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Twice: The first in Vienna, in 1999, when I strolled past the Israeli Embassy building and was yelled at by nearby Austrian police, "You, sir! No photos! No photos!" for security reasons... Apparently the layout of the building was being protected. Needless to say, I lowered my camera quickly.
The most recent experience was last December in London as we and a number of other passengers were trying to store luggage away in the rack of the Gatwick Express -- about to leave. Through the middle of the group came four French couples -- all in their early 20's -- trying to push their way past everyone. I put out my arm, used the American slang expression "whoa.. whoa..." and infuriated the first guy in line. Thereafter, all the way to the airport, our friends sat in the back of the train and chanted "whoa... whoa..." Strange behavior when it was so obvious that everyone was trying to help each other get the luggage put away and this group would have no part of waiting... |
Two incidents come to mind. Most recently, a few weeks ago on an American Airlines flight from JFK-Montego Bay. I had placed my pocketbook on the floor in front of me, and was buckling in for takeoff when a flight attendant approached. "You people just don't get it, do you?" he said. "THAT POCKETBOOK MUST GO UNDER YOUR SEAT... OR ELSE! You know, I've been involved in a few plane evacuations, and you're not going to want that thing in the way if you have to suddenly leave the plane!" My husband and I were thinking that he should write a book titled, HOW TO SOOTHE THE NERVOUS FLIER.
Second incident was in Rome last summer. I went to get a gelato around the corner from the Pantheon. I didn't know that you are supposed to pay first before approaching the counter. I got screamed at in three languages, Italian, English, and what sounded like Russian, much to the amusement of some of the other customers in the shop! |
I've been hollered at a few times, most memorably by an Iranian cop (size 4) pointing a gun (size 12) at me for what I later learned was my inadvertantly taking a picture of the secret police headquarters in the city in which I was working. Talk about getting your attention.
However (note ThinGorjus) the most cathartic experience is <i>yelling back.</i> Which I did a few times in the direction of Portuguese "drivers" on various "roads" in Portugal. They were completely bewildered by some tourist shouting at them in English - I'm certain I was the first. God, did that feel good. |
London, Buckingham Palace, post 9/11...we had some time to kill before our departing flight so we had our carry-on luggage with us. Were waiting for the Changing of the Guard. So I was moving about with my 22" roller-type luggage, and my husband was resting near the Fountain (forgot the name).
Anyway, wanted to tell him something so hurriedly ran over to him without luggage which was left right in front of the gate of the palace all by itself, with the intention to hurry back and fetch it. But too late, a bobby on a horse came by and in a very loud, stern, and threatening voice told me that my luggage could be confiscated and NEVER do something that dangerous again. Little naive me...never thought about bombs, heightend security! And i will NEVER do that again!! |
I was in Vergina, Greece and went to see the tomb of Phillip II (father of Alexander the Great). I decided to take a pic for my scrapbook as I saw no signs forbidding photography.
As soon as my flash went off, I was verbally attacked by a pair of security officers. I apologized but to no avail. They followed me around for the rest of my time in the museum and made my visit very uncomfortable. Everywhere I went they were hounding me. To make matters worse, the photo didn't come out. I still have nightmares to this day about the incident. LOL |
I was in a laundromat in Vienna and the experience as a whole was quite humorous - but there was a older woman there who was trying on clothes from the "lost and found" rack. Everytime whe walked past us, she would stare and mutter at us. A couple of times, she stopped and yelled at us. Given the fact that we could not understand the language, each time she muttered or yelled, we burst out laughing. We never did figure out what we were doing wrong. This is also one of those experiences where what should be a fairly routine chore, turned into a long, difficult and funny time.
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It was just a few days ago...my daughters were using the pay rest room at Sacre Coure (you know, 30 cents for a urinal, 41 cents for a stall)...the sinks were in each stall...as my oldest daugher opened the door (she had not even stepped out), I handed her a water bottle to refill from the sink in the stall. The attendant jumped all over us...I don't understand much French, but she would not let us refill the water bottle unless we paid ANOTHER 41 cents! It would have been very funny, except that it scared my daughter and she was ticked at me for a while for doing that to her...now there's an employee who takes her job very very seriously!
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i think another thread might be what did you ask on this board to get yelled at...
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My friends and I got yelled at in the Roman ruins, but we deserved it. It was my first trip overseas and I was 16 years old. We thought it would be very funny to climb up onto the pedestals and pose like Roman statues. The next thing we knew, we heard whistles blowing and cops running toward us. They chewed us out pretty thoroughly. It was all in Italian, but their tone transcended any language barriers. That's the dumbest thing I ever did while travelling--glad I learned it as a kid.
