BRONZE, SILVER & GOLD MEDAL TRAVEL MEMORIES

While the closing ceremony gave a definitive end to the 2012 Summer Olympics, the memories these games created will continue to play through the minds of many. Somewhat like memories from my travels, which I am constantly reminiscing about and sharing with others.

To keep our travel and Olympic memories alive, I was recruited by Neil of Backpacks and Bunks to be part of #TeamPurple and participate in LowCostHolidays.com travel blogger relay competition by representing my top three travel memories (good, bad or indifferent) with a medal. I replayed years of travel memories in my mind and scoured through hundreds of photographs when suddenly the baton was arms length away...

There was no more looking back as I grabbed the baton from Teresa from Travelicious Me and was off running with these three memories.

The Bronze Medal: Missing my flight out of Germany

I am sure everyone has missed a flight in their life, but it was my ignorance and the airport attendants' sarcasm that made this memory a winner.

Assuming I left myself ample time to get to the airport the morning after attending Oktoberfest—the largest festival in the world where liters of beer are consumed by individual people—the after effects of the beer might have caused us to take the train the wrong way and then left me hopelessly standing at a closed gate.

Standing face to face with the TSA attendant I insisted, "But I still have 45 minutes until my flight departs," managing to get each word out in between the huffing and puffing from my sprint through the airport.

"Uh nuh hunnay, that not how it work," she sneered back at me all while chuckling under her breath and giving me dagger eyes. She looked away from me and back down to the piece of paper that I annoyingly interrupted her from reading a minute earlier. I bent my head down trying to make eye contact with her once again and she instantly denied my attempt pushing me aside to fend for myself (more to come on this turn of events in an upcoming blog post).

But since when is 45 minutes not enough time to hop on your flight and get to your next destination—in Germany! Ashamed of my ignorance of the airport's rules, I guess another day in Munich wouldn't be so bad and therefore made this a medal-worthy memory.

The Silver Medal: Irish pub lock-in

It was late in the night when our drive from Cork to Killarney, Ireland came to an end. Without a place to stay, but in need of a beer, we left our car behind and literally parked our asses on the leather upholstered stools in a dark Irish pub. After a couple pints of Guinness and a friendly conversation with the bartender, we had a place to rest our heads for the night—a room above the bar, which included an Irish breakfast to soak up what would be an unexpected long night.

Losing track of time like the rest of the locals, the doors to the pub suddenly locked. There were no more entries, or exits for that matter, and we were essentially part of a "lock-in." A normal practice by pub owners, this allows patrons to stay in place and continue to enjoy a few drinks after the legal closing time. It was quite an experience as we continued to muck it up with locals laughing the night away before climbing the creaky narrow stairs to the bedroom above and crashing for the short remainder of the night morning. That was just one of the ways we immersed ourselves into the Irish culture and made this memory a silver medalist.

And The Gold Medal Goes To: In the face of baboons

As if going into the wild and seeing these animals move around their own habitat isn't excitement enough, our encounter with a baboon was the outrageous experience that made this travel memory at Lake Nakuru National Game Park in Kenya, Africa take home the gold. 

It started out to be a fabulous morning admiring the thick black-striped coats on the herd of zebra and gawking at the peach-hued lake from the infestation of hundreds of flamingos standing at the shore's edge. We trekked up the side of the mountain as the 4X4's tires spun out of muddy potholes and made a pit stop at Baboon Lookout. As we dodged baboons sitting in the middle of the dirt road and parked off to the side, we were just about to get out and join the rest of the onlookers taking in the the breathtaking views from the top of the mountain. But not before a baboon situated himself on the lap of the driver inside the vehicle and aggressively started grabbing at the food the small child sitting in the middle seat between me and the driver clung onto. Showing it's teeth while simultaneously smacking the driver in the head as she protected the child from the baboon attacks, we did all we could to muscle up the strength to use our feet to kick the baboon consistently until finally pushing him out of the 4X4 and slamming the door shut. 

While the three of us remained unharmed, fear settled in our bodies before an ultimate respect for wildlife carried us through the rest of our safari. And this memory continues to resonate as the wildest experience of my life (no pun intended).

Now handing the baton off to Sudha from That and This in Mumbai, she's off in the Blogger Relay. Follow our team on Twitter using #TeamPurple as we reach the finish line.

Happy travel blogging contests!