Friendliest People
 

One of my friends traveled by train to Prague recently. She had no idea where to look for a place to stay when she got off the train. It was getting late. A complete stranger took her and her friend to her house, fed them dinner and let them stay the night. She said the people in Prague were the friendliest people she'd ever met. Have you ever had an experience like this? Who are the friendliest people you've met on your travels in Europe?

About 12 years ago, my wife and I were staying in a small hotel in western France. At dinner, a man approached our table, saying, "I'm awfully sorry, but we heard you speaking English -- would you mind if we joined you?" I said we were delighted, but since we were Americans, he might find us hard to understand. With that, he roared with laughter, being very British. Well, we became fast friends, they have been here and we have been guests in their home. We have been adopted by their family. We correspond regularly, their children have become fast friends with ours, and so my vote has to be for the Brits -- so different from us and yet so much alike.

We were staying in a small hotel in Scotland. After dinner, it was still light, so we decided to go for a drive. We had to walk through the pub to go from the dining room to the parking lot, and a large family (all adults) were having a pub supper there. They hailed us as we passed through, inviting us to have a dring with them. We declined and went for our sunset drive around When we returned they were still there, and once again they invited us to join them for a drink. Well we did, and for the rest of the evening, they bought us drinks and we all did our best to tell each other all about our lives. These goood people were sheep farmers and my husband is a symphony musician, so you would think we would have nothing in common -- but we had a most delightful evening as their guests in that pub. Wonderful.

What a wonderful topic! When I was in Paris a friend and I were leaving the metro station and were confused about which direction the Notre Dame cathedral was in. Just before we went out, we asked an older French gentleman where it was, in our best French. Unbelievably, he motioned us to follow then turned around and walked back out the doors with his grand daughter in tow, up the metro steps and partially down the street, then stopped and pointed us in the right direction. We were so surprised and very worried that he had wasted a metro ticket, since he had already been through the turnstile. We tried to offer him 2 metro tickets, but he smiled and waved us away and showed us a metro card in his wallet. Even though he spoke no English and we very little French, this man went out of his way to help us, a real gentleman!

My Mother and I were in Paris October 1997 and several times women helped my Mother carry her suitcase up and down the metro stairs (I couldn't convince her to carry a smaller one!) Those of you who know the Paris metro system, there are plenty of stairs that go up and down all over the place! We mentioned to one of the women we were surprised with the friendliness of the French (not to sound rude about them) and her response was the French government was trying to "clean" up the relationships of the French people and the tourists coming into France; and one way was asking the younger people to be more courteous and helpful to tourists. We felt this is why this one particular woman helped, but we believed she and the others did this with their own heart!

I just want to add to Monica's comment above about how friendly the French were. I was in Paris 5-6 years ago, and found the French to be very rude and arrogant. When my husband and I went over at the end of last year, I was almost dreading Paris and dealing with the French. I couldn't have been more wrong. I found the French to be very polite and friendly. They helped us with our luggage on the Metro, put up with my atrocious non-existant French and helped us with directions. I was ordering breakfast in McDonalds one morning (not the best way to experience French culture I know - but it was convienent!!). I thought I was doing pretty good ordering with what I thought was the French pronunciations of the menu. The young man serving just looked at me and grinned and replied "Would that be all?" I had replied "Yes" before I realised that he had answered me in English! We actually had more trouble with the Germans when it came to rudeness.

My wife and I ride our bikes in Europe. In Como, Italy we were hopelessly lost, trying to find the place we could find a ferry to Bellagio, as we studied our map an older gentleman (for comparison, I'm 60) stopped on his bike. After a little discussion, we speak no Italian and he no English, he finally motioned to follow him. About a mile later he stopped and pointed, we thanked him "Grazie" and we parted. Five minutes later he was back again and we were still lost. He smiled and this time lead us directly to the dock. He went way out of his way and there was no way we could thank him enough. We have met friendly people in every country, maybe it's the image of seniors on bikes. We like to go to out-of-the-way places and usually it's "we never see Americans here, never on bikes, and never your age".

My friend and I were in Greece a couple of years ago and we found the Greek people very ffiendly and ready to help in anyway. They seem to genuinely like Americans.
Many Greeks initiated conversations with us. They speak surprisingly good English which was firtunate since we spoke no Greek. I also found the French very friendly and charming, and the English. Italy was not as friendly as I had anticipated, and a couple of my Italian-American friends had the same experience there. However, I am sure that there are many friendly Italians, and Italy is indeed lovely with some of the best historical sites.

