linda

Any stories about difficult travel companions? <BR>Elvira's humor in the bundle,fold, and roll thread peaked my curiosity. <BR> <BR>

Bob Brown

I could tell a few, about a person with whom my unfortunate wife traveled on a business trip. She had to arise at 5 AM and do exercises in the room with considerable grunting, moaning, huffing, and thrashing about. (My wife concluded that she had an irrepressible compulsion.) <BR>Then she went to the bathroom and gargled for two or three hours. <BR> <BR>When riding in a bus, she was a white knuckled passenger. Had she been able to speak something other than frantic, fanatical English, she probably would have called out to the driver. <BR>Not only that, but she squirmed and fidgeted the whole time. <BR> <BR>I am quite fortunate. My wife is the world's best travel partner. I could list attributes, but no one wants to read them all. Let's just say that she is personable and a good driver. <BR>She even got a stoney faced policeman in Vienna to speak English and help us across a blocked street. (Big roller blade marathon that day.) Without her, I think I would not travel. <BR> <BR>

Thyra

Bob, that is just about the nicest thing I've ever heard! You are one lucky guy.. and your spouce is one lucky gal

jane

A couple years ago a coworker and I received a fax at work announcing a really cheap flight to Paris. We weren't bosom buddies or anything, but we were good acquaintances and we decided to go together (with our significant others) to split the airport driving and parking fee hassles. <BR> <BR>Working with her, I should have known a little about the way she conducted her personal affairs, but I could never have guessed what a high maintenace person she was in real life. Everything from packing 2 huge suitcases for a 4-day trip, to asking for special treatment at every counter ("Oh, well why can't I get frequent flyer miles credited on Air France AND US Air? Aren't there any seats together any closer to the front than row 15? Can't I get potatoes AND rice with the meal? How come only one person at the hotel speaks English?" etc., etc.) We parted ways once we got to Paris and did our sight seeing separately. On the way home Air France was the victim of some minor strike--there was no hot food or garbage collection on the flight. I'm sure she was dying to try and squeeze out something for the "bad treatment" she received from the airline. Fortunately, the trip was draining enough even for her to keep quiet. <BR>

mark

A good friend and I went to Barcelona. It wasn't until I got there that I found out he had developed food hang ups (not allergies - hangups. We had traveled to Paris before quite well) Every restaurant was a struggle - I wound up eating by myself most of the time while he ate KFC in his hotel room. While I enjoy getting pleasently lost in a new city - he couldn't put away the map or the guide book. This experience reinforced my stance that life boils down to control issues and pursuing pleasure. And I prefer traveling solo.

Amy

I love solo travel, but travel with others also has its joys, especially the sharing of memories. <BR>With that said, I've gotta say the funniest thing I've ever experienced with a travel companion was the one pining for Entemann's (boxed) cheese danish when we were in Vienna. Ya just can't educate some palates!

ilisa

A few years ago, I travelled with my husband and his soccer team to a tournament in Calella, Spain which is north of Barcelona. One wife who came along wore 2 watches - one on Spain time and one on US time. I invited her to go to Monserrat with me while our husband's were practicing. However, she refused to leave the vicinity of the hotel. She and several others on the trip repeatedly referred to pesetas as pesos and couldn't understand while that was wrong. Food- forget it. She and her husband couldn't cope and went out of their way everyday to search for "American" food. I could go on, but you get the idea.

lisa

It was my second time in Paris, and my then-boyfriend's first. Upon our arrival on the train from London, he looked at me and said, "OK, which way to our hotel?" I said, "I don't know, let's have a look at the map." To which he snapped, "I thought you'd been here before! You don't even know where our hotel is?" <BR> <BR>Needless to say, it didn't work out.

mark

A followup to my first post: <BR>I'm trying a variation of the solo vs companion trip this May. I'm returning to Budapest solo for some much deserved down time then hoping a plane to Rome to hook up with a friend then back to Budapest for some more down time then back to the States. I enjoyed doing things with my friend in Barcelona, it was just at times I really didn't have the energy or patience to "discuss iteniary". In Barcelona my friend finally captiulated and tried the taster's menu - the third or fourth dish was frog legs with pesto. He looked at me aghast - but then got up the courage to try them - and really liked them. The funny thing is he's from New Orleans - they eat anything frm the swamps as long as it's fried. (If your wondering - it does taste like chicken - just watch out for the small bones)

