For anyone who knows me well, they know I may be slightly accident prone, and tend to do many “funny” things on my trips. Well not sure if funny is the right word, but you’ll get the point here shortly. I think Travis likes to travel with me because I make things interesting for sure. LOL Here are some of HIS favorite stories to tell people – that might be slightly embarrassing for. My personal bloopers 😊

Australia
New Zealand and Australia was one of my favorite trips. I never thought I would ever get there, but a year ago there I was. It was one of my dreams to see kangaroos and koalas in the wild and snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef, but of course, it is not interesting without some great stories. I am not sure which one to start with because this trip had more than normal. I’ve written about my caving accident in New Zealand so I wanted to share a little more of my second week in Australia.

 

First up was my experience on the Great Barrier Reef. Snorkeling on the reef was amazing. I saw my first shark, a leopard shark, my first turtle that came right up to me, and fish galore. When you go, they say you should wear special sunscreen that will protect the reef. So, of course, I went right out and bought some as I didn’t want to harm the fish, animals or coral! Through the day I thought I put enough sunscreen on. What a fantastic day we had, until I got back to the hotel. The skin on my legs felt a little hot. When I looked in the mirror, my legs were bright red. Not just pink, or a little sunburn but I’m talking true, full force cooked lobster red! The heat just kept increasing until it burned so much I had to go get some aloe to put on. As we walked around that night, I kept having to gob more on my legs just to walk around. It got to the point it hurt so much that I had to run them under cold water and then took the ice pack for my hurt knee and wrapped it on my legs. You know if I took it away from my big swollen knee, the sunburn was really badly!!! The following day when we went to Hartley’s, people kept asking if I knew my legs were sun burned. Now of course being Miss Sarcastic, I would say, “No, I had no idea.” It’s hard to explain how tight my skin felt and how hard it was to move. Even the wallaby came over and licked the back of my legs as if she knew I was hurting. But, I didn’t let it get me down, that was one of my favorite days on the trip!

It didn’t stop there is Australia. I think Travis’s most favorite story to tell is when we went to the Sydney Opera House. If we were going to be in Sydney, we had to go see something at the opera house. We bought tickets to the Symphony, which was in the main area. As we are sat there are reminders to turn off your cell phone, but I wanted to take pictures, so I put my phone on silent. I thought perfect, I can take pictures and not disturb anyone. As the show went on and we are at this beautiful opera house listening to the symphony, out of the blue an alarm starts to go off. An alarm, it can’t be my phone, it’s on silent. But it was me! I had an alarm set to remind me to take my medicine and that putting the phone on silence doesn’t silence the alarm. I thought I had been embarrassed before, but it didn’t compare to this. Everyone around me was staring at me as I fumbled to get my phone turned off. I wasn’t sure if Travis was going to burst out laughing or want to through me off the next boat. Luckily, it was only lasted for about 30 seconds, but a very memorable 30 seconds.

Eastern Europe

I think my favorite Eastern Europe story was at the Church of Bones. First if you are in the area, rent a car and drive to it. It is not only a beautiful drive and fun to get out of the city but the church is something else. There are bones from top to bottom inside. You would think it was a scary situation, but when you get to the church, you find out that a long time ago, sacred soil was brought there from the holy land. People in the area wanted to be buried there which is why all the bones.  Of course, I was taking a zillion pictures inside the church from all angles. I was standing in front of one area filled with bones. There was a chain link fence in front of it to preserve them. Yes!!! I was very happy with myself for figuring out if I put the lens in the fence; I could get the picture I really wanted. When all of a sudden, a loud alarm started going off. OMG who set them off! As I turned around, I saw a woman running towards me talking very loud in another language. Oh crap, I set off the alarms!!! The people around me were like did you do that? They were pointing at me to the woman. LOL – I laughed to myself thinking, yup sounds about right. I was just hoping I wasn’t about to get kicked out. Of course I profusely apologized and she told me to just not do it again. Phew! At that point, Travis was on the other side of the church, so I went to go find him. I asked if he heard the alarms going off? Pretending I had nothing to do with it. He was like, “Don’t tell me that was you.” Who me? Never! And, I laugh out loud. He knows me too well.

Egypt
I am actually laughing out loud on a plane right now, thinking of all the little things that happened in Egypt. I try not to be an obnoxious tourist, but I admit I tend to like to do what I want, when I want to do it. I’m sure Travis rolls his eyes a LOT at me, and in those moments is very happy we are just friends – LOL

When we were in Egypt, we went on a camel ride around the pyramids. I know that sounds touristy, but I have to say I am so glad we did this. It was the best way to see the pyramids and get pictures. All the crowds were on the other side so pictures from the back are amazing!! But of course, there has to be more to the story. As we started our camel tour, it was just Travis, myself and the guide. I first decided I had to name the camels. So, Camy was mine and Fred was the one Travis was on. Camy and Fred were very nice camels giving an excellent tour. Now I’m not sure if they were hot, tired, or pissed off at each other, but they started to make noises at each other. I really didn’t think any of it at first, but then they got their necks all twisted around each other as they were making very loud noises at one another. I personally think they were married and Fred looked at another girl camel earlier in the day and Camy was letting him have it! As they were making noises and twisting their necks up I was all worried the camels were going to get hurt. After the guide came to calm them down, Travis was like why were you so worried about the camels, yours almost threw you right off! I must have been holding on so tight and concerned for them I didn’t even realize how much mine was bucking me around! Phew disaster averted!!

But things didn’t stop there. In Hurghada, we went on an ATV tour in the dessert. I had never been on an ATV before so was super excited to do this in Egypt!! It took me a little to get used to turning especially since we were on sand. I started to get the hang of it and wanted to go faster. I mean I didn’t want to be the hold up and liked the thrill of going faster! What a gorgeous ride in the dessert, with mountains in the distance and the sun beginning to set! Up ahead there was a turn we had to make so we didn’t go down a big sand hill. As I tried to make the turn, going fairly fast (for me), I didn’t quite make the turn. I started sliding down the hill sideways. I remember as it was happening I was trying so hard not to flip! I can only picture in my head what it looked like as I went down this hill sideways, swerving, bouncing, trying to stop and not flip. My heart was pounding!!!!!!! As I finally came to a stop, I looked up at Travis and the guide, who were at the top of the hill. They yelled down to see if I was ok. I yelled back, “That was so much fun, Can I do it again!” Another disaster averted in Egypt, but made for a great story!
OMG there are so many more! Taking pictures in Egypt where I wasn’t supposed to and getting in trouble – I suggest not doing that! Being in the market and having my jewelry delivered by a motorcycle that didn’t even stop (looked like a drug deal in action). But I’ll have to keep those for another post. If you ever are afraid or cautious that you may do something silly when traveling, it happens to us all, or at least me. And those are sometimes the best stories of the trip!
Happy Travels!