GETTING SICK, TRAVELLING & TRIESTE

July 2015

Istanbul gave us one gift… a tummy bug.

It hit me like a tonne of bricks. On the island of Venice of course. Right in the middle of the hottest day ever.

Getting sick whilst travelling is a given. It’s going to happen to all of us. Unfortunately for me it felt like it was at the worst time possible.

When I only have one day to explore Venice island, gastro was definitely not on my agenda. From the creeping stomach pains that started on the boat over, I soon discovered as the day wore on that I was very very sick. It was horrible.

We weren’t cautious in Istanbul. We ate anywhere and everywhere, we ate off the streets, we cooked with the water, and brushed our teeth and basically just didn’t worry at all. I don’t regret it, it was really great to travel care free. I don’t know what got us in the end… It could have been somewhere we ate, or the street stall bread rolls I bought us before the plane, or even the airport salad buffet, or the homemade lemonade on the flight. Whatever it was, it was awful. And poor Martin got sick one night after I did.

Worse than feeling on the verge of death all afternoon on Venice was having to catch a regional train to our next destination the following day. We were on our way to Trieste, a small town near the boarder of Croatia. We were making our way slowly back to one of our favourite European destinations. We only had one night in Trieste to explore in the late afternoon after our train arrived before we had a bus to catch the next day.

It was devastating to be so sick when you only have one evening to explore a new city. I managed to get out for one hour to look around town, but I don’t remember much and it wasn’t much fun for me. From the very little bit I saw, Trieste was the smallest town in Italy we’d been to so far, and the town was so authentically Italian it was just delightful.

The streets were so much quieter, it reminded me of the Italian version of our home town Adelaide, Australia. It was just so liveable! From the bustling mall to the ocean promenade, I could imagine the locals having a wonderful life here. It was clean, the architecture beautifully maintained and painted in soft pastel colours. The evening light bathed the city in this warm glow and everyone seemed really happy.

I wish I wasn’t sick and I wish I hadn’t missed my chance to see Trieste properly. But these things happen. And for one thing it proved to myself how strong I am to persevere in dire situations. The next morning we had to survive a four hour bus ride to our accommodation in Croatia. Where now two of us were suffering with gastro, we were so dehydrated, exhausted and of course the bus had a toilet, but the driver locked the door because he didn’t want anyone to use it. I had read this about the company beforehand (which incase you were wondering, is called Autotrans), but I had to see it to believe it. Fortunately for us we’d both taken some medication to get us through, but another poor traveller asked the driver half way through if she could use the restroom and he eventually pulled over to the side of the HIGHWAY and let her use a bush for a toilet (not even a public restroom!). It was horrific and I couldn’t believe they would do this to paying customers. Could the toilet just have been broken? No. Because we caught four of their buses in total for our time in Croatia and on every journey the door was locked.

Sorry for my rant, I guess you can say I’m still a little sour about that particular bus company 😉

The one bit of advice I can give longterm travellers (and short term too!). Always travel with a mini medical kit, some tablets for a cold, pain killers, gastro tablets and if you’re going to a country with less sanitary water than what you’re used to, bring electrolytes too incase you become dehydrated. Dehydration is so dangerous and once you reach that point, it’s really hard to get rehydrated and functioning again. Don’t be afraid to change or cancel your plans. I need to take my own advice on this one, I mean… I’m super stubborn. And realistically we should have stayed in Trieste a few days to recover, but when you’ve already booked accommodation at your next location and spent a lot of money, it’s hard to make the right choice. Listen to your body and let yourself heal.

We were lucky. We made it to Croatia in one piece and without too much stress. We changed buses in Rijeka, and I watched the sun slowly dip towards the sea from our window seats on our final bus that day, so grateful for this experience and knowing I won’t be taking my health for granted anytime soon.