During our honeymoon trip my husband made up his mind to chip me so he can find me when (notice I didn’t say if?) I get lost again.
I have a habit of becoming mesmerized by nature and wandering away, sprinting off, or freezing in my footsteps because of overstimulation. I also tend to take the less travelled path when hiking the wilderness. I like walking through the branches and dirt, not on sidewalks or gravel.
So, it was inevitable that I would get lost during our trip to the UK and Europe. The first time was at the Munich zoo, the second time I ended up in a police car in Prague, and the third ended up being a 2.5 hour hiking expedition to find civilization in the Austria mountains. I just want to say that it is a good thing I think in pictures and that William and I went over what to do if I get lost during our honeymoon-1. find a uniformed officer, police/fire station, or hospital 2. inform the officer or emergency worker that I am lost and that I have autism 3. show my pass port and autism ID card with emergency numbers 4. ask for help.
This blog is broken up into two parts as I will be sharing about all our adventures in Prague, not just my blind explorations and run in with the cops. Additionally I will provide some suggestions to help prepare ASD individuals when lost during travel/outing.
Just for the curious minds… My zoo adventures I will detail in the blog titled chocolate toes and my Austria mountain expedition will be in a blog titled lost again…
Here we go. But first, wrap yourself in bubble wrap, grab a blow horn, look both ways, and honk that horn loudly!! Otherwise you may get ran over by a car, bus, boat, bike, or people who have forgotten how to walk straight! We saw some crazy streets, but Prague was the worst!
We arrived in Prague late afternoon after a LONG train ride from Munich, Germany. We exited the train, plugged our destination into our phones and immediately learned four things-both our phones were low on charge, our airBNB was 4.3 miles away, no one spoke English, and we would need to cross a river.
To make a long story short, William and I found a public boat taxi that could take us across the river. However, what was supposed to be a 10 minute wait for the water taxi ended up as a a 45 minute wait. The odd thing was that we saw the taxi the whole time, it even stopped at our port. Twice. It let people off but not on. It went past us 4 times. The other people waiting with us were obviously upset-some left, some cursed, and one man pulled down his trousers and peed. I guess he couldn’t wait to find a bathroom. Finally the water taxi stopped. A lady in front of us exchanged harsh words (I gathered by the tone) with the driver and then we all entered the boat, but we exited again one minute later as the taxi stopped at the next port. As soon as we stepped off the boat we all filed back on. It was bizarre and beyond me for the reasons behind such a rule.
In any case we eventually arrived across the water and continued on our trek to the Airbnb with our 35 lb (mine) and 30 lb (William’s) backpacks in tow. 4 miles later we arrive at our destination and discover that there was a train station only a half a mile away. We had apparently exited at the wrong station.
I was super excited when I opened the door to the Airbnb, it had a loft bed and lots of drawers, cabinets, and dressers to explore. I unpacked my bag began sorting and organizing ALL of my stuff. William reminded me we were only there 3 days so I don’t need to unpack EVERYTHING. I kept arranging and rearranging my stuff though-sorting is calming and resets my brain.
After an hour he managed to get me to stop so we could explore a little before night fall. So, off we went into the city center of Prague where I’d end up in a police car and William ends up the victim of a crooked taxi driver with magic tricks and slight of hand. All of this on our first day in Prague.
To be continued…