Please join us in welcoming Kristin Luna to The Window Seat. She lives in San Francisco and is the writer of the Bloggie-award-winning travel blog Camels and Chocolate.
When I scheduled my 28-hour stopover in Helsinki, I thought I’d do a whirlwind tour of the city, snapping some quality architecture shots in true shutterbug fashion and doing little else. Au contraire, naïve one. Instead, I spent the majority of my time in Finland getting acquainted with the downtown poliisi precinct.
On my way to the ferry station to purchase my ticket to Estonia, I was crossing at the green crosswalk like the law-abiding citizen I am. Out of nowhere, a minivan cab came whipping around the way, and performed an illegal U-turn—at a red light at that—before I had time to contemplate my next move.
I did what any camera-toting traveler might do: Threw up my hands and blocked my equipment. I assumed the second he saw me, the cabbie would come to a screeching halt just inches from my nose. Instead, he continued on, full speed ahead—completely knocking me to the ground on the sidewalk.
I was stunned—what does one do when one has just been pummeled by a cab in a foreign country? My forearms were throbbing, but I knew nothing was broken. Thus, a trip to the hospital would be futile. My immediate inclination was to copy down his license plate number, which I did, and call my fiance crying. That’s not the phone call you want to receive from your loved one at 3am 10 time zones away, but after uttering some choice words at the cabbie’s expense across the airwaves, he directed me to head straight to the police and report the incident.
I was so unprepared for my brief day among the Finns that I had little else on me than a basic tourist map, and it didn’t have so much as one police station marked. I pulled it together and located the visitor’s center instead. Amid more sobs, I summarized my story, and was handed me a brochure on how to handle such a situation (I guess my case wasn’t such a rarity after all). The next few hours were spent being interrogated on the top floor of the precinct, making sure to give every last detail from the color of the cab to the driver’s height and build. While I didn’t want any compensation for my troubles—though the interrogator urged me to file for some—I did want him to at least get slammed with a penalty on his record, so as to save any future travelers from getting knocked to the ground.
After my near brush with death, I vowed to be more on top of my game for all future travels. Here’s my plan for being prepared in the event of an emergency; you might just find it handy should a Vespa try to mow you down or Montezuma come a knockin’.
-Document your trip (and I don’t mean keep a journal). A well-traveled woman once told me she always kept three copies of her itinerary, plane tickets, and passport on her at all times, stashed in separate locations for safe keeping. This way, if she lost one, she’d have a back-up, or worse, if her passport went missing, she’d still have some form of identification on her.
-Keep a kit. After being grounded in Spain a few years back with a nasty bout of the flu, I learned my lesson: It’s not so easy finding a 24-hour apothecary in most countries. If you’re like me and prone to stubbed toes and cracked noggins, take heed. To ward off potential catastrophes, I created a compact first-aid kit that permanently resides in my carry-on. Among other things, it houses Band-Aids, Advil, a decongestant, eye drops, nasal spray, nail clippers and file (hey, sometimes a hang nail is an emergency!), antibacterial wipes, Neosporin, and chewable tablets like Tums and Pepto Bismol (because I’ve had more than one run-in with contaminated water in third-world countries).
-Make lists. From now on, before I arrive in any city, I jot down the numbers and addresses for the U.S. embassy and/or consulate, as well as a couple main hospital or medical centers, taxi services and—what else?—police stations in a pocket-sized notebook. Pick up a map at the first information center you see upon entering the country so you can locate each point of interest should an emergency strike.
-If all else fails, don’t be afraid to ask for help. (Men: this means you, too.) Even if you’re visiting a place where English isn’t the primary language, chances are you’ll find someone that speaks the universal code and can direct you where you need to go. And if you don’t, hand signals and gestures work wonders.
All photos courtesy of Kristin Luna.
Comments
Jul 10, 2009
Unfortunate experience...but it makes a great story! Travelers should also leave copies of those important documents and itineraries with someone at home and register with the U.S. Embassy when traveling abroad. I also always get a map and ask the concierge to mark off the seedy areas where I shouldn't go. No need to experience EVERYTHING a destination has to offer!