Random experiences from our trip

Man from Moscow: one morning at the hostel in Varna, Budapest I met a man from Moscow. He asked where we were from and I responded United States. He looked shocked and said "no!". Yes. "I didn't think you would stay in a hostel. All American's are very rich" I laughed, thinking he was joking. He seemed offended that I would laugh and asked "so, you aren't a millionaire?" No, I'm not a millionaire. "I thought all americans were millionaires." (he looked pretty dismayed about this bit of misinformation) We chatted for a few more minutes about our desire to go to St. Petersburg and to St. Basil's and about the areas of Russia he thought we should visit. Actually chatted is the wrong word because it was the most intense, difficult conversation I have ever had with a stranger. I was exhausted when it was over. The man was very intense and confrontational.

Ever thought about learning Chinese?: we met a British man who's is living in China, working as a translator. He was part of the group we spent the day with castle touring in Romania. I asked him about his desire to learn Chinese and he said "lot's of people in China speak English. Not very many English speaking people speak Chinese. They can understand us but we can't understand what they are saying. I don't think that's a good thing." Hmn... There's food for thought....

At the fortress in Rasnov, Romania we were listening to a guide talk about the history off to one side of a building. When we were ready to go into the fortress we walked around the building to the ticket taker..... Well where the ticket taker should have been... Instead, he was standing off to the side, uh... Relieving himself. He realized he was caught (by a group of about 11 people). He laughed, zipped up and walked over to take our tickets. Yes please, urinate in public, don't wash your hands, then rip my ticket and hand it back to me. Nice.

"Let us know when you are coming and we will pick you up at the bus stop" doesn't mean the same thing in Turkey that it means to us. In Turkey what it means is some guy comes and says "follow me" and walks off down the road.
You follow, trying to catch up with your 30 lb pack on your back, camera bag in your arms, trying to dodge the cars intent on running you down as they speed past. One time I got lucky. The guy picked up Tom's pack to carry it and Tom told him to carry mine instead. When the guy put mine on he struggled and grunted and I was surprised that my pack could be so much heavier than Tom's. once at our hotel our assistant tried to get my pack off and couldn't. That's when I realized he had struggled at the station because my pack is fitted for a girl, not a fit 20 year old guy ;)

I swear! I only went in for directions!
I stepped in to a store to ask for directions to the bus station. Only one woman in the store spoke any English and she was on the phone. I had a little down time so why not try on that pair of boots?? By the time she got off the phone I was the proud owner of a pair of cut out boots that all the Bulgarian girls were wearing. The European holiday/boot tradition continues! (By the way, the woman's English did not extend to understanding what BUS meant. Even when I acted out driving with a giant steering wheel!)