What to Expect When You're Not Expecting

Throughout our numerous posts, we’ve talked about our various adventures, and even given you some tips, tricks and guides to help you travel like us, but one of the things we haven’t really thoroughly covered is how to deal with unexpected (and sometimes/most times stressful) situations. This article will focus on just that, as we’ve got some pretty fresh examples coming back from our trip to Scotland. Now, as a total disclaimer, this isn’t supposed to scare you away from travel. No, the complete opposite actually. We hope that this will help you be confident to handle any situation that may come your way as you wander the globe.

When it comes to traveling, we love to pack light to allow ourselves a little more mobility, but we also like to be prepared. Even though it hasn’t happened to us yet, Gen and I both know people who have lost their passports (or had them stolen) while away. It’s best to keep your passport and crucial belongings on your person at all times, but should you ever be separated from them, make sure that you have photocopies of your passport, health card, and whatever important information you may need (ex. Copies of reservations for hotels, cars, activities, etc.). There’s a good chance you won’t need this, and then you can shred the copied information, but it’s better to be safe than sorry in these types of situations.

Our faces every time we had to deal with an unexpected situation.

As we move on to our very real examples of unexpected travel hiccups, let it be known that Gen and I had a great trip. We figured everything out. Our problem solving skills are nowhere near rusty, and we are now possibly becoming part-time detectives (because we’re that good). The first hiccup we encountered was with our rental car. With every trip, we always have a problem with the rental car. The first trip (to Iceland), they tried to charge us for extra damages, though we were covered by the insurance; we got it settled. Last year, with our trip to Ireland, someone tried to break into our car and thus, left damage to the body of the vehicle. Not much, but just enough to give us a headache. It was not soon settled because the car rental company we had chosen had been bought out by Enterprise, and so the department that Gen had gone to great lengths to settle with no longer existed. In the end, because we (and by we I mean Gen) had spent so much time trying to solve something that should’ve been easy, they cut us a break.

This trip, we used a third party to do our booking in hopes that we could land a discount. Since Gen and I are both under 25, and we have to pay the “young drivers fee”, we figured we could use all the help we could get. So upon confirming all of the details, and then eventually arriving the day of to pick up our vehicle, we had been told that the information we confirmed was not valid. Meaning that Gen was supposed to cover the card on her credit card so that we’d qualify for the insurance. But since I was the driver, I had to put the expenses on my credit card. As I had a smaller limit, the amount exceeded what I had. So we proceeded to try to solve this puzzling puzzle at 7h30 in the morning, where most of our contacts were still sound asleep back in Canada (there’s a 5 hour time difference). We used the internet kiosques at the airport terminal and what little change we had to try to solve our credit card problem. Using Gen’s phone to place a long distance call, we were able to eventually (and painstakingly) get an emergency increase on my card so that we could afford the car. In the end, our trip could officially take off.

We tried to find the humour in the situation as best as we could.

That being said, it posed another problem for us. Since my card was now maxed out, I no longer had a buffer, and Gen would have to put all other major expenses on her card. All the airbnb’s were paid for, but there was still that lingering possibility that something could go wrong, and we had a stricter set income now. I had to operate solely on the cash we brought, which meant that we had to tighten the belt a little, and on day 2 of our 14 day trip. We kept track of our expenses and proceeded to self-cater our meals more often than not. The car had been (and often is) one of the biggest problems (or biggest possibility for a problem). But do we shy away from taking it? No. Because the freedom and the experiences we were able to get simply because we had an easy way to get around is still somehow worth all of the (possible) headaches.

Another bigger hiccup we experienced was with one of our Airbnbs. We were ready to settle into our apartment in Glasgow after a long day, when we were still waiting on our instructions to check in from our host. It was a self-catered apartment, but we couldn’t self cater without being able to get in. The apartment was one of many in a long line of 4 story row houses that stretched out for two blocks. So we sat in our car and alternated between charging Gen’s phone to have access to our primary line of communication, and charging our wifi dongle that was often dying out. We had reached out to some family members back home to help us research some nearby hotels in case we needed to get a room in last minute. We had started to debate how long was too long to wait to check in, when Gen had the brilliant idea to try to zoom in on some of the pictures on the Airbnb website to see if we could find any distinctive traits on these row houses. It was like a real-life version of Where’s Waldo, featuring “Where’s my bed for the night?” We found a couple of clues and as we each focused on features, we eventually made out our apartment door, and made our way in…. An hour and a half after getting there. Not too long after, our host messaged us with the instructions that came in WAYYYYY too late. Either way, we did not need to sleep in the car, though that always remained a possible option.

Actual picture of our long sought after car that help make our trip in Scotland, that much more special.

I realize that these are some pretty large unexpected hiccups that heap on a ton a stress, and can also wear you out more than one of the hikes you’ve decided to do, but they aren’t always a huge ordeal. Sometimes, it can be something as simple as not being able to find a certain trail, castle, or attraction you had your heart set on. There are a number of places that happen to be on someone’s property, and sometimes these people clearly indicate how to get to it, and sometimes you end up at a horse stable watching a baby foal get hugged by a human. An adorable sight in itself but not the main thing we had planned to see that day. Sometimes, when you’re driving on those narrow 1-lane roads and you suddenly come face to face with a lorrie (or big rig if you will), you will have to quickly backup until you find a passing spot or a driveway to let them go by, because they will not back up, nor do they often stop (though they do slow down). One of the perks of driving on those 1-lane roads is that your reflexes really do improve quickly; so silver lining!

Lastly, though you might not have trouble getting into your airbnb for the night, sometimes, not everything will be left in pristine condition...no matter how nice the pictures were on the website. It’s a very real reality that should you chose to stay in hostels (some, but definitely not all) will not always give you a 4-star stay. Gen and I stayed at this very eclectic hostel that seemed to have lots of character and a nice view. As we settled in for the night and headed to the kitchen to make ourselves dinner, we were severely grossed out by the state in which we found it. Food spread out everywhere. Dishes (clean and dirty) in the sinks. Garbages overflowed and there wasn’t a corner that didn’t feel sticky or dusty. We even cleaned the clean dishes to make sure we wouldn’t get sick. The state of the kitchen was so bad that someone had cooked something very greasy and left their pan out to cool down, and someone wrote out graffiti in the grease in the pan… you know the places is pretty dirty when you’ve got grease graffiti.

So though all of these situations weren’t ideal, and though they did add stress to our seemingly relaxed vacation, we came out of it better and wiser for it. We’ve learned tricks and ways of dealing with these problems in the future. I can almost pretty much guarantee you that we’ll be car rental experts in the near future (plus we’ll be 25 next year so we won’t have to pay the young drivers fee). But everything happens for a reason and we had a wonderful trip. Though we know now what we’ll have to remember for the next trip, we’ll expect the unexpected a little more.

Gen and I demonstrating that we are fit and ready for whatever the travel life decides to throw at us.

Kyla