Travel often leads us into funny or humorous situations. Write about a time something funny happened to you while travelling. Keep it very short (no more than 200 words) and use story telling style: have people speaking in dialogue, for example. Brad intends to write a fresh anecdote about his trip to Italy
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A Coffee in Venice
I’m clearly not one of the 1%, but I visited the Caffe Florian on Saint Marc’s square in Venice to see what it might be like.
Woody Allen and Ernest Hemingway had both “paid too much for a coffee” there so off we went.
The waiter, in black tie, seated us. First impression? My legs hurt since the old chair (perhaps an original from 1720?) cut into my thighs! Comfortable chairs don’t come with an expensive coffee, alas.
My daughter asked if a drink was good.
“If it is served at the Caffe Florian, of course it is good,” was the waiter’s snooty reply. I ordered annniversary coffee, which contained a liqueur of some kind and cost a cool eight euros (about 12 dollars Canadian).
When it arrived, it was warm, not hot. But it was on a silver tray, so who was I to complain? As we “enjoyed” our drinks (that came, together, to a cool 50 euros for the four of us), the ladies across the way complained about their tea.
My advice? If you’ve got that much money, the waiters will feel free to treat you with a certain contempt because, after all, who in their right mind would pay that much for a cup of coffee?
--210 words
Last Summer my friends and I went to Osoyoos for a vacation. Osoyoos is a small tourist town located in the South central interior of British Columbia. What we didn’t know is that it borders to the Washington State. We had to find that out in rather unusual circumstances.
After we arrived and unpacked we decided to drive around town and do some sightseeing. One of us suggested to go to the top of the big mountain. At one point the road turned into a one way road and led us directly to the US border (the mountain was in Washington). None of us had passports, and at that point we were unable to turn around and go back to Canada.
The border patrol officer collected whatever IDs we had and asked us to go inside their building. All of us were from former USSR, and earlier that month the US authorities had caught several Russian spies. As a result we spent five hours at the border, each one of us was searched by four armed guards, we had to answer a number of questions and got very hungry. I told one of the officers that we were hungry. She rubbed her belly and said: “I just had my lunch, I’m so full”, and then she left. Well, they let us go in the end.
225
A couple months ago I was supposed to meet a friend. So I took the train and when it arrived at brain station two police officers got on the train and as soon as the train left they started checking people passes. I flashed my concession pass when one of them asked me.
He then asked, “How old are you” I said 19 then he asked me again “ can I see your Go card “
“I don’t have it with me” I replied
“ Well, you must have a Go card if you are traveling with this" He replied.
"I know but I left it at home” I answered.
However I got a ticket for failed to proof.The next day I was going to my soccer practice when the same officers got into the train and started checking people’s bus passes. The same cop asked me to get off the next station for not having a go card. After asking the same questions he recolonized me said “ you look so familiar” and I replied “I don’t’ think so”. When I refused to give him any ID’s and he asked me to show my wallet so when I did he saw my yesterday's ticket “ I knew you looked very familiar” he added. (213)
While traveling or going to new country confusions and funny things happen. After a week or so, when I moved to Canada I decided to see Vancouver’s downtown. It was Saturday and a beautiful sunny day in the summer. I wasn’t really familiar with bus and skytrain systems. I got on the bus from Richmond and after thirty minutes of traveling, I arrived in downtown. I pulled the yellow wire beside the window to get off the bus in the next station. The bus stopped at the bus stop and I am standing and waiting for the driver to open the back door for me (which I supposed to push the bar to open the door). The driver started to drive, I went toward the driver and I said “You didn’t open the back door for me.” He said “I did but you have to push the bar to open the back door and I thought you don’t want to get off.” I laughed and I explained him that I am new in Canada and I got off the bus in the next stop. I think the way I learned the transportation system was funny and embarrassing but I am proud that I went to downtown without any guide and I explored the whole downtown.
-215 words
West Edmonton Mall
It was about mid July 2006, a really hot summer, our first soccer game in Edmonton; it looked so different from Vancouver, hotter, drier, and fewer people on the streets.
Tired of sitting in the hotel, we decided to go to the West Edmonton Mall.
“Wow this is such a big mall,” I shrugged to my friend. retail shops, ice place, movie theatre, marine boat, indoor lake, amusement park. What surprised me the most, the placed was full of people, “ then, I knew where did people went”.
We all decided to go our own ways , and meet up at the same place (by the parking lot), at two o’clock. When I got there I couldn’t see a sign of my friends or the cars. “ O boy they have left you. Now what?” I mumbled to my self .
So I decided to go to the mall’s security; I told them the situation.
