Traveling is an exciting and fulfilling experience. It allows us to explore the world and appreciate its wonders. But for some travelers, their plans can take a horrible turn, leaving them with unforgettable experiences. From canceled flights, lost luggage, and long delays to misunderstandings, illnesses, and natural disasters, these are the stories of travelers’ worst experiences. Read on to find out what can go wrong and how to be prepared when it does.
My husband and I traveled with a friend to Paris to celebrate his birthday and got him a preowned iPhone as a present. One year later we’re back in Paris to celebrate his birthday and it got stolen in the Metro.
I got second-degree sunburn on my face and my husband got third-degree sunburns on both arms from our fishing vacation in Colorado. He ended up being so burnt that when we got back to North Dakota that he had to miss a full week of work because he was blistered so badly. He was back at work the next week and they fired him. So that was fun.
Spring Break in Florida – I was the only one that brought enough money for the trip, for stuff like a day at Disney, bar hopping, shopping etc… but the friends I went with only brought enough for food and hotel, so we didn’t do much or if we wanted to do something, I was the one paying for it. It really sucked!
Getting left on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii when I was 6 years old, the Church Group I went with never did a head count, I got scared, and an older couple realized I was alone, they helped me get off the boat and when I went to the parking lot, the Church Group was already boarding the bus, if I was a few minutes later, they would have left without me. Sad thing is, my own sister did not realize I was missing.
I was in Hamburg while the G20 riots in 2017. The day we wanted to leave we were trapped between the riots and couldn’t reach our hotel or basically anything for like 10 hours. Yea, that was an experience I will never forget.
We were vacationing at the beach in 1982. My Dad’s side chick decided to call my Mom’s family and pose as a police officer to tell them she’d been eaten by a shark. The vacation was irrevocably f*cked once everything was sorted out.
Got robbed in Barcelona. Last night there, got back to the apartment, which was locked, and every valuable was gone, but they left our passports and USD. They even took my suitcase.
I still think it was a set-up from the people renting us the apartment. Police could do nothing. Funny thing was, that whoever stole our stuff resold it because a picture of two Spanish people showed up on our cloud storage from the tablet. Also, my mom had her wedding ring stolen. One day in her life she decided to wear a different ring.
I went to Disney world with my family in 2009 and we parked my little brother’s stroller in a parking lot for strollers to go eat, and when we came back someone had stolen it. we looked for it all day until we found it with a group of adults (that had no kids with them, they ripped the airport tags off the stroller and stuffed them in the little pocket underneath) and I watched my dad throttle one of the guys in the group and throw him into a doorway before security showed up and pried them apart. I was only 9 at the time so it was kind of traumatizing.
the creepiest part about it was that one of the adults was a woman I recognized, she had been leaning against a wall next to the stroller park when we went to eat and I vividly remember making eye contact with her and he smiling at me
My roommate and I had a few drinks before getting on the plane back to New Hampshire from Arizona. While waiting, he got a “Dear John” text from his girlfriend saying that she was breaking up with him. I heard his name being called over the PA and tried to let him know. He flipped me off and it pissed me off. He tried to explain what happened but I didn’t want to hear it. He got all upset and copped an attitude as we boarded the plane. He then started going off on me and a flight attendant when we got to our seats. The flight attendant reported it to the pilot and had us removed from the plane. He started going off on the guy as we were walking back into the terminal. He was threatening to sue the airline while I was trying to figure out what to do. We had to stay in a hotel for the night and fly out in the morning. To this day he tells everyone it’s my fault we got thrown off the plane.
Squat toilets in China. They’re uncomfortable and awkward to use (for foreigners, at least), and they’re f*cking everywhere. Sometimes there would be one Western-style toilet if you were lucky, but most of the time you just had to make do.
One of the guys that were travelling with us went on a 3-day bender. He was recovering inside while we were hanging out in a pool just outside of our condo. Randomly he walks out to the pool, pitches forward into the pool and has a seizure.
We got him out and ended up calling emergency services but he was ok. Ruined the rest of the trip because he kept seizing. The worst part is that I learned that this wasn’t uncommon for him to do and he knew that his excessive drinking caused him to have these seizures. We still don’t know what caused him to walk out to the pool just before seizing or if it was coming out that caused it. Let’s just say that I never travelled with him again.
