Have you experienced an unusual kindness from locals?

"Have you experienced an unusual kindness from locals?" Yes, and I married her!

Hey Tom, what a great souvenir! Lol!!

Missy, I know what you're talking about. I found unusual kindness in Salzburg. There were times I was lost, and asked for directions, and strangers would give me a big bright, beautiful smile, and happily helped me out.
A very similar thing happened to me in Berlin, that it was cold and wet, and I was tired, and I walked in a great German restaurant and only wanted soup and coffee. A wonderful older German waitress was so kind, and wanted to talk to me like a good friend. She was interested in my travels, and had a great time talking to her. I find the locals in Europe are very kind, but Salzburg was the first for the most kind people, and second Berlin. I found no good people in Prague!

Come on Tom. We need more info than that!!!!!! This kind of stuff happen all the time when I lived in Germany. The people over there are the best. I've got lost many time as a young man in the 70's and the local's were more than happy to help me find my way.I now try to do the same thing myself and I proud to my 17 is the same way! Cheers, Monte

Yes, in Germany we frequently had people helping the kids with their bags and helping the kids off and on trains. When we were 20 feet from our hotel in Berlin but couldn't see it, a young woman and her mother stopped and asked if we needed help. Then, at the airport, security stopped my five year old daughter because her boots were on the wrong foot! They told each other how cute she was (in German) and sat her down and switched her boots for her, and then when my youngest was convinced hers needed it, too, they took hers off and on for her, also. This was AIRPORT SECURITY- their TSA! : 0

In Bolzano, Italy, an older woman stopped us to make sure we took the kids to the Christmas market. Gosh, there are a few more quick stories- might try to add them later. : )

On Inis Mor I met a local guy who worked as a guide at Dun Aengus. He introduced me to his buddy who worked driving tourists around in his mini van and I got a free private tour of Inis Mor for the rest of the afternoon.

Later that night I met up with the Dun Aengus guy who introduced me to his buddy who was a chef at a local restaurant. I got an absolutely amazing meal for free (and the chef sat down and ate dinner with us). After dinner, I went to a local pub with the guide where we later met the chef and the mini van driver. They introduced me to a woman who ran a hostel (grrrr...too bad, I already had checked into my hotel!), but the hostel owner knew the pub owner who let us all drink for free all night long. And the pub owner didn't kick us out until 4:00 AM, even after he closed the rest of the pub to the general public hours before.

The next day I was on the ferry heading back to Rossaveal. The owner of the hostel was also headed to the mainland where she kept her car. When she heard I was supposed to take a bus from Rossaveal to Galway (an hour away), she insisted I accept a ride from her.

Only wish they would all come to the U.S. someday so I could return the hospitality.

Paros, over 25 yrs ago. My friend and I were feeling no pain( drunk as skunks) and stumbling back from a bar in town to our country side hotel. Very late at night, no one around.
Man on motor bike almost runs into us,, purposefully pulls bike up slowly till wheel is touching friends legs and our hands are on his handlebars and we are yelling at him, he is leering and being very menanceing. Within seconds a much younger man, about 20 appears out of shadows, yells at man to leave, they shout at each other. Man leaves.. boy tells us the bar owner had sent him to trail us back and make sure we got back to hotel safe.. which he had been doing unbeknownst to us. He proceeded to walk us back to hotel lecturing us on dangers.. and thats that.
Obviously they had problems in the area , but we thought it was nice bar owner had us followed.. just in case. We did become alot more careful after that.

In Paris, years ago when I spoke no French and needed a doctor, the owner of a small pharmacy found a nearby physician for me, ensured that he spoke English and could see me immediately. Though his home office was literally around the corner, she apologized for not being able to accompany me, being alone in the shop. The doctor was kind, explained my condition (from my symptoms), advised me what to do, assured me all would be well, and wrote a prescription. When I returned to the pharmacy to fill the prescription, the owner was so solicitous, asking if the dr. had treated me well, if his English had been adequate, and AGAIN apologized for my having to go to him alone.

