Travel And Experience
The Most Exhausting Trip Of My Life
A Traveling Adventure
Life is full of people and experiences. Some of them last for mere seconds, and some, you will never forget. This specific trip turned out to be one of the more interesting ones. It sure taught me a couple of things, but above all, that patience is nice to have as an attribute.
Ten, eleven years ago, I visited my father in the United States. After a holiday that was full of new experiences, it was time to return home. I would travel alone, just as I did when I arrived, but I was in for a surprise. If the total travel time had taken just under 24H when I arrived, the return trip was just a surprise waiting to happen.
Ready, Set, Go!
Well, it was Monday morning, and after a work trip with my dad, we were nowhere near the Washington airport. We were in a hotel somewhere that was quite a way away, but we had sufficient time until the plane would leave.
So, we set off after brunch. The road trip was pleasant. The views were beautiful as the late summer sun was shining upon us. The sky was remarkably blue and clear, and I had a good feeling.
After a few stops and a late lunch, we arrived at the airport just on time, at 3 PM, with the plane set to leave at 5:30 PM or something like that.
We said our goodbyes, and I was feeling excited about the plane trip. I love traveling, and I always find flying quite fun. It was going to be a long flight to Europe, the first of the two flights.
We didn’t really leave on time, and we got delayed for about one hour, while the pit crew was still charging up the plane with electricity. I wasn’t really in a rush, so I didn’t mind, but the prolonged waiting always seems longer when you’re only thinking about it.
We finally left, ready for the nine-hour night flight. After a few hours, the plane was quiet, people were either trying to grab some sleep, reading a book, or watching a movie. As luck would have it, I can’t while traveling, no matter the means of transportation, so, it was going to be a long night. It wasn’t that bad, the movies were ok, and I got to chat a lot with the passenger next to me, who also had a long trip ahead of him as he was going to Africa.
So, the night went by, and as the morning light came through the plane window, I knew I was close to landing. It was somewhere between 6 and 7 AM local time in Amsterdam. It was now Tuesday, and I had a long layover. My connection was supposed to leave in 12 hours, so I had a lot of time to waste. I wanted to visit Amsterdam for a bit, but I got the short end of the straw as it was raining. C’est la vie.
Breakfast was on the horizon, and after scouring the airport for a while, I decided to have an English breakfast in a very cozy and quite stylish pub. Quite tasty, I must say, but don’t ask me what the pub was called because I don’t remember at all. I’d probably have a hard time trying to find it again. The Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is huge. Huge airports such as this feel like a different microenvironment.
The Waiting Game
I didn’t realize that the wait between flights would be so great when I got the tickets, and I would have most likely bought a ticket with a faster connection if I realized.
There’s only so much time you can spend on the phone, and ten years ago, we didn’t have today’s apps and games. Then, there’s only so much you can take to read a book or browse the airport shops or watch the ever-looping commercials on the airport TVs.
The weather was bleak, and I was tired but was kind of hesitant to sleep. First, the chairs were horrible, and there was no way to lie across. Secondly, I was sort of afraid of someone stealing my handheld luggage. I don’t know if that was justified or not, but that’s just how I felt about it.
Around noon, I was bored and sick of sitting down in a chair, so I began to walk around the airport. Alex, the airport explorer, that was my middle name, for a few hours. Airports are interesting, as you get to observe all kinds of people, from all over the world, each with their destination, different journeys, languages, habits, various smiles and millions of faces. If you never traveled by airplane before or visited a large airport before, that in itself can be a cool experience.
Unfortunately, when you’re traveling alone, the experience can be less fun. It’s all good when you quickly reach your destination, but daunting when you have to sit and wait for long periods.
I would have to wait for some more when my connection got delayed for another two hours in total. I wasn’t a happy camper, but I had gotten used to it, and there’s no use in getting angry about the things you can’t control.
And, in the end, the plane left, with me aboard. Hip-hip hurray, one would say, and for good reason. I was finally on my way, and getting closer to home.
The flight was short, in another two hours, I was landing in my home country, but my joy faded away when I realized that, because of the delay, I had missed the connection to the bus that was my direct way home.
It was Tuesday, 11:30 PM local time, it was probably close to 40 hours or more since I last woke up on Monday morning on another continent. This time, I was tired, but I had to stay awake. This time, all my luggage was with me, and, even more so than before, I was afraid that someone would steal something.
These were probably the six longest hours of my life. For most of the night, the airport was empty, with the occasional airport staff members coming and going through the hall I was sitting in. I wanted to keep my brain alert, so I started filling crossword puzzles for half of the night, as just reading a book would have made me even sleepier.
Every bit is a bit more.
The Last Leg
I was happy to see the sunshine pretty early in the morning. the morning light gives me a good dose of energy and adrenalin.
Another reason for joy was that I could take the city bus to the actual bus station and embark home. I was just happy to leave the airport. It was morning, there were a lot of passengers on the city bus, and it was starting to get warm. It was making me sleepy, and I could have probably slept on my feet, after almost 48 hours of being awake.
But I didn’t, and after 30 minutes, I got to my stop. I still had plenty of time before my 10 AM coach left for home. After a 15–20 minute walk that helped me get a bit revigorated, I reached the coach station.
I went to buy a ticket for my reservation only to find out that the bus that was supposed to leave at 10 AM had some sort of mechanical issue.
Oh, brother…it was not my day…days?
When was the next bus? 4 PM, about 7 hours later. Come on Alex, let’s practice some more of that patience. I didn’t know what else to do before the next bus came along. I had a bunch of luggage so, I couldn’t go anywhere, and I don’t think I even wanted to do that. The lack of sleep was causing me to have delayed reactions. My brain was probably yelling…..Heeeey man, I want to relax.
I don’t know how that number of hours eventually disappeared into the ether, but I was happy when my destined coach arrived, and I embarked on it. It was such a relief that I could finally leave, as for the past two days, it only felt like I was sitting still.
It feels like an eternity ago, but what can you do? The relativity of time affects us all. It took another 8–9 hours for me to reach my home. But on that home stretch, I fell asleep after a couple of hours in the bus seat. Those two hours of sleep were a godsend, as I was feeling like a different person.
I was also getting close to home and was excited to see my family. A few days later, I would go on another planned trip to another part of the country. That was an adventure in itself with a 15 and a 21-hour train ride. We will speak about that some other time.
It was now Thursday, somewhere between 1 and 2 AM. I had arrived at my final destination, home. All I wanted was to take a shower and go to sleep. My body didn’t care about any jet lag when I arrived, and I dozed off into dreamland right away. What followed was the longest sleeping session of my life, 12-hours straight, and the rest is history.
Some Tips From My Experience
Here are some things that I learned from that trip.
- Don’t travel alone, if possible, of course, especially when long distances are involved.
- Minimize layover intervals and plan for accommodation in case of delays.
- Try to find direct flights, if convenient.
- Plan for objectively fun activities.
- And because now is the present, or future, depends on when you are reading this, and ten years ago was quite a while ago, have a battery bank with you.
- Try to travel light.
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