I find that having a smile and open personality will get you far, even in places where I barely know a few words of the local language. When I was in Tibet, I got stared at mostly out of curiosity (and a bunch of school girls ran up behind me and pulled down my shorts, thank god I had underwear on.) In Vietnam, I also got stared at and some of that was not the most friendly nature but by no means overly threatening.

When I was in Thailand I was eating dinner out on the porch of the hotel and boys going to work in the boy bars across the street were buying roses and throwing them at my feet (that was really weird though.)

Anywhere in Europe should not be an issue.