Also, in Israel. Here it is not UN-usual, when someone's in distress or needs help, to receive kindness from locals.

We were in Egypt during Ramadam one year, and when we were returning to our Nile cruise ship after a day at (probably) Luxor, we came upon a workman sitting on a low wall, opening up small plastic food containers. It was after sundown and he was about to break his all day Ramadam fast. We waved to him and not knowing what else to say, called out "Happy Ramadam!" He beckoned us over to him and wanted to share his supper with us ! We each accepted a fig because refusing such generosity was just not an option.

We experienced an unexpected kindness and generosity in Germany in May 2008.

We took the train to the Moselkern stop and got off to make the walk up to Burg Eltz. Somehow we had turned ourselves around and instead of walking through the tiny town to the road that took us up there we walked across the tracks up the hill where it was more residential and the road was a bit narrow.

I had noticed a gentleman leaning on his porch up above in the neighborhood. He seemed to be enjoying the morning and I remember thinking he's probably laughing at us because we clearly looked a bit lost.

We began the walk up this kind of windy road and we just knew it wasn't right. All of a sudden we hear someone calling for us - we heard "Hello" in a Germany accent very loudly and turned around. There was this couple in their Mercedes SUV waving us over to their vehicle. It's a tiny place, what could happen? So, we walked over. The wife didn't know English but clearly didn't want us walking on that road and she gently tried to take the map in my hand - it was the Rick Steves pages explaining how to get to Burg Eltz. She quickly said "Burg Eltz?" and we nodded. She said something to her husband (who coincidentally was the man leaning on his railing at the house up above).

She used a lot of hand gestures and also had pointed at the road ahead of us making faces...but basically they were insisting they drive us to the bottom as far as cars could go. She even had gently grabbed my wrist to point at the time it would take to drive us. She was really insisting and we said "heck, why not?" So, we hopped in the back and they drove us to the bottom so we could walk the rest of the way.

When we got there they let us out and off we went - we thanked them over and over and she just kept smiling. What a great experience it was and it really set a very positive tone for the rest of our trip (oh, and saved us some time in unseasonably warm weather for May).

We've had several experiences in Ireland, France, Germany, and Austria. This is why I love staying in little B&B's when we travel. Most of the people who run them are just lovely. We've gotten lifts to pick up our rental car, milk for our son when the store was closed, and a big send-off party before leaving. You can't beat it.

I had a terrible fall on my head in Rome and had to be taken to the ER. While waiting for my CT scan, a young Italian man, also injured, saw I was shivering and wrapped me in his jacket. Later, when I was finally discharged I needed to call a cab to return to the hotel but had no phone card or change to use the pay phone. Another young Italian came to my rescue, calling for the cab on his cell phone. Going to an ER in a foreign country when you don't speak the language is pretty scary but these 2 guys gave me a good memory none the less.

Numerous times. The lady in Arnhem who made sure I got on the right bus line for my ride back to the hotel. The gentleman in Paris who spoke no English but was very animated and directed us to the right metro line. Also, the lady in Paris who helped us with the train in Paris. The gentleman in Germany who came from his auto shop to jump start our car (left our charger plugged into lighter overnight) and did not charge us anything nor would he take any money after I pleaded for him to do so. The young lady, Nadine, who saw my wife and I trying to figure out our location from our walking map in Stuttgart who recognized that we did not know which way to go. She not only told us but decided to walk about 4 or 5 blocks with us to make sure we got to our destination. During the walk she made arrangements for her 2 year old nephew to marry our 2 year old granddaughter. :). There have been others. Many kind and helpful locals and hardly any rude ones.

The first time we drove through France and Italy, we had our car broken into one day in Turin, while we ate lunch in a nearby restaurant. The thieves threw all the stuff from our suitcases on the sidewalk, as they looked for something of interest to take.