Judy

Lisa: That is so funny!!!! A true classic, needless to say, how was the rest of your trip? What a guy,,,he sounds like he was from Mars, yes? <BR>Judy ;-)

A Traveller

I was travelling to Russia last year to attend a music festival and somehow wound up having to escort a reject from the A-Group. On a walk from the theatre, she pointed out some children who were fishing. "Oh, look, they have to fish for their own dinner". One of the kids replied (in perfect English) "No, we are doing this for sport" (they all were well dressed and well-fed, not exactly starving orphans). <BR> <BR>She wanted to have dinner in her hotel with us (which would have been a VERY expensive meal) because she was too nervous to dine alone. I suggested a fun restaurant on the other side of town, and negotiated a cab. <BR> <BR>Then at dinner, she constantly checked the dollar/ruble rate (it was NOT a very expensive restaurant). I felt a bit sorry for her; perhaps she was on a very tight budget and coming even here was a stretch, although she did suggest that expensive hotel restaurant. After a couple of shots she then told the table about the expensive of maintaining three horses, of the differing virtues of BMW vs. MB, and the Piaget watch (covered in diamonds) that she wanted to wear but didn't dare because of the high crime in Russia. <BR> <BR>Now comes the "climax": we get the check, it totals about $100 and I say "well, that makes $20 each". She insisted on looking at the check (what a laugh that was, it was in Cyrillic) and then asked to look at the menu to figure out her "fair share" of the bill. Temptation was to (1) pay her "fair share" myself but to consequently (2) leave her at the restaurant and let her get a cab on her own. One of the more conciliatory members of our group finally got her to throw in some money, and we left. <BR> <BR>Not atrocious, but certainly gauche.

Jeanette

On one trip to Italy- we were four people from a bank group, we voted to actually leave someone. We were in Naples and this lady lawyer (about 35 and pretty)decided to take off on her own to find leather shoes. She had promised to be back by a certain time and never showed. This was after three days of totally dominating a bathroom for four and acting like a spoiled brat in every restaurant we frequented. We left, and many hours later she caught up with us in Formia. I wish we would have done it earlier after she spilled her entire full sized bottle of shampoo within her own luggage and its contents, and then proceeded to wash and dry everything she owned all over our beds. <BR> <BR>My one son travels a lot and has a very good friend that he refuses to travel with because of food issues. He doesn't care if he eats and will order a plain hamburger every time. <BR> <BR>Food, rising time, and $$$ are the issues that can cause much dispute, but tempermental ones are actually the worst. Lots of people are not travelers and can not adapt to change in a happy spirit. I love to go with this one son because he also had a real spirit of adventure. If one thing doesn't work out, he always finds another or better alternative and sees the positives in it. My partner is great as long as he doesn't have to make any major decisions during the traveling process, or too many "city" things are thrown his way within too narrow of a time period.

Diane

I traveled to Paris with a friend whom I'd traveled with before (to Hawaii). We got along great in Hawaii. Somewhere around the second day she was unhappy with touring and said she "wanted to do something other than walk, look at things, and eat." Mind you, we were in Paris. I'm not making this up. The trip went down hill from there.

xxx

Diane, maybe what she meant was that she'd like to go to the theatre, opera, ballet, etc.??? Or go somewhare to socialize with Parisians? Or try to find a way to last-minute sign up for some short cooking or art or other class?? In other words, maybe her comment was not as idiotic as it may sound. (And maybe you know that?)

xxx

Jeanette: Four grownups in one room are just plain too many. It is no wonder you had problems. Are you sure the outcast was drying her clothes over your beds and not just on string running across the room? (Where else do you think she should have dried them?) Unless you are extraordinarily tolerant, you should not have more than one roommate. And people who would vote to leave a fourth companion without telling her they're going sound like not very nice people.

ldsant

I haven't had any problems - I travel with a great companion - myself! Solo. No hassles, no problems, and if I want to share something with somebody, I use the telephone card and call somebody at home who is usually really excited about hearing what I've seen. Seriously, I've travelled with people before and it just isn't worth the hassle. I'm a really flexible person and just love being somewhere so when somebody starts whining and/or complaining about something, it just drains me. This way, I do what I want, when I want. Plus, I've found that travelling alone "forces" me to make friends whenever I travel e.g., talking with people at restaurants, at museums, tea shops, etc.

