{"id":3560,"date":"2010-08-25T06:11:04","date_gmt":"2010-08-25T13:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/?p=3560"},"modified":"2010-08-23T16:15:51","modified_gmt":"2010-08-23T23:15:51","slug":"mistakes-are-tuition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/25\/mistakes-are-tuition\/","title":{"rendered":"Mistakes are Tuition"},"content":{"rendered":"

a.ka. The Time I Missed My Flight. Twice.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Natalie Taylor is currently revamping her blog.\u00a0 You can find previous writings\/portfolio here.<\/a> She likes words such as \u201ccurmudgeon\u201d and \u201cjanky\u201d and dramatic rose ceremonies.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s me Nat. So, um, I\u2019m in Prague right now, and I missed my flight. Twice. I\u2019m going to be okay. Yeah, you know it\u2019s fine\u2026Hope everything\u2019s good at home! It\u2019s going to be okay\u2026. Bye.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click.<\/p>\n

This is my most embarrassing voice-mail to date. There really was nothing else to do while waiting for the train to Berlin, but send awkward messages of denial to my ex-boyfriend that I was independent in a crisis; that I didn\u2019t need his re-assurance to make me feel better about myself.<\/p>\n

My denials occurred at The Chinese restaurant around the bend from my hostel in Holesovice. Feeling satiated from the sweet and sour chicken in the empty dining room, it was a good time to double check my flight times for my return to Amsterdam the next day. I was responsible! I was saving money on a seat sale!<\/p>\n

I was supposed to be on a plane two hours ago.<\/p>\n

Sheer panic surged through my body. I immediately darted my eyes to the waitress, helpless, secretly wishing the daily special was \u201cFree return to Amsterdam. Unlimited fried rice.\u201d<\/p>\n

After frantically booking the cheapest return for 7 a.m. the next day, and obliterating the good travel cents I had scoured originally, I realized I had no cash on hand. There was no ATM nearby for a much-needed drink.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong sweetie?\u201d the hostel\u2019s mole and resident bartender T. inquired.<\/p>\n

\u201cI missed my flight. I have no money on hand.\u201d I reeked of despair.<\/p>\n

T. consoled me with a drink. He later tried to console me with more (to no avail).<\/p>\n

The cavernous subterranean surroundings of the hostel\u2019s cellar bar were ideal to soak in self-pity. Krishla – a former hut mate in Greece with whom I had unexpected reunion \u2013 became a confidant. The perfect anti-dote, in my brilliant mind, was to pull an all-nighter. I\u2019m not exactly a morning person.<\/p>\n

The next goal was to coax the 12 unusually anti-social Scots to show their true (imbibing) nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re in a hostel bar playing cards with each other and not socializing with the bevy of beauties around here?! You\u2019re not drinking?!\u201d I yelped. They listened.<\/p>\n

T\u2019s specialty was the A-Bomb, a shot of the green-fairy dropped into a glass of Red Bull. The boys were ambitious to try the A-Z bombs. I lost count after \u201cA.\u201d Cackling and incomprehensible Scottish brogues ensued. I didn\u2019t understand. I didn\u2019t care. My worries were a distant memory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got to pack,\u201d I sleepily slurred, many hours of giggles later. An empty hostel dorm is a god-send to a solo-traveler \u2013 except when you have a 5 a.m. wake-up call and nobody with an alarm to wake you when needed. My watch was underneath the bed. It was 3 a.m. Then I turned the watch around. The reality was mirrored back to me: 9 a.m. A stunned reflection in the looking glass.<\/p>\n

Double Trouble: two missed flights by two hours each. No refunds.<\/p>\n

Krishla was not impressed by the morning-wake up call. \u201cBerlin is a four hour train ride from Prague. Go. If you\u2019re still here after 1 p.m., I\u2019m personally sending you on the train.\u201d The train station was a five minute walk. I had nothing to lose.<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t venture back to Amsterdam now; Anne Frank Huis waiting for me in the foggy distance.\u00a0 My set itinerary of simultaneously using the rest of\u00a0 my Eurail Pass days on bordering countries was failing me.\u00a0In retrospect, I learned just as much from the walking tours of Berlin than I did from the hallowed walls of Anne Frank Huis.<\/p>\n

I was scared of my own ignorance; that I wasn\u2019t prepared for the history lessons and that I thought I should be. Diving head-first without any plan into a known yet unknown culture was the climax of the surprises my travels had un-earthed for me.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t have enough time to explore Berlin at my own pace: its hauntingly romantic atmosphere; its sorrowful yet triumphant deep-rooted past, and a mainstay as a hotbed of culture. I also didn\u2019t realize that, in the end, I was okay, and stronger as a result.<\/p>\n

Why I like this story: Yeah, I missed a flight. Once. Or maybe twice. I ain’t sayin’. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

a.ka. The Time I Missed My Flight. Twice. Natalie Taylor is currently revamping her blog.\u00a0 You can find previous writings\/portfolio here. She likes words such as \u201ccurmudgeon\u201d and \u201cjanky\u201d and dramatic rose ceremonies. \u201cIt\u2019s me Nat. So, um, I\u2019m in Prague right now, and I missed my flight. Twice. I\u2019m going to be okay. Yeah, … <\/p>\n


…read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[706],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-29-guests","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3560"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3565,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3560\/revisions\/3565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nerdseyeview.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}