When we returned to our car, a young man approached us. He had seen the action from his apartment window and had gathered up our scattered belongings, put them back in the suitcases and had taken them to the nearby police station. He then walked us to the station, said "Ciao" and left.

In London with a friend when her wallet was lifted from her purse in the Cafe Glorietta on Brompton Road. We were leaving for the States the next day. Now she had no passport, plane ticket or I.D. of any kind. ( No she did not carry xeroxed copies. Tells me she does now though). So how was she going to get home? We first called the police and informed them of the theft. The constable who answered the phone was so apologetic. He found the phone number to the US Embassy for us. As it was a Christmas Eve day we felt we'd get a recording but got a real live person who provided us the home number of an attache. We dialed the number and he answered the phone. We told him of our dilemma and he told us to take down his cell phone number and said "Go to the airport at least 2 hours early, walk up to the security desk, and tell them to phone me on my cell. I will make certain you are on your plane." Sure enough we did what he told us to do. After speaking with the attache, the very pleasant and kind security head honcho wrote her a note, escorted us to our gate and made sure we got on our flight heading to the states. Now this was all pre 9/11 but I remembered saying to my friend "if you don't marry that guy from the embassy, you're a fool."

I haven't yet experienced an unusual kindness whilst travelling, but I am less well-travelled than you lot.

I do always try to help tourists when I encounter them. I seem to get stopped by distressed Japanese girls with terrible English a lot. One thing I notice in London is that a lot of tourists seem quite naive re: crime. I often see tourists on the tube (occasionally late at night) unpacking the very expensive souvenirs (iPods, designer handbags etc) they have just bought to show to their friends. On several occasions I have discretely gone up to people and told them to put everything away and have given them some safety tips. I am not sure whether they think I am being kind or a busybody!

Indianapolis, in February 1974, my first ever trip to the States.
We were young and had arrived with $60 in our collective pockets, no credit cards (didn't have them in the UK back then).
We were supposed to meet some people for the Indianapolis Home Show but the company who booked our tickets had got the wrong date and we were there a week early.
We asked a cab driver at the airport to take us to a cheap hotel- he took us to the Sheridan! So that took care of most of our cash. It was freezing cold, a*s deep to a tall Indian in snow, and we had no car. The next day we got to the racetrack, which was where the home show was being held. We went into a hotel across the street and explained what had happened.
The lovely people there let us stay for the week on our word that we would pay when our contacts arrived.
It was the first of many acts of kindness I have experienced in the US and for which Americans are known. And I never ate so many hamburgers in my life as I did that week!!!

I have several treasured memories of persons who displayed unusual kindness during my travels. I think we've all come across those who not only point us in the right direction of our hotel/a restuarant/ or a site; but I'm sure like others may have experienced, we've had people actually walk with us the entire way to make sure we didn't get lost.

There was the owner of a bakery in Florence who just seemed to like our smiles and gave us free pastries.

We met some men at the Target restuarant in Rome who took us out the next evening to a lovely restuarant in the very shadows of the colosseum...their treat. They followed this up with a visit to a night spot and champagne.

The greatest and most memorable kindness we received was during our visit to Marrakech. When our plane arrived past 11:00 PM and the folks from the Riad we had reserved weren't there to pick us up as arranged. Touts were ready to pounce on us; the pay phone didn't work, we didn't have a cell...and to our rescue came two gentlemen and a woman who worked for a travel company. Their clients didn't arrive so they took offered to help; drove for an hour through the medina trying to find this Riad...then when we were turned away because it was "full"...they took us around for another hour and found us a great hotel.

For our 5 day stay they provided transportation, free private tours, treated us out to dinner, etc., and wouldn't take any money. We tried to give them money but they gave it back because we had become friends and they considered themselves our host.

We still marvel over this experience.