One time in Africa my local guide took me through the jungle to this fishing spot. Probably a mile walks out. While we were fishing from a rock one of the extremely violent waves smashed into us and washed all of our belongings away. Shirts, sandals, knives. Water. He immediately jumped in and tried to save them. But the waves were too strong so he started getting tired and wasn’t able to get back up on the rock.
The rock was some sort of jagged granite, I’m not sure. In order to get to him, I jumped down about 12 feet onto these rocks. Barefoot slicing my foot open as well as the hand I used to catch myself. I was able to get him out and everything ended up being okay. But walking back through the jungle in a foreign country with both my hand and foot sliced open was terrifying.
My husband and I were on vacation at the beach in New Hampshire and one night, we were walking along the boardwalk and were approached by a news crew. The spokeswoman asked if we wanted to be filmed for a segment that would be aired on tv that night. We declined, but she told us that they were interviewing tourists/vacationers about whether or not they knew that the hotels in the area had been accused of not providing safe, clean water for the guests. Safe to say we didn’t drink from the taps in our hotel for the rest of our stay.
Was visiting Komodo National Park in Indonesia on a 10-day diving adventure and contracted a severe head cold from one of the passengers who was sick on the boat and had handled some of my dive equipment. My ear canals were impacted and had to cut the diving short and took several weeks to fully recover.
My ex decided that it would be great to tell me he didn’t love me… at his friend’s wedding… a day before my birthday and a week before we were due to go home.
I don’t know, I didn’t handle it very well at all; he was extremely drunk and (allegedly) didn’t remember saying it, but I was really confused as to why I had been invited in the first place if that’s how he felt about me.
My dad had a recommendation for an all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant near Disney. Most of my siblings were 12 and under and seafood wasn’t at the top of anybody’s list. My sisters filled their plates and really hated it all but my Dad forced them to finish what they took- so they started hiding stuff in napkins and then stuffed the napkins under the back seat of the car when we left In Florida in August.
That’s a smell that’ll stick around I tell ya.
The train stations in Rome are filled with teenage pickpockets. Two different groups made attempts at us in 5 minutes. It was actually fun to watch once we realized their strategy.
There are a lot of stray dogs in Peru. I’ve heard that stray dogs are kind of the norm in Latin American countries, and most of the ones I encountered didn’t want anything to do with anyone passing by. However, there was one stray that I passed frequently while walking to a project I was working on and he was extremely aggressive, to the point that I started carrying rocks in my bag in case he chased me. He would follow me for blocks, remaining hidden in a yard until I passed by. He’d bare his teeth and growl, he also slobbered a lot. I didn’t think it was rabies, but I’m also not 100% convinced it’s not rabies.
A friend got into a fight at a bar and we got arrested in Barbados, so we missed our cruise ship and had to fly home. Then we had to fly to Florida to pick up our luggage because they refused to mail it to us.
I was late learning to swim compared to my siblings and cousins. On a holiday in Florida, my grandad decided it was time I (7 at the time) learnt to swim, in the private house we’d rented.
My mum was back at home in the UK with my younger sibling, as they would have been too little to do almost anything in the parks we were going to. My dad always does what his dad (my grandad) says. Grandad threw me into the deep end of the pool, on my 7th birthday, and proceeded to yell something along the lines of “NO ONE helps her! She needs to learn”. No one came near me, I pretty much drowned. Until my uncle came out to join us and apparently saw me limp in the water.
So yeah. On my 7th birthday, my grandad almost killed me.
While in Iceland we were on the Eastern coast. As the day went on the wind kept getting stronger. We were driving on a road that followed the coastline which was a lot of cliffs. We found a little parking area next to some cool-looking sea pillars and decided to stop. Before we got out I realized that the RV we were next to was rocking very hard and suggested that maybe we don’t get out because the wind was too strong. We all agree and decide to leave. My friend who was driving was not a super confident manual driver (she should get us around but sometimes would get stuck on hills etc) and to leave it required her to back up a hill. We just kept inching closer to the cliff instead of getting anywhere. Another passenger was a very skilled manual driver so they decided to switch and he felt confident he could get us out. He went to open his door to switch and the door nearly blew off the car. It took everything in him to close the door back and it was broken the rest of the trip. We hyped her up and the driver did end up getting us out, but it was really scary the whole time.