Read your message as to your trip to Scotland. I am planning a trip next year, 1999. Have no clue where to start. Go with a group tour or work with a travel agent to plan my own itinerary? Thanks for any help!

Nancy, I can relate to your friend's experience. My husband & I were on main street Prague trying to find a place to stay when a young woman approached me with photocopied pictures of a house (bedroom, bathroom, etc). She didn't speak English so we gestured back and forth.

We finally understood each other and she rode with my husband on our motorbike to show him the way to her house, while I went way down into the subway with her mother. They got home ages before we did as we rode the subway, rode a bus and then walked for awhile.

When I look back now I think it was the stupidest thing we could have done, to split up like that but they were the most wonderful people and had a great place for us to stay!

Five years ago I was in Prague with three friends. We stayed with a mother of about 60 and her 25 year old son. He offered to wash our clothes for us. When the clothes were returned in the morning - - my sweatshirt and my fiend's jeans were sewn up. The mother had fixed the holes and never mentioned it. Very nice!!

Your question is interesting. I've had the opportunity to visit 28 countries and live for a few years in France. I can't think of an unfriendly country, but the friendliest was Egypt and I say that because we never encountered any Egyptian that was ready to go very much out of his/her way to help. The USA, although it's generally friendly, would have to be the unfriendliest country I've lived in. The most unfriendly (also childish and provincial) tourists are certainly Americans, but I'll allow as how, being an American myself, I may be critical of Americans.

I have met freindly people just about every where I have been in Eroupe, but the people that I most
took a shine to were in Oslo, Wales, & Scotland. On a train from London to Paris, I struck up a
conversation with a person from Edinburgh, & as I would be traveling there in about 4 days, I was
invited to stay overnight. I stayed with these friends for 3 nights in Edinburgh. They showed me the
sites & the nightlife, & when ever I tried to do something for them or pay for something, they said no
you are our guest.In Wales, everybody was friendly -- while in Caerphilly asking a train station attendant
for directions, an older gentleman overheard & gave us directions & also told us about some other things to
do & an excellent place to eat, a place, on his recommendation, we have been back to a few times. In Oslo,
all the people on the street seemed so happy & friendly & are always willing to join in a conversion.

I would have to vote for the Italians, but then part of our family is Italian and lives there. With a little effort inf their language they will give you their hearts and souls. We've had people lead us around towns to try to find our car, ride with us to show us how to locate a difficult hotel, run after us in the street to return a left guidebook, tell us in detail the whole history of Genoa, open their kitchens at off hours because we had forgotten that meals have specific hours in Italy--too many acts of kindness to list. We travel a lot and it's rare to find unfriendly people as long as we tourists behave respectfully and politely, and the attempt to speak the land of the country is always most appreciated, even though one usually ends up speaking English anyway. That said, many of our friends would vote for the Thai people--I'll look forward to visiting. A close friend of mine who is Argentine calls them "The Care Bears of Asia"!

I just thought of one more incident involving an Italian gentleman--this time it was a policeman on the Via Veneto in Rome in rush hour traffic. We were not good in those days at driving a manual transmission car. My husband stopped for a light halfway up the V. Veneto and when the light turned green, the inevitable stalling and rolling downhill began. The policeman first tried to pantomime how to use brakes, accelerator and clutch, but only more stalling on our part. Finally, he motioned my husband out of the car (oh no, Jail, we thought), got behind the wheel, drove the car to a more level part of the street, waited for my husband and then saluted and wished us "buona fortuna"! We were very young and very impressionable and will always remember this courteous gentleman wheneve we drive up the Via Veneto!

The friendliest people on earth have to be Kiwis. We had always thought Canadians were the nicest we had encountered on our travels. On the streets of Vancouver, trying desperately to read the map and determine how to get to our restaurant choice, Canadians would stop, without invitation, and tell us how to get there. We were so impressed until we arrived in Auckland. There, when a local sees you looking at a map, they TAKE you to the spot so you won't get lost. And, if they are especially charming Kiwis, they want to take you home with them and feed you and entertain you. We've been back to New Zealand and have dreams of living in a spot of unsurpassed beauty and with the friendliest people on earth.