Every year I travel back to Europe people are kind.
Most recently 2005 I printed out on a route finder how to get to my Berlin pension from the airport using public transport. I asked the bus driver at the airport while we were waiting to leave if the tram connection on the router print out was correct just to be sure in my broken German. He looked it over, said to me in English that it was correct, and he would show me where to stand for the Tram when we got to that stop. He liked the print out and jotted down the website for his own use. As promised, the bus driver got off the bus and walked us to the Tram stop. It would have been a little confusing to do it on my own as there was more than one Tram stop in the intersection.
2006 the screw to my glasses lense broke at Sacre Cour. The next day while near the Opera Garnier, I stopped into an eyeglass shop and asked if they can fix my glasses in my school French & I would pay. The lady said in English not to worry it can be fixed in minutes at no charge. And it was.
2007 I got very sick in old town Prague late at night. (Not alcohol related at all!!) A shop owner that was closing up for the night walked me & my Czech hubby to the only late night pharmacy in the area which is on the other side of the Charles Bridge.

2008 In Venice got a little disoriented the first night in how to get back to my pension from St Mark's. I kept turning right, instead of left and then right. The gal working at a gelato store was able to work it out with me on my map. Even though I spoke to her in my pretty good Italian, she spoke to me in English to avoid any misunderstanding.
In all my years of travel I can honestly say that it is not "unusual" for folks to be kind but very appreciated. I try to return the favor anytime someone asks for assistance here in the USA.

Missy,

Yes, I have experienced kindness from locals.

One example that readily comes to mind is a visit to Civita di Bagnoregio a few years ago. I used the local Bus to get to Bagnoregio and then the small shuttle for the trip to the bridge at Civita (following the advice in Rick's book, of course).

At the end of my visit I walked back across the bridge to await the shuttle for the return to Bagnoregio and Orvieto. For some reason, the Shuttle Driver decided to take a longer-than-normal siesta that afternoon and as it turned out the weather changed and I found myself in the middle of a torrential downpour! The few businesses on that side of the bridge were also closed at the time, so I had nowhere to seek shelter.

Although I had an Umbrella and Coat, myself and my Daypack were progressively getting thoroughly "soaked". After huddling in the cold for what seemed like an interminable span, I noticed a car pull into the small parking lot. The couple in the car got out and began walking towards the bridge, but returned after about 5-minutes or so. I asked them if they were intending to visit Civita, but they indicated it was too wet so they would return another day.

They asked why I was waiting there, and after explaining the "missing" shuttle, they offered me a ride back to Orvieto. I don't normally "hitchhike", but under the circumstances I felt it was a reasonable risk. Perhaps my sodden appearance helped? They dropped me right at the train station in Orvieto, and from there it was just a short ride on the Funicular back to my Hotel to dry out.

It turned out that the kindly couple was from Milano, and they had a "summer home" in the area. I'd have to check my trip journal, but I believe I offered a "donation" for fuel (can't recall if they accepted)?

Give my miserable state at the time, I very much appreciated their kind gesture. Hopefully I'll have an opportunity to do the same for others at some point.

Cheers!

James ..too true.

I'm a big guy, travel a lot. But once, while in Paris and getting completely lost, I had a tiny little old lady literally take me by the hand and walk me to the bistro I was looking for.

And btw Missy, my exppeience is that that there's nothing "unusual" about kindness. I've experienced it everywhere I've travelled in the world.

The only European country I met people who weren't very friendly was Holland, especially Amsterdam.
In the rest of the countries, including Germany, people were friendly. I remeber of a young French waiter in Nice who was giving us a bottle of house made liquor every time when were going to his restaurant and ate clams. The clams were 10 EUR and we were drinking the whole bottle every time. Well, we tipped him well, but the liquor was more expensive than the clams.

