Home Beckons

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“It must be nice traveling to Europe for work,” is a typical comment from some of my office-bound colleagues, spoken with just a hint of sarcasm. They probably imagine that a typical business trip involves boat rides down the Danube or candle-lit dinners in Paris. In reality, business travel offers mixed blessings; opportunities to experience new worlds, but often with little time to spend more than fleeting moments outside dark, smoke-filled meeting rooms. Traveling alone brings its own unique challenges as I found during one of my first business trips to Germany.

An early warning bell that the trip might go poorly sounded on my way to the airport. I discovered my husband’s cell phone charger in my bag, and I couldn’t find a phone cable for my computer. Undaunted, I bought a new charger and a phone cable, both at top dollar in the Tampa airport. I needed to work on my presentation before my second meeting in Germany, so I tried signing on, but the cable was not the correct one. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time to return the cable, so I borrowed another cable from a stranger. I still couldn’t sign into my company’s secure site! Oh well, I figured that I’d be able to connect at the Philadelphia airport. No luck there either. Plus, I had extra time to worry about whether I’d have time to tweak my presentation, since the plane left Philly two hours late…as usual. Are planes ever on time in Philly?

The flight to Munich passed quickly, but once on the ground, things deteriorated quickly. I immediately discovered that my cell phone wouldn’t work in Germany (no need for the high-dollar charger after all). Then, my initial relief about finding the right train vanished as I bypassed my stop, not once, but twice because I couldn’t figure out how to open the train door! Don’t they always open automatically? Embarrassed and frustrated, I hauled my three suitcases across the tracks and backtracked the two stops, where I found a pay phone to call my customer. It wouldn’t take my credit card, and I didn’t have the right coins. A stranger helped, but by the time I met my customer, I had been up for twenty-seven hours and looked and felt well-worn. By the time I reached my hotel, it was thirty-one hours. I reminded myself to tell my colleagues that there was no time for a raft trip down the River Isar!

At the hotel, the voltage converter that I brought wouldn’t work, so I trudged back down to the front desk to borrow one. Back in my room, I tried to call home, but the phone system wouldn’t allow use of international company phone numbers – I’d have to pay top-dollar for phone calls. The computer cable didn’t work, so I had to get dressed again and go to the front desk to sign up for wireless. I finally got through on the phone to my company IT group to ask for help signing into our system, but they couldn’t help immediately. So, bleary-eyed and fuzzy-brained, I stayed up for three more hours to redo the presentation in case the original one didn’t come through. Exhausted, I fell into bed thirty-six hours after waking up in the U.S.

Up just four short hours later, I washed my hair, but guess what? The hotel hair dryer didn’t work! Then, too late, I remembered that most European hotels don’t provide irons, so I used the wet-washcloth, wrinkle-removal method on my suit. Other than my slightly soggy appearance, my presentation went well except for blowing out a lamp because of the voltage difference. After the long, tiring day of meetings, dinner meant more serious business discussions, no candlelight or caviar. I finally dragged myself back to the hotel by train, arriving at 10:00 at night at the closest stop to my hotel, which was four blocks away. As I stepped off the platform, rain welcomed me onto the sidewalk. I walked the four long blocks in the rain with no umbrella, of course, an end to two typical days of business travel. As my colleagues say, it must be nice!

I’ll follow up in another post with some tips for international travel, some of them specifically for women, traveling alone. With better preparation, you can minimize your travel challenges and even find ways to have fun, but don’t tell your colleagues!