My grandparents drove me, my sister and my mom, to Florida near Disney for vacation when I was like five or six years old. As soon as we got to Florida I got sick with the flu. I was sick the whole week so we never got to go to Disney and my sister would always blame me for it.
A random woman came up to me at a petting zoo and told me all about how the country is going to pot with all the “illegals” and foreigners here. Then shared her opinion of each ethnicity by slurs. I smiled looked at her and said, do you think all white people are racist bigots or is it just no one ever says anything to you about it? I’m a crazy leftwing Californian, who believes in her 2nd amendment rights. Be careful who you share your ignorant opinions with, because the ones who don’t agree, carry guns too. She kind of tripped over herself. I called my kids got them in the car and drove off. I had an honest conversation with my kids about what happened and ignorance was everywhere. Even at a petting zoo.
I generally tell my stories, because I want to share what the experience is really like and help other travellers make safe decisions.
That said, my parents will never know that I got robbed in Jerusalem. I still love the city but I was definitely on my guard for the rest of the visit. I just don’t want them to think less of me.
Oh, and the guy had returned to the same place when I brought the police to the spot, and he still had my stuff, so I got it back, which is nothing short of a miracle. He wasn’t the brightest criminal.
I think one of the closest times I’ve ever come to dying was probably when I got ECOLI poisoning in Costa Rica and ignored it for a few days then on the way back home I got stuck in another airport for an extra day and a half due to a cancelled flight and after all the puking and other intestinal distress for about a full week and no eating (I stupidly told myself that if I just don’t eat then I’ll stop puking and pooping) I was super weak, super dehydrated, and out of my mind by the time my wife picked me up at the airport.
Me and my family went to Florida, and my dad took too much melatonin (which basically puts you into a drunken state), had a huge fight with my mom and ended up getting pretty close to actually getting a divorce after all was said and done. Though luckily that didn’t happen.
My mom had a freakout and locked herself in her bedroom for two days, a hurricane hit, the power went out, I sliced my toe open on a piece of storm debris and had to get stitches, which was challenging since we were on a barrier island and the only road off was blocked by fallen trees. Good times.
When I was a kid, about 11, my parents and I went on a four-day trip to Atlantis in the Bahamas. The thing is, the day before we left, I got my first period. So I spent the whole trip freaking out over it. And one of the days I got lost at the Lazy River and had a meltdown.
Probably fainted while I was shopping with my family in Hungary. When I woke up I saw some strangers and heard them talk but I didn’t understand ANYTHING from it. I could only make out ‘ambulance’. Dad said I was gonna be okay so my parents dragged me to get an energy drink.
My mom broke her leg on the very first day after we just unpacked. Which resulted in a whole day in a hospital in Germany. Not understanding a thing, empty phones and a 5-hour uncomfortable car ride back home.
I’m currently in France, I already fell off a horse on a hard surface 2 days ago and my sister sprained her finger while skimboarding yesterday. We were planning to go horseriding on the beach Sunday. Which probably will have to be cancelled.
This vacation is going just as great as all our others. We attract bad luck I guess.
On our first night in Iceland, a bartender in Reykjavik slipped a drug into our drink.
We started feeling woozy and quickly left the bar.
The next thing I knew it was a few hours later, I’m somewhere in downtown Reykjavik at 11 PM, with no idea where my friends were. After wandering around for two hours looking for them, I remembered that iMessages could send over wifi, so I found a bar to sit in and tried to text my friends.
Steve came at 1 AM and found himself running through a residential neighborhood, bleeding from his forehead, with no idea what had happened. He found a hotel (could remember where our AirBnB was) and got a room. The hotel had wifi, so he got my messages. Sent me a picture of his battered face, and told me the name of the hotel and his room number. Neither of us had heard from Bob.
