Tamsen

The Museum of the History of Science in Florence has Galileo's middle finger preserved in a glass jar. <BR>

Rosemary

In Hyde Park, London, I photographed a green painted metal box (like a post box) with a picture of a dog on it, for disposing of "dog waste". I thought it was a great idea, but I've never seen anything like it again.

Topper

Top!

stacey

On the TV thread..... Hogan's Heroes in German. <BR> <BR>I work with computer people mostly and was driving to the US Army training area in Grafenwoehr and naturally assumed it was a computer training area. Checked into the hotel on base and was awakened at midnight to the sound of live artillery. No one thought to tell me it was THAT kind of training ground!

Thyra

I have been reading this thread for some time and loving it, but not thinking I had anything to contribute, well I suddenly remembered something I saw in 1985,(I think I blocked it out of my conscious)Best girl friend and I backpacking, cold rainy day, we are walking about 6 miles from a ferry terminal to the actual port (turns out the ferries didn't run that day, but that's another story) our we've been lugging our back packs for a couple of hours and have not seen a car drive by since we started, much less another human being. The landscape is dismal, desolate, industrial. <BR>All of a sudden, squatting in an overturned boxcar surrounded by industrial debris is this man, stark naked on both knees, facing directly at us, vigorously playing with himself and singing, oblivious to the world. It was so random, so unexpected, so STRANGE!

Paige

There's a little church at Kutna Hora (outside Prague) that is decorated inside with the bones of 40,000 people. Skulls are strung together like garland hanging from the ceiling, there's a chandelier that has at least 1 of every bone in the body in it, coats of arms made from bones, etc. Very weird. At St. Peter's church in Munich, there's a skeleton in a glass box with jewels drapped all over it and best of all, fake glass eyes in the sockets. <BR>But the weirdest thing I've ever seen was at a Christmas market in Munich. It was a cold, drizzley December evening and as we entered the grounds, we saw 2 men, naked, bodies painted white, pushing shopping carts around in circles and there were fires in the carts. In front of them on stage was a woman in semi-formal attire singing opera. I think it was some sort of off-the-wall performance but it was definitely a weird thing to see.

Hillary

I dont know why I found this funny, but a sign in Pennsylvania that said, "you are now in Intercourse". It was near the Amish country. <BR> <BR>Another odd thing, the band at the changing of the guard in england playing the tunes to Star Wars, When the saints go marching in, and other different show tunes.

Carl

I've enjoyed this post over the months so I thought I'd relate an experience in London we had in May of 99. We were at the Picadilly Tube Station late at night after a show and while waiting for the train on the crowded platform I noticed a peculiar thing happening on the tracks. MICE, not 1 or 2 but literally a hundred or more the length of the platform. They were jumping to and fro among the tracks in pursuit of food and carnel pleasures, oblivious to the trains and people above them. You had to look close because it's dark down by the tracks, but they were indeed frolicking(NO, I hadn't been to the Pub yet). When I pointed this out to my girl friend she yelled "OH MY", pointed, and then everyone on the platform noticed and there were screams of delight and terror everywhere from the late night night crowd. It was quite a scene, people bending over to survey the scene, hooting, hollering while the mice could care less and continued their business. Thankfully a train came soon after, and they scattered, but it sure put a cap onto the evening.

Thyra

Carl, we saw those mice also, they are the exact same color as the bottom of the tube tracks....wow all these years I thought it was a hallucination!

Lynn

A boy (couldn't have been over 16) flashing us and playing with himself on a Paris Metro; a woman in a Vienna restaurant with her pet rat on her shoulder, both of them eating spaghetti; the "dog pooping area" (symbol, no words!) sign in Geneva; arriving at the Gare de l'Est at 8 a.m. after an overnight train trip and finding people downing beer and other alcoholic drinks at one of the snack bars; watching just about any American TV show dubbed into another language; Soviet soldiers eating the USSR equivalent of C-rations and staring at us at one of the Budapest train stations (they were sitting on a troop transport train; we had just arrived from Vienna). <BR> <BR> As for Nutella - I got hooked the first time I tried it!