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I was in Beaune at a boulangerie, in line with locals. The woman in front of me askled for mustrad on her sandwich and the women behind the counter spread some onfor a little cup. I politely asked the woman for mustard on mine. I guess she had use up what she had. She stormed off yellng at me that the tub was too big to carry. She stomped back to the counter, yelling, "trop forte pour vous! Trop forte pour vous!", too strong for you, as she slathered the mustard on like it were peanut butter. I ordered my drink, a sweet, paid, said thank you and left. From the twitches of smiles on peoples' faces, I think we were all mystified that she wouldn't fill a small container with mustard to keep handy for the lunch rush. I had to sit down on a bench to remove part of the bread. I still love mustard, tho. And I think that's my worst "incident" so I'm doing ok.
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Moscow, 1971...Walking through the Moscow Subway, a just-turned 16 year old and VERY naive female Westerner...An elderly lady in babushka approached me, yelling at me as she swatted at me with her umbrella, pointing at my legs. Slowly it dawned on me that I was the object of her tongue-lashing because of my attire--hotpants!! (It WAS the 70s, after all!) And if THAT weren't enough to clue me in, the leering, lascivious looks I got from nearly every Russian man I passed as I walked down the street certainly WERE!!!
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I was touring the castle in Heildelberg and stopped at the wine tasting booth inside the castle. I ordered a taste of icewine. The girl brought out a very small glass and a bottle of the wine. She then left to wipe of some tables, etc. I poured some of the wine into the glass and raised it to my mouth when the girl yelled at me and then poured the wine back it the bottle. She then poured out what looked to be a drop into the glass and shoved it back at me.
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haha, i know this is for europe, but yesterday we were screamed at by a guide outside the Holocaust museum in Wash DC because we were in the line "that is only reserved for groups", and she yelled "Go to the other side of the building!" Entire crowds of people were staring at her.
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Not in Europe, but still funny!
I was in Morocco with my (now ex) husband who had only moved to the US from there a couple of years earlier. We were leaving a (political) social function, and I started to step into the family car. One of the guards (who I guess didn't realize that I came with the family) grabbed my arm and started yelling at me in Arabic. I only speak a little, so I just screamed - I don't understand (except I said it in French, not Arabic - I was terrified!) and he started yelling (in English) "Don't give me no static! Don't give me no static!" The entire family was sitting in the car laughing like mad, and I was about to cry. I just knew I was going to jail for something that I totally didn't understand! |
heh heh! This is too funny! I get yelled out in Germany at least a few times a week (for the past 5 1/2 years! ar ar). It's always something: crossing the street on a red light (when there are no cars within MILES), putting my feet on the train seat across from me (even when my shoes are totally clean), almost being run over by a rude driver (of course it's my fault for being there), laying my wine bottles in the wrong direction on the check out conveyor, buying something that doesn't automatically ring up (somehow that's my fault, too), passing another bicyclist going up a hill, telling someone they can't cut in front of me in line at the post office, trying to buy bread, hmmm, what else? ar ar ar
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This IS a great thread and Marilyn, if you're still reading, you are just too funny. In fact, you are all very amusing and all these posts say so much about the cultural differences encountered while traveling that we often discuss here.
My favorite getting yelled at story is when I went to England in 1997 carrying a hardback copy of the just-released "The Royals" by Kitty Kelley. The book, which I bought at SFO to read on the flight, had been banned in Great Britain as it contained some really juicy stuff about the Windsors. After we landed and were walking through Heathrow, a nicely-dressed man confronted me and yelled: "How dare you bring that despicable trash into England?" Coming from America where we don't censor books just because they say unflatering things about our leaders, this got my dander up so I purposely carried the book with me as we checked into oh-so-snooty Claridges. Same reaction but with a nice twist: Head dude/greeter to me: "Madam, we don't allow that book in Claridges!" Pause... "Can I read it when you're finished?" We still laugh about that one. BTW, I did lend him the book, pointing out all the "good parts." |
Oh yeah, Lisa, I'm still reading. I love this thread. Being yelled at is the sort of thing you never forget, and it is comforting to know that it happens to everyone. Well, almost everyone. We have not yet heard from m_kingdom, have we?
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OMG!!!! luggis, I just read your post and fell off of my chair because the same thing happened to me at the Holocaust Museum in DC!!!!!!!!!!! The only difference was that I was in the MEMBERS ONLY queue.