“ do you remember where did you guys park the car, or which entrance did you took?” Security guard asked me. After I give the information, he took me to my friends “it turn out I went to the wrong lot.”
A suggestion, if you ever decided to go the West Edmonton Mall make sure to bring a camera to take a picture of the place you park your car. 220 words
No Public Washroom
If someone asks, “What do I need to cross an U.S. border?” I will answer that you need to go to the washroom before leaving your home.
In March, I went to the X-ing border office with my friend to issue her visa to enter U.S. I was looking around to find the washroom. Well, I’ve already waited one hour in my car before there. I walked to a man sitting in the information desk to ask while my friend was in the line for her visa. A white paper on the desk instructed me to read it before asking, and ended with “No Public Washroom.”
What could I do? I stayed with my friend wishing this was over soon, and another hour passed. I paced quickly back to the information desk again, and talked the bored officer “My bladder is about to explode now.” Then, he gave me a pitiful hint to ask it during issuing the visa.
How sick the extreme full is! I asked it again at the moment I deserved. This officer spitted “No” automatically.
Later, when I talked to an acquaintance living in Maple Ridge about the incident, she said the border near her home had a public washroom. Maybe more visitors from the world the X-ing border has. So, is it excusable? (218 words)
Many years ago, there was one small event which happened to me, which I still remember clearly today.
One weekend in May, my friends who were from China, visited me while I worked in Tokyo. My Japanese friend and I drove two cars to take them to Fuji Mountain National Park . We visited Fuji Mountain and went to a local famous hot spring. The weather was so lovely that everyone’s mood was very good. Late afternoon, we had coffee at a parking area. When my friend went to pay the bill, he found that his wallet had disappeared. Even though we looked everywhere, we could not find it. Not only did he have cash in the wallet, but it also contained his driver’s license. We tried to ask a staff of the coffee shop since there was no police station at this parking area. The staff looked at us in surprise and said, “Police station is quite far. How can I help you?” My friend said, “Actually, I lost my wallet.” “Is this yours?” the staff asked, taking out a wallet. “Sure, it’s mine. But how did you get it? My friend asked. “A customer found it in our washroom and consigned it to us.” Everything in the wallet was intact. A friend of mine said, “I learned about many stories of returned lost money from the media. But this is a true story. I feel Japanese are very honest and Japan is a credible society.”
Although many years have passed since then, it seems as though this experience just happened yesterday. (263words)
The graduation tour is a trip I have been longing for. I was so excited that it kept me awaking through the night. I prepared many negative films imaging I would be a competent photographer, though I knew everyone has their own camera ready at hand.
When the tour bus traveled through country road, my classmate hailed “Look! Cattle grazing.”
I dashed to the side seat and opened the window trying to take pictures from the bus quickly moving along the road. People might tease at me of taking pictures like that. I would say that I acted like a city hick.
We visited a scenic wonder called “wind blow sand” . So delicate are those lines in the sand forming under weathering.
“Don’t move, don’t step on the sand.” I yelled to our classmates. I was like an environmentalist crying for protecting nature.
“See, You have to let people get into the pictures, or else you cannot prove that you have been here!” One of my classmates advised.
“ But, let me reload another film and take another photo with you guys in,” I replied.
The other day when those photos developed, the montage effect showed people in different places at the same time. We all laughed after sharing the beautiful snap shot by mistake.
(216 words)
BOGDAN NICOLAE RAPCEA # 56882
The Man from the South
As a real passionate mountaineering, everytime when I do an expedition, I like to clean up the garbage I find along the mountains’ ridges. Everytime when get ready for descent having my own supplies consumed, I don’t bother to pick up the garbage left behind by some other tourists and damp it at the first cottage found on the way down. In August 2009, I – the guy from the south, and my best friend – the guy from the north, after a short trekking of three days in the northern Romanians’ mountains, on our way down we picked up some garbage left behind by other people. As soon as we reached the little town from mountain’s base, we searched for a place where we could damp the collected waste. We looked arround and we spoted two persons – a man and woman, that they were bromming and carrying a garbage container along the sidewalk. I approached and asked them politely if they allow me to throw away “my”garbage into their container. The man came close and started to explain to me that all the garbage they were cleaning it was done by the impolite people from the south. I and my friend started to laugh; the man wouldn’t know I was from the south. I patted him – the man, over the shoulder and I told him that doesn’t matter where we come from, good and bad people are everywhere. I threw “my” collected garbage into the beam and looking straight into his eyes with a warm smile I said : “ This is a “gift” to you from an “impolite” man from the south.”
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