In 2022, my cousin Brodi and I backpacked around central Europe for over a month together. We experienced some amazing things. But, some parts were questionably weird which we look back on and laugh at. Here is a list of the strangest things to happen to us during our trip (in no particular order).
1. Man from Bangladesh
At our hostel in Rome, we had some lovely roommates for our first few days. I was so relieved because previously we had not had the best luck. However, we weren’t off the hook that easily. On the second last day, we came back to the room after breakfast to meet a man from Bangladesh. Within 2 minutes of meeting him, he asked us to marry him and go back home with him to his country. He also pissed all over the bathroom and snored all night long. He was genuinely a very creepy guy but we had some great roommates who had our back on the last night.
2. Pancake making in Amsterdam
As you probably know, Amsterdam is well known for its Dutch pancakes. Brodi and I found a cute place near the train station that we thought we’d try. I went outside for a minute to help our friend locate the cafe. When I came back inside I found Brodi behind the grill, making our pancakes. I was gone for one minute. She had a great time though and I got some cute videos of her learning to make pancakes.
3. Missing our train to London
The last leg, and of course we missed the train from Amsterdam to London. My sister and cousin were flying over from Australia to visit us for Christmas. I hadn’t seen them in over 6 months and was so excited to finally reunite. We arrived at our gate 27 minutes early and were turned away because we apparently had to be there 30 minutes before. A difference of 3 minutes I know!! Naturally, I immediately started crying when we found out. As it was 5 days before Christmas, finding another ticket to London was practically impossible. We managed to get into Brussels easily enough. However, getting to London required us to pay £500 for first-class tickets later that night because “all other seats were filled”. We decided to just grin and bear it. When we got on the train I was so annoyed to see that there were so many spare seats. Either way, we got there in the end.
4. Getting locked in the bathroom
In Berlin, our toilet was outside of our hostel room weirdly. We quickly discovered that the lock inside the toilet was temperamental. I figured it out but Brodi still struggled. One day I got multiple messages to come and let her out (while she was stuck in the bathroom). For a good 5 minutes she was stuck in there and we didn’t know what to do. Eventually, she got the lock. I was on the phone with my boyfriend at the time and he just heard us hysterically laughing.
5. Seeing the same person in two places
Brodi met this American guy in Paris that she was good friends with. I never actually met him but from what she had told me he seemed cool. Nearly two weeks later we arrived in Florence and guess who was there, that same guy. We ended up laughing about it all and hung out with him for the next few days! Coincidentally, he had done practically the same route as us with the same cities and everything.
6. Being called a “2/10”
At a hostel party in Venice, we decided to try to make some friends because we hadn’t had much luck the day before. Italy in general had brought us some creepy guys so we weren’t surprised when a guy came to sit with us uninvited. However, it turns out he was from Estonia. The man took a particular liking to me and told us that I was a 2/10. We laughed at this because obviously, that means he doesn’t find me attractive. He seemed to think that in Estonia being called a 2/10 is the biggest compliment you can receive. We didn’t know whether to laugh or not but he continued to say this until we eventually left.
7. Trespassing
In our first week, we did an incredible hike in Calanques National Park. On our way down the mountain into the small seaside town, we must have taken a wrong turn. Once we arrived at the bottom we found ourselves in someone's backyard. Horrified, we decided instead of walking back up the mountain we would just sneak through onto the main road. If you know me personally you will know that goes against my whole being.
8. The receptionist gave us the wrong room
When we arrived at our hostel in Nice we were exhausted from walking 2 km with our backpacks. Might be a short walk for some, but not with our bags. We were early to check it so we dropped our bags off and went for some food in the meantime. Once our rooms were ready we headed up and arrived at a very interesting room jammed open with a toothbrush. The three boys in the room looked confused to see us and did not speak a word of English. After 10 minutes of back-and-forth google translating we realised we were definitely in the wrong room. At that point, the receptionist came running up the stairs to tell us she had given us the wrong room. Awkward.
9. Flooding the bathroom
The day we were leaving Genoa Brodi had her morning shower as usual. When I eventually got out of bed, I wandered around towards my bag. Suddenly I realised my socks were soaked. I looked down and the floor was filled with water (luckily it didn’t quite reach my bag). Brodi eventually came out and said she’d flooded the shower but it's okay she's already cleaned it up. I proceeded to tell her that the whole room was covered in water.
10. Haunted room
Our hostel in Florence was one of the best we stayed on our whole trip. However, the inside light next to the door was turned on and off by a sensor. So when you walked near it, the light would turn on. Over the time we stayed there, it came on throughout the night when there wasn’t even anyone else in the room. We were slightly freaked. Then we found out that it was a new hostel and that the building used to be a hospital.
We had a lot more weird things happen than this. If you would like to hear more funny travel stories let me know in the comments!
Thank you, love Amy ♡
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