I took a screenshot of the directions from Google Maps and then started walking. But now I was convinced Iceland was super dangerous–we’d been here less than 24 hours, already drugged and mugged!–and my semi-incapacitated self decided the best way to avoid danger was to look scary. So for the next hour as I walked the 4 km to the nearest Icelander Hotel, I growled loudly. It did work though. The few people who saw me cross the street to the other sidewalk. It’s a wonder no one called the police on the crazy American.
Finally saw the hotel sign, walked inside, and asked the front desk how to get to room 318. He starts laughing and says they only have two stories, I’m at the wrong place. F*ck. He kindly called around to other Icelander Hotels, asking if they had a guest named Steve. Turns out his hotel was 6 km away. It’s now 2:30 AM and my phone is at 3%, no way I’ll make it on foot, so he called a cab for me.
I’ve never been happier to see Steve than when he opened his hotel room door. We talk briefly and decided to sleep for the night and look for Bob in the morning. Right as I’m drifting off, my phone lights up with a message from him asking where the heck we are. He’s at the apartment and insists we come back. Fine. We take a cab back.
Bob tells us that he’d woken up three hours earlier, from sleeping under some stairs in a random building, with a man screaming at him in Icelandic. The guy picked him up by his shirt and threw him outside. He wandered hazily through the city for an hour, trying to get his bearings. Whatever drug was in his system must’ve still been affecting his brain, because he thought that he was in Germany (where he grew up). He didn’t know how he’d gotten there, but he wanted to get back home to America.
A bunch of cabs were parked outside of a bar, so he got in one and asked to go to the airport. The cabbie gave him a weird look and said it was almost two hours away, but he’d go if Bob really wanted. Bob said yes. Ten minutes into the ride, he realized this wasn’t Germany and panicked. He took out his phone and found his itinerary, complete with the address of the apartment. The cabbie re-routed, and Bob was safe inside. An hour later he remembered that he wasn’t in Iceland alone.
The next day I looked through my phone searching for evidence of what happened while I’d been blacked out. I’d been all over Reykjavik, as evidenced by my blurry photos. There were several photos of me holding a large orange cat, in different parts of the city, so apparently, I’d abducted it temporarily. No idea why.
Later we discovered that the bar had charged Steve’s credit card $300 for the two beers he drank before we passed out.
Haiti was the worst I’d ever seen. I was on a cruise (can’t remember the company) but they had their own little area of Haiti fenced off. The ship docked, we got out and had a great time on the beaches and Sun. Nothing out of the ordinary until lunchtime. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet served by the ship’s crew. We were told not to throw any food over the fences to the children, or else we’d have to go back to the ship. And that was when I noticed them. Scattered in the woods everywhere were little Haitian children crouched down trying to get anyone’s attention and have them throw food at them. That was the first and last time I saw true poverty, and it made it so much worse that the whole time I was basically flaunting my wealth with my fancy cruise ship and all-you-can-eat buffet.
I was diving in a beach resort on the Red Sea on a trip with my family. Midway through, about 6-7m below the surface, I felt something grab my tube. It was a piece of coral. No big deal, I thought.
When I felt water coming in through the mask, I promptly changed my mind.
I was insanely lucky I was with an adult cousin of mine who has done lifeguarding and an instructor because if my brother was there, I honestly doubt I would’ve made it to the surface. So I immediately panicked (as dumb, stupid, 11-year-old kids do) and immediately send it, full throttle to the surface. I was helped by my cousin and the instructor.
In the struggle, I lost the mask (which was fine, it was the tube connecting to the tank) and a poor, innocent flipper. I also kind of lost consciousness, I felt it hard to open my eyes, and I suddenly felt it was 4 A.M., not 2 P.M. I think it was mostly due to panic. I had 2 cuts all the way across my right palm, and another on my lower left calf. I was in so much relief, I barely felt the iodine, and I had to miss the rest of the day. Of course, as life dictates, everyone else had no issue whatsoever.
Now, at 14, I do swimming in a 5m pool 3 days a week, but I still wouldn’t dare to dive near coral again. I’d honestly probably be fine with diving in 50m deep open water, but not coral.
I went to jail in Zambia for 3 days over Easter weekend. I was on a bus to Victoria Falls and at 5 am our bus was stopped at an illegal checkpoint by the police. I didn’t have my paperwork because I was always afraid of getting it stolen. They didn’t accept the copies I made of it. My Zambian friends were horrified as I was loaded up on a truck and sent to the local police station. I thought they were just going to take me to immigration, but they put me in a cell instead.
