Share Your Holiday Stories!
With holidays coming up, a lot of you guys might be going travelling, so this is a new thread where you can share any funny, crazy, interesting, and sweet stories you might have.
And don't hold back from sharing any good stories you might have from past trips!
To get the ball rolling, I'll start by sharing a story about my recent road trip from Melbourne to Sydney :smileyface:
Unfortunately, I was more than a little tired on the last day of the trip, and so it was a bad idea that I was in charge of navigation. Not realising that I hadn't actually hit enter on the google maps, we drove off and just kept driving. Cut to 4 hours later, and we have accidentally found ourselves in a small country town a cool 150km away from where we should be. While my mates weren't super enthusiastic about this little detour at first, we made the best of the situation having a night picnic in a local nearby park. Best part was definitely when a beautiful kitten decided to come keep us (and our food) company!
@scared01, @Bananatime04 @Tiny_leaf @WheresMySquishy (or anyone else!) do you have any good travel stories you'd like to share?
Love reading all these!
I haven't been on holiday in years but am going away next month so hopefully will have something good to add then!!
hey @Andrea-RO i didnt get this tag either. im guessing abit of a glitch happening?
Loved reading your story though and getting lost. good you made the most of a tricky situation though. the cat looks cute and friendly- though im sure thats cause he/she was wanting some of what you were eating!
Hello ReachOut friends!
As some of you may be aware I've been missing for over a month! "Why is that?" Some of you may be wondering... "Where has Maddy gone? Has she left R/O? Is she unwell?" Then there are some of you (probably most 
) who did not even notice... which is cool too. Well well friends, its about time you all know that I was away for 4+ weeks travelling around Europe, and I have come to this thread to share my journey with you guys!
I visited London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Krakow, Budapest, Ljubljana, Venice, Rome, Florence, Swiss Alps, Paris and Barcelona. All of the locations were visited while on tour except for Barcelona so most of it was pretty fast paced. I must say that I had SO much fun getting around Europe via a tour company. I highly recommend it! I made such good bonds with people in such a short period of time and shared experiences with them that I'll never ever forget! It was both an educational and fun experience!
Some of the typical tourist activities I did included a gondola ride in Venice, jumping in Lake Bled, visiting the Leaning Tower of Pisa, The Colosseum, The Vatican City, The Eiffel Tower, Auschwitz (
), Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, and as mentioned before the Swiss Alps. The Swiss Alps were trippy as because on ground it was approx. 30 degrees, but when you made your way up to the mountains it was snowing! Switzerland was so picturesque, I was in love!
I spent the most time in Barcelona, which I explored with my cousin after the tour ended. I went to Pablo Picasso's museum, the Barceloneta Beach, La Sagrada Familia and other Antoni Gaudi-designed architecture such as Casa Battlo and Casa Mila (all of his work is so abstract and beautiful). I stayed on one of the main streets - La Rambla - so I spent lots of time exploring the streets and I found many hidden gems (shops/ cafes). There's a huge art culture in Barcelona which is probably why I liked it so much. Highly recommend going there!
I have been hit with the TRAVEL BUG and want to explore more so plan on visiting southern Italy, Greece and Malta next year (hopefully).
I have some great time lapses and photos that I can share if you guys like! Just let me know. E.g., I have a time lapse of some of my gondola ride. Also feel free to ask me any questions 
Even though I had a great time overseas, I am glad to be back in Australia too, and to be back with my ReachOut friends! I hope you all had a good month while I was away and managed to stay warm enough in Australia. 
Hmmm...
Probably not that interesting, but there was the time I "became" a pelican when I was younger.
Or rather, when I followed a random pelican back to a small flock of them, and "waddled" up to the group.
I think they accepted me, most of them didn't give me any more attention than they gave to the real birds and went on with what they were doing.
Except for this one pelican, who glared at me the entire time. Little me was so offended 
@Tiny_leaf That reminds me of a time when I was on holidays when I was younger and I thought a pelican was Big Bird from Sesame Street!
