Holiday travel hell

[alarimer]

I don't like to travel. I really don't like being away from home. I don't sleep at all in hotel rooms, and I especially hate traveling near the holidays.

My boyfriend wanted to visit his family in Dallas this year, so he made the plans, bought the tickets and we went. Traveling today went about as well as could be expected, no delays, no lost luggage or anything. But i have been on the road or on a plane for 12 hours and he expected me to rush immediately from the hotel to his family's house, never mind that i am exhausted (I never sleep the night before travel) and a little bit sick to my stomach from bad airport food.

To say nothing of how terrible this hotel is, which is in the middle of renovation. No wonder it was so cheap.

So I had a bit of a crying meltdown from exhaustion and he thinks I don't want to be here, and so now is not speaking to me.

I have 5 more days in the soulless hellhole that is Grapevine and I'm not sure I can take it.

[mnhtnbb]

1. Send him out to the drugstore to get you some melatonin (sleep aid)

Run a warm bath. Throw in some bath salts. Climb in and relax.

Take the melatonin and get a good night's sleep.

Then talk about it in the morning over a decent breakfast.

[HeartachesNhangovers]

2. Can't beat that advice!

[True Dough]

3. Yup, that would be a wise course of action

Hopefully you get past this hiccup and enjoy the holidays!

[alarimer]

4. Things look better today.

I think we were both overly tired yesterday. Still, I think in the future I may forgo traveling over the holidays. There is just too much pressure at Christmas. And I am not really a fan of Christmas anyway.

[mnhtnbb]

7. Glad you are feeling better.

I absolutely hate flying any more. It used to be fun. And over the holidays there is extra pressure.

[alarimer]

14. I just don't like being at the mercy of someone else's plans

My boyfriend did not put my name on the rental car as a driver because it cost an extra ten dollars a day. So I am effectively stuck doing what he wants to do. When I visit my folks, I drive so I'm not stuck there.

I'm really just massively bored.

[DFW]

5. How's this for holiday travel hell?

My elder daughter, who lives in the States (NYC), checked in online this afternoon for her flight here (Düsseldorf). She used her passport to check in, and then took the train out to the airport. When she went to check in, she noticed her little snug purse with BOTH her passports (German and American) had been lifted from her somewhere in the Air Train. With no passport, she can't travel to Germany, and her 89 year old grandmother made the trip from her small village in northern Germany down here to the Rheinland in the hope of having her once-a-year visit with her granddaughter. She is not in the nest of health and is completely bummed out that she might not see her granddaughter again. Our younger daughter moved back here to Germany after graduating Law School, and is only a 2 hour train ride away (Frankfurt).

IF the elder one can get an emergency passport tomorrow, she still has to decide if it's worth it to come all the way here for 2 days (we're leaving for South Carolina on the 26th), and due to the air fare situation, it will cost her an extra $1100 because she missed her flight tonight. It would be the first Christmas all 4 four of us would not have been together EVER.

How's THAT for holiday hell?

[mnhtnbb]

6. That is just awful. Really awful all the way around.

One can only wish karma for the passport thief.

Can your older daughter perhaps reschedule--maybe a month out? Save "Christmas" for a special delayed trip? So she could
still see her grandmother and everyone?

[DFW]

8. Making the best of a bad situation

No dollars left, but the pouch with the passports was found in the train and turned in to the cops. She got it too late to come, but decided to spend the money and come for the two days. She doesn't know it, but I'll reimburse her for the money (it's Christmas, after, all, right?).

[redwitch]

9. I am glad this has a happy ending!

Merry Christmas! 2 days is better than not at all. I can't imagine not having our sons with us at Christmas!

[DFW]

10. She still has to fly 8 hours and six times zones in each direction

But I've done that many times, both for work and for personal reasons. Some things, you just do, period, This is one of them

[mnhtnbb]

11. Wow.

Lucky that someone found the passports. Lucky that dad is able to reimburse her.

I have two travel stories--one in Paris and one in Berlin--where I actually caught someone in the process
of picking my wallet out of my purse and going for my husband's wallet out of his back pocket. Happy endings
with both but actual confrontations with the pickpockets. (My husband--and both our sons--have always carried
their wallets in front pockets when traveling which foiled that attempt.) Both times the pickpockets were working in pairs--
one to distract and one to lift the wallet--so your daughter may want to think back to see if someone was diverting her
attention on the train.

[DFW]

12. Europe is a pickpocket's paradise, unfortunately

Crowded cities full of tourists, and a justice system (at least in France and Germany) that always lets pickpockets go free if caught (usually the same day), and punishes the robbery victim if they resist with force (that's assault).

Even now, the creep who killed the Polish truck driver and plowed his truck into the Christmas market in Berlin had been picked up in Germany before, but let go because he could "only" be proven guilty of using a fake passport, a small misdemeanor here. Imagine what they'd do to you in the USA if you were caught trying to use a forged passport. So the guy walked, killed a bunch of people, and waltzed down to Italy without even being stopped once. I once helped the German cops catch the ringleader of a Croatian theft ring. The guy first claimed he spoke no German. When we searched him, he had a German passport with his photo crudely stuck in to replace the photo of the guy from whom the passport had been stolen. After the cops hauled him off, he was brought before a judge a couple of days later, and the judge said it's "only" a passport violation, and no one has any proof he's done worse. He was freed immediately.

The distraction trick is a specialty of Romanians and Gypsies here, but most Europeans know it by now. It's usually tourists who are victims of that one. The thieves give the other 99% of their countrymen an undeserved bad reputation, but that doesn't seem to be of great concern to them, and the European justice system doesn't exactly act to discourage their activities.

One thing I will say, is I have to give kudos here to the NY transportation cops. My daughter lost and got back her passports all within a space of four hours. In an area as vast and sprawling as NYC and its airports, I consider that nothing short of amazing.

As for the money, yeah, there are other things we could have done with it, but some things just take precedence. This is one of them.

[Laffy Kat]

18. The only time I'm aware of getting pick-pocketed it was in Germany.

While connecting flights. And it was only about $30 in US currency. Not bad.

[alarimer]

13. That's awful

I'm glad someone found the passport though.

[DFW]

15. Fitting end to a year that has not been the best n/t

[OriginalGeek]

16. Well I doubt it will make you feel any better

but I am a little jealous of you getting to spend some time in Dallas. I bet the Grapevine Opry will have a christmas music show (I'm an atheist metal-head but I still love hillbilly christmas music lol)

If you get down to Duncanville you can get some great BBQ brisket at O'Dells on Oriole Blvd. It used to be Webb's BBQ when I worked there almost 40 years ago but when I visited a couple years ago it still tasted the same. Sliced beef/Sausage combo plate with hot beans and potato salad and a slice of white bread. That will be my last meal if I ever find my self on death row and in need of a last meal.

I wish I could heal things between you and your BF. It sucks being misunderstood. Hopefully after you've had a chance to rest up and he's cooled down you both can get to enjoying each other and the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. I don't miss EVERYthing about Texas but there's a lot of things I do. BBQ brisket, Chicken-fried steak and Shiner Bock beer are all things I can get here but just don't feel the same as when I have them there lol.

I wish nothing but the best for you and hope you have a happier trip from here on out.

[alarimer]

17. Well, we're not really playing tourist this time

We're pretty much at the mercy of other people's plans. And this is not the place I would come voluntarily. I have not had a single moment to myself, except in the hotel gym. It's really hard for me to be "on" all the time.