I was there for 3 days and had 3 visits a day from my friends and colleagues. They provided food and water for me. The jail did not feed its prisoners. Some had been in there for weeks and hadn’t eaten. I saw beatings nearly every 3 hours and the police would bring in their friends to beat other prisoners. They would make up charges and demand bribes. There were cockroaches in our cell and I could feel bugs crawling on me at night. A lot of guys were drunk and in some cases violent.
I learned that my friends paid off the police so that they wouldn’t beat me and allow me to use the bathroom. The US embassy in Lusaka was notified, and I received a call from a consular officer after it was done.
I got out after my friends, who are Zambian, negotiated a $50 bribe to get me out and remove my arrest from their records.
I partied like a rock star that night, but after a long shower and a TB test.
No one in my family knows and it has been 3 years.
I recently took a trip to Dubai. I wasn’t sure what to expect — it was a business trip, not a vacation — but for the most part, I had a great time.
It was clean, the people were all very friendly, and the city has an astoundingly well-fitted mix of ancient and brand new. Not the coolest place I’ve ever travelled to, but probably the most interestingly unique.
Except for slavery. I had never seen slaves before. But I did in Dubai.
I was in my room at a six-star luxury hotel and realize that for some reason, I hadn’t packed any socks.
So I got to my concierge (we have a couple of locals hired to help us with stuff like this) and ask him where the nearest mall is. It’s not far and he offers to drive me.
On the way, we pass some construction and I see this large group of workers in protective gear eating lunch in the shade of a sign. They were the first people I saw that weren’t dressed impeccably. I pointed them out to my helper.
“Servants,” he says. “I think they are Sri Lankan.”
I’d heard that the UAE had some questionable labor standards, so I asked how much they get paid.
“They don’t. They have to work two, three years then they are free to go and get a good job.”
“‘Free to go’?”
“Yes, they come here and have to work off the trip, usually two years. Until then they belong to the company that brought them from Sri Lanka.”
“So they’re like slaves?”
“We don’t say ‘slaves!’ They are servants, they volunteered. Your country had slaves!”
I told him that, yeah, we did, but that 150 years ago we figured out that it was a terrible thing. He didn’t seem bothered by it at all. It was weird.
I’m 39 years old and I thought I’d live my whole life never seeing slavery, but unfortunately, I was wrong.
So I was around 13 and it was the first day on holiday at the beach with my family. I was swimming in the water and as a massive wave did a takedown on me, I broke my index toe. Didn’t realise it was broken for quite some time because the water was so cold. I kept swimming for another half hour until it was time to have lunch. As soon as I got out of the water, I fell over in pain. Crawled my way up along the beach where the park was and lay there until the pain subsided. Got in the car and drove to the hotel.
Fast forward to the next day, and my toe is all swollen and black. I was forced to walk on my toe without crutches or any support because my family didn’t think it was broken. Spent the whole week walking and hopping around the beach, dying of pain. I had broken several bones but walking on a broken toe was the worst pain I’ve ever felt.
All in all, the holiday was ruined as I couldn’t go anywhere.
We went camping. The people next to us were always arguing, even in the middle of the night. One night at like 2 am the woman tried to scare the man. He didn’t get scared, my younger sister did. Also, there was this kid that said she knew the way, we almost got lost in the woods
SO washed his passport while we were in Italy and we were supposed to go to Russia in 2 days. Even worse was that I reminded him to check his pockets. So, no visit to Russia. Travel insurance paid for itself about 70 times over.
Was about 9 when we went to Jamaica, this was before sunscreen was a thing. I burned so bad on the first day there that I had to wear a turtleneck sweater for the rest of the two-week holiday..my skin was scorched and peeled right off… white boy problems…
When I returned to school none of the kids recognized me, they thought I was a new kid… that was freaky.
Oddly enough though, since then I Tan really really dark.