Funny holiday stories:
- I got chased by a sheep or goat at one of those farm attractions.
- I went on a cruise a few years ago with my extended family and my grandpa, who has dementia, wandered into a random family's room, believing it was his room. He also went to the bathroom while we were having breakfast in the buffet area, but never came back. We ended up finding him on the pool deck, thinking that was where the buffet was.
- We went whale watching in the Pacific Ocean while on holiday once. The seas were really rough and we all ended up seasick the whole time. When we finally got back on land I could see the world spinning and had to stay in bed for the rest of the day. Never again!
- One of my family members visited a fast food store while we were on holiday overseas, ordering a box of twenty nuggets. Instead, they were given twenty packets of sauce and no nuggets!
- In New Zealand, we went to a small local museum. One of the staff members was giving a tour and explaining the history of the exhibits, so we joined the group. After several minutes, a staff member said there were some guests that weren't supposed to be there. They turned out to be us! Turns out, the tour actually had to be paid for in advance, separate to the costs of the museum tickets. 
- While on holiday, my sister once got her face painted as Morro from Ninjago (the painter asked her to pick a character from her phone). Two Japanese tourists came up to her later, asking to pose for a photo with her. She was like a local celebrity!
- I was on another holiday interstate with my grandparents. Grandpa forgot his passport and wallet and we only realised once we got to the airport. It ended up not being a problem on the domestic flight going there, but then the flight to get home was changed to an international flight. While the rest of the family went to sort out our luggage, I had to stay with my grandpa as he was questioned by a customs officer. They let us go eventually.
Sweet holiday stories:
- If one family member is in a wheelchair, staff usually go above and beyond to make their experience special. Cruise staff organised a wheelchair-friendly taxi for my sister. They would also push her around the ship. Some street buskers also saw that she was in a wheelchair and decided to serenade her in Fiji. Once, we went to a theme park and the staff organised us to be in a special VIP area with an unobstructed view of a parade. We also got faster access to rides and meet and greets. One of the characters even asked about her wheelchair, staying in character. He was so awesome and cracked us up.
- This didn't happen to us, but one of our friends who was also on a cruise. He had bought his child a stuffed animal from the gift shop but they ended up losing it. They returned back to their cabin to find that the staff member in charge of their room had bought them another one with his own money and left it on their bed.
- While on holiday, my sister wanted to visit a local sculpture-painting exhibit. It was her favourite thing to do. But we ended up arriving after they had already packed up for the day. She was upset and we started walking back to our apartment. Suddenly, a staff member came rushing out with a kit that she could do at home, free of charge! She was all smiles again.
I'm sure I have some other stories. I'll try to think of them.
so many awesome stories @WheresMySquishy!
My favourite holiday stories are:
- being bombarded by deer at Nara in Japan! They look cute but they bite!!
- Having a 'riff-off' (as they call it on pitch perfect) on a street in Munich with my Contiki Family in the middle of the night (sorry residents)
- Almost got stuck in a elevator in the Swiss Alps (which caused me to have a panic attack) but is one of my craziest holiday stories!
Would love to hear where everyone's ideal holiday destination! Mine is the Caribbean
@lennycat2017 the deer must be so used to humans there...
I really want to go to the Pleistocene Park in Russia. They're reintroducing megafauna to the park, like wild horses and oxes. Some people are hoping to splice remnants woolly mammoth DNA with the DNA of Asian elephants, to recreate the mammoth steppe environment that used to exist there. (I'm going to stop my nerdy rant here, before I take over the whole thread )
I think my favorite part of a holiday (even better than the pelicans) was when my family booked a close encounter type thing at a zoo.
We got to go into an (empty) tiger enclosure, help the zookeepers with enrichment activities, and then watch him play. He came over to where we were watching him, we were like a meter away from him and only separated by a metal fence. He snuffled at us.
He is huge, his head would've been wider than my ribcage.
