze as it was that cold so we couldn't close the door (middle of the night - travelling to the airport)... Or travelling for the whole day just a few hundred of kilometres, but very slowly because of a heavy snowfall. Getting lost as listening to (or not listening to) the GPS indications. Hitting accidentally a squirrel on the highway and break a part of the rear fender on the car...

I could continue, or write a book on this topic (no great writing skills, so it will be skipped) but in reality, I am going very hectic with my schedule. It may happen that I slow down my Hive time, a thing that didn't happen since I joined. New gigs came in the very near future (starting tomorrow) and a lot of organization, work and focus will be needed for the upcoming concerts of my students. Seems that life is like a journey, maybe I can manage everything or adjust the schedules. Days will say ;)

I am sure you all have some interesting stories connected to your journeys to share with your readers at Hive. Is it easy to travel? Feel free to share your thoughts.