Was driving through the mountains from California to Colorado with my 4 siblings and our parents in our minivan. It started snowing and we were just about to go through the mountain pass so we stopped for food. We ate and then left and my parents realized neither of them paid the bill. We called the restaurant and gave them our credit card information, all the while the waitress was crying because the bill from 2 adults and 5 hungry kids would have come out of her paycheck. After that, we were driving on the mountain pass and there was a bunch of traffic. We were in the left lane next to a side railing and a cliff below that when a semi-truck started to slip towards us. We were frozen in fear for about 2 minutes because we were completely stopped in traffic and couldn’t move anywhere. Thankfully the truck regained traction about two inches away from our car and never actually hit anyone but boy, what a night.
I was 12 years old and on a caravan holiday with my family. I saw a denim dress on the village market and I really wanted it but I had almost blown my budget for the day. Later that day, in the arcades I decided to try and win the money for the dress. I was delighted I actually managed to win enough. Off to the market, I skipped, leaving my family in the arcade. I was old enough and sensible enough to go on my own mum said. I was to meet them back at the caravan. I got back to the market and made a beeline for the dress. I paid the man and he handed me the dress in a carrier bag. He was looking at me in a strange way. He grabbed my hand and told me forcefully to meet him behind the pub that night. I was scared. I snatched my hand away and fled. It really shook me up. I didn’t tell anyone but spent the rest of the holiday terrified that the man would find me. I never wore the dress.
Cancun and we were hit by a hurricane and spent 2 days and nights in a cinderblock shelter with the tin roof rattling and peeling up in places. Only 2 porta potties for like 50 people, just enough water and crappy cots to sleep on.
Then spent 2 days at the airport waiting for an available flight.
Always check the weather at your travel destination before going.
Went on holiday with a friend to Amsterdam and saw no trouble until the final night.
When walking back to our hostel My friend and I got surrounded by a group of 6 guys all of which looked Middle Eastern demanding we buy drugs from them. I’ve never touched the stuff and neither of us had any cash on us
One of the guys looked no older than 16 and was much smaller than me. I picked a moment and grabbed my friend and shouldered past the young guy and sprinted with the gang chasing us to one of the busy streets where many other tourists were still out enjoying themselves. Once we got mixed in with the crowd we lost the gang and quickly made our way to our hostel. We decided to call it an early night.
Amsterdam is a great city and I loved the culture and the bustling nights along the canals and in the bars. But I’ll admit I came close to wetting myself with fear that night.
I got measles somewhere in Thailand. It broke out a few days before flying home. And came with complicated pneumonia. At first, I just felt sick, like coming up with the flu. On the day I flew home, everything hit full force. With every passing hour, I felt worse and worse. When I finally deplaned at home I was barely able to breathe on my own and went from the airport to the hospital. Extended my “vacation” with two weeks in the hospital and another 4 weeks at home.
After checking into our hotel for the night, we headed up to drop off our bags and then go grab a quick bite to eat. My husband opens the door and there is already someone in the room, we see a bag sitting on the floor. Then we notice the unclothed couple on the bed having intimate relations. She screams I scream, and hubby slams the door.
We went downstairs to tell the clerk, hubby discloses that we walked in on them having intimate, which embarrasses the poor woman to death so she gets us a new room and a free upgrade “for the inconvenience”.
I went to Paris with my parents as a kid. It was magical, like something straight out of a movie. Cafe, street painters, street musicians and mostly the buildings and streets were so old and magical like a fairytale. I would spend hours just running around looking at different things and different people and pretending I was a musketeer. Then I ran into an alley and met a creepy guy who tried to get me to come into his van by offering me baked pastries and a ps2 video game. When I declined he tried to grab me and ran after me, and didn’t stop until I made it out of the narrow streets and onto a big square with lots of people (also where my parents were waiting).
The city felt….less magical after this.
My husband and I went to Japan for a trip of a lifetime. But because he didn’t like ramen we never got to eat it there. I refuse to admit this to a single person. I just focus on the great sushi, kaiseki meal, etc.
The worst part is we came back and went to a local spot and he realized he LOVES ramen.
In August 2001, I was spending a weekend in Montreal with my new girlfriend (now wife) and I had a severe allergic reaction to the detergent used on their sheets which caused me to break out in hives all over, including my groin.
When I was in Italy, the ceiling in my parent’s hotel room collapsed. Luckily no one was in the room. When we told the man at the front desk, he apologized, handed us a trash bag, and said have a nice day.
