4. “My wife had her PhD defense in her home country (we lived in another country at the time), so she flew there a few days in advance to get everything ready. I flew there the day before her defense. I drove to the airport and parked in one of those cheap parking lots with shuttle service to the airport terminal. Once I got to the terminal, I realized I had forgotten my passport at home. After a solid two minutes of panicking hard and sweating, I decided that I could still make it for the next (and last) flight of the day. Of course, my ticket was not refundable nor transferable, so I was screwed on that front. But missing the flight would have been WAY worse.”
“The next shuttle to the parking lot was in 45 minutes. So I got a taxi, went to get my car, bolted through a substantial number of speed traps on the highway, got home, took the passport, bolted back, and stopped to leave my car at the same parking as before, but the guy informed me that the next shuttle to the terminal would be in 45 minutes, again. There was no way I’d make it.
So I just said screw it and went to the short-term parking in the terminal itself which costs 10 times more. But at that point I was fighting for survival — I HAD to get on the next plane or I would have missed one of the most important days in my wife’s life. When I finally found a spot for the car, I sprinted to the airline desk to buy a ticket. Of course, there were no economy tickets left so I had to get a business class ticket that assassinated my credit card. But hey, I made it on time.
Once I finally boarded the plane, I was exhausted. I took off my jacket and folded it under my head as a pillow. I just wanted to sleep. Hey, what do you know, there was something in the pocket of the jacket. I. Wanted. To. Fucking. Die. It was my ID card. I could have flown with just that. There was no need to go back for the passport. I had it with me the whole time.”
8. “I took a taxi from my hotel in Granada to Alhambra. Had a fantastic chat with the taxi driver, beautiful morning. I pulled out my wallet to pay him and put it back in my pocket. It must have slid right back out and fell on the floor of the taxi. The cab was already halfway down the hill before I realized. I jumped in another cab waiting in front of Alhambra and shouted, ‘Follow that car!’ but we didn’t catch them. I had to give up because I only had the cash change from the first taxi ride.”
“With my wallet now firmly lost, I went back to Alhambra and did my best to enjoy the trip. While the tour was going on I didn’t have cell coverage, but when the tour was through the cab driver had sent an email to my work address (my business card was in my wallet) saying he had it! I would have to contact the cab company to dispatch them to me to pick up the wallet and I’d have to pay a few bucks.
My Spanish isn’t very good, so when I got back to my hotel I had to play a literal game of telephone with the front desk and the cab company to get them to dispatch the driver. Something was lost in translation because I sat around the lobby for hours — no money and no hope. Eventually, after a few hours, I decided to use my last 0.75 Euro to grab a soda.
I walked down the street and I see the cab driver go past. I ended up sprinting a few blocks down to chase him and got the wallet back (tipped him 20 bucks) and got on my way. I missed my bus and had to reschedule my hotel, but I got everything back. Needless to say, I never leave all my money in my wallet and now spread credit cards and cash throughout my luggage/person.”
20. “I was leaving Germany after surprising my then-girlfriend in Berlin last minute. I’d booked a very cheap flight from NYC to Frankfurt, but, of course, had to trek from Frankfurt to Berlin and back for the flights. While taking the ICE train from Berlin to Frankfurt, a gal came and sat inside my little private car. Turns out she was a dancer at one of the private clubs in Berlin and was on her way to Frankfurt.”
“She was rolling a huge joint toward the end of the trip and offered to roll me one. I decided not to smoke the joint and instead tucked it in my waistband for the flight. While going through security, I got flagged for a secondary search. I was freaking the F out walking behind the two officers and crumbling the joint inside of my pants, letting it fall out of the bottom of my pants leg.
I anxiously got into the scanner, answered a few questions (surely sweating), and was cleared to take my things and go. Walking back toward the initial security section, I saw the weed and paper scattered on the floor and was more than positive they would see this and run cameras on it.
Needless to say, I was waiting on the flight for them to come in, jerk me out of my seat, and lock me up for seven life sentences. I prayed for the doors to close and to be wheels up. Finally, it happened — we took off and I felt so damn relieved. In hindsight, I was overreacting, but I was also very stupid.
