So I went away to Iceland on Saturday. Forgot my passport. My fault! I hope my hands up. I only realised after I’d gotten through security at the airport. One round trip home and a couple of hundred quid later, I managed to get airborne.
My hotel sat atop a nightclub which played loud music til 2am, followed by the cleaners moving heavy tables around til 4pm. Lack sleep meant I ended up being late for my 7am scuba diving experience. Thank goodness the company called me when I was late at the pickup spot.
As if that wasn’t enough, my flight home was delayed nearly three hours but finally, I sat in my EasyJet seat, looked out of the window and saw a volcanic eruption happen, around 14 miles away. One of the coolest things I’ve ever seen but a bit of an inconvenience. I’m still on the plane now, still at the gate, looking at lava shooting up into the air. God knows if we’re going or staying but, unless my luck changes, I suspect we’ll be going nowhere!
https://i.postimg.cc/KzW7vhCv/IMG-0922.jpg
Update: Apparently, after another two hour delay, we’re going!
Update 2: Now it’s 50/50 again as some passengers have decided they don’t want to fly. They’re Icelanders who are worried they won’t be able to get back before Christmas. Fair enough though there were a few groans when they announced it to the rest of the plane as there’s a chance we’re going to lose our opportunity to take off.
by Saturnuria
32 comments
All that for a few frozen pizzas and a 24 pack of diet coke!
That’s why I never leave the sofa
Judging by your luck so far, I think I’d want to be further than 14 miles away, and not sitting in a confined space with 2 tiny exit doors at this point.
I went to Morocco and got severe food poisoning. I shit the bed whilst I was sleeping.
kinda worth it just to see a volcanic eruption no?
Erm you’re scuba diving in Iceland ???!
Did you meet Kerry Katona?
Back to NZ for the first time in 4 years last Xmas. Snow delayed flight to London, missed connecting flight. Actually that flight was late leaving but they wouldn’t let me through to try to get on. Offered a flight a week later so bought another ticket leaving the next day. The travel agent I got the tickets through had closed down so they couldn’t help. Arrive in NZ a day late, luggage took a week to catch up. Caught COVID as soon as I got off the plane, so lost a quarter of my holiday time.
According to the chat on the youtube volcano watching feeds, the airports will close for a while to see how things go but it isn’t the sort of eruption that normally interferes with flights.
I went to dassia once, I punched a guy that put hands on my girlfriend at the time and fixed some guys lawnmower on some very posh grounds by jumping the wall, only to be bollocked by the owner of the wall, later that holiday I sat on the face of a pick pocket until the police came and told a group of Italians to fuck off with sign language.
We all have shit holidays now and then mate, I really feel your pain.
I’m watching the eruption on YouTube right now, you’re lucky seeing that in person while you’re getting well out of the way of it!
How did you get through check in and past security without your passport?
RIP OP
Some poor ones but not terrible and a lot of it is down to my own personal expectations and disappointments.
1) Seville
My partner and I went away when my Dad was sick in hospital. He had been there for 4-5 months and I had been caring for him a lot – 2 visits per week after long drives, emotionally wrecked and seeing him decline.
So being in Seville I just was not in the right headspace. But I also needed a break. I spent the whole time on edge and felt just bad/sad.
I also got a text from my work friend who I loved working with saying they’d just resigned.
Finally and most annoyingly our Airbnb was terrible. Air conditioning barely worked properly, kept coming on for 4-5 minutes then stopping. No way of adjusting this or changing it. And it was loud so you’re totally aware of it coming on then off.
Like you, barely any sleep and I just wanted to go home.
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2) Cancun
This was a big holiday as it was after my Dad passed Away and also just before a career change. So it was an 11 day very expensive holiday.
What I stupidly failed to realise was that although for us Cancun is a big trip and special. For Americans it’s on their doorstep.
So the standard was nowhere near what I expected.
A few bad things:
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1) the pool was so noisy I just couldn’t relax. Loud pumping bass music all day. There were 3 pools but all central and surrounding the music station. On some days they also had a band on the beach so you could hear both sets of music
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2) the music could be heard from the from the room. They also had little speakers around the whole resort playing music which was bassy. But when you’re in the room the bass reverberates and is just very disruptive. From 9am to about 9pm.