I went to Italy when I was younger. Whilst in Rome, we went to St.Peter’s in the Vatican. As we were about to walk in, all the way from Toronto, we were brought aside and told we weren’t allowed in because I wasn’t dressed appropriately. Khakis, Kappa T-shirt and Nike runners. Typical summer wear. I’m sure God could care less about what I’m wearing. Havent attempted to walk into a church since. That was in 1998.
Credit: freepik
Sit back because this is going to be a long story. It all happened this summer when I was on a trip to Spain with my family (parents and siblings). That day we had gone out to eat pizza. It was a really great day. Shortly after coming back to the house we were renting, I heard my sister scream from the room we were sharing. As the brave eldest child, I went to see what was wrong and she told me she had seen a big black centipede, the kind you don’t see where we come from. And so my mom and I looked all over the room but we didn’t find anything. We only found a little hole under my sister’s bed, the centipede was probably there. My mom told her the usual: “It’s just a centipede; it’s probably more scared than you are, and it’s not going to attack you…”. Never had she been so wrong. I’m usually pretty scared of insects but that day I was feeling great, I felt untouchable, you know, the usual good pizza day. Around midnight I searched the whole room again, didn’t find the beast and went to bed. My sister slept in the living room. I had a great night of sleep. My sister didn’t and the beast was still missing. The next night she decided to come back to our room. Of course, we searched every corner again but still nothing. The beast was hiding letting us gain confidence before attacking.
My sister went to bed around midnight but I had too much sleep the night before, so I stayed up till 4 AM, my first mistake. When I went to our room it was dark and I couldn’t search the room for the beast because my sister was asleep. Since nothing had happened before, I just figured the beast was really scared of us and wouldn’t do anything so I just went to bed. Only to wake up after 10 minutes from a sudden pain in my arm. I softly screamed to wake my sister up. It was a pain I had never felt before, deep down inside I knew that it could only be the beast. My sister turned the lights on. I was panicking and went over to the mirror. I was looking at my arm telling my sister I probably bumped into something. Again I couldn’t find anything on my arm. At this point, I turned my back to my sister and that’s when she screamed “The beast Grahamflakes, it’s on your back, the beast”. Of course, I panicked and screamed. What really broke my heart was seeing my sister run out of the room, abandoning me to the beast. I remember telling her to help me get it off, but she just left while saying sorry. At this point, our parents had woken up and were asking what was wrong. I just threw my t-shirt on the floor and went to the bathroom to inspect my body. My mom moved the t-shirt and the beast just ran to the living room. We searched the whole living room but that beast was good at hiding. NOTHING. My sister and I just went over to our brother’s room since it was down the hall and far away from the crime scene. We slept there.
Now I wish I could tell you that we never saw the beast again and that the story ends here, but it doesn’t. The next day my brother would be the one abandoning me. He didn’t want us in his bedroom anymore. And so we just went to sleep in our parents’ bedroom on the floor. I searched their bedroom, but nothing. My mom kept telling me that the beast would not come here and that I shouldn’t be afraid, but I was. I would wake up during the night, panicking, looking for the beast on my t-shirt. Nothing happened. On the fourth night of the story, we also slept in our parents’ bedroom. Again, I looked all over the room before going to sleep, but nothing. This isn’t the usual centipede we’re talking about, this one was good. It had been trained. Since nothing had happened the night before, I gained some confidence, but that’s what it wanted. The beast wanted to break me. I was sleeping on the floor next to my mom’s side of the bed. She told me I should sleep in the same direction she did so I could see her face and be less scared. I laughed and said that my face would be next to the door and it would be too risky as the beast was still in the house. The beast does not like jokes. I fell asleep right away. Only to wake after 2 hours from the pain in my foot. This time I didn’t scream, I just took my phone and used the light to inspect my foot, but nothing. My sister woke up and asked what was wrong. I told her the usual; I must have bumped my foot somewhere. So she sat down and put the light of her phone on my back. And that’s when it happened again, and you can imagine what she screamed: “The beast Grahamflakes, it’s on your back, the beast”. I was really scared but I took some time out to think about things. How is this possible? Why me? Did the beast not get enough of my flesh? Am I the only one that liked How I Met Your Mother’s ending? My parents woke up and turned the lights on. They told me not to move. My mom got scared and abandoned me (at this point I got used to being abandoned on the field). My dad just came over, took the centipede with his hand, threw it on the floor and killed it with his bare foot. Everyone went back to bed. I cried myself to sleep.
