Don't Make The Same Mistakes I Did
 

I just thought I should tell you all about an unfortunate (though thouroughly preventable) episode that occured to me this summer while travelling. I was in Barcelona this August and decided to make a stop at Marseilles before heading up to Paris. During a change at Montpeiller, I went up to the ticket seller and asked in my (excuse the lack of modesty) pretty-damn-good French for a reservation Marseilles to Paris. The rather rude woman told me there was only one at 5:30am, and when I asked her if I could pay extra to have a first class reservation on my second class pass she said no. Even though I knew I could, I didn't want to argue with her, so I just took the ticket. In Marseilles, I was staying on La Canbière, so at 5 in the morning I thought it would be no biggie to walk to the Train station, up one major street, turn left and down another. But on La Canbière I was violently attacked by a man with a knife, had all my luggage and money stolen, and spent the rest of the day in a hospital with thankfully only minor injuries. Incidently, when I went with the police to Gare St Charles that evening, lo and behold I found out there were plently of places on other trains for Paris that day. I have no idea what that woman in Montpeiller's problem was. But there are several lessons to learn here:

1. It was silly of me to bow in to that cow in Montpeiller. It is always better to badger the ticket seller until you get what you want, or switch to a different window.

2. It was really stupid of me, a woman on her own, to walk anywhere at that time of the morning. It didn't help that Gare St Charles is in a really bad neighbourhood, as I later found out, but I think that goes for most cities.

3. In cases like this, Consulates, Embassies and the like are absolutely useless. The most the Australian Embassy in Paris did for me was give me the number to cancel my visa card. Thankfully I had friends in northern France who were able to help me, otherwise I don't know what I would have done.

I'm happy you are all right, Mariannah. Thanks for the warning. Sorry that happened. There's a fine line for solo women travelers (and I guess men too) between wanting to be free and not giving into fear, and being careless. But hearing your sad experience makes me glad that I have chosen not to take any early morning or late night trains or planes in Europe.

How horrible, but thanks for sharing it with us Mariannah. It does make one think twice about early morning and late evening trains w/o the crowds of people. Thankfully you weren't injured!

I know what you mean about a ticket person telling you the wrong information, it has happened to me too and it makes you wonder if they do it on purpose. But next time you and I will know better, won't we!!?

I'm sorry to hear about your encounter with the rude ticket-seller, and disappointed to hear that, just when I thought the French had got their act together, you met with the old-style treatment.

Personally i can't be bothered going to France any more when you expose yourself to the possibility of this sort of reception.

We made a real effort to go to Avignon again a couple of years ago, after an absence of 20 years, and pre-booked an apartment for a week to avoid any last-minute problems with accommodation. But what did the landlady do? She simply ignored all agreements made, in French, via email, jumped the price up 40% and booted us out after three days, because she had someone else lined up who would pay even more.

I still am prepared to make an exception for Alsace, where they have the decency to speak German and behave reasonably, but the rest of the country can go to blazes.

Harzer

Sorry about your bad experience, but I just have to post in defense of the American Consulate in Marseille. I have had a number of dealings with them over the last year and found them to be exceptionally helpful. No, I take that back. They haven't been exceptional, just doing their job - which is to help out American citizens traveling abroad. The first time they came to my rescue was getting my son a passport in 3 days when we realized at the last minute that his old one had expired. The second time was when they helped guests of ours get temporary passports after their car was broken into - again it was all done in a few hours with an appointment made over the phone and good advice re: the gendarmerie, etc.

All that to say, perhaps you caught them on an off day, but in my experience, they have done their job the way it should be done. Which, I guess could be considered exceptional when it comes to government bureaucrats!

-Kevin

Frankly, I'd have a lot more sympathy for this one-sided story had you not resorted to calling someone an "old cow" because you had a disagreement...or perhaps it was your fabulous command of the language..whatever.

One lesson hopefully you also learned from this is to keep your cool and as someone else suggested, seek help at another ticket window if possible in this case.

