I haven't been browsing in Travel Forum for a while and I have been "catching up" on various topics that have been discussed over the past few months. I am particularly surprised (maybe I shouldn't be) by the many posts on pickpockets, scams, and even an incident where someone was tricked into an empty train carriage and was robbed. We were in Spain for 3 weeks: in Madrid, Seville, Ronda, Granada, and Barcelona. We are an older Asian couple who travel by ourselves, so we STAND OUT as tourists ( in addition to our white athletic shoes, floppy hats, and my husband's beloved Hawaiian shirts), . Throughout our entire trip, we never felt unsafe - on trains, metros, buses, or walking which we did a lot of. My husband always carries a shoulder bag and a camera bag although I am the one who has the camera hanging from my neck. We were in the Courtyard of Banderas at the Alcazar in Seville, when my husband slipped on the cobblestones and landed on the side of his face. He also hurt his wrist and knee and was stunned for several minutes. Strangers (most likely other tourists, but none sounded "American" to me), rushed to our assistance and wanted to know if he was okay and whether he needed help. Someone even returned his watch to him which had broken off his wrist during the fall. Of course, my first instinct was to make sure he was okay and he was. But I was also became very aware we were in a vulnerable position. We were distracted and a lot of commotion was happening, so it could have been an ideal time to be victims of pickpockets, etc. although husband uses money belt. But nothing of the sort happened, only some sympathetic fellow tourists who were concerned about us and tried to help. Despite all the posts of not so good things that happen, we can only be careful and aware of them, but they should not discourage us from traveling or enjoying our trips!
Posted by
the Netherlands
2487 posts
Late at night my Most Beloved had a nasty fall from some steps in Bologna. Within half a minute some students came running to see whether some help was needed. One ran to her lodgings to get some cotton wool and ice packs. Back at the hotel, which was luckily enough just a few minutes away, the manager was also overly concerned and hurried to get some more medical supplies. After having done some clean-up we decided it was wise to go to the hospital. After a call from the manager, within a few minutes a taxi arrived.
Helpers are the rule, pickpockets the exception.
Posted by
Minnesota 🎒
15807 posts
Uplifting stories from both of you, and thank you for that. It's very nice to hear some positive reports at a time when so many have been troubling. There are warm, wonderful, honest people everywhere! :O)
Posted by
Longmont, Colorado
51 posts
So glad to see these positive posts, in light of recent events. Yes, be vigilant. Yes, keep traveling!
Posted by
Paris
9566 posts
I was wandering around in the neighborhood of the attacks in Paris Friday night with 3 girlfriends, trying to find a place to eat after we had left the cocktail bar where we had been having drinks, as the table we snagged early was reserved as of 9:30, so we had to get up and move on.
We found a place, but after we sat down and looked at the menu, I thought it looked a little pricey and just normal-to-mediocre food and decided I had spent enough on drinks and didn't want to lay down another 40-50€ for mediocre food that wasn't what I really wanted. So I got up and left (I wasn't mad, just decided my budget didn't want to take this hit.)
Literally minutes after I left was when word started circulating about these drive-by attacks on restaurant terrasses. (I learned from a policeman in full combat gear who stopped me from going the way I wanted to go to the metro and told me there had been a "fusillade." Little did I know it was one of many, and I was about two blocks directly behind the Bataclan.) I turned to go another way to the metro (because I hadn't understood from him the dimension of the attacks and thought I could just go the other way). I passed a Thai restaurant and thought it looked cozy, so I went in (after they unlocked the door for me).
I sent my girlfriends a text telling them what the policeman had told me -- they called me back saying the restaurant they were at had told them they were closing because of the threat, and everybody had to leave. Yes, with someone driving around the neighborhood shooting people at restaurants with kalashnikovs, this place SENT ALL THEIR CLIENTS OUT INTO THE STREET.**
Luckily I hadn't made it very far, so my friends came and joined me at the Thai restaurant -- which kept us safe until 3 in the morning, when we finally felt it might be safe enough to try to go home (on foot of course as the metro had long before been closed, even before its normal closing time, and taxis could not get in the zone where we were, so close to the attacks).
The staff at that restaurant darkened everything they could -- they even unscrewed light bulbs that didn't have a switch with their hands -- to make the restaurant as unobvious as possible, and sheltered us all in the second room, which had much less window frontage onto the street. (By now, the attacks were over, although we had no way of doing that at the time.) As the hours went on, they offered green tea and even at one point a huge pot of noodle soup.
They didn't send us out into the street, and they made us (and the other clients who were there) as comfortable as they possible could have done for nearly five hours. That expression of humanity and compassion touched me enormously. I went back today and took them a bouquet of flowers. (And they gave me more tea to warm me up -- it was a horribly windy rainy day today here in Paris -- and sent me off with some Thai desserts. When I was supposed to be thanking them for what they had done last week for me and my friends, they were STILL showing hospitality.)
There are good people everywhere. You never know when you're going to run into them.
** Yes I understand that it was extremely difficult for the staff to know what to do in this instance; and there was no assurance that people would be safe staying in the restaurant. Still, it seems to me that sending people out into the streets at that time demonstrated an awful lack of caring. But again, I wasn't the decision maker, so that's easy for me to say.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
13934 posts
Oh my word Kim. What an incredible story and what wonderful people.
Also very heartwarming stories from Dee and Ton.
Posted by
San Francisco
14507 posts
Thanks Kim for the story, you and your friends as well as the folks at the restaurant have guts, plain and simple!
Posted by
Sacramento, California U.S.A.
10221 posts
What an experience Kim! I'm so glad you found a safe haven.
Posted by
Paris
9566 posts
We didn't have any guts. We just didn't know any better, and got lucky. If we had been a street or two further over, 1/2 an hour earlier, it could have been a completely different story for us. And of course we are just four of thousands (tens of thousands? I'm not a statistician or demographer) of people in that same situation a week ago Friday night. The people in the restaurant, now they showed strength and compassion in the face of all those unknowns (but enough knowns to make one very wary).