Travel Fun to Horror

---

Want to know how a fun travel story turns into a horror story in no time? You’re in the right place. Grab some coffee—it might be a short story, but it was one looong day!

My girlfriends and I were on a little weekend getaway in Kotor, Montenegro, a few weeks ago. The vacation was your classic travel story: summer heatwave, pools of sweat, sore legs, crowds, and mandatory cocktails. Mind you, this was our first time going somewhere in our own car. Anyway, we had fun, the weekend went by, and we were on our way back home.

Lesson No. 1: Don’t trust everything a local says!

Just because they’re local doesn’t mean they know everything. For example, if they suggest the less crowded route/border crossing. They’ve probably said that to a lot of other people. After a while, it stops being “less known”. Okay? Okay.

We ended up waiting at the border – mind you – in the middle of the road for three hours at midday, with barely any water left and a restroom nowhere in sight, which is not fun at all.

That’s not even the worst part! So, somehow we managed to cross the border (after having a man harass us and try to trick us into skipping the line, because he thought he had found four young women to manipulate, but anyway), and now we’re driving, drenched in sweat, with almost no water, sleepy, hangry, and in need of a restroom.

We stop at the first gas station we come across (like an hour after the border), fill our tank, take a 5-minute break, and then we’re on the road yet again.

Now, this is the grand finale (or fiasco) of our whole trip. Some 20 km after the gas station, I start smelling gas. Now, my tired brain doesn’t catch on to this immediately. I say nothing, thinking, because we were just at the gas station, that it was just that.

Only it wasn’t. Soon after, the glow plug warning light comes on.

Lesson No. 2: Try not to overheat your car!

I guess that was our cardinal mistake. After driving for so long, with the AC blasting for hours, we shouldn’t have turned the engine off immediately upon arriving at the gas station. We should’ve let it cool gradually. Turns out the gas came out of the exhaust without being burned, or whatever, and the whole back end of the car was greasy from it spilling in the drive. The window was misty, like in the rain, so we thought it was water coming from somewhere, but yeah, it was gas.

So, now we’re in the middle of nowhere, 13 km from the nearest town, in the SOS lane, as hundreds of cars (we were there for hours!) pass us by at speeds of +90 km/h. And the best part is, not a single car stopped for hours to check on us.

Lesson No. 3: It’ll be your own people!

You would think that other people’s distress wouldn’t become someone’s amusement, but it turns out it isn’t a bystander effect. People actually found us entertaining.

After we used all our water and got sunburnt, it was only the two Slovenian men driving in the opposite direction who stopped by, tried to help get the car started (it was toast), and gave us some plums, the only thing they had with them, to ease our thirst and hunger while we were waiting.

We did manage to get back home, though, only it would take hours for that to happen. In the end, we got the car towed, and my uncle drove from his home to take us home.

We learned a lot that day. Mainly:

1. Moving forward, we’ll only travel by plane or bus.
2. People are mean.
3. Our friendship is strong.
4. to plan better