Being attacked is always at the very least unnerving but how you found out at the police station about all the "other spaces" on trains that day is beyond me unless THAT was the major topic of conversation when you arrived there.

Dear Mariannah, I am so sorry this happened to you. We all have encountered people that are really unpleasant and uncooperative like that woman in the booth i Montpellier.
A good advise, now, would be as you said to try another booth or may be if possible check in a computer in your hotel?
Your post helps me a lot because we were planing to arrive at Dijon in a late train in November, but I was thinking of calling the Hotel to be sure taxis are available in the gare late at night or to ask for a car.
The hotel is close to the station but I wouldn't walk unless it was during the day.
A special alert should be given for Sundays in France at least, once we took a train to I believe it was to Malmaison to visit the Chateau, and
upon arrival (11AM) the gare was totally empty. Nothing. No one. It was difficult to find a taxi which we finally called from a nearby cafe.

Thanks for sharing the bad experience. It caused me to think twice now about taking an early flight out from Barcelona to Amsterdam (i.e 6.30 am). As i was told by my agent that the hotel i am staying in (Tryp Barcelona Aeropuerto) is just next to the airport, i could easier walk to the counter in the wee morning... was thinking of doing just that at 5am in the morning.. Do you think it will be safe if it's in the vicinity of the Barcelona airport? Am a single lady travelling alone.

emiliew
I dont know the area around Barcalona airport but my experience of other airports would suggest that they are not the best places to roam around. If the hotel is close does it not have a shuttle bus? But why risk it get a cab!

Mariannah, I'm so sorry for what happened, but I'm glad you told us this story. I was recently in Geneva and I chose a hotel about 3 blocks from the train station for my last night before catching an early plane home. I had planned to walk to the train station and take the first train to the airport. It seemed like an OK area in the daytime, but throughout the night I kept hearing drunk, crazy people on the street. When I got up at 5am to leave for the airport, it was still very dark outside. Those crazy people were still staggering around just outside the hotel, so I decided to take a taxi to the airport instead of walking to the train station. A taxi ride in Geneva is very expensive, but as a female travelling alone I was afraid to walk 3 blocks in the dark, amongst those lunatics. Now I am so glad I took the taxi!! Once again, I'm very sorry for your misfortune, but I do feel better about my decision.

One sided story? Like we would want to hear the side of the guy with knife?

Joelle

Marseilles at 5AM? You are one brave lady. Sorry the odds caught up to you.
Ticket sellers can be a real pain; especially the lazy ones.

Hi M,

Thank for the warning.

Glad that it was only minor injuries.

It always makes me so angry when someone is attacked and all we can say is "you should have known better". Like being attacked at any time of the day is NORMAL??? And the criminal was just doing what can be expected?
Yes we should all just keep off the streets from 10 to 8 so that the drunks druggies and criminals can roam free. And if you dare to venture outside it's your fault if you are killed, eh?
I wouldn't go alone in the dark, but if I did and was attacked I wouldn't expect anyone to blame ME.

Hi Lindilindi I understand your frustration but I do not think you got it right no one is blaming Mariannah at all. Simply facing the facts of life we are trying to find solutions or better procedures for the future.

I know nobody is really blaming her for what happened.
It just annoys me so much that as a single 23-year old female, there are so many things I have to fear as opposed to being a male.
That's all.

What an awful story. Glad you're ok Mariannah. I think it bears pointing out you said the AUSTRALIAN embassy. Not sure the US one would have been better but let's not skewer them without cause.

I hope the rest of your trip was good. :)

Mariannah

The one time I was a victim of a serious crime, it was so shocking and painful because it left me with a wrenching sense of powerlessness.

Let us see if we can help you get some back.

True, you feel you 'should have known' there was a higher probability of a crime occurring in a particular neighbourhood, at a particular time, but that was all it was, a probability. Weather forecasters routinely get their predictions wrong, despite having access to sophisticated instruments. They can but use their knowledge to tweak their systems and seek to do better next time. This is all you can do, as well. If crime were routine and 100 per cent preventable, we would not think of it as crime. Criminals can take advantage of us precisely because the rest of the world, the rest of the time, operates on trust. In other words, time to stop beating yourself up, especially since this just aids and abets your attacker.

