Powerless. One Travel Mistake I Didn’t Want to Make.

a woman sitting on a bench with luggage

Every trip is a learning experience. I rarely make the same mistake twice, but it’s annoying to see how many mistakes are possible!

My dad and I took our first international trip together last week and I really wanted to impress him with my travel skills and loyalty perks. So when I discovered right before boarding that I had left my laptop power cord of all things at home, I was both dismayed and embarrassed.

No worries, I would just pull up Amazon Spain and order one to be sent to our hotel the next day.

That in itself was an adventure. From what I could tell there is no English language version of the Amazon Spain and since I was still in the US, Chrome wasn’t offering to translate.

I wound up copying and pasting every page into Google Translate to make sure I knew what was going on, before moving to the next page. Ordering took about 5x longer than usual. But the good news was I found a power cord, and by signing up for a free trial of Amazon premium, it would be delivered the next day for no extra charge.

Power cord comes, doesn’t fit my laptop, despite my model being listed. Another search of Amazon reveals every other option won’t arrive til our last day. So I take myself out into Barcelona’s electronics district in search of a cord.

And it becomes clear I really should have brushed up on my high school Spanish. But after a few stores, I finally find one that has something that might work. A universal power cord with 13 different adaptors. My laptop brand and series appear to be listed, surely with 13 different connectors one of them is going to work!

Wrong.

At this point I realized I probably wasn’t going to find a way to power my laptop (or work or blog) for the rest of the week long trip. Not sure the subsequent tears of frustration left quite the impression on my dad that I wanted. Not the worse thing in the world but this unexpected break from all work hadn’t been planned for and added to my stress.

Lesson learned: When I got home I bought a laptop power cord that will never leave my laptop case.

What’s your most inconvenient or embarrassing travel mistake?

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6 Comments

  1. See if you used a mac like a normal person lol you wouldn’t have any of these issues. Pop into an Apple Store… Done

  2. Buying a second laptop charger was the one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. I use it for travel and even for simple things like heading to Starbucks to get some work done. For future travelers… you can usually find power chargers for sale at the airport — along with English-speaking staff to help find one for your needs and the ability to test it in store and make sure it’s the one you want. Sometimes those airport prices are worth it!! (Hint…did the same thing March 2014 so you’re not alone)

  3. Here’s a beyond stupid mistake. While on a business trip to NY a couple weeks ago, I left my iPhone at FedEx. I didn’t realize that my phone was gone until I was on the LIRR train to JFK and there was not enough time to go back and make it to my flight. I immediately panicked and realized that I probably left my phone at FedEx. A nice lady on the train called FedEx and they said they have my phone. After getting off at the Jamaica station and boarding the Airtrain, I borrowed another person’s phone to call FedEx and have the phone sent via overnight. It cost me $65 to get the phone back, but it came to my office the next day. An expensive mistake, but perhaps the best place to lose my phone.

  4. also left once my powercord home, but at least took the laptop with me when buying the replacement so i could try it in the shop 😉

  5. This happened to me also. And the most annoying part is that I left it when I needed it the most. Thanks for the tip 🙂 Hope I won’t be having the same mistake again since I triple check every now and then my cord when I leave home. LOL!

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