I saw the challenge for Weekend-Engagement topics WEEK 274 just today, and I thought it would be interesting to write on one of the threads, and a story just came to my mind.
The topic i chose for myself: Travel problems
In general, I am a person who doesn't complain much, I don't get sick on ships or in cars, I usually don't have any problems on trains, and rude taxi drivers have long since disappeared somewhere in the distant reaches of my memory. But there is one experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. It happened not such a long time ago, or maybe because the time flied so fast I didn't even get to realise that.
And so it happened at the last Hivefest in Croatia, Split, and I didn't even realize that I'm writing this while it's been almost a year since the last Hivefest. So okay, let's get back to the story. The whole event was great, lots of fun, activities, and on the 4th day there was supposed to be a trip to the sea on a ship to try diving behind the underwater museum. Nothing foreshadowed any trouble, but we were informed that the diving was canceled, or rather postponed to another additional day due to weather conditions. Instead, we had a great day at the billiards. And then came day X, many people did not come because they had a flight scheduled for that day, but to my great surprise there were quite a few passengers on board. The morning itself started normally, although it was a bit cold, and I didn't take any winter jackets. But I immediately realized that something was going to go wrong, because as soon as I got on the ship I started to freeze. The wind was strong, and my legs felt like ice.
So after getting on board, we did a little inspection of the deck, and realizing that there was no indoor space, which gave me even more anxiety, we sat on the first floor hoping it wouldn't get colder. But unfortunately, things only got worse.
(my sarcastic smile)
I don't understand how the people on board looked cheerful, or did they even manage to do anything without complaining about the temperature. Some even said that they were very warm. Maybe they were dressed warmer, or what?... But for me it was horrible. I was blown to the bone, it seemed, and I didn't know what to do.
My mother found some more clothes in her bag, so I wrapped myself up as best I could, and sat like a compressed ball. I also tried to walk around the ship, trying to warm up, but that didn't help either. They gave us food, so I hoped that at least there would be hot tea. But I was very disappointed. There was no tea, only cold drinks, wine, or slightly warmer coffee, but this coffee was, as I remember, without milk, and even warm on its own it would have been terrible.
Later, my sister found the hold of the ship, where I went from time to time to hide from the wind, and that helped. It was quite cozy there, and there was also a kind of "window" that looked out onto the seabed. But there was some not very pleasant smell in the hold, probably fish, so I couldn't stay there for too long. In the end, the cold overcame the smell, and my sister and mother and I all climbed into the hold together, where most of the passengers were sitting with us. This moment was probably one of the best in this trip, because it was like a big reunion of people in search of warmth. We sat there until the first stop.
And so at this stop, we were supposed to dive, but because of the cold, many people refused, so no one did the professional diving, only some in simple masks. One of those people was me.
I didn't know where to get away from that cold, so I thought that maybe swimming would change the situation a bit. So I turned out to be right. The water was much warmer than the air, and I would say that I even warmed up. Only my mother, I and a few other people were swimming, because other people didn't want to get wet because of the cold. But for me it was the solution.
After leaving the sea, I would say that the situation changed radically. I felt much warmer, and I could finally enjoy our walk around the island where we stopped, looking with joy at the ancient walls and natural landscapes.
When I returned to the board later, I was no longer so cold, but after a few minutes of the trip my hands and feet started to get cold again. So in search of a warmer place, we went out onto the roof of the ship, where the wind was somehow warmer, and there were also wonderful views. Taking sun loungers, we layed there and talked for a while with our friend 
Some daredevils also climbed onto the mast, which looked really cool, as one of these people was our pirate Jack Sparrow 
And well, it was an interesting and in some places even fun journey, but still with a lot of suffering. I'm still glad I was there and experienced it with all the other Hivians.
Thanks 