An Idiot Abroad
Categories Exploration, Life Tips, Lifestyle, Mindfulness, Travel, Travel Blog, Travel Tips, Uncategorized22 Comments
As sensible as you are, it’s hard to always have your wits about you when you’re off travelling. I am ‘the mammy’ of the group within my friends, roaring at them to stuff toilet paper in their handbags before a festival (because portaloo’s are bad enough already, lets not make the situation any worse!) and pulling out bandages, scissors, hair spray, pretty much everything except the kitchen sink because that’s just what I do.
But, what I also do is wander around on my own in the dark and challenge myself to drink more absinthe than any living person ever has without dying. You can’t win’em all!
So here are three of probably the most stupid things I have done abroad in my time:
3) Leaving my belongings unattended…. while skinny dipping
6 o’ clock in the morning in the beautiful town of Split, my friend and I thought it would be the funniest thing in the world to go skinny dipping. So off with our kits we went, into the water we go, and away with my purse a man runs! Can’t deny the complete and utter stupidity behind that one – but it was still a pretty thrilling experience, and a lovely lady at a bus station found all my cards, found me on facebook, got my address and sent them all back to me! Every cloud 🙂 plus, he actually left my iPhone and only stole my wallet, so he was a pretty bad robber.
2) Betting on the street in Budapest.. Without considering the currency exchange
I’m standing there, watching men drop €500 at a time on the stupid game where you have to follow the ball hidden underneath a bottle cap as he switches three of them around constantly. I watching him for about ten minutes until I see him make a mistake and show the ball underneath one of the caps so I think ‘this is my time!’ I told my boyfriend ‘it was like buying money’ because I SAW the ball under the cap just as he stopped switching them around so I asked him to hand over ‘all the cash he has’ – which was 20,000 Hungarian Forint. My head, in the heat of the moment, think that this equals €20… it is actually €60. Con men make a living from being con men, so as I turn around he moved the ball under another cap and took my €60 without remorse as I stood there confused as to how the ball that I saw was not there anymore. And instantly I was €60 poorer (or my boyfriend I should say, who so kindly gave me the money on demand!). Lesson definitely learned…
1) Getting a tattoo… In a nightclub… In Mexico!
Three best friends having the trip of a lifetime around America who decide to cross the border for a wild night out in Mexico. There is just so much that could have gone wrong in this scenario. What if they didn’t change the needles? What if they made a mistake? And everyone knows you should never get a tattoo after drinking because of how much in thins your blood! But hey, who doesn’t love getting a tattoo in the corner of a nightclub in Mexico?! They were actually meant to be matching tattoos as well but they messed up both of my friends by putting an ‘O’ where a ‘W’ should be (you can laugh.. we all laughed, and still laugh!). I have a selfie of me getting the tattoo, but it’s not very flattering so here is a picture of all three tattoos – it’s like playing a game of spot the difference!
I am aware that these are probably bordering more ‘unsafe’ that ‘stupid’.Stupid usually falls into the category of hopping on the wrong train to a different country or missing your flight because you mixed up the times. But none the less I am alive to tell the tale, and much wiser than I was before!
So, what are the most stupid things you have managed to do on your travels? I can’t be the only one!
yikes in getting your purse stolen but thankfully you got most of your things back including your phone!
Yeah it was a bit of a bummer because I had to just get loads of money off my friend while we were away (which is never nice!) but it all worked out okay in the end, thankfully 🙂
The O is actually not a mistake. Well, it’s not what you wanted, but to them it would have made sense because the word for “west” in Spanish is “oeste” 😉
Yeah we figured that one out afterwards, but for us who don’t speak Spanish it’s pretty confusing 😂
haha! Great stories. One of the dumbest things I’ve done abroad is forgetting my passport at the hotel when I was trying to rent a car. Of course, the rental car agency would not even think about renting the car to me without a passport. I don’t know what I was thinking! haha.
Haha I love this! I upped and went to the hospital one more without mine while in Croatia.. once again not sure my thought process was for not bringing any form of ID 😂
Haha this is amazing 😂 you otherwise sound like a great person to travel with (I love that you’re the one there with the first aid supplies on demand! 😆)
Thanks! Yeah I come in handy every so often I must admit 😂
Some great stories! Skinny dipping in Croatia sounds exciting – I would probably do it too, depending on how drunk I’d be 😀 I don’t remember any particular stupid stories from my traveling – usually I am very planned and organized when abroad. One that comes to mind might be buying those so called dancing paper cut-outs, from a street conman in Barcelona, ha ha. My boyfriend and I realized it probably few minutes after, but when we went back to expose his bullshit and demand our measly 10 euros or so back, the man was gone! Ha ha. Lesson learned!
It’s the guys on the street that can really catch you out! Case in point my second story above 😂 at least stupidity makes for some funny stories down the line!
These stories are hilarious, thanks for sharing! I’ve not made any of these mistakes myself…yet.
Thank you! I’m sure I have plenty more these are just my worst three (to date haha!). They make for funny memories but are definitely less than ideal.. you always come out with less money no matter what stupid thing you do so it seems! 😋
I once did something similar to the purse scenario. When I was in California, the day I met my now boyfriend for the first time, I convinced him to leave his (expensive!!) shoes under a bench at the beach. When we returned to the same spot someone had stolen them 😂 who wants used shoes though?! Everything seems like a good idea when you’re abroad!
Honestly, the last thing I would expect is for someone to steal my shoes! Yeah being abroad just makes you want to live in the moment.. pity those moments have consequences haha!
I also once left my passport and €200 euros on the Eiffel Tower…that’s a story for a different time 😂 great post! And I love the title (the series is hilarious) I may have to write about something similar in the future – at least the silly things we do make fun blog posts! 😆
Getting a tattoo in Mexico in a nightclub! Okay I haven’t lived lol! I want to go on holiday with you x
Catherine.
http://www.daintydressdiaries.com
Haha thank you! Trust me, even I woke up and thought ‘I make bad life choices’ 😂
Haha! I live in Mexico. I wouldn’t get a tattoo there. 😉
And why am I not surprised they got the compass wrong?
🙂
Haha yeah, at least the letters are in the right place.. even if they aren’t the right actual letters 😂
Be good and happy holidays.
Enjoyable read and you’re a very lucky gal! Happy travels!
Lucky indeed, everything has worked out well for me in the end more or less!