Have you ever said to yourself “that will never happen to me”? I was one who never saw the need for travel insurance because nothing had ever gone wrong before. However, that all changed on one business trip to Munich. The company I work for has an office in Munich where the rest of my team physically sits, so we decided I would take a trip across the ocean and work face-to-face with them for a week. Having never been to Munich before, I was ecstatic to make the trip (especially since I flew first class which is a talk for another time!) even if I would be working most of the time. I arrived over the weekend and spent every waking second exploring the city. From getting accustomed to the U-bahn system to being mesmerized by the sights of Marienplatz, I loved everything I saw – especially the snow!!! I had yummy food and took lots of pictures despite the fact that it was -8 degrees Celsius most of the day.
The next couple of days went as planned with me meeting all my co-workers that I had not met yet all while squeezing in more sights of Munich.
The Tuesday of that week, my co-workers asked if I wanted to go play an ice sport with them called Eisstockschießen (hopefully this is the correct spelling?!?!). It is kind of like curling but without the brooms and forgive me as I try to explain what happened next since I do not know any of the technical terms for the game. The rules were explained to those of us who had never played before and the game began. Basically, there are two teams that try to get these large throwing stones as close to the puck on the other side of the ice as possible. We spent the night strategizing our plays and knocking the other teams stones out of the way all while cheering each other on. After every throw, you walk across the ice to the other side to wait for the next round. From that angle, you can see just how close your teammate got their stone (or in my case, just how far away).
However, this one throw I did perfect (or as the Bavarians say- SUPAH!). I got my stone right up next to the puck knocking the others out of the way. I was so excited and got lots of cheers from my team. Unfortunately, that is where my night took a turn. As I was walking across the ice, I lost my balance and fell down. Hard. A few people rushed over to see if I was okay, and I got up as quickly as possible and said yes while I took inventory of how my body felt. My wrist immediately started to swell, and I took my glove off to remove my watch. Seeing how much my wrist had already grown in the short amount of time scared me, so I tried to put my glove back on. Shooting pain shot up my arm, and I knew I was not okay. I turned to the co-worker that I am closest to there, and I told her just that. She and one other rushed me to the ER. Luckily, there was a small urgent care near the ice rink that only had one other person in front of me.
To say that I was a complete wreck is an understatement. Not only was I in a lot of pain, I was incredibly embarrassed to have this happen in front of co-workers. No one ever wants to be that vulnerable in front of people they do not know that well. Finally, the doctor was ready for me, and things did not get any easier. The doctor was very gruff and did not speak that great of English, so luckily my co-worker was kind enough to translate. He was not impressed by my tears and kept telling me to stop crying which of course made me cry even more. After the x-rays, he sent me back to the other room so he could evaluate the scans. He then proceeds to yell from the other room that my wrist was broken which made my emotions even worse. After getting my wrist wrapped, I finally made it back to my hotel with instructions to come back the next morning for more evaluation and pain medications.
The rest of the trip did not go as planned as I was super upset having not only broken my wrist in a foreign country, but I was leaving for Hawaii in three weeks. You know an island that is surrounded with water that I had planned on swimming in. However, I was very grateful for the care that my co-worker provided me.
The trip home was hard given the fact that I was by myself, but there were a lot of very kind individuals who helped make my trip easier, as well as, all the staff in the Munich airport who went out of their way to make me comfortable. So, the next time you say “that will never happen to me”, remember my story and buy the travel insurance!
And yes- it has been 9 months since this happened, and I still get jokes about this experience from coworkers. I do not think I will ever live this down!
Happy Travels!
-Kaitlin
I love that story!!!
Thank you!!