Gen Z is shocked, plus four other strange travel stories from the last week.
The first month of 2024 is already over, and bizarre travel stories keep pouring in. So, we’ve rounded up the five most outrageous, hilarious, baffling, and just plain weird stories that happened across the travel space over the last week.
GALLERY DIRECTOR LIKENED FLORENCE TO A PROSTITUTE
Cecilie Hollberg, director of the museum Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, came under fire after she said that mass tourism has turned the city into a “prostitute.” The German director was quoted saying, “Once a city becomes a prostitute, it is difficult for it to become a virgin again.”
She received major backlash from the city’s mayor and Italy’s culture minister, with some also calling her to resign before her term ends in June. She has apologized for the comments. In a statement to CNN, she said, “I’m sorry I used the wrong words. What I meant to say is that Florence must be a witness to more conscious tourism, not hit and run.”
This comes at a time when Italy’s far-right government wants to hand over top museum positions to Italians. These jobs were opened to foreigners back in 2014 when liberal minister of culture Dario Franceschini invited new perspectives. The current government, under the leadership of Giorgia Meloni, promotes a nationalist agenda and wants to give top museum jobs to those with Italian passports. The current minister of culture also criticized Hollberg for her comments, calling them serious and offensive to Florence and Italy.
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LOS ANGELES DOG OWNERS SHAMED WITH FLAGS ON DOG POOP
Watch where you step in Los Angeles. People aren’t picking up dog poop in the city and it has drawn indignation from a mystery resident who is leaving hilarious messages on piles of poop.
Simple white flags made with a toothpick are scrawled with messages to shame residents in the Venice neighborhood who don’t clean up after their pets. From “Get therapy” to “Life is hard if you can’t afford poop bags,” the excrement around this wealthy neighborhood is being tagged by a mystery fecal artist, much to the amusement of residents.
Related: Yes, My Dog Has a Passport. Here’s How Yours Can Have One, Too
A PASSENGER FACES 21 YEARS IN PRISON FOR PULLING DOWN PANTS
In another bizarre story, a woman from Philadelphia is being charged with indecent exposure, interfering with flight crew, and simple assault. The Justice Department said in a statement that if convicted, she faces 21 years and three months in prison, three years of supervised release, and $355,000 fine.
The incident, which is being investigated by the FBI, happened last year. The affidavit explains that 60-year-old Dulce Huertas was flying from Orlando to Philadelphia on Frontier Airlines. She wanted to use the lavatory when the plane was about to land, and was asked to sit down by the flight attendant. She allegedly cursed at them, but stayed seated. According to the affidavit, when the plane landed, she started cursing again and went to the front of the plane, where she was again stopped from using the washroom–she then pulled her pants and underwear down and squatted. Apparently, she didn’t pee and later pulled her pants up, but yelled and tried to exit the plane, allegedly saying she’d kill passengers.
There’s also a video that recorded her exposing herself.
Related: This Is What You Need to Do if There’s an Unruly Passenger on Your Flight
JAPANESE EMBASSY SAYS TAYLOR SWIFT WILL MAKE IT TO VEGAS ON TIME
Media and Taylor Swift fans have been quite worried lately. The global pop icon is traveling to Tokyo to perform from February 7-10, and the Kansas City Chiefs are playing in Vegas on February 11. Would Swift be able to get there to see tight-end beau Travis Kelce play?
Now embassies aren’t known for getting involved in such matters, but the Japanese mission in Washington, D.C., released a statement on X (formerly Twitter) to appease Swifties that their idol will be able to make it back in time. “Despite the 12-hour flight and 17-hour time difference, the Embassy can confidently Speak Now to say that if she departs Tokyo in the evening after her concert, she should comfortably arrive in Las Vegas before the Super Bowl begins,” it said. The embassy included mentions of Swift’s albums all through their statement in this rare move.
Swift is being credited for bringing a new audience to the Super Bowl, and now her influence has spread to diplomatic matters, apparently.
GEN Z SHOCKED BY PRE-9/11 AIR TRAVEL
There’s a moment in the Lindsay Lohan-starrer Parent Trap when Lohan’s dad picks her up on the tarmac after the plane lands. The clip from the 1998 movie has ignited a conversation about air travel before 9/11 and it’s so hard for people to believe that there was a time when airport security wasn’t as militant as now—though meeting passengers on the tarmac might have been a stretch, even then.
Forget the 311-rule, the Transportation Security Administration didn’t exist before 2001. You could see-off friends and family at the gate without a ticket and there was no need to take out any electronics (if you were in fact flying with them) or your even blades!
The TSA states, “Before 9/11, airport security was outsourced to private contractors and was much less stringent than TSA’s current standards. Travelers passed through metal detectors, and friends and family could accompany them to the gate, delaying hugs and goodbyes to the last possible moment. You could bring blades up to four inches (or box cutters) on board as they were not considered menacing according to an FAA manual. Most local laws didn’t prohibit them. No long checkpoint lines.”
Today, you can’t freely walk anywhere at the airport, and the tarmac is a no-go zone for passengers unless escorted by officials.