After that night we went back to our room. I had to sleep with the lights on. I would wake up panicking and have to go to the mirror to look at my back. Several times a day I would ask my mom to pat my back and if she didn’t then I’d go to the mirror. I only stopped doing that after coming back home.
Sorry if I made mistakes, English is not my native language. Now excuse me while I go check my back.
I was camping out at a place called Indian Island with my family and my dog. Shep, when I was about 10 years old. It started thundering, so me and my mom wanted to walk my dog before the downpour started as my dog hated water. So we start walking and were passing campsites and such, and we pass one with a dog leasged to a tree (this is common on campsites). The dog was freaking out, doing everything in its power to get itself loose and making tons of noise. Well, it eventually does and bolts towards my mom, my dog, and I. My mom pushes me behind her and goes to try and grab the dog running at us, but the dog wasn’t going towards my mom or me, the dog decided to go after my dog and got him by the neck. he starts trying to rip at my dog’s neck and now the owners are running over, me and my mom are screaming (I’m crying) and this dog has its jaw locked on my dog’s neck and multiple people are trying to pry this dog off. Luckily, they got the dog off and my dog survived, he just needed 10 stitches on his neck. I got really scared of other dogs being around my dog after that.
My family once missed our cruise. I was about 14 at the time and we had booked a cruise to the Caribbean with some family friends of ours who lived in California. We lived in the DC area at the time and some massive snowstorms cancelled all flights the day we were supposed to fly to Florida to get on our boat ( our boat was departing the next day). Luckily we found a flight the morning of the cruise, but the ice on the runway delayed it even more, but we took our chances and got on it. We missed our boat by 10 minutes and got our hopes up for nothing.
I was on a train in France and the lady in front of me had a cat on a leash. The cat was freaked out and crawled under her seat to where my feet were and began clawing at me. I tapped the lady on the head and she started lecturing me about manners while the cat is still clawing my leg. I lost my temper and told her to go f*ck herself and I suppose that’s when my accent came out and she said “Ohhh you’re American. Go back to your country.”
I was pretty livid but she finally put the cat on her lap and I tried not to get blood on the seat.
To be fair that was my only experience with “rude French people”. Everybody else was pleasant.
Remember back in 2018 when there was breaking news of a missile inbound towards the Hawaiian islands? NOT A DRILL
Well, I was there when it happened. We landed in Maui late the night before and we all pretty much went straight to our condo and went to bed out of exhaustion from traveling. The next morning my mom bursts into my room and rips my covers off telling me to get up and get dressed now. Her voice was frantic and shaken. It took me a bit to come to.
I walk out of my room and find my mom on her phone with my grandparents crying and telling them she was scared and that she loves them. The news was on and actively covering the story. I sat by my mom and listened for a bit and finally my mom explained that there was a missile launched towards the Hawaiian islands and was due to strike at any time.
The fear and adrenaline that washed through me were indescribable. My body was tingling and I got cold sweats and all I could think was “oh my god. I’m going to die today. I’m actually going to f*cking die TODAY.” My mom, stepdad, and I walked out into the street to head towards to beach which was a couple of blocks away. we figured we might as well die that way right?
I had never seen the ocean yet by the way!! My seats in each plane weren’t by the window and like I said we landed at night so I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to see anything. So needless to say, when my feet hit the sand and the massive beautiful blue ocean was in front of me for the very first time that morning, it definitely hit differently because not only was I standing so small and powerless against this massive beautiful body of water, but I was also in what I thought was my final hours of life.
A little later on we ran into a couple on the beach who got to talking to all of us and they were the first to break the news about everything being a hoax/huge mistake. We were all incredibly relieved and even pissed off. But overall so grateful that we still were going to live out the rest of our granted days.
Looking back I do find the situation pretty crazy and kind of funny now, and I’ll be telling this story forever!