4 THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN EUROPE THAT FREAKED ME OUT BUT DIDN’T TELL MOM

I don’t usually talk about the not-so-good moments that I experience while on the road, especially since I think that more often than not, it propagates the myth that traveling solo as a female is extremely dangerous (in reality, danger is present everywhere and not solely linked to solo female travel).

Maybe now’s the time to talk about those instances where I truly felt scared or a bit freaked out, especially as there are more solo travellers out there that share similar experiences. Thankfully, nothing as extreme as being mugged at gunpoint (praying this never happens to me or anyone else, ever!!), but these were the moments during my first and second Eurotrips that weren't so rosy:

1. PRAGUE RUZYNE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. I arrived past midnight on my first day, which was a big travel no-no for me, but that was the cheapest Wizz Air flight I could find, so I took a chance. I even booked an airport transfer so I wouldn’t have to be hassled at the airport. But of course, the flight had to be delayed to the point that my pre-booked transfer left without me. All the transport booths were also closed for the night.

So there I was, in the dead of the night, in the middle of an almost-empty airport shrouded in darkness, with no internet or cellphone reception – freaking out inwardly that I didn’t think of a Plan B. There were some suspicious-looking strangers in black leather jackets loitering around the empty taxi stand (I think everyone looks suspicious when I’m frazzled and at a loss at what to do, especially at night!), so I decided to go back inside. I tried four times to speak to arriving passengers, asking if I could hitch a ride with them but no one understood English! I was really starting to worry when I finally recognized a group of male French students from my flight and I approached them, asking if they would be so kind to drop me off at my hostel. They were my last resort because the airport crowd was thinning out, and the idea of sleeping alone in the cold, empty airport didn’t appeal to me at all. THANK GOD they spoke English and were kind enough to let me hitch a ride with them. They talked to me jovially throughout the ride and that did the trick in calming my nerves.

Beautiful Prague! But your airport at night can be intimidating :)

2. PIAZZA NAVONA, ROME, ITALY. I was walking around, looking for a place to eat when suddenly, this Danny Devito-ish guy sidled up to me, started talking animatedly in Italian and began leading me by the elbow to somewhere. I brushed him off and told him in my pidgin Italian: “Parlare solo inglese!” (Speak only English).

He continued to follow me wherever I went for a good 15 minutes, and I was starting to seriously freak out. I could understand from his hand gestures that he wanted us to eat together (WHY?!). I thought about making a scene in the public square, but who knew what lies he would spew in Italian to the crowd if I did that? I couldn’t see any police officers anywhere nor a tourist information center where I could duck into and ask for help. So I did the next logical thing to do in my mind: enter an expensive-looking restaurant with a lot of people and a security guard in front (well, at least I thought he was a security guard, he could have very well been just the maître d' but I didn’t stop to verify and just went in) – maybe he thought I was rude for breezing past him without a glance at the menu outside or even a hello, but that did the trick in shrugging off that pesky man. I ordered coffee and a dessert, even if they were way beyond my backpacker’s budget, so I would be able to stay for an hour inside. I remember my hands were shaking so hard when the waiter handed me the cup of coffee.

Just to be on the safe side, I took another route going back to my hostel later that day, in case I was being followed. One of my hostel-mates told me later that night that I could have very well been abducted by said man and sold into slavery (or worse) if I had been stupid enough to go with him. Might seem like a plot from Taken, but hey, I’m just glad it didn’t escalate further.

Beware of unwanted lunch invitations by strange old men around Piazza Navona!

3. COPENHAGEN, DENMARK. Scandinavia is considered as one of the safest regions in Europe so I broke my rule of making it back to my hostel before night time fell and stayed out till 8PM on my first day there. Wrong move. I didn’t realize 8PM in October in Copenhagen would feel like midnight. At night, the streets looked different to me and I got confused. I took a wrong turn while walking back to the Metro stop near Christiania and found myself on an unfamiliar street which was empty, had a low-lying building with broken windows and a pavement full of broken beer bottles.

The street was still close to the general Christiania area, which is relatively safe for visitors, but was known to house drug dealers on Pusher Street. I kept my head low, but from my peripheral vision, saw that there were a bunch of guys hovering around the street in front of me with hoodies on, drinking something. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I thought they were starting to walk towards me!!! The hair on my arms started to prickle, like they do when I sense something’s not right. I started to inwardly panic at the realization that I was alone on this dark, empty street without a clue as to where the hell I was.

So I followed my gut – I crossed to the other side of the road with my heart pounding, and speed-walked my way out of the area without looking back and searched for the nearest signs of life. I don’t know how long I walked till I found the bright lights of the metro station, but I remember feeling out of breath in the cold when I finally reached it and heaved a big sigh of relief that I was safe. Sure, I might have just been paranoid and those guys actually meant no harm, but when your instinct sounds the alarm bells, you better not dilly-dally there to find out what they were really up to and just get out, STAT!

Colorful day in Copenhagen turned into a potential nightmare at night

The fourth one didn’t put me in a potentially dangerous situation, but merits a mention because well, sometimes, the one who freaks me out is myself, haha!

4. OSLO, NORWAY. I had this “brilliant” idea that to save on transport costs, I would walk all the way to Vigeland Park from the city center. Turned out that wasn’t the smartest thing to do because I vastly miscalculated the distance. It was LONG walk. The walk was pretty uneventful actually, but it was a bit freaky that I didn’t meet a SINGLE SOUL while I was on the streets for a solid two hours. There were houses, cars, and bicycles but everything was so quiet – no stirrings of life on the street or inside the houses. Being the paranoid being that I am, I started thinking that if someone with bad intentions just happened to abduct me from the side of the road, no one would witness it. I could scream and no one would hear me. Okay, so maybe I was just scaring myself, but it truly felt like a scene from the Twilight Zone, or the start of the Walking Dead, when there was just silence and abandoned belongings. I did a little happy dance when I finally saw LIVING, BREATHING HUMAN BEINGS at the park entrance! HOORAY! It wasn’t The Rapture, after all! Suffice to say, I took public transport from the park back to my hostel at the end of the visit.

Yay, humans! I'm not the last living soul on earth, after all! :)

There you have it, my freaky Europe moments. It still remains as one of the safest places IMHO for a solo female traveller – especially for novices. There are places – like Rio de Janeiro – which has a reputation for violent crimes against travellers, but I didn’t have any problem at all while I was there. Then there’s Europe, where I naively thought that nothing of the bad sort could happen, yet I got a taste of them. I guess all it really takes is to be vigilant at all times and trust that you’ll make the right decision to get you out of an uncomfortable situation immediately.

HAPPY TRAVELS! :)

#listicles #Europe