Jeff

Not nearly as interesting as those that I've read. However, on my first trip over, going through Passport check at Schipol airport, we were met by a guard with a huge (to me) automatic rifle. Probably not the strangest thing we've seen, but definitely a little intimidating. Last time I was in Schipol we didn't see any automatic rifles, but we have seen them in Paris. While guns are supposedly everywere in the US, a police presence is really felt when they are accompanied by such firepower!

Lee

Hey, this thread has gotten some good mileage! <BR> <BR>I know that I've already posted, but my wife reminded me of an odd one that may be worth posting. <BR> <BR>In July of '97, we stayed a couple of nights at the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza on Mailander Strasse in Frankfurt (just down from the Henniger Brewery). To avoid the DM 25,00 charge for daily parking, we always found a spot around the corner on a rather busy sidestreet. As we got in the car around 10:00 in the morning, my wife was looking over her maps as I started driving. I looked over on the sidewalk to see a man, maybe early 30's, walking down the street with only sandals on. Yep, stark naked, just out for a stroll. <BR> <BR>Mary told me to snap a picture since no one would believe us, but I voted against it. We just honked and waived instead.

Janice

Seeing a guy eating raw - yep, raw - chicken on a boat/bus in Venice. We were close enough to be absolutely certain that that's what it was!

Jenna

Seeing two young street guitarists in Munich singing Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Pride" in German. Very weird hearing the Rastafari rhythm in that gutteral language, but also strangely comforting in the univerality of it. <BR> Also, Baywatch in German. No wonder some Europeans don't like Americans, if this is the American culture they're getting! <BR> And another thing. . . Once in a restaurant in Plaza Mayor, Madrid, I went upstairs to use the "servicio" and found the toilet was actually on the balcony, looking out into the street below!! <BR>

sandi

OK. I've been sitting here, jealous (and slightly thankful) that nothing as bizzare has happened to me. My husband got home from work and I was sharing some of the posts with him. He reminded me of this one, that happened to him. In 1993, in a small Beligium village called Weelde(sp?), his band was playing a gig at a club. The entrance to which the customers used, passed directly through the men's restroom. The guy who collected the cover charge was sitting about a foot from the urinals. The lead singer, having to use the stall, was greeted by the patrons as he sat on the toilet!

lorrie

in isfahan iran in 1977, we found the local toilets in town, paid our money to go in, were handed a jug of water. <BR>went into a room with holes in the floor, and very low walled cubicles, no doors, squat and chat to our neighbours. <BR>we didnt use the water as the natives did though. <BR>also in china in 1982, nice cubicles,high walls, doors, with a tiled channel running the full length of all the cubicles , flushed from one end to the other, you didnt want to be in the last stall, to see what the others had for dinner !!!!!!!! <BR>i laugh about it still today. <BR>really enjoying your stories,i thought i had seen it all, but realise i need to get out there and travel MORE !!!!!

Heather

This is such a great thread! I've been laughing all morning! <BR> <BR>Not quite as interesting as all the others but... <BR> <BR>Also at the cemetery where Jim Morrison is buried in Paris, a stone sarcophagus that was supported by stone skulls with wings. Pretty macabre! <BR> <BR>In St. Moritz, Switzerland around 1985 I ventured into a fur store. I found this incredibly beautiful orange fur coat. I asked the sales lady what it was. "Cat," she replied. I thought there must have been some language communication problem, but she was adamant that it was, in fact, house cat. As a cat lover, needless to say, I never admired a fur coat after that!

Rob/Lisa

My wife and I were on our honeymoon a few years ago, and we were on a train from Paris to Basel. We were in the last car, and we stopped in some small French town for awhile. After waiting patiently for about 15 minutes, I happened to stick my head out of the train and noticed THEY WERE ABOUT TO UNATTACH OUR CAR. A conductor saw me and screamed for the train to wait while they moved us to a car in a part of the train that was still making the trip!! And by the way, we were sitting next to some drug addict the entire time, who went from frenzied conversation to wacked-out zombie state every few minutes. Good times.

vinny

In Amsterdam I saw an old man, at least in his 50's or 60's necking with a young black boy in a park bench in the middle of the day. <BR>niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice

R. Marley

"No woman no PRIDE" !?! Don't remember cutting that one......