I was fortunately able to resist the temptation to hug the big kitty. I swear the more dangerous an animal is the more adorable I find it...
Hey everyone!
I just wanted to give you a heads up that I will be away for a few weeks in August travelling around Europe- so if you notice I'm not on the forums for a bit, that's where I am! We have a new staff member @Bre-RO who is starting at ReachOut this week, as well as our awesome community staff @Claire-RO @TOM-RO @Maddy-RO @Taylor-RO and @Andrea-RO who will be around in August
I will be away from the beginning of August (this Thursday!) and returning towards the end of August! I will have to come back to this thread to share my travel tales and funny stories when I return
@Jess1-RO I hope you have fun!! (and that it's not too cold..)
Are you looking forwards to doing anything while you're there?
I am a huge fan of history, so I am going emerge myself in the historical sites and just try to enjoy every moment
Hi everyone! Just wanting to let you know that I am back
I got to see a lot in the last 3 weeks, and thought I'd share a few photos of where I have been These were from Italy (Rome, Amalfi, Florence, Venice), Spain (Barcelona) and France (Paris).
I've missed you all and am looking forward to jumping back into the forums with @Bre-RO and @Claire-RO this week
Still catching up on posts I was tagged in and some of the amazing community discussions that have been happening this month!
Are there any holidays stories out there in the community from the last few months? Or holidays you may be taking over the Christmas/New Year Period?
Yep! I'm going to Sydney in January! Only for a few days though. It's expensive over there!
Would love to hear how you find it? Yeah Sydney is expensive! There are some great free/low cost activities too which can be a good option (I always look for these over the weekends!). Let us know if you want some suggestions 🙂
I think my family have decided on getting a family pass to do three free activities that would otherwise be unaffordable.
@xXLexi_Lou122Xx hope you have a wonderful time in Sydney! I also love Bondi Rescue! It's so cool when you can see them filming the show, hopefully they are on the day you go 🙂
@Tiny_leaf I had a close encounter with a tiger too! I was at Dreamworld many years ago when some people walked past with a small tiger on a leash. I ran over and patted it near its tush! It was so cute.
I hope to see many more dangerous animals. I swam with sharks and stingrays once and they were really friendly and loved getting pats, cuddles and food. They loved the attention and seeing the guests. You had to be careful that they didn't accidentally chomp your finger thinking that it was food when you fed them though!
@WheresMySquishy awwww!!! I love tigers. My grumpy little cat does a fairly good impression of them
The most dangerous animals I get to see regularly are dingoes, but I'm not trained enough to be a dingo handler... yet. They're so beautiful though!
I do get to work with emus. They're more annoying than dangerous mostly, but because I'm short they keep trying to boss me around. I've had more battles-of-the-will with those birds than I like to admit...
Do you have any plans for these holidays?
My family's going to Victoria. It probably sounds weird, but I'm really looking forward to seeing the birds there. In WA we basically have different versions of the Eastern states birds, and not as many feral ones. It was really weird seeing a crimson rosella for the first time.
@Tiny_leaf Your cats sound cute! I'd love to see dingoes and emus. I'm so jealous you get to work with them!
My sister's in hospital for about five weeks, so we will be spending our holidays there. I wish I could trade places with her though. My grandma has been driving me up the wall and doing silly things so I can't really leave the house. I'm pretty sure she has some kind of dementia. Thing is, when I'm alone with her or she's by herself, she gets anxious and her behaviour gets worse. You need to watch her constantly to make sure she doesn't do anything risky. Today she almost set fire to the kitchen. Lucky me! At least my sister is being constantly entertained and treated like a queen. Someone let her play with a therapy dog, she got to do art and read books and people sang songs with her.
Victoria is one of my favourite places to visit! I have a lot of family members living there and we visit each other from time to time. When we last went there, I think we saw penguins in the Melbourne aquarium. Once we spent New Year's Eve there and got to see a really great view of fireworks from our apartment.