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3) our room was outside a kitchen/room service area so all night we heard big trollers wheeled up and down echoey hallways
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4) the hotel had millions of weddings. Unfortunately this meant that randomly a restaurant wouldn’t open that night. There were others of course but it limited options and it just meant that when you’d thought “let’s try the xyz place tonight” only to then find it closed. Sounds minor but it was most days and we’d paid £3.5k each for the holiday.
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5) Americans – sorry to have to say this but they were so loud, brash, disruptive and entitled. I hate saying it as I often don’t like big sweeping statements like this. I know every nationality has annoying people, all I can say is the Americans always outweigh other nationalities as being noticeable wherever I’ve been. I remember a few things happening:
–a) a group of about 6 came into one of the nice restaurants. Candle light, nice ambience etc. girl says to waitor “bring us all of the starters to try” in a rude way. Spend whole time on phones, standing up, walking over to other friend to start chatting then goes back. Just annoying and disruptive. No social awareness at all.
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–b) woman comes in without reservation. Starts saying her husband is a doctor and was treating someone in the lobby so they couldn’t make one. She makes such a big loud scene the staff just let her in to shut her up
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–c) went to a Japanese place where you sit around and watch the chef. Group on our “table” thing spent most of the time on phones and just ignoring chef. It’s rude and the whole point of it is that it’s a show. You chose those places rather than a standard table as the chef talks to you and basically puts stuff on your plate.
Like I said, other nationalities have their share of dicks. But the Americans always are way worst than others in my experience.
There was other minor things. The place was nice but like I said my own personal expectations and preferences just clashed (as is sometimes the case).
Iceland was also my worst holiday to date. Nothing too bad but the weather was awful so everything got cancelled and I never got to see the Northern Lights either. Tromso is my next plan at some point.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/ErtjyUDZNC
Another for Morocco. Worst food poisoning of mine and other half’s lives. Lost a stone in a week.
Went on a trip to the artic in Finland. On the way to the hotel I started to feel ill. By the time we went for dinner the first I had full blown flu symptoms and I lay in bed hallucinating for two days while everyone went sledding, skidoo riding and dog sledging. On the last night, the northern lights came out so I was carried outside to lie on my back in the snow to watch. To be fair not the worst thing ever. Ended up in hospital after we flew home though. I also got dengue fever in the Caribbean, similar vibe of massive Fomo while feeling like utter death miles from home.
When I went to Iceland in the summer I forgot my passport too, flew with easyJet as well. Must be a catching virus 😂
Pic of volcano please! 🌋
My worst was Dubai where I got really bad sun stroke and was sick everywhere
Or when I went to Spain and stood on my glasses the first day and had to be blind for the week
Or Portugal where the villa got filled with thousands of ants
Went on a trip with a close relative to Spain. She got bitten by a spider, we both got alcohol poisoning for several days straight (the I think I might die type), I lost my wallet with all my ID in it, the hotel was shit, I almost got arrested twice (my fault, but still) and then to top it all off the flight home to London almost crashed.
Also, remember that spider bite? It ended up getting infected and the resulting sepsis killed said close relative less than two months later. Happy holidays, eh?
Went skiing last week for first time, twisted my right ankle on day 1…
You should watch katla on netflix, its based in iceland after a volcanic eruption.
You go to Iceland and your first thought is scuba?
Next you’ll be telling me you went to the Bahamas and had trouble with your lifts pass and snowboard rental
I feel a kind of solidarity that only ‘passport forgetters’ could
You forgot your passport and didn’t check hotel reviews. Everything else sounds pretty decent.
Went to Vienna for 5 days and decided to buy a weekly ticket for the underground system when we arrived as we’d be using it every day so it would save us money. We had arrived on a Saturday and didn’t realise their weekly tickets only started from Monday (as we were used to them starting from whatever day you buy it in the UK).
Of course when we got to the station by our hotel there were ticket inspectors and as our tickets weren’t valid for another 2 days we got fined 100 Euros each. Great start to the holiday thanks to my own stupidity.
Then when we arrived at the airport to fly home our flight had been cancelled and EasyJet put us into a hotel overnight so we could get a flight the next day. Had to request extra time off work to allow for being back a day late.
Luckily the compensation we got back nearly covered the cost of our holiday so that took the sting out of it quite a bit!
That photo is METAL. New album cover just dropped.
Where did you get this photo of my asshole from last time I went to Turkey?
Went on holiday when I was about 12 and got so sunburned I couldn’t move. Spent about 3 days face down on a couch and the rest of the holiday gingerly shuffling around.
You’re still on the plane… At the gate
What are you gibbering about?