Tears, Sweat, and Canceled Flights

Sometimes things don't go entirely as planned, and other times just about everything that can go wrong, does. My last weekend trip was the latter.

On the final weekend of my 6-week study abroad program in Rome, I planned a trip out to Barcelona with my boyfriend. I had the flight tickets weeks in advance and planned to stay with relatives. 

I was looking forward to finally seeing Spain, visiting family, and polishing up my Spanish. But alas, the universe had other plans for me.

We had a hectic scooter ride to the train station, almost missed our train, and barely made it to the airport in one piece. And after all that, our flight was canceled with no resolution in sight.

We watched the crowd storm off in a hurry when the news was announced, and followed them down a few minutes later. That was, however, a grave mistake as the lack of pep in our step resulted in us being the last in a long line of disgruntled passengers that needed to get to Barcelona ASAP.

We were simply out of luck as the line dwindled down. All the flights to Spain were gone for the next few days by the time we got to the front of the line. We grabbed the refund paperwork and booked it out of there.

Tired, hungry, $400 poorer, and a mere 6 hours later, we bought another ticket back to the train station and dragged ourselves home to mope. 

After the 5th stage of grief set in we started to count our blessings. 

First of all, we weren’t stranded in another country, as many people on our flight were. We were home. We had our beds, our luggage, and each other.

Second, we didn’t buy anything else besides flights, which would (hopefully) get refunded.

And third, we were literally in Rome. It’s tough to complain when you’re stranded in the eternal city.

Difficult travel situations come up, but it’s important to make the best of the circumstances and not take anything for granted.