The Little Things
November 7, 2012

By the time we got back to the hotel at the end of Day 3 of our trip, I was feeling pretty tired and blah, and I thought the lack of sleep was really catching up to me. My dad mentioned he wasn’t feeling great either, so we headed to bed quickly. WELL- turns out we weren’t going to get any sleep that night because my dad and I ended up with food poisoning. You know what’s worse than food poisoning? Food poisoning in a foreign country, in a hotel, with one tiny little bathroom and 2 people being sick. It was a very, very long night.

By the time breakfast hit I was at least done being sick, and just felt very tired and achy. After staying in bed all morning and eating bit of fruit and cereal my mom got at breakfast, I decided that I couldn’t completely waste my last day in Spain. It was very clear that we couldn’t head back into the old city, but I thought I could at least get outside and walk a little up and down the street (that didn’t go so well because I needed to sit down every minute or two because I’d get dizzy). I didn’t want to waste the day, and I thought maybe lifting my mental spirits by being outside would help me physically feel better.

Even if I wasn’t feeling great, this view was pretty fantastic! My mom and I enjoyed the afternoon looking out over the city and sitting down on one of the streets. I finally had enough and slept for an hour or so and watched some of the Ironman Kona championship online. I ended up sleeping only a few hours that night before having to be up early for a flight. Flying makes me feel a little off anyways, so going into it with a badly hurting stomach wasn’t so ideal.

Our flight from Valencia to Paris went quickly, but once we hit Paris it was a nightmare. We got delayed leaving Valencia because of weather in Paris, and then when we got into Paris we had to go through customs and security again. If you’ve ever been to the Paris airport, you know what a complete nightmare that place is! It’s so disorganized and incredibly poorly marked, and even the people who worked there struggled to help us figure out where we needed to be. We ran up to a gate and they nicely called ahead to our gate and held the plane for us. We were still sprinting through the airport (after barely being over food poisoning but still feeling sick and dizzy), getting yelled at by people because it was incredibly crowded, and the entire thing was just very stressful. Maybe one of my worst airport moments ever. We ended up getting to our gate 20-30 minutes after the flight was supposed to leave, but because of the delay due to weather, there were still others they were waiting on as well. The flight back to Detroit was nine and a half hours, and we ended up watching 3 movies. I didn’t sleep, unfortunately, but I felt too sick to my stomach to sleep.

The views from the plane definitely helped too! This was the English channel.

Some oatmeal in Detroit calmed my stomach a bit, and my third flight back home went quickly.

One big hint- when traveling, bring some food that you know will be ok if you aren’t feeling well. Having a few food staples was critical in my ability to get some calories into me when I wasn’t feeling well.

So, as it turns out, we really only ended up with a day and a half to walk around Valencia even though I was gone for 5 full days. It was a pretty fantastic trip, even with the food poisoning!

Sometimes trips don’t always turn out the way we think they will, and that’s ok. I tried to enjoy every minute of it that I could, even when I felt pretty bad because of the food poisoning. So that sums up my time in Valencia. I know this recap wasn’t the most exciting, but it’s hard to make food poisoning exciting:) I’ll do one more post on this trip about eating in Valencia!

Now it’s your turn to share! Have you ever gotten food poisoning while traveling? What’s one of your food staples when you aren’t feeling well? 

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One response to “Valencia, Spain – Day 4 and 5”

  1. Lindsay says:
    November 7, 2012 at 3:13 pm

    Food poisoning while traveling, especially in a foreign country, sounds awful! I’ve eaten things that made me not feel well while traveling (I remember a rabbit incident in France well), but fortunately it wasn’t food poisoning. Glad you were able to enjoy the rest of your trip!