Cutting vacation short because foreign country is... too foreign
Jul 21, 2018, 9:04 am
#61
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Ontario, Canada
Programs: Aeroplan, IHG, Enterprise, Avios, Nexus
Posts: 8,355
Jul 21, 2018, 10:22 am
#62
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Southern California
Programs: AA EXPlat, 2.4MM; HHonors Diamond
Posts: 580
Yeah, you may just be lucky. I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that you don’t have adult children who live halfway around the world from you with whom you would like to spend time and understand that these things cannot always only be decided on your terms. Also, what’s up with the Join Date stuff? Is this relevant?
As for the Join Date etc., I was having a difficult time posting for some reason (most likely my doing and not a FlyerTalk glitch), so I played around and my profile information ended up in my post. It was unintentional. My apologies.
Jul 21, 2018, 3:24 pm
#64
In Memoriam, FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Durham, NC (RDU/GSO/CLT)
Programs: AA EXP/MM, DL GM, UA Platinum, HH DIA, Hyatt Explorist, IHG Platinum, Marriott Titanium, Hertz PC
Posts: 33,857
The only time I did this is when I was young. My mother, my brother and I did a three city European tour in 1995. We spent a few days in London which we had been to before and we loved, then Paris which we had also been to before and we loved and finally Berlin. Berlin we did not love so much. It felt pretty run down back then and none of us were having any fun so we called it quits and came home.
I went back in 2015 and enjoyed it far more.
I went back in 2015 and enjoyed it far more.
Jul 22, 2018, 3:59 pm
#66
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: NYC, CDG, NCE
Programs: DL DM
Posts: 2,633
This 80 y/o granny reminds me of the time a kid who used to work for me in IST told me he was coming to NY with a GF and I offered to put them up for their first night to help them get situated. They appear at my door, they poor guy sweating bullets from carrying the girls 600lb valise.
I ask her what's inside and she pulls out an actual grill, a small bag of charcoal and at least 2 cans of tomato paste, all of which her mother had insisted she take with her so she wouldn't go hungry in NYC!
I told them about the Thai, Chinese, Italian, Pub, Mexican etc all nearby and they went out the door.
They ate at McDonalds!.
(And they stuck it out!
)
.
I know quite a few Europeans who feel this way about us....
I ask her what's inside and she pulls out an actual grill, a small bag of charcoal and at least 2 cans of tomato paste, all of which her mother had insisted she take with her so she wouldn't go hungry in NYC!
I told them about the Thai, Chinese, Italian, Pub, Mexican etc all nearby and they went out the door.
They ate at McDonalds!.
(And they stuck it out!
).
I’d say the Americans who went to experience Russia in the late 1930’s and 1940’s wouldn’t agree with this romantic notion of limitless tolerance for “culture shock”. Most of them ended up dying of famine exhaustion and cold in the gulags. So yes - there are limits. There’s a point where it’s best to cut your losses and leave the locals to deal with the mess their corrupt and inept governments have created.
Jul 22, 2018, 8:11 pm
#68
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Virginia City Highlands
Programs: Nothing anymore after 20 years
Posts: 6,900
Friend of mine is from the country which borders Turkey. On his return trip visiting his family (after have not seen them for number of years) he got serious fine at the arrival US airport. Why? Because unknown to him his mother (who never left the country where she was born) couple hours before the departure secretly put into his suitcase a dozen roasted homemade sausages. As a 'pleasant' surprise for his son. Needless to say that he was VERY surprised at Customs....
Jul 23, 2018, 10:41 am
#71
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 13,573
Closest I got was Russia - was staying with a family who made the Addams family look normal. They came home from work / school, and 3 generations stripped down to their underwear and remained that way. Encouraging teenage me to the do the same. I didn't wear greying long johns not surprisingly and was not about to sit in my lace knickers! Through my limited Russian told them the reason I wouldn't undress was because I was cold, very cold, so they kept turning up the heat until I was almost passing out. The bathroom (loo and shower) did not have a proper door, but a saloon swing door with a foot gap at the top and bottom. World's quickest ever showers! The sons fancied themselves as great musicians and/or academics and treated me to alternate performances and lectures every day. One particularly memorable one was 2 hours on the bridges of the city... followed by an excursion to visit some of those bridges complete with pop quiz and scolding when I didn't remember the architectural details from the lecture. The only food I could eat was a type of porridge - I didn't eat meat and despite several attempts, could not convince them ham and chicken were indeed dead animals. Weirdest tho was the fact at least 2 family members watched me when they thought I was asleep (the room I was in had a glass door, so whilst no one was in the room, they were peering through the glass at me). I was terrified. If I had had a credit card I would have been on the first plane out of there.
Jul 23, 2018, 12:45 pm
#74
Join Date: May 2009
Location: South Park, CO
Programs: Tegridy Elite
Posts: 5,678
Closest I got was Russia - was staying with a family who made the Addams family look normal. They came home from work / school, and 3 generations stripped down to their underwear and remained that way. Encouraging teenage me to the do the same. I didn't wear greying long johns not surprisingly and was not about to sit in my lace knickers! Through my limited Russian told them the reason I wouldn't undress was because I was cold, very cold, so they kept turning up the heat until I was almost passing out. The bathroom (loo and shower) did not have a proper door, but a saloon swing door with a foot gap at the top and bottom. World's quickest ever showers! The sons fancied themselves as great musicians and/or academics and treated me to alternate performances and lectures every day. One particularly memorable one was 2 hours on the bridges of the city... followed by an excursion to visit some of those bridges complete with pop quiz and scolding when I didn't remember the architectural details from the lecture. The only food I could eat was a type of porridge - I didn't eat meat and despite several attempts, could not convince them ham and chicken were indeed dead animals. Weirdest tho was the fact at least 2 family members watched me when they thought I was asleep (the room I was in had a glass door, so whilst no one was in the room, they were peering through the glass at me). I was terrified. If I had had a credit card I would have been on the first plane out of there.
Jul 23, 2018, 1:02 pm
#75
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 500
Happened to me in Slovakia. I was on a 6 day trip through Germany/Austria with a planned stop in Bratislava for a day to you know, see the sights. We took a train from Vienna and the moment we stepped out of the train, my girlfriend did not feel safe and we walked for a quite and that did not go away. It was just a bit too, umm, different. We finally found a shopping mall, made it inside, called an Uber, cancelled the hotel and made a bee line to the train station to go back to Vienna. We were there a whole hour and 30 minutes.
Not saying it's a bad place, it just didn't look too safe.
Not saying it's a bad place, it just didn't look too safe.