In 1972 we were riding a Roman bus late one evening when I asked the passenger next to me,in my best college Italian, "Scusi, ma dov'e San Carlo alli Quattri Fontani?" What ensued was a vigorous discussion that had me pretty nervous until I realized he was correcting my mismatched gender endings (it should have been alle Quattre Fontane). He had me repeat the correct version several times, then spoke to the driver and resumed his seat. 10 minutes later the driver had stopped the bus in the middle of nowhere and this man was dragging us by the arm off the bus. He took us down a series of small streets until we popped up in front of the church, and cried "Ecco!" As I turned to thank him, he had vanished. This was 37 years ago but I still fondly remember that man who went well out of his way to take 2 kids to a small church in his beloved city.

Rome, summer 2006, we were searching not far from the Piazza Navona for a restaurant I had read about on the RS site, Trattoria Ristorante der Pallaro. The tiny streets and alleyways had us all confused. We stopped into a small gift shop and asked if anyone knew the restaurant. One of the young ladies smiled, said yes, of course, and then remarkably said...come, I take you! She led our family through several more tiny streets and alleyways and suddenly we rounded a corner and there it was. She seemed delighted to help us, and we were so grateful. It gave us warm fuzzies to experience a bit of European kindness; the family style wonderful meal was a true experience, and that made us even more grateful.

When the TGV train in Avignon pulled into the station (with many cars), we had no idea where our reserved seats were. We also didn't know that we had to get the tickets punched in a machine before boarding or risk a big fine. A young Frenchman came to our aid, risking not getting on the train himself, leading us to get the tickets punched and then leading us to the right car where our seats were.
That was really over and beyond any expectations. I find the French extremely helpful and kind.

I can rememeber and often think about how nice a bus driver in England was to me. We went to Victoria Station to take a train to get to Harwich to board a
cruise ship. The train was not running so we took a bus. When I left the bus, I didn't realize that I put the envelope which I had important papers on the floor with my newspaper. It had all of our airline tickets in it, and ofcourse they were E tickets!
The lovely bus driver droke all the way back to the ship, 1 hour and a half to bring me the envelope!
I have never forgot his true act of kindness! I offered him money, which he refused. So when I got home I sent him a nice gift. That was an act of kindness that I will never forget!

Happy Travels!

When we were in Amboise,France we couldnt find a restaurant Steves listed.After giving up and eating elsewhere we decided to look again.After driving for some time we were ready to give up when we observed a man and his wife and baby stop and open the gate.We asked the man where the restaurant was located and he asked us to wait while he took his family into his apartment.Then he returned and said follow me.He took us to the restauant and left with a wave of his hand.We had other similar experiences and to us the French are like most people ,if you are polite they are very helpful.

What an interesting topic! There have been numerous times while traveling that I have had to rely on the kindness of strangers. Two years ago I was riding a motorcycle through Barcelona and got hopelessly lost. An elderly woman stopped and although her English was about as good as my Spanish (or Catalan), she was able to discern my problem and led off in her car with me following back to the motorway.

But the most memorable was in the Netherlands. We had ridden the bus from Amsterdam to Edam and it began to rain just as we left the bus. As we are walking toward the center (the Dam) of this tiny hamlet on the wet, winding cobblestone street the sky decides to open up. We pass a distinguished looking gentleman carrying an umbrella; I stop him and ask where we can buy one of our own. Thinking a moment, he replies: “I may have an extra one in my car-follow me”. We walk a few dozen meters to where he is parked; he rummages around in the back and comes up with a red and white striped umbrella and hands it to us. I ask him how I can go about returning it to him and he says: “Oh, no problem, just keep it”. Thanking him profusely, my wife & I begin walking back up the street; we only go a short distance when we hear him call to us that he has found a better umbrella. Walking back we exchange the small, striped one for a big black one. Again, offering to return it later and being refused, we amble towards the Dam, remarking on the amazing friendliness and generosity of the Dutch people and the fact that everyone in this wonderful country seems to speak English. [When approaching people here and asking if they speak English, the reply is: ‘Of course”. They usually look at you as if to say: “Duh! Doesn’t everybody?”] When we left Amsterdam a few days later we gave the umbrella to our cab driver and asked him to pass it along to someone who needed it. Experiences like that make for good travel memories.

