The Have Will Travel Story Contest

I am posting this funny travel experience for a contest that my friend Rhonda is doing. You can click here to visit her site to hear more about the contest. The winner will receive a roundtrip ticket to Connecticut. I hope you enjoy my travel experience and find it funny as I do now, but did not at the time.
Rafal and I were on our way to Poland. We flew to Chicago first, then to Milan, Italy and finally to Krakow, Poland. I have never and hope to never use the bathroom on an airplane. However, when you have a 10 hour flight, it's very difficult not to use the bathroom. Since I wasn't planning on using the bathroom unless it was an emergency, I made sure to only have a little bit to drink. About halfway through the flight, I needed to use the bathroom because whatever mystery food they had served us was not agreeing with my stomach. Every time I looked towards the bathroom, they was always a long line. I wasn't about to go in there and smell up the whole bathroom, especially because they would all know it was me when I came out. So, I just sat there miserable. My stomach was making strange sounds, but I knew that I just couldn't do it. Finally we arrived at the airport in Milan. I quickly found the bathroom. I went in, but there were too many people in there and I knew that I would get stage fright. As I left the bathroom and walked down the hall, I noticed that there was a handicap bathroom separate from the other bathroom. I thought perfect. I went in and locked the door. I was so glad that I found this. No one would hear me or see me. As I was about to sit down, I noticed that the toilet was making a weird sound, so I tried to flush it and it would not flush. Fabulous. So, I decided to leave and try again later. I went to leave and unlocked the door, but I couldn't get out. I tried a couple of times, but the door would not open. I was locked in a bathroom in a foreign country. I started to panic. My cell phone wouldn't work to call Rafal and I didn't know how long it would take for him to start looking for me. The only thing that I could do was pound on the door and yell "HELP." Luckily someone understood me and opened the door. I said "thank you" and quickly left. We finally arrived in Poland and then had an hour an a half drive from the airport to his sister's house. It was so humid and of course there was no air conditioning in the car. My ankles were swollen from sitting for so long and I desperately needed to use the bathroom and also take a shower. We finally arrived at his sister's house and there was smoke coming out of all the basement windows. I thought the house was on fire, but Rafal explained excitedly that his sister Magda was smoking a pig in the basement and they would have homemade sausage. I wish I could have shared his excitement, but I had other things on my mind. We went inside, met everyone and then I asked Rafal where the bathroom was. He showed me and explained that you had to hold the handle down on the toilet for a few seconds for it to flush. I was keeping my fingers crossed that it actually flushed. As I sat down, I noticed there was a high window in the bathroom and I could hear everyone in the kitchen. If I could hear them, then they could hear me, so the stage fright came back. Then to top things off, the bathtub had just been refinished and we couldn''t use it. Wonderful. I was enjoying Poland so much at this point. I went crying to Rafal and said that I just wanted to take a shower and a s%@*. He took me next door to his aunt's house where I took a bath, since they didn't have a shower and finally in the middle of the night when everyone was sleeping, I snuck off to the bathroom and finally took a s%@*! (Sorry if this word offends anyone, but it was the only appropriate word for the situation.)