In honor of my next trip, I wanted to reflect on some of the madness that comes along with traveling. It's an awesome ride, but a strange one for certain. Here are my top 5 favorite bizarre stories of things that happened to me while I was traveling abroad. You know, those moments where you're pretty sure you must be a part of some social experiment or reality TV show? Keep in mind, this list could go on for much longer. But for the sake of time and our sanities, here are 5 of my favorite:

1. The time I had to run across a border between two countries:

I had only received 2 pieces of advice about crossing the border between Uganda and Rwanda: "Don't speak a lot and don't cross in the dark." So, after a mere 22 hours on a bus made for 12 people but naturally was carrying 20, we arrived at the border...at midnight. The advice was in the back of my mind, but hey, I was with people that had done it before and surely they knew what they were doing, right?!? Our bus had to stop on the Uganda side of the border so that we could check out of the country. I thought we would simply hop back on to ride across the border (much less scary than crossing a border on foot in the pitch black dark night). But, alas, this was not the case. The bus had to be searched completely because plastic bags are illegal in Rwanda, so we had to walk. On either side of the road was "no man's land," a complete drop off. How deep was it? I have no idea because it was too dark to even see my own feet. So I was walking and walking and I looked around, and the people in front of me were running so I ran too. Across a country's border. In the middle of the night.

2. The time I spent the night in an Austrian train station next to a Catholic priest:

I was on my way from Strasbourg, France to Budapest, Hungary; a journey that was 7 trains long and overnight with the longest train being an hour and a half-long ride. It was ambitious, for sure. But surely it would be worth it. The longest rest we had was in the Salzburg train station from 2 a.m. until 4:30 a.m. Two and a half hours to sleep?!? I'll take it. We checked our luggage into a locker and went to a waiting room to sleep for a few hours. But when we got into the overcrowded room, the only seat available was next to a priest. There are worse people to sit next to, definitely, but maybe not when he was actively trying to convert other people in the room. Now, I gathered this conclusion and I speak little (no) German, but I could understand a Muslim man trying to talk to the priest about Allah, getting angry, then the priest getting angry back at the man. Then another priest shows up and tries to talk to the man to the extent that the two priests are cornering this man in the room. I can't make this stuff up. It was weird. Needless to say, little sleep was had in the cramped Salzburg train station waiting room next to the now 2 priests.

3. The time I was accidentally apart of a sacrificial goat ceremony:

We were traveling to the outskirts of Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, to see and learn about traditional religious practices and spirit possession. When we got to the site, we went into a small hut where an old woman was sitting inside. She was possessed by Jaja, her people's spirit. We sat in the hut while she spoke a language I could not understand and shared coffee beans and water from a gourd. Afterwards, we went outside to pay homage to a sacred stone that had brought people to earth. It was all so beautiful and hard to take in. We were then sitting around, waiting for something. I had no idea what we were waiting for, but I was content sitting and stretching out for a minute. Then a man brought three goats. We all walked towards another part of the grounds where there was a fire pit set up. I couldn't understand RB language they were speaking, but I was starting to understand the gist of what was happening. They were going to kill the goat and then cook it over the fire. I was definitely wrong, and it went the other way around. Two men threw the live goat into the flames and cut its stomach open, as a sacrifice. My only real involvement was dancing in the ashes that came from the fire, but it was a surprise to say the least.

4. The time we ran with an Indian man selling sunglasses in Italy:

I was visiting a castle in Naples, Italy when I saw a man selling knock-off Ray Ban sunglasses. I had recently lost my sunglasses (shocker) and thought it would be a good idea to get some cute ones for a cheap price when I could. He was selling them for 10 euro, which wasn't horrible for a cute pair. Right when I was about to buy them, he picked up his entire display and started sprinting in the other direction, but not until he whispered "follow me." After a brief "wtf?" Thought in my head, we started running with him. He was running from the security guard at the castle, and apparently, so were we. Here we were, running down a shoddily built wooden walkway that could barely fit 2 people side-by-side, but hey, fake Ray Bans are worth it, right? He eventually figured he was going to be caught, and sold me the sunglasses while still running, but for only 5 euro. That's what I like to call bargain hunting.

5. The time I was alarmingly close to burning down a Cambridge University library: Voltage is confusing, and neither my professor nor I study math in any degree. We had basically been given free reign to use whatever it was we needed on a digitizations project for the Centre For African Studies, so naturally we brought our own equipment from the States. We had it all set up: two light stands, a professiona-grade camera, documents nearing 60 years old, and our pens and papers. We turn on the equipment, and there was a small *pop* sound. Then a fizzle....then the smell of something burning, followed by smoke pouring from one of the light stands. Crap, we thought. We are about to set off the smoke alarm and this is our first day on the job. Somehow, nobody else noticed anything. I still, to this day, cannot believe we got away with it. We eventually bought new bulbs and get it fixed, but I still would argue that we were close to being on Britain's Most Wanted: American idiots burn down Cambridge library.

Traveling teaches you a lot. Not everybody is like you, and that's okay. No, that's what's good about this world. There are different beliefs and languages and foods and ways of life. It can be scary, dangerous, sticky, and even a workout. But it's all worth it. There's a reason we keep going even when we have near-death or near-explosion experiences. For me, I think that reason is that it is in those situations where I learn about myself. If I'm sitting at home, in the same room and the same situation that I've always found myself in, how am I to know what I want? Or what I don't want? Or what else is out there? It's all about the experience. Even if that experience may be one of the most bizarre moments of your life.