Posted by Shannon --Previous Message--
on 3/22/2002, 10:59 pm
Oh, you poor baby!
I feel like a dimwit now after reading your tips, considering my friends did every single one of those while trying to locate the mall in England during our band trip. Come to think of it, though, how intelligent was out chaperone to turn lose 27 children, between the ages of 13 and 17, to run around a foreign country with no absolute clue as to where they were trying to find and whose biggest thrill was seeing red telephone booths?
But, I do ramble on. Glad to hear you survived such a thing. Good show, old bean, good show.
: As promised, a story from the depths of crime
: in lovely Holland:
: Walking back from the Van Gogh Museum, I was
: in a pretty good mood. I actually saw the
: sun for a second (Amsterdam weather is
: aBYSmal), I had a reproduction of
: skeletons smoking a cigarette (which was
: cool because it looked like a poster for
: the Dead) by Van Gogh in a colorful little
: cardboard triangular tube, and we had a
: whole day and night to enjoy the, uh,
: ambience. Did I mention my hostel was
: smack dab in the middle of the red light
: district?
: So, there I am, wearing my touristy hat (like
: I'm on a safari) my toursity fleece (Hi,
: I'm an American, rape me!) my touristy
: back pack (I'm a stupid student, hate
: me!), and of course my touristy blue
: cardboard tube from the museum. Walking
: down a busy cobblestone street, in the
: middle of the day, a block from my hostel,
: with 2 of my friends 20 feet ahead of me,
: my mind was on the next joint, er, tourist
: attraction we'd do.
: Sideline: for those of you who have not
: visited Amsterdam, it is FULL of drug
: addicts and homeless people from all over
: the world who are the MOST AGGRESSIVE
: BEGGARS you have ever seen. Move over
: NYC, these people really mean business.
: My first night there, before we learned of
: the steadfastness of said beggars, we were
: accosted by a man in a dark alley. He
: held his lip, which was horribly and
: disgustingly torn, right in front of our
: faces and said, moving closer, "Look
: at lip, I need money to go hospital,
: please help me", horrified, and
: wishing he would stop talking, we threw
: money at him just to make him go away.
: AFter that happened a few more times in
: the next half hour, we wised up.
: So when all of a sudden I was grabbed at the
: front of my shirt by some guy, I just
: thought it was an over zealous beggar.
: But when he turned to me and said, in a weird
: accent, "Listen to me...I have a gun,
: in my bag...and three friends, on that
: corner over there" (he nodded with
: his head in that direction) I suddenly
: realized that he wanted to mug me.
: As soon as I understood what he said,
: something snapped behind my eyes. In a
: flash I realized this was not a nice man,
: and that he wanted to hurt me for my hard
: earned drug money, er, souveneir money.
: So I snapped; I flipped the F*** out. He was
: holding me with both hands, and looking at
: me with his bloodshot eyes in his scruff
: covered face. I suddenly and violently
: threw him off of me, and started SCREAMING
: AT THE TOP OF MY FREAKING LUNGS (BTW, I
: have a loud and resonating voice)
: "Get the f**k away from me, go the
: f**k away right NOW! or I'm gonna call the
: police! (I thought for half a second, why
: threaten when I could easily call the
: police anyway?) So I started shouting
: "Police! Police!" and "Go
: the f**k away!"
: Now, the guy must have NOT been expecting me
: to blow up like that, 'cause he just sat
: on the ground where I pushed him and
: stared at me like I was a crazy person.
: Thats when I looked up and noticed my two
: friends who were ahead of me walking
: towards me. Later they told me they heard
: the word 'gun' and immediately turned
: around, saw this guy grabbing me, and
: started towards me.
: So the guy is on his back, on the
: cobblestones, in the middle of a street
: with people going back and forth (some
: even glanced at me but then just went on
: their bizness like this wasn't anything
: special), and now my two friends, standing
: over him in a very, VERY pissed off sort
: of way. I do NOT take kindly to people
: threatening me, hell, I have a problem
: with ANYONE telling me what to do, and
: this guy thinks I'm just going to hand
: over my money right quick?
: So the guy crawls to his feet, and my friend
: Roey, big, 6-foot, long haired, wouldn't
: hurt a fly but could kill a hippo by
: sitting on it, and my friend Randy, only
: slightly shorter, mexican, and with
: several tattoos, both give the guy a good
: firm shove away from us, at which point he
: stumbled back several feet, looked at me
: again while I opened my mouth to yell at
: him again, and he turned and fled down the
: street, melting into the crowd.
: Yes folks, this in fact did happen to me. My
: brother also has a story about how a guy
: tried to mug him in Amsterdam. Not a safe
: place...fun...but not safe.
: Finally, here are the rules we learned on how
: not to seem like a tourist. If you don't
: follow these rules, you WILL get accosted
: no matter what city you're in, especially
: if you're in Europe:
: 1. Never, ever, point
: 2. Don't look at your map in the street
: 3. Don't stop and look around
: 4. Don't have a confused look on your face
: 5. Don't look like a tourist and walk alone
: 6. If someone approaches you who you don't
: know, DON'T get into a conversation with
: them, especially if they're giving off
: weird vibes
: Happy Friday all
:
:
:
:
Message Thread:
« Back to thread