I'll vote for the Turks of Istanbul. Yes, the "friendliness" of some of them is just trying to get your business, but, for the most part, we always felt we were honoring them by visiting their country. When I wrote a complaint letter about a tour guide I carbon-copied it to the Turkish Tourist Bureau to let them know of my problem -- they sent a personal letter back! I ask you, how many times do you get a personal reply to ANY complaint letter, let alone one that was only carboned?

I think it truly depends on the individual. I was in France in 1991 when I discovered that I had got on a train expecting my friend, who had the tickets, had gotten on the same train in another compartment. A woman from Metz helped my to straighten things out with the conductor and even offered to buy me a ticket back to Paris to meet my friend (the train station took my credit card so it wasn't necessary. I'll never forget her generousity. In 1996, I was in Russia, and had very good experiences with the Russian people I met. On the trans-siberian a woman we met taught us to play russian card games and when she got off the train in Perm gave us her hat, her necklace, and her earrings as friendship tokens after only knowing us a few hours. The other Russian people I met on a personal basis gave us the best they had to offer, often going without themselves. They made me proud and honored to know them. Both of these examples were strangers whom I had only known a few hours each time, yet gave all that they had to offer without a second thought. I often wonder when I have the chance to do for that others and don't....

I can't help but add a story about being in Ireland. I stopped into a Galway pub for a drink and to kill some time for the evening as I was travelling alone and staying at a B&B. I noticed a woman looking rather sad next to me, so I started a conversation with her. I commented that I would like to see more of the countryside as I was using public transport. As it turned out, she, her husband and son were going to a little town out in the country the next day to look at a shop she was thinking of buying and invited me to ride along. What a great day! A real Irish experience.

The friendliest people in Europe: The Irish and the Italian people. They are very polite, very friendly and you feel welcome in their country. Nils

Hi! I just read about your experience in Galway. I am in the process of planning a trip to Galway over the summer with my best friend and sister. I was wondering if you might have any suggestions from your experience. I've never been to IReland before and wondered what you thought of it. Also, how is Galway in comparison to Dublin?

sending to top

Yeah, my vote has to go to the europeans in general, O.K., more specifically the Italians, Hungarians and swiss. However, there are exeptions, being the spanish worst of all and the poms can be annoying too, and I am a neutral source, coz I'm a fair dinkum Ozzy.(Australian!) By the way I haven't heard anything about us good willed Australians as yet, but I put that down to
1) You're all Ozzy's! or
2) You (unfortunately) haven't had the opportunity to experience us for yourselves.
p.s. I haven't set out to start a war, just stating my opinion... So come to Australia for yourselves, we'll look after you!!!
(especially in the west- you guessed it! I'm from there!)

My vote is for the French and the Scottish. I have been to France a number of times and to Scotland once and have to say that I have NEVER encountered a rude French person. The Scottish are extremely helpful, courteous and friendly. I am already planning my next trip!

Ditto Nils. The Irish and Italians. When traveling, the kindness of strangers never ceases to amaze me. Great stories everybody.

We've met friendly people all over the world; I think kindness to travelers is one of the best traits of the human race. But I give a special award to the Greeks, with anl honorable mention to the Romanians, as the following story illustrates. This time last year, my wife and I were touring antiquity sites in Greece, and we spent our last week on the Peloponnese peninsula. Following a two-day stay at the Hotel Europa in Olympia, we checked out and headed across the mountains for our next and last stop in the Peloponnese, Mycenae. The drive had been a memorable one -- very scenic but filled with many switchbacks and tiny villages where the road narrowed to a single lane. Four hours later, we arrived in Mycenae and checked into the Hotel Petite Planete. When asked for our passports, we found to our horror that we had left them behind -- along with our plane tickets -- in the hotel safe deposit box in Olympia. The hotel manager in Mycenae immediately called his counterpart in Olympia, and the two worked on schemes to get our valuables to us. In the course of several phone calls, they discussed and discarded courier services, taxis, and cousins. Having no alternative, we made the drive back across the mountains to Olympia. Upon our arrival, we were treated as family; lunch, snacks, and beverages were pressed upon us. The offer of payment was categorically refused. We arrived back in Mycenae at 8 p.m., exhausted, whereupon the owner and manager of the hotel took it upon themselves to restore our spirits. Never shown a menu, we were plied with appetizers, main courses, desserts, and fabulous Greek wine. All the time, we were asked to tell and re-tell the story of how we had made three trips across the mountains in a single day (possibly the first time this feat had ever been done since Odysseus). Fully snockered after two bottles of wine and an excellent meal, we fell into a deep, restful sleep. For the rest of our stay, we were the intrepid Americans who had made three trips across the mountains. When we left two days later, it was as though we were leaving our adopted home. The Greek owner and his wife pressed fresh-picked oranges on us. His Romanian-born manager gave my wife a kiss. In all our travels, we have never felt less like hotel guests than we did those days in Greece. Incidentially, I would give those two hotels my highest recommendation to anyone thinking of visiting the Peloponnese!

