If two trains travel toward the same station at different times . . . Remember those math questions from school? Call them my least favorite travel stories.

I recall Mrs. Newton asking our fourth grade class to brainstorm solutions. As the collective desperation mounted, I burst out with “Agh! Stop the trains!”

Yet those equations proved instructive. As emblems of bewilderment in motion, they offered a preview of real-life travel problems.

Making Tracks, Italian Style

Like the time my son and I transferred to the wrong train. We were traveling “home” to Florence from Ravenna, once capital of the Western Roman Empire. The glittering tesserae of Byzantine mosaics had seemed illumined from within. My perusal of Italian rail maps proved far less enlightening.

Oh, I understood when the conductor told us to transfer at the next station. Trouble is, we had different ideas of what constituted “next.”

This I discovered as, breathless from managing the tight connection, we noticed one tiny glitch: We were moving in the wrong direction.

No problem. We’d get off at the next stop, sort things out at the ticket booth, and catch the next train to Florence. Meanwhile, we’d explore what was sure to be a charming little town.

Two hours and no discernible charm or ticket booth later, we boarded another train. But when I told our predicament to the conductor, he practically congratulated us on our mistake.

Home By Another Way

Turns out the train we should have caught had just been sidelined by a strike. Factor in that, ye mighty writers of the “two trains” pop quiz.

Had we done everything correctly, the conductor explained—his tone conveying the folly of such behavior—it would have been midnight before we reached our destination.

He seated us beside a personable woman who turned out to be an expert on Italian art history, including Ravenna’s mosaics. It was a delightful journey.

“Good thing we took the wrong train!” my son said, a line that has entered family lore. It’s an expression we use when things that go wrong somehow lead to a positive outcome.

Which in travel, they do with surprising regularity. Oh, I see: Sometimes travel mishaps lead to great travel memories.

Mysteries, Great and Small

Like that time in Brittany . . . We’d been pondering the megalithic mysteries of Carnac, France, site of 3,000 standing stones. Then we encountered another mystery. Someone had broken into our rental car and stolen a backpack.

Nothing elevates the sentimental value of objects like their loss. We headed to a police station. For a ten-year-old boy who read The Adventures of Tintin, this was welcome diversion.

Hearing our American accents, the gendarme playfully asked if we knew Clint Eastwood.

Surely the gendarme would still have offered us refreshments, courtesy, and a tour of the station had we lived in Duluth.

In any event, a travel mishap became a congenial field trip. The day’s experiences–the sublime, the snafu, and the serendipitous–combined like a mosaic to create a positive travel memory.

April-Fools-at-Large

The backpack and its contents, having failed to meet our thief’s aesthetic standards, had been dumped in a phone booth.

We were directed to the town hall basement, where a lone employee seemed glad of company.

After signing for the backpack, we chatted about Poisson d’Avril, as April 1 is called in France. We’d known that pranksters celebrated the day by sticking paper fish on the backs of the unsuspecting.

But the part about enjoying fish-shaped pastries and candies was new information. Monsieur Le Sous-Sol sent us home with a veritable school of foil-wrapped chocolate sardines.

Traveling at a Snail’s Pace

My friend Jules once got lost while driving in Ireland. That’s easily done, as Ireland is somehow bigger on the inside than it appears on the outside.

As the road got narrower, its surface thinner, she ended up at a lakeshore. Light played on the ripples of the water.

What had broken the silence? Nothing more than a snail moving along lush, green leaves. If that isn’t the measure of a peaceful setting, what is?

Hello, said Jules, admiring the spirals on the snail’s shell. I’ve come a long, long way to meet you. Some travelers, even when lost, are always where they need to be. For them, “wrong” turns, discovery, and appreciation form one rich mosaic. Now how about you? When have travel mishaps led to your favorite travel stories?

Listen to hilarious tweets about travel mishaps from comedian Jimmy Fallon here.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

$\"A$

Travel isn’t all plain sailing, but a little luck can help you wing it.
\u00a9 Joyce McGreevy<\/p><\/div>\n

