What's the Worst Vacation You've Ever Been On?

Welcome to Question of the Day. It gives interns something to do!

What makes a bad holiday for you? Forgetting the travel insurance? Curious blood stains on the bed linen? A rude man on the reception desk who lacks patience with your pidgin Italian?

To be honest, I'm not sure that getting abducted by travelers and being forced to work as a slave in Belgium can be topped, but we asked some people to tell us about the worst holiday experiences of their lives anyway.

Name withheld: I went to Corfu once and someone died.

Wow. Did you see it happen?
I saw her family at the end, they were all a hysterical mess—they had to go home early.

Yeah, makes sense. What happened?
She died in her sleep. In bed, in the hotel. We don’t know what happened, they were just guests there. I guess it was like, heart failure or something.

How was the rest of the holiday?
Awful. My brother got beat unconscious by some bro at a bar. There were loads of sex pests everywhere, too.

Well I guess you should just be glad that you made it back alive.

Beau Bass, London, 20, student: Um, I was in Croatia and I was quite drunk, so I decided to steal some sunglasses from a kiosk. This turned out to be a bad idea, because a lot of Croatian men ran after me and beat me up really badly.

Why did you steal the sunglasses?
I don’t know… Because I thought they looked cool.

How many men were there?
Probably about ten.

Did you break anything?
No.

Lucky.
Then another time I fell under a train.

What? Were you drunk again?
No, I was sober that time but I have quite a strange name and I was trying to pronounce it to people as I was getting on a train and then I got distracted and fell under.

And you just fell under, you didn’t get electrocuted or hit or anything?
Yeah, it wasn’t a moving train so I just fell into the gap between the train and the tracks and then people pulled me back up. It was pretty scary.

Jason Sarkozy, Paris/ Shoreditch, 19: I was supposed to meet this someone on a trip, but I lost my phone. I didn’t have their number and I couldn’t find them, so I had to spend the whole trip alone.

Oh, poor you.
Yes, there’s worse, though… Imagine you go on vacation to meet someone—someone you met on the internet—and then you get there and it’s not that person. This happened to someone else though, not me.

That’s scary, that’s like a horror film.
That happens, you know.

Yep, it does.
Didn't happen to me, though.

Nope, sure it didn’t.

Kyro, London, 19: Well. My horrible vacation started when I arrived at the airport.

Before your trip even started?
Yes. At the airport someone stepped on my Louis Vuitton luggage.

And?
Someone stepped on my LV luggage!

That’s it?
I just lost it. He stepped on it and I had a bitch fit.

To be honest man, that’s not that bad.
Yeah it is, honey!

Did he break it?
The handle. It’s fucking expensive!

Boja, 25, Valencia: It’s actually the one I am on right now.

You are on vacation right now and it’s awful?
Yeah, I am on vacation right now but I don’t actually have a house, because I’m homeless. So this is the worst vacation because I am in the street.

You are having a homeless holiday? That’s bad.
Yes.

How did that happen?
Well my landlord put up my rent, so I’ve been put out on the street. Because my actual place is in Stratford and you know, with the games and everything, people want to rent their homes for loads of money. So he kicked me out.

And how long are you here for?
Two months, but I have friends—all the Spanish are here!

Previously - What Do You Miss Most About Being Young?