You may not know because I have been so humble and quiet about it, but I have just returned from spending six weeks in hot, blue skies and seas Europe. I am talking croissants for breakfast, tanning all day, swimming in the bluest oceans, whilst the hot European men make my aperol spritz on the beach. No worries in the world, except, what flavour gelato am I going to have for dessert tonight?
That’s the version you saw on Instagram, right? And truthfully everything posted was a real and honest experience. But don’t get me wrong there were ‘non- Instagramable’ moments of the trip too. I mean, it’s all in perspective, ultimately, I was fortunate enough to be in Europe whilst it was raining and cold in Australia. It’s just, I would love to share the smallest moments of nightmare that we did experience, and the lessons we learnt from them and maybe you can take them as travel tips…
The lessons I learnt:
1. “Go when you can, not when you should.”
This rule applies to everything when you travel. If you see a bathroom (particularly a bathroom that is FREE) go while you can, even if you don’t have to. You are in unknown territory. Who knows when you will see another bathroom? Who knows what tragic transport story might happen? I don’t know Italian… I am completely guessing how to read this timetable.
Eating. Eat while you can, not when you should.
Sleeping. Sleep while you can, not when you should.
Getting cash out. While you can, not when you should.
IT APPLIES TO EVERYTHING!
When travelling, I feel like all respect for oneself almost leaves. Sleep on the floor of a train station? Why not. You know what they say, sleep while you can, not when you should.
Not shower or wash your face for three days? Well, should’ve done that when I could.
2. “Eat what you want, spend what you want.”
Travelling is a culture experience for all your senses. Try every flavour of gelato. Eat dessert after every meal (well you should do that anyway but do it more overseas). I don’t look back on a single meal I had and go “damn I wish I didn’t spend my money on that, I didn’t need it!” Food is another way of experiencing the culture around you. I also don’t regret a single experience I paid for. A boat ride, a drink out, a ticket to see a landmark. Tik Tok truly said it right, “money comes and goes, but you will only be 20 in Europe once in your life.” Though, you can use this excuse no matter what stage of life you are.
3. I wore a different perfume scent for each country I visited.
This just allowed me to associate each scent with a specific country and memory!
4. Our best accommodation experiences were with Airbnbs.
I think because Airbnbs are rated after each stay, they truly do go above and beyond compared to hostels or accommodation booked on wotif, etc. Each Airbnb host we had picked us up and drove us to the accommodation and they were the cleanest places we stayed. And trust me, we stayed in a place filled with bed bugs… we did our time of uncleanliness. The “small nightmare, un-instagramable moment” goes:
It’s 40 degrees in Rome. You’re sweating your makeup off even though you’re trying to look cute to roam the streets of Rome and you have your waddle walk on because your thighs have started to chaff from rubbing each other in the heat. Finally, you’re back to your accommodation fanging for aircon, a fan, or even just some icepacks or ice cubes. We’ve got none of the above. Naturally, we open the window for some non-existent breeze and sleep with the window open that night. Waking up, keen for the next day, we are covered in bites and small blood spots on the sheets. Being from Australia, our first reaction was just, “oh we were just swatting the mozzies extremely accurately because we slept with the window open.” Getting on with another 40 degrees day, we go to bed that night but found a fan, so could sleep with the window shut. My friend, still being bitten, can’t sleep and has a hunch about bed bugs. It’s midnight and she wakes me up, explaining we have bedbugs and they can nuzzle into your suitcase and lay eggs and the only way to kill them is with heat from a dryer. Naturally, all we want to do is leave the accommodation, so we leave the key behind and set on just spending the night at a 24hr laundry mat. Two birds, one stone. Shelter but also, we can spend the night with our clothes in the dryer. We had a train at 8am, so we knew just had to kill 8 hrs. On the streets outside of our bed bugs invested accommodation we are researching 24hr laundry mats while I kid you not, rats run under our feet. Apparently 24hr laundry mats in Rome don’t exist? So, we trek it to the police station to check if it would be safe for us to just wait at the train station for our 8am train. “It’s so safe for you, there will be police and security there,” we work out he is saying in broken English. And maybe his English is just so bad, or it was his first night on the job, I don’t know, but boy was he wrong. Firstly, we made it to the station, it’s not even open. Secondly, we are approaching the station and there was a homeless man every 10m. Finally, we find some man that does work there, and he explains to us that this is the most unsafe neighbourhood, especially for two young girls who can’t speak Italian and we should hold onto our phones and bags very tightly and walk very fast out of here. It’s now 1:30am and we try nearby hotels to ask if we can just sit in their lobby until the train station opens at 6am. No one would let us. So, we put our trust in the Rome police again, and head to another police station. They laughed at the stupid Aussies when we told them what had happened, but they called another police station and said we could spend the night there, until the train station opened. The sleep at the police station was okay until this young girl was slamming on the locked door outside, and all the police ran out and tackled her to the floor and dragger her past us at 4am. But we made our train, and I slept so well the following night.
Bed bugs or not, the trip was all worth it. Now I can confidently say I have a crazy travel story. Sign me up to the inspired unemployed.
That’s my ramble.
Ruby x
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