Kimerley

My name is Kim and I am a travel problem... <BR>In 98 I travelled with 2 friends to the UK for 1 month. We always managed to get a triple room with ensuite. The difficulty was..there are no power points in the bathrooms!! Every morning I wash my hair, let it "air" dry for 10 minutes, blow dry it, wait 10 minutes and then I iron my hair!!!! My second companion washes her hair every 3rd day, wraps her hair around her head and then wears a blow dryer bag on her head for 30 minutes.. our other travel companion has "wash & wear" hair. You can imagine how the hair regime grated on our 3rd friend. We were never late because of it but... <BR>This year we are off to Italy in June, and I have grown my hair to wear in a pony tail... plus will take an extension cord for the bathroom. <BR>I also like to visit a laundramat regularly and take my own pillow.. bad huh!

Phil's Sis

My brother was long-distance dating a woman in whom he was becoming increasingly interested. A heavy business traveller with limited personal funds, he'd acquired enough miles for one RT ticket, Houston-Paris; so he invited her to come and bought her a ticket. He also found a very nice but budget-minded hotel on the Left Bank and paid for the room in advance, calling ahead to ask the owner to put roses in the room. <BR> <BR>Yes, she was one of the predictable legions complaining about the TEENY room, the questionable food (this was, of course, grubby old Paris), the money, etc. She fretted constantly about getting lost, about which sites would be BORing, etc. <BR> <BR>But what was absolutely unforgivable is that she called her not-so-former boyfriend in Indiana every night to make these complaints within my brother's hearing. She did tell Phil she would pay him back for the phone bill, but of course...... <BR> <BR>My brother -- a painfully generous person -- actually got up the nerve to abandon her in Newark to make his own connection to Houston and let her figure out on her where the flight to Indianapolis was. Fortunately, all the indications were that this task might have caused her a major nervous break.

Lizzie

I took a trip to Spain not so many years ago with about six close friends. It's never easy to travel with that many people - hard to agree on where to eat, when to nap, and what sites to see. But five of us managed to do pretty well... then there was the sixth, an awful woman whom nobody really liked, who managed to complain about every single thing we did and how much money it was costing her. The itinerary had been set before the trip, and she'd had a hand in deciding which hotels we stayed in... still, they were too expensive, too small, etc, etc, etc. When we told her that if we found a cheaper place, which we were more than willing to do, there might not be a private bathroom, she sulked for three days straight. <BR> <BR>Prior to leaving we had pretty much planned our trip around visiting museums and cathedrals, as we are all art history buffs. As I have mentioned, she was a party to the planning. Well, at every museum we entered, she would find a bench and sit down and sulk the entire time. She refused to visit the cathedral in Sevilla because it was "too expensive" (I don't remember how much it cost, but it was around five or ten dollars) so we all rushed through feeling guilty... Why bother feeling guilty? I guess we're just decent people! Then that night at dinner she ordered a thirty-dollar steak just for the fries that came with it... <BR> <BR>Fortunately my friends and I share a good sense of humour, because all we can do now is laugh about this trip. The final straw came when she got pis*-drunk at the above mentioned dinner, took a cab three blocks back to the hotel because she couldn't walk, got out her Walkman when we arrived at the hotel, proceeded to sing along to a disco tape at the top of her lungs, and... got us kicked out! At 3 am! <BR> <BR>I am enjoying this thread very much.

lisa

Oh Judy, the rest of the trip was pretty grim. There's nothing like realizing that you're with Mr. Wrong and you're only five days into a six-week trip. At every meal, he refused to order anything unless he knew every single ingredient used in the dish so that he wouldn't accidentally eat something he'd never tried before (god forbid). Needless to say, he went hungry a lot and sought out McDonald's at every opportunity. We went from Paris to Rome to Greece to Venice to Switzerland to Germany -- places that were romantic in theory but not in our particular situation. We had some good times along the way (riding mopeds around Poros comes to mind), and I definitely made the best of it and enjoyed the trip anyway, but in retrospect, a lot of it felt like we were just waiting until it was over so we could go our separate ways. <BR> <BR>By contrast, I have a friend who can be quite difficult in "real life" but is an absolute dream to travel with. Funny how that works.