Here is my story: In 1997, my ex-husband, Tom, and our friend, Duane, took a trip from Philadelphia to DC. Our first night out, we got completely smashed hopping from pub to bar to dance club. At 6 AM the next morning, the alarm went off and Tom said, "John, you HAVE to go to the museum to get our tickets. If you don't get in line early, we will never get in." Well, I was so hungover that I could barely walk, but I managed to walk the 6 blocks to the museum (I thought if I took a cab I would throw up all over the back seat). When I got to the museum, I was the only one there, so I stood in the MEMBERS ONLY queue to get my ticket. An hour later, two lesbians, eating bagels with cream cheese came up and stood behind me and started a conversation. I said, "Excuse me," and went and threw up in a garbage bin nearby. The smell of that cream cheese really got to me. Another hour passed by with me leaning up against a marble pillar. Finally, about 8 o'clock a matron came out and announced, rather officiously, that those in the MEMBERS ONLY queue could proceed to the desk for their tickets (there were only the three of us). As I moved forward, this same matron stopped me and screamed, "This is the MEMBERS ONLY LINE, you have to go around to the other side and stand in line like the rest!" Well, I looked at the other line and it was at least two blocks long and around the corner. I said, "I am a member," and pulled my membership card out of my wallet, which she exmanined the way Shylock would examine a gold coin. Then she said, "Sorry, but you don't look like a member." Being so hungover, I said, "What does a member look like? Am I supposed to have my head shaved and a tattoo on my arm, Frau Himmler?" I felt so sick that I would have wrestled this woman to the ground to get my ticket after standing needlessly in a queue for two hours for nothing. I did't care if I offended her. She stood aside and I got my ticket, went back to the hotel, and believe me, my husband paid dearly for making me get up two hours too early for nothing. :) |
I was yelled at in Paris while trying to by fresh figs from an older man on the street. this was not a street market, just a man on the corner who had only figs to sell. somehow i got on the wrong side of the conversation and was asking for either the wrong amount or paying the wrong price. all i remember is that it ended with him yelling "libre, libre" and I was sure he didn't mean that the figs were free but couldn't understand that he was telling me that they were priced by the pound not kilo. I finally got my figs, paid the man and moved on.
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It was a beautiful Sunday in May in England's Lake District. We planned a 6 hour circular hike, starting and ending in Ambleside on the north end of Windermere, and winding via a sometimes barely visible path up into the hillside over the lake with beautiful long vistas all along the way. In the English countryside it is perfectly acceptable to hike through various pastures, and over, under and through the most picturesque and unique gates separating fields and herds of sheep.
Plenty of others were hiking the same route initially, but as we climbed higher and higher, fewer and fewer people were around, until finally, we were by ourselves and not sure that we hadn't lost the path altogether. Finally we spotted a lone hiker approaching so asked if we were still on the circular hike. "Yes indeed" he cheerily told us, then added that a bit further on there was a pub, The Mortal Man, in a miniscule little village where we could stop for a bit of refreshment (which we were by this time more than ready for) and that would be the turning point on the trail to circle back to Ambleside. The hike was fabulous, and the various devices they used for gates almost as interesting as the surrounding countryside. We reached a peak on the fell at which the trail dropped off downward, and below us we could see the village our other hiker had mentioned as the turning point, and where we would find "The Mortal Man". Down we went, the village becoming more picturesque as we approached along the road...and our thirst rapidly increasing the closer we got to the pub. Then we spied it evidently, The Mortal Man, just below us, a pretty stone structure with a large yard surrounded by a low stone wall. About 20-25 customers stood around the pub's yard (as we had seen in Garsington, with children playing while the adults enjoyed their brew). We searched until we found the small latched gate to enter the yard, unlatched the gate and walked in, closing the gate carefully behind us as we had through all the fields we'd traversed so far that day. We could see a table off to one side with wine glasses all set up for "future customers". La la la...we blithely strode toward the table with the wine glasses, but the happy chatter in the yard dwindled then stopped, and increasingly we became aware that everyone in the yard had now turned toward us, staring with the beginnings of snickers. TOO LATE...too late we realized, as we now stood in the center of the yard, that we had not entered the yard of the Mortal Man at all, but instead had unlatched a private gate and walked smack dab into someone's back yard and into the very middle of their multi-generational Fathers' Day family gathering! Here we were now, IN the middle of the yard and the family gathering, with virtually nothing for us to do but mutter red-facedly "Yup, stupid Americans" as we blushed our way out the other side of their yard to the sounds of their now hearty laughter. lol No, fortunately, they didn't yell... they did have a good laugh though at our expense, and justifiably, and so do we now as we think back on that Father's Day! Yes we did find the Mortal Man just a bit further on, and that drink may have been one of the <i>very most</i> needed and welcomed ever! |
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