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Here's a short and sweet and funny one.
So we were in eastern Kentucky during the summer of '05 doing mission work. It was the day that we would be setting off for home. We stopped at a local Wal-mart to just get some food and stuff. As I was walking through an aisle, at the other end, I saw a guy walking around without a shirt on! That just struck me ass kind of odd because you would never see that in Minnesota.
Will sometimes see that here in sc too.
Most places up north have the "no shoes,no shirt,no service" signs.
In 1982 I got off a plane in Kano, Nigeria to realize they used smudge pots for runway lights and teenagers for Airport Security. Nothing quite like seeing teenagers carrying and pointing AK-47s to make you behave in a strange place... I made sure I was on a daytime flight when I left!
Don't know if they still do, but when I was stationed at Kwang Ju Air Base, Korea, every civilian plane had all the shades drawn in the passenger compartment so nobody could look out. (the base shares the airfield with the commercial airport)
One of them would be my neverending train ride from Istanbul to Budapest which in itself dealt me layovers in Bulgaria and Serbia that were adventures themselves. However, my first little surprise came when I had finally managed to go to sleep sitting up in the middle of my sardine-packed train car, in spite of the large Bulgarian women inexplicably running up and down the aisles peering into cabins, shouting at people and chasing each other around with umbrellas (yeah, don't ask me to explain that one). I must've been asleep for a few hours when I was suddenly abruptly woken up by a soldier shouting at me in what I believe was either Bulgarian or Turkish, and pointing a large gun at my face. I'm not a gun expert but the gun was big, and the more I tell the story, the more exaggerated my claim of the gun size becomes....I think now I'm up to "bazooka" . I am freaking out as he's shouting at me and pointing the gun at me trying to desperately tell him I don't know what he's saying, looking around for my English-speaking Canadian travel buddy only to see that he had mysteriously vanished at some point during the night, making me even more nervous. Then finally, after what felt like an eternity but was in reality maybe only 30 seconds, a lovely Romanian woman who was in my cabin conversed with the soldier who left, and she then turned to me and told me in English that we were at the border and directed me to follow her as I leapt from the train at something like 3am, in a surreal state of mind, at some random sort of border crossing with guards and soldiers everywhere, with large search lights and made my way to some tiny little hut to go get my passport stamped (all the while afraid that the train would suddenly up and leave me in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night) before returning back to the train. It was quite the rude awakening.
I also got chased by a pack of rabid dogs in Turkey, and was propositioned by a dirty old man in the Vienna train station who thought I was a gay prostitute, but I'll save those stories for another time.
One of the most (in)famous biker bars in the country is the Boot Hill Saloon in Daytona Beach, my home town. We cracked up when we saw a bumper sticker someone had stuck on the Eiffel Tower: "I Lost it at The Boot Hill Saloon!"
i was on an amtrak train and it was night time and i got up to go to the restroom and for some reason i lost my balance and fell on to the lap of some guy that was sleeping of course he woke up
the worst part was there was still about 5 more hours left to the trip and when i was getting off he was the person in back of me
When I was flying home from Scotland, the plane had to make a stop in Islay, Irland (I think thats how Islay is spelled). But anyway, as the plane come in on the aproach we noticed a vehicle driving down the runway,"which was also the taxiway". The plane was so small that I was able to ask the pilot what the vehicle was doing. He replied "Chasing the sheep off the runway, mate". Talk about your pucker factor jumping. Oh, and I found out later on that the sheep kept the lawn mowed for them. Talk about your green living.
My husband left his Nikon camera in a taxi in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. He had been practicing his Spanish with the driver, and knew his 1st name. We gave this info to the taxi station. They asked if we were headed to Senor Frog's-we said yes. They said "we will bring the camera to you there". Of course, we didn't have high hopes, but 30 minutes later they called my husband's name over the mic and there they were, with the camera! Restored our faith in humanity....
On a cruise to Cozumel, my sister-in-law from the next cabin suddenly pounded on the door screaming "There's a tornado, we have to get underground!!" (We live in Missouri, not an uncommon thing). I thought she was drunk.I looked out the cabin window(porthole?) and there was a really cool WATERSPOUT out on the ocean. Got some great pictures.
Our tour bus in Costa Rica got stopped by armed police at a roadblock. Seems there was a measles outbreak and they were vaccinating everyone. My friend freaked out about maybe getting a shot in a foreign country, but they were using sterile single dose syringes like we do. Turns out, once we showed our U.S. passports, they let us on by. Our driver had to stick his arm out the window for a shot, though.
I'm sure everyone who has traveled (domestically OR internationally) has some wierd experience to tell about. I'll start with one of ours: Wife and I were on a group tour of St. Petersburg, Russia (actually a nice time to go since there aren't the crowds of Summer lined up at palaces. museums, etc.) We were strolling with another couple and stopped to buy chocolate-dipped ice creams. A little later, we happened upon a woman begging with her two children; an infant and probably a five year-old boy. The boy pointed at our ice creams as if begging. The other woman in our group gave him her ice cream. Suddenly, "mom" snatched it from his hand and ate it herself...
Wow! Im afraid I would have taken it back from her and put it in her face, or all over her face. That is rude, heartbreaking and all kinds of wrong. I think to have seen that would have set me off. May I ask your reaction to that?
On a closer to home note, we have had some interesting experiences on float trips. A TERRIFYING ride in the back of a pickup with no tailgate at 50 m/h on a very winding Ozark dirt road,driven by a psycho woman. It started to storm, and we were using aluminum paddles in aluminum canoes. We spent 1 1/2 hours on a gravel bar with lightning all around. Then when the weather cleared, here came psycho woman's teenage boys in canoes, all smoking pot.Fortunately, that group is no longer in business.....was once offered some homemade wine in a Mason jar by complete strangers on the river.They claimed it tasted "like a strong Mar-low". I politely declined.....
Have had mostly wonderful times floating, with fun and interesting people.
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ahhh...sweet memories of Nigeria...
I made sure I was on a daytime flight when I left!
. I am freaking out as he's shouting at me and pointing the gun at me trying to desperately tell him I don't know what he's saying, looking around for my English-speaking Canadian travel buddy only to see that he had mysteriously vanished at some point during the night, making me even more nervous. Then finally, after what felt like an eternity but was in reality maybe only 30 seconds, a lovely Romanian woman who was in my cabin conversed with the soldier who left, and she then turned to me and told me in English that we were at the border and directed me to follow her as I leapt from the train at something like 3am, in a surreal state of mind, at some random sort of border crossing with guards and soldiers everywhere, with large search lights and made my way to some tiny little hut to go get my passport stamped (all the while afraid that the train would suddenly up and leave me in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night) before returning back to the train. It was quite the rude awakening.
Irland
Talk about your pucker factor jumping. Oh, and I found out later on that the sheep kept the lawn mowed for them. Talk about your green living.
