I recently returned from a month in europe and a number of people tried to be "friendly" in a number of ways. My SOP is to carry the local equivalent of about US$20 in my left front pants pocket and the same for my right front pants pocket. I occasionally carry a cc in a front cloth money belt under my pants belt but only if I expect to buy goods. If I remember I lower the belt cc max limit on it to US$200-US$500 prior to travel and up it upon return.

IMHO there are expert con artists working the streets/bars/restaurants/lobbies of every small/medium/large city in the world. An internal flag goes up anytime anyone speaks to me. I make it a practice NEVER to accept drinks, food, rides etc from "friendly" strangers. The con artists want MONEY. If they percieve you dont have MONEY they go off in search for other prey.

Lastly it is just as easy to slip sodium cyanide into your drink/food as Rohypnol (GHB), Valium, Xanax etc, and actually it is cheaper, faster disolving, faster action and far longer lasting than almost anything out there. I did some dumb things on my trip and so did you. We were both fortunate. Hopefully the other FTers who read this will learn successful travel is more than miles or points.

MisterNice