In my experience, people in Europe were friendly in general, but a few stories stick in my mind in particular.
The first one was in Cheltenham Spa in England. My friends and I had made the mistake of trying to take a train out on a Sunday, and we had a four hour wait. We walked around the area for awhile. An older woman stopped us on our walk, and asked us if we would like to go to her house for a meal and a bath. She had noticed the Canadian flags on our backpacks and said she wished to return the favour made to her when she backpacked in Canada when she was young. We declined, since we'd only arrived from home about a week before, and we were clean and fed, but we thanked her to no end.

After traveling in England for two weeks we headed for France. We arrived in Paris the morning after a horrid night of ferries and a train, exhausted and hungry. We went into a bank to exchange travelers cheques and the woman there was rude and seemed impatient with tourists. "Welcome to Paris!" we thought. But a few hours later we got lost looking for our hotel, and while we stood confused on the street, a man stopped to help us find our way, with lots of pointing and "la bas!" since we didn't speak much french, and he spoke no english. Despite his help we got lost again. Another man stopped to help us, and this one pretty much took us by the hand and took us to our hotel. They were both very helpful and friendly and made our day much better. At this point it was just us two girls traveling together, so we were a bit wary of men leading us astray or what have you, but there wasn't the slightest bit of 'sliminess' to them, just a genuine desire to help.
Someone told me afterwards that when lost or otherwise confused in Paris to always ask someone of the opposite sex to help...seems to work!
My last story takes place in Greece. We had spent the night at a hostel in Athens and headed out in the morning to catch a ferry to Santorini. Two British girls who had stayed at the hostel happened to be on the subway with us. I got suddenly sick on the subway, feeling faint/pukey and the whole nine yards. When we got to the port station, one of the girls went and got me a bottle of water and the other rubbed my back and tended to me. We ended up spending the week with them in Santorini and visited them back in England at the end of our trip, where they took us in, fed us, and took us to some local pubs. We had a great time and still keep in touch.

It's great to go to Europe and see all the sights and all the history, but it's really the people you meet that make the trip memorable!

I can't beleive no one has mentioned the Dutch! Yes, they can be rude and obnoxious when they're in a drunken ski bar in St. Anton or Kitzbuhl, but overall I have found them extremely friendly. Overall, though, I'd probably give the nod to the Scottish or Italians. By the way, to the Ozzie bloke, talk about rude and obnoxious...Aussie's in Europe can claim the prize on most of my holidays.

Striking up a casual conversation while traveling can lead to lifelong friendships. While having tea at Babington's off the Spanish steps in Rome, we began chatting with a British couple next to us. We exchanged stories for about an hour, and then parted. Later that night we ran into them again at Trevi fountain, and again we found them to be very charming, but we didn't get their names.
After returning home to the States we regretted not getting their name and address so we could correspond. My husband suggested we take a crazy chance since we did remember they lived in Salisbury England, to buy an ad in the local paper and ask that the couple who met them in Babington's would like to write to them. The ad worked! over the past three years we have exchanged visits and countless faxes and e-mails. It is this that makes travel so wonderful.

When on a train between Rome and Florence, an Italian gentleman seated next to us corrected our American English. I turned to him, told him that he was absolutely correct, that we speak a dialect here in the Southwest, and asked him where he learned to speak such perfect English. Lifting his nose, he said, "I, sir, was a prisoner of the British during the war."

To Tina, Nils, hamlet and Andrea and anyone else I forgot to mention for the votes for the Irish as friendly people. My fiance and I are planning our honeymoon in Ireland and we are very interested in learning all that we can before we leave. Neither one of us have been off the US continent (except that I lived in Hawaii for a few years) and we are excited about the adventure of Ireland. We would eventually love to travel more extensively and I look forward to meeting wonderful people. I have to mention that I grew up in New England (which probably has a top vote for rude people if you were speaking of the US) and my cousin, who has lived his life in Texas, came up for a family gathering. He mentioned that in the airport he was trying to ask directions and people were rude and ignored him. I guess we Americans could take a lesson from the other inhabitants of the planet, eh?

