We overstayed our welcome. Here's what happened next.
www.elliottconfidential.com
Apr 2, 2022 • 16M
We overstayed our welcome. Here's what happened next.
What happens when you go somewhere for too long? Recorded in Cape Town 4/1/22
Appears in this episode
Christopher Elliott
Straight talk about consumer news and travel. It's the podcast the travel industry doesn't want you to hear.
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We stayed in Cape Town, South Africa, for two months. That’s way too long. In our latest podcast, we talk about what we did just before we left.
Let’s just say things got … interesting.
Also, we’ll tell you where we’re headed next (hint: it’s not Africa).
And we’ll review some of the favorite places we’ve been stuck in, like Sedona.
Have you ever overstayed your welcome on a trip? Or selected the wrong destination? I think I might write a story about this soon, so please leave a comment and tell me your story.
We overstayed our welcome. Here's what happened next.
I overstayed my welcome in Turkey as an American, twice. The first time it was very scary, as the officials at the Antalya airport recognized the error when I checked in for my flight, and promptly escorted me over to the airport police station.
There were other people in the waiting room, also freaking out about whatever it is they got caught for. An hour and a half later (thank God I checked in super early), a police officer looked through my passport, tallied up the days I'd overstayed my welcome, and then told me to go to an ATM to pay cash for my fine – I'd overstayed by 20+ days, and the fine was a few hundred dollars.
I hit the ATM, paid the fine, and then got out on my regularly scheduled flight. Same thing happened the second time, but I'd only overstayed by a day or two so the fine was much smaller.
I can relate to sticking objects in an outlet, I tried that when I was a kid - well sort of. We had an extension lead and if you pulled out the extension part enough, the metal poles were still live and the gap was big enough for a finger. I would not recommend it to anyone, especially not in England where the voltage is 240V. It was very shocking, it felt like I was being smacked very hard.