You have an opportunity to help the embassy improve its services. Consider writing the embassy a letter and explaining to them what you needed.

Your observation that if one agent doesn't give you what you want, try asking another is consistent with my own experience. Those employed to help travellers don't always know their jobs as well as they might - who's to say who's to blame, the supervisor? the training department? Take heart and be glad that you live in an Internet era - next time, you can look up the train timetable yourself, and/or get confirmation here. Nobody has more interest in your outcome than fellow travellers, because we're all in the same boat.

Mariannah- Sorry for the misfortune and very scary event but thank you for the post. As P_M mentioned, makes the idea of taking a taxi even a few blocks seem OK.

For Lindilindi- Don't worry you won't be 23 forever (said kindly and kiddingly) 50 comes in the blink of an eye. Also mugging can happen to males in the wrong circumstances.

I was going to say that she was referring to the Australian embassy, not US (and not the US consulate in Marseille). I'm not sure what help she was asking them for, though.

I think it's good for someone to post this information, thank goodness Mariannah is all right. I think too many people get very careless and casual about safety when on vacation and do things they would never do at home, and it's good to admit that this was a very unwise thing to do-- walk around Marseille alone at 5 am in an area near the train station (probably anywhere). I wouldn't do that in any city, even my small Ohio home town (well maybe there if I really had to). Marseille does have a higher crime rate than some other French cities and on top of that, areas around train stations are almost always worse than other parts of cities.

I don't think this would have been a good idea for a solo male, either, not sure a mugger would have cared about the sex of the victim, but especially not for a female.

Mariannah:

So sorry that you went through this experience while travelling.

I too travel solo sometimes and can say that while "ridiculous" I have taken taxi's at this time of day/night, secured by my hotels, for going a few very short blocks...

Safe/paranoid/silly/smart/wastefull...folks will call it as they see it.

Again, criminals do not discriminate by sex, they seize the opportunity.

Surely you know one assailant can and has committed crimes against one or more folks at a time... whole nations have been violently attacked by one or two people...you can be in a group and get "jacked" or solo...no matter for those intent on doing bad things etc.

Of course you know that what happened to you unfortunately happens EVERYWHERE at some time or another right?

You do know that the French, Germans, Americans, Russians, Spanish, Italians etc. are not the only ones doing bad things to some people...some time right?

If you are a traveller at heart you may not cross off a country or implore others to because of crime, service, interpersonal skills, food, drink, the men, the women, the children etc.

Take this for what is is...an escalating series of unfortunate events where at the end of the day YOU, not the criminal is held accountable by some.

Not easy to share your pain and have it tossed right back at you...I know.

As suggested, you really should write oe e-mail the embassy...sounds very unusual...honestly.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "one sided" TopMan. I called the woman a cow, but not and old one (she was probably only a few years older than me, I say mid twenties!). I had stood in line watching her be rude in Spanish and English, but I was reassured this would't happen to me if I spoke French for her, knowing how the French are reputed for not appreciating those who visit their country without knowing the language (although I find this a touch hypocritical, given all the French people I saw swanning around Venice speaking nothing but French). But she was rude to me reguardless. I probably wouldn't have cared if she hadn't handed me the early train that, combined with my own naivity, but me in my unfortunate disposition. But the irony is that at the police station in Marsailles, the police offered to accompany me to the station to see if SNCF would give me a replacement ticket (the other had been stolen, obviously) and the lady there put me on the next available train that evening. Having a police escort makes all the differance! Sitting in that train and looking over the wide expance of free seats, I had absolutely no idea why the Montpeiller lady maintained all other trains were booked out. At one point, I actually wondered to myself if she was in on it with the guy with the knife!

How awful and frightening that must have beenm, Mariannah. I'm glad that you didn't suffer serious injuries, and thanks for the reminder to be safe, rather than sorry.

Hope you are on the mend and a-ok now, both mentally and physically.