Melissa,(I have a grand-daughter Melissa!)Being
Scottish born,but have made a life in Canada I feel that Americans sell themselves short.
Maybe its my "niceness" or my accent,whatever,it has been(AND STILL IS!)my experience during my many visits to the states,of very nice,helpfull and kind people.
Now,we will be in New York city 28th May for our first visit,if this changes my opinion I'll let you know!!Regards.

I have two "friendliest and most honest" stories, both involving Italians. On our very first trip to Italy many years ago, and going by train, my husband and I each carried a duffel bag and small bag, plus my husband had his camcorder ( which were BIG back then, never made that mistake again!) One day going from Aosta to Bolagna, we had about 2-3 hours time between trains at some little town along the way. I can't remember the name now. We decided to put our bags in a locker at the train station, then walk around and find a place for lunch. We followed the locker signs, and to our dismay, found none of the kind we expected, just a huge room with open doors and windows out into the main street! No one spoke English, there were a few people around, plus maintenance people and when they realized what we wanted, they kept motioning and trying to tell us it was ok to leave our stuff there. After "talking" with them, (us in English, them in Italian) we left our stuff including the camcorder and walked out the door. Somewhat a little anxious (me, more than my husband) walked around only to find most places closed for some street fair, but no food. Finally, we found a little store that was closed but the door was open and we just sort of peered inside. Again thru sign language and mangled Italian on our part, the store owner, with a big smile, offered to have his wife fix us something. So we had a nice lunch (our first experience with red orange juice - Sicilian oranges) and an enjoyable "conversation". Finally we proceeded back to the train station, kinda wondering if our stuff would still be there. Of course it was, and when my husband tried to tip them, they refused.
The second story: Last summer we rented a teeny convertible so some of our luggage had to ride in the back seat. The day we were going to turn our car in at the Rome airport and then stay in Rome, we decided to drive all the way to the ocean first since it was so close. We arrived at lunch time and tried to find a restaurant right on the water at one of the resorts. Of course there was no parking anaywhere, not even any secure lot anywhere. Finally my husband left me with the car near this one place while he walked down to see if their restaurant was open and if they could tell us where to park.He came back to get me, saying there were a couple elderly gentleman just sitting in front of this restuarant and as a car pulled out of a space in front, they saved the space for us, and again thru sign language and mangled Italian, they watched the car (we never even put the top up) while we went into the restaurant for lunch. We had great food and a beautiful view. We offered to buy the men lunch or vino but one just had an espresso. they also wouldn't take a tip. My husband is Italian/Sicilian, and the men reminded him of his grandfathers. I took a picture of them together and it made for another memorable experience in a wonderful country. Ciao!

My general experience is that people you meet on holiday almost always, and in every country, are friendly and helpful if you have a respectful, courteous and listening approach. It also helps very much trying to speak their language - even only a few words. If you arrive with your "nose in the sky", then people are not getting motivated to help you. Nils

<BR>

My vote goes to the Scottish and the Swiss. In Switzerland, whenever I opened a map someone was there to help out with directions. In Scotland, I have heard of numerous occasions where the Scottish have welcomed complete strangers into their homes for days on end, feeding them and giving tours of the area.

I have met friendly people in every country in Europe. Once while looking at a map with a friend in a piazza in Genoa two Italian guys came up to us. Of course we were very skeptical. We somehow communicated that we wanted to eat. They took us to a neighborhood place where we had the best pasta I have ever eaten. I also vote for the Slovenians. I met some Slovenians on the same trip while in Florence. I have been writing letters to one girl ever since. She has come here and stayed with me in NYC. The following summer I went there. They took me everywhere. A friend of the family donated all his time and drove us everywhere. They really loved seeing an American. They get very few there. I'm going back one day. Also, my parents once left their camera in a taxi in London. The cab driver brought it back to their hotel later and they got it back.

I had to say something about New York. A friend of mine recently came to New York from Chicago and we spent the weekend in the City. I was born here but have lived all over the US and have visited Spain and Puerto Rico. She mentioned that she was surprised by how the folks here in New York were incredibly friendly and helpful; quite different from her experiences only a few years before. Why? Because New York's crime rate has gone down dramatically and the street's are significantly cleaner. Tourism is at an all time high. New Yorker's feel safe and therefore can feel free to be helpful. Something they didn't feel 5 years ago. <BR>

top

topper