Day Fifty Seven - Inactivity

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Stay tuned for stories of excessive wine drinking, beautiful cliffsides, sleepness nights in train stations, and partying with Scots in Amsterdam.

Day Forty Five – Touts and Working Girls

An aspect of travel that one must inevitably face is the existence of touts. For any readers that aren't familiar with the term a tout is basically anyone trying to sell you something, whether the item being peddled is a cheap trinket or some kind of service. Most touts are extremely devious. Often times they are desperate to earn money and will do almost anything in their power to achieve that goal. A strong will is required in situations in which one is confronted by skilled touts. The pressure they apply can be very great, that is part of their tactic to get a person to part with their money. But this pressure normally is displayed in a friendly way, touts always try to appear to be your best friend. One can easily find touts at any major tourist destination, such as the Roman Colosseum or the Duomo in Milan.

It is at the Duomo that I had my first run in with touts. I normally steer clear of them but this guy reeled me in like a pro. I was coming out of the train station via the stairway right into the square in front of the Duomo, Italy's oldest cathedral. This guy started trying to talk to me and by my friendly nature I listened for a second or two before realizing he was trying to get some money out of me. He had a handful of colorful string that he was “giving” to people as a bracelet.

“No thanks, I don't want to buy any,” I told him as I started to walk away.
“No no no sir, free! They are free!” the tout yelled back at me.

After hearing this I paused. Free? Hey, I love free! I thought to myself. This is where I made the mistake. He got me, hook line and sinker. So I turned around and told him I'd take one. He proceeded to tie one of the strings around my wrist, all the while asking me questions to make him seem like my friend.

“Where are you from? Do you have a girlfriend? This string will give you great luck with the ladies!” were the lines he was using on me while finishing up his knot.

Once he completed tying my bracelet he then asked for a “donation.” Donation, sure, I understand now. Free bracelet with an expected donation. I figured, Well I got this bracelet on now, might as well give him something. I pulled out some change. Once he saw the few Euro coins and some Euro cents in my hand he started almost commanding to me to give it all to him.

“Just give me all.”
“Here, take this Euro and some change, that's all I want to give,” I replied.
“No, just give me everything you have. Come on man, it's for Africa!” he informed me (it may help to mention that he was of obvious South African origin by the sound of his accent).
“I don't know, just take what I gave you.”
“Come on, just give it to me!”

So to get the guy off my back I just gave him my full pocket of change. It wasn't that much, maybe a little over two and a half Euros. But to pay that price for a simple piece of colorful string? Definite ripoff and I was the sucker. Realizing my moment of weakness I made a point to not let that sort of thing happen again. In front of the Duomo there was a horde of touts, many with the string bit, one guy had bird seed for taking pictures with pigeons, and others were selling worthless junk for kids. It was tout paradise.

The guy with the bird seed walked up to me and started attracting the pigeons. With my recent lesson still fresh in my mind I preempted him.

“No thanks, I don't want whatever you are selling.”
“Free, free, no money!”

So, again, I like free. But this time I was not going to cave in and pay. He lifted my hand, without me expressing that I wanted him to, and put some seed in my palm. Five or six pigeons immediately landed on my arm and started feasting. The only thought in my head was, I hope these damn birds don't shit on me. He then asked for my camera so that he could take a picture. I let him know that I'm capable of taking my own picture and proceeded to do so. After taking a lovely photograph I dropped the remaining seed to get those flying rats off of me and that's when the tout put his hand out for some money.

“Hey you said it was free!”
“Just give me a little. One Euro, just one.”
“No I told you I didn't want to pay. I am not paying.”

His face turned slightly angry and his tone changed considerably.

“Give me something! Just one Euro.”
“No, nothing. I'm sorry.”

And I walked away. I figured if he says free then he can't fault me for not paying. One more encounter with a tout and I swore off of them for good. I met my second bracelet pusher. He had the exact lines as the first guy. I realized maybe that is all the English they know. He started to tie the bracelet and I told him I wouldn't pay a cent. He said free. Okay, I know this routine. Once he got to the part of the script where the “donation” is given I said sorry and walked away. He tried to yell something at me but I wasn't paying attention. I realize I can't push my luck with these types, I don't know what may happen if you piss them off. So from now on I'm staying away from these guys for good. I'm not even going to listen to what they have to say because it is always just a ploy to lighten my pockets.

There was another brief experience that taught me an equally valuable lesson. It was on the subway in Milan. I was tired from hauling my pack around all day so I was carrying it with one hand while my other hand was holding onto a rail for stability. This train was packed, it must have been rush hour. I noticed a woman peering at my pack with an unusual interest. She then glanced up to my hand on the rail. I noticed both of these actions but didn't think much of either. She then got really close to me. Uncomfortably close. Yet this train was full of people so I figured she must have been shifted around by someone else. But then I felt a tug on my pocket. Perhaps just someone's bag getting caught on my pocket, I thought. I shfted my feet a bit to move away from whatever was pulling on my pants. I felt the sensation again. Okay, this is getting weird. I shift once again. And a third time I feel something. Definitely too much coincidence. I look at the woman and notice that her bag is covering her free hand, her other hand is holding onto the rail like everyone else. Suddenly it all clicked. I moved a few steps away from her and kept my eye on her like a hawk. She moved around the train to a spot far away from me, all the while never looking at me straight on.