Travel Mishaps, Mosaics, and\u00a0Memories<\/strong><\/h2>\n
If two trains travel toward the same station at different times\u00a0. . .\u00a0Remember those math questions from school? Call them my least favorite travel stories.<\/p>\n
I recall Mrs. Newton asking our fourth grade class to brainstorm solutions. As the collective desperation mounted, I burst out with \u201cAgh! Stop the trains!\u201d<\/p>\n
Okay, so not a mathematician.<\/p>\n
Yet those equations proved instructive. As emblems of bewilderment in motion, they offered a preview of real-life travel problems.<\/p>\n
Making Tracks, Italian Style<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Like the time my son and I transferred to the wrong train. We were traveling “home” to Florence from Ravenna, once capital of the Western Roman Empire. The glittering tesserae of Byzantine mosaics had seemed illumined from within. My perusal\u00a0of Italian rail maps proved far less enlightening.<\/p>\n
$\"Mosaics$
In Ravenna, Italy, Empress Theodora is immortalized
in mosaic. Travel memories are mosaics, too.
Photo by Meister von San Vitale in Ravenna [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n
Oh, I understood when the conductor told us to transfer at the next station. Trouble is,\u00a0we had different ideas of\u00a0what constituted “next.”<\/p>\n
This I discovered as, breathless from managing the tight connection, we noticed one tiny glitch: We were moving in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n
$\"A$
Ah, that splendid travel moment, right before you realize you took the wrong train.
Train Passenger<\/a> photo by Unsplas<\/a>h is licensed under CC0 1.0<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n
No problem. We\u2019d get off at the next stop, sort things out at the ticket booth, and catch the next train to Florence. Meanwhile, we\u2019d explore what was sure to be a charming little town.<\/p>\n
Two hours and no discernible charm or ticket booth later, we boarded another train. But when I told our predicament to the conductor, he practically congratulated us on our mistake.<\/p>\n
Home By Another Way<\/strong><\/h4>\n $\"The$
Just because a Roman holiday goes wrong, does that mean it’s in ruins?
\u00a9 Ceren Abi<\/p><\/div>\n
Turns out the train we should have caught had just been sidelined by a strike. Factor in that<\/em>, ye mighty writers of the \u201ctwo trains\u201d pop quiz.<\/p>\n
Had we done everything correctly, the conductor explained\u2014his tone conveying the folly of such behavior\u2014it would have been midnight before\u00a0we reached our destination.<\/p>\n
He seated us beside a personable woman who turned out to be an expert on Italian art history, including Ravenna\u2019s mosaics. It was a delightful\u00a0journey.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood thing we took the wrong train!\u201d my son said, a line that has entered family lore. It\u2019s an expression we use when things that go wrong somehow lead to a positive outcome.<\/p>\n
Which in travel, they do with surprising regularity. Oh, I see<\/strong>: Sometimes travel mishaps lead to great travel memories.<\/p>\n
$\"Confusing$ “Excuse me, could you give us directions to the road less traveled?”
Road sign in Ischia Porto<\/a> by Zoagli<\/a> is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.<\/p><\/div>\n
Mysteries, Great and Small<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Like that time in Brittany . . .\u00a0We\u2019d been pondering the megalithic mysteries of Carnac, France, site of 3,000 standing stones. Then we encountered another mystery. Someone had broken into our rental car and stolen a backpack.<\/p>\n
$\"The$
The menhir<\/em>, or ancient standing stones of Carnac, France were erected by pre-Celtic peoples.
\u00a9 Arie Mastenbroek\/Thinkstock<\/p><\/div>\n
Nothing elevates the sentimental value of objects like their loss. We headed\u00a0to a police station. For a ten-year-old boy who read The Adventures of Tintin<\/em>, this was welcome diversion.<\/p>\n
Hearing our American accents, the gendarme playfully asked if we knew Clint Eastwood.<\/p>\n
Did I mention that we’d lived in Carmel\u00a0when Eastwood was mayor?<\/p>\n
Surely\u00a0the gendarme would still have offered us refreshments, courtesy, and a tour of the station had we lived in Duluth.<\/p>\n
In any event, a\u00a0travel mishap\u00a0became\u00a0a congenial field trip. The day’s\u00a0experiences–the sublime, the snafu, and the serendipitous–combined like\u00a0a mosaic to create a\u00a0positive\u00a0travel memory.<\/p>\n
April-Fools-at-Large<\/strong><\/h4>\n $\"A$
Even frequent flyers can be unclear on the best mode of transportation.
\u00a9 Joyce McGreevy<\/p><\/div>\n
On April Fools\u2019 Day, we returned to the town.<\/p>\n
The backpack and its contents, having failed to meet our thief\u2019s aesthetic standards, had been dumped in a phone booth.<\/p>\n
We were directed to the town hall basement, where a lone employee seemed glad of company.<\/p>\n
After signing for the backpack, we chatted about Poisson d\u2019Avril<\/em>, as April 1 is called in France.\u00a0We\u2019d known that pranksters celebrated the day by sticking paper fish on the backs of the unsuspecting.<\/p>\n
But the part about enjoying fish-shaped pastries and candies was new information. Monsieur Le Sous-Sol sent us home\u00a0with a veritable school of foil-wrapped chocolate sardines.<\/p>\n
<\/h4>\n
<\/h4>\n
Traveling at a Snail\u2019s Pace<\/strong><\/h4>\n $\"A$
If you plan to get lost, the West of Ireland is the ideal setting.
\u00a9 Joyce McGreevy<\/p><\/div>\n
My friend Jules once got lost while driving in Ireland. That\u2019s easily done, as Ireland is somehow bigger on the inside than it appears on the outside.<\/p>\n
As the road got narrower, its surface thinner, she ended up at a lakeshore. Light played on the ripples of the water.<\/p>\n
Then she heard rustling in the foliage.<\/p>\n
What had broken the silence? Nothing more than a snail moving along lush, green leaves. If that isn\u2019t the measure of a peaceful setting, what is?<\/p>\n
Hello<\/em>, said Jules, admiring the spirals on the snail\u2019s shell. I\u2019ve come a long, long way to meet you.<\/em> Some travelers, even when lost, are\u00a0always\u00a0where they need to be. For them, “wrong” turns,\u00a0discovery, and appreciation\u00a0form\u00a0one rich\u00a0mosaic. Now how about you? When have\u00a0travel mishaps led to your favorite\u00a0travel stories?<\/p>\n
$\"Something$
Memorable travel sights aren’t always
the most monumental.
Jon Sullivan [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n
Listen to hilarious tweets about travel mishaps from comedian Jimmy Fallon here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n
Comment<\/a><\/em>\u00a0on this post below, or inspire insight with your own\u00a0OIC Moment\u00a0<\/em>here<\/em><\/a><\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":24911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,200,516,215],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-travel","category-france-mappoints","category-ireland-mappoints","category-italy-mappoints"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24905"}],"version-history":[{"count":66,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25031,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24905\/revisions\/25031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

Travel Mishaps, Mosaics, and Memories

Making Tracks, Italian Style

Home By Another Way

Mysteries, Great and Small

April-Fools-at-Large

Traveling at a Snail’s Pace

<\/h4>\n