Over many years: The college student (one dark night while lost in Tehran) that found us a cab and directed the driver to our destination. The plumber in Paris that helped us find a gas station when the empty-tank buzzer was going on and on. The young man in the super-market in Paris that tapped me on the shoulder and handed me the 20 euro note that I had dropped. The young adults in rural Japan that insisted that we jam into their tiny car for a ride to a hotel. In Barcelona, the lady on the second floor balcony that screamed and screamed as a theif was trying to take our stuff inside the car while I was changing a flat tire. The taxi driver in Rome that returned to our hotel when he discovered that my teen-aged kids had left their souvenirs in his taxi. All those French, Spanish, UK, Italian, Swiss, German, NL, Greek, and Austrian drivers that let me merge into their lanes. The small gift for my wife from the owner of a Chinese restaurant in Germany. The world is full of helpful, pleasant people. Charlie Robinson, Lodi, California

March 1973 my college friends and I messed up our travel plans and I arrived in Greece what I though was a day late and later turned out to be a day early. I went to my emergency address only to find that since it was a holiday, the couple was out of town. I was sitting on the stairs about to cry when the concierge for the building came out, got me on the phone with his daughter who spoke English, arranged for a place to spend the night. At the hotel they showed me the Acropolis by night, fed me dinner, took me to the tourist police to search for my friends, bought me my first souvlaki, and made sure that I hooked up with son of the emergency address couple. He loaned me his apartment, took me out to dinner every night and boosted my courage to travel on alone to Italy at nineteen. Cheers for the Greeks! Pam

We were young and not the most travel savey couple. We get to a toll booth and we're counting out change rather desperately hoping we had enough. Now we weren't holding up traffic or anything (it was rather late) and the toll operator motioned for us to hold on. He pulled out an envelope, extracted the correct amount and paid our toll. Written on the envelope in several languages was "for those in need of a helping hand". It's been a long long time but to this day I feed expired meters because of it.

We lived in Germany for 4 years in th 70's and loved the people. The people in our village adopted us. We were invited to private homes and a private party at one of the gasthauses. They were upset when we moved into our military quarters. We found the people all over Europe to be friendly helpful and blessed with a great sense of humor. Hope they still are as we are returning for 3 weeks in the fall.

This isn't about Europe (but it could be; many people have gone out their way to help me there). Its about my recent trip to China.

I spent the morning of the last doing some furious shopping--as I'd already checked out of the hotel, I had my passport and ticket with me. Somehow and for some reason I thought it would be better to move the travel documents from my breast pocket and put them into one of the bags I was carrying--I know, stupid,--the last store I went in to so the great number of bags I was carrying and offered to consolidate them into one bag, which they they wrapped in brown paper and strapped together with those plastic straps.

I get into the taxi and half-way back to the hotel (where my luggage was being held) I realized that I no longer had my travel documents and that they must be back at the last store. The taxi driver turned around, I went into the store explained what had happened--repeatedly saying in Chinese that I was stupid--and they took me back to the packing room, so I could look around. They also explained that they had used my bags as packing material for the package. So, my documents were in this large, tightly wrapped and strapped package.

The taxi driver returned me to the hotel, wouldn't accept any extra money for the trouble I caused him. Inside, I asked for scissors so I could open the package. The young man behind the desk insisted on doing it himself, he unpacked everything, found my papers and then repacked everything.

I still marvel at all the kindnesses shown me that day--the store helping out a shopper with an unwieldy number of bags, a taxi driver who put up with me, and the man at the hotel who unpacked everything and then packed it all up again.

Just so this isn't entirely off-topic, I've always found the French to be very helpful and polite.

I got on the wrong bus in London, and ended up at the end of the line, several zones beyond what I'd paid for. Two wonderful ladies would not leave my side until they were sure I'd gotten on the correct bus, and the bus conductor didn't charge me for being in the wrong zone. They were all so kind, I was hard pressed not to cry like a baby!