I'm a little sad that I didn't confront her in the act but maybe it's better that way. No point really in giving her grief, it won't stop her from doing it to someone else. But now I know to be much more careful on trains or in any crowded area. Luckily for me this lesson came at no cost, my pocket was empty so there was nothing there to pick.

These are the kinds of lessons that one is warned about before traveling. Yet even with the knowledge that there are people out there that are looking to take advantage of me it somehow doesn't sink in until it really happens. I can read about it a hundred times but it isn't until I'm actually part of the story that it sinks in.

But all is not doom and gloom here in Italy. These are two isolated incidents that sound much worse than they really were. I'm glad to have left Milan, it wasn't my kind of town. I spent two nights there and really there was only enough to see to fill one day. I'm not the type attracted to Prada, Louis Voutton, or Armani so Milan didn't have much value to me. I feel good taking it easy here in Rome and it's great to have actual sights to see, and Rome sure has a lot. It's a good feeling to know that I'm going to spend almost a week here. A nice pause in my travel pace to get some much needed rest.

Since leaving Basel I ventured to Locarno, a Swiss city in the south but I wouldn't have known it from the people there. Locarno is basically Italy, which makes sense considering it's only a ten minute walk from the Italian border. To get to Locarno I took a beautiful train ride across all of Switzerland. I have come to realize that I really enjoy travel by train. It's speed is great when compared with other forms of land travel but it's more comfortable due to the extra space in the train cars. Traveling by land is so much nicer because of everything that one can see compared to flight's never ending sea of white. The train went through the Swiss Alps which was stunning, especially on the southern side because the weather cleared up considerably. It was warm enough to wear a t-shirt yet there was still snow on the mountains.

After spending a night in Locarno with my fantastic CS host Remo I left for Milan on my way to Rome. So that brings everyone up to date on the happenings up to this point. Tomorrow Ezra arrives! I will be meeting him at the train station, Roma Termini, around 9 AM and we will have to figure out what we are going to do. There aren't any plans formulated yet but it looks like we will need to decide if we want to get a good view of Italy for a whole three weeks or try to see some of Italy and some of Germany, and hopefully a tiny taste of Amsterdam. Either way, it will be a blast as long as Ezra is around.

Time to go eat my free pasta dinner! Ciao ciao.

PS. No photos yet. I have taken a ton but my internet connection isn't reliable enough to upload them. Keep an eye out for a few days from now and you will see some really beautiful stuff.

Day Thirty Nine - Travel Musings

Being on the road constantly is an interesting way to live. I make friends much more quickly than I normally would at home. This is honestly out of neccesity. I'm never in one location for all that long which causes my relationships to grow at a faster pace than I am accusstomed to in a life that is static. I must trust people more than I ever have in my life. This is not a problem at all, just a fact that I have accepted and embraced in order to enrich my experiences abroad. Without the ability to make friends quickly and the trust that is required for that to happen my time on my Odyssey would be much less fulfilling and very much so lonely.

There is no better example of this than my couchsurfing experiences so far. It is difficult to predict what will happen when first walking into a stranger's home but what follows has been, and will probably always be, fantastic. I have skanked (a dance, it's not as dirty as it sounds) in a ska club with Brits, drank absinthe with a man in Brussels, learned about pizza box conspiracies from an American expat, went bar hopping until 7 AM with two Belgian gents, and discussed philosophy with the Swiss. A fairly good list I must say. And I'm just getting started! It has been over a month since I have stayed in a hostel, all my time has been spent couchsurfing. The experiences had when in the company of fellow couchsurfers are the kind that one cannot find when in hostels. It's the local experience, sometimes the bizarre experience. But the fact is that couchsurfing is always an experience. The time I spend with these people, at their home, out on the town, or seeing the local sights, is time that I will remember. Even days where I accomplish nothing but getting to know a new person better are days that I cherish.

Sure, seeing one of a kind sights are great. There is a part of me that wants to travel the world to lay my own eyes on Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, and the Roman Colliseum. But I am learning that my main motivation for travel is to learn. Learn the amazingly varied ways that people live, learn their language, learn their customs, learn what they like, learn what they don't like, and learn what they know about my culture, if anything. This knowledge feels so much more valuable to me than having the ability to say, "Yeah, I've seen [insert tourist attraction here]."

It is because of this realization of what I am truly looking for that drives me to venture off the beaten path. I want to explore, go to a land that doesn't see many outsiders. Unfortunately for me, this can be somewhat difficult in Europe. This is a part of the world that is well traveled. But I will always be keeping my eyes and ears open for an opportunity. I will be looking to have an experience that I have never had. My quest is to challenge myself to take a risk and leave the world of comfort behind me. Sometimes the risk will not pay off and I will have unsavory days and nights. But for the bad it only takes one amazing time to make it all worth it. And when that day comes you can bet I will have a smile on my face.