You need travel insurance when you are travelling to Belgium

Welcome, travellers! This post is going to be a cautionary tale about why you should always get travel insurance. I usually get travel insurance before I travel but this time was an exception. During my travels, I wanted to attend a Rammstein concert, and the best available option at the time was in a magical little city in Belgium called Oostend. Since my main goal was to see Rammstein in person, I didn’t do much research about this little, fairytale-like city.

Oostend is a beautiful city!

Boom! When I arrived, it was the cleanest, tidiest city with amazing statues, a beautiful beach, and lovely houses. The weather, the architecture, and the scenery were all spectacular. One day, we decided to swim in the cold and salty waters of the North Sea. It was really fun, and although I am not a beach person, I really enjoyed the beach, which was filled with happy families and golden sand.

A really important detail that will be key in this story is that I wear contact lenses. On that day, when I was swimming, I was wearing contacts as well… This was a huge mistake to make in the North Sea, though, my dear travellers. Do not swim with contact lenses in such an extremely salty sea. Of course, when I was swimming, some seawater splashed into my eye. At the time, it didn’t hurt, and I didn’t even pay attention to it.

Unfolding of the story…

After swimming for about half an hour, I decided I had enough sunlight for the day and headed for the shower. After that, it was already evening, so we went out to eat. I ordered a delicious vegan burger, and while waiting, we made plans to play a game we had downloaded to our phones. Of course, fate was weaving its web in my destiny. I had no idea what was coming for me.

When my burger came, I was really happy. I was even thinking of eating some ice cream after this burger. All that until the steam from the cruelty-free burger rose up and reached my eyes. A moment of my contact lenses losing all their moisture and almost getting glued to my eye sent fear to my nervous system. My eyes started to feel discomfort and dryness.

An unexpected event!

As I have been using contacts for many years, I know when to take them out, or else they’ll start to sting, and my eyes will get all red, and all that jazz. So, I went to the restroom to try to remove my contacts, and to my surprise, horror, and absolute shock, the contact lenses were glued to my eyes. And my dear travellers, I need you to understand that I am not in the slightest exaggerating. It was glued tight and didn’t move an inch.

Later, I realized this was the fault of the combination of salt from the sea and the steam from the burger meeting my eyes. I had created a deadly monster, my travellers. The amount of panic I felt at this moment had just begun, and I didn’t even know the extent of it. I called my friend, and he tried to help remove the contacts, but of course, he couldn’t. With every passing second, I became more and more afraid. I began to think I would lose my eye, and my friend started looking for solutions to remove the contacts from my eyes.

We tried putting in lens solution, we tried washing it. Nothing worked. The contacts didn’t move a bit. And this was the point when I became utterly terrified. I started crying, and we decided to go to a hospital. We took a taxi to the hospital, and even the taxi driver was super worried because I kept crying. The contact hurt my eyes really bad. Every time I blinked, it felt like a little knife stabbing my eyeball.

Relief!

We eventually got to the hospital. The receptionist lady was extremely nice. She wrote down my name and address and told us to wait in the waiting room. While waiting, I was struggling with pain, and eventually, the doctor called my name. I explained the situation to her, and she tried to remove the contacts. She failed the first two times. On the third try, she removed the contact from my eye, and I felt an incredible amount of relief as the contact moved away from my eye.

When leaving, the lady at the reception told us we didn’t owe anything. All smiles and kindness from them, I thought, “There is so much goodness in this world!” I was so happy I didn’t lose my eye.

A beautiful memory

This stayed as an amazing memory in my mind until one day, back in my home country, I received a letter from the hospital. The letter came about six months after my visit. I opened it and saw that it was a bill. I was disappointed and kind of sad because the memory was so sacred for me, and the lady at the reception had told us we didn’t need to pay anything. Maybe I felt deceived.

I wanted to make sure this was legit and emailed them. They responded 20 days later, saying I needed to make the payment. I did eventually make the payment, but if I had had travel insurance at the time, I wouldn’t have had to.

So, my dear travellers, always get travel insurance because you never know when you might need it! The cost of the travel insurance will cost you less than the medical bill in case you get caught up in a situation like I did. Hope you enjoyed this post from Ouroboros <3 Have you had a similar experience? Please share in the comments below!