Some scary moments
The Life Of Brian: Back in the day, when overseas travel was a real trip. A series by Brian R. Zyster
Travelling abroad was a fantastic experience, seeing the world from another perspective.
However, with some of the fun times, we also experienced some scary moments.
Here are just some of them.
Plane crashes: Preparing to fly out of the country and hearing about 2 aircraft crashing into one another, hours before your departure, on the same runway that where you’re going to land.
Taxis: As a young person travelling for the first time in a taxi in Italy on the ‘wrong’ side of the road was nerve wracking because you were looking for something coming from your normal side.
Trains: Not understanding the true meaning of Swiss precision, we got onto a train 2 minutes before the departure time and ended up going in a completely different direction. Half an hour into the trip the ticket inspector told us to get off at the next station and go back to Zurich to catch the correct train. We never again took a chance with the timing of trains in any city in Europe.
Clubbing: On another occasion our host showed us around town in Stuttgart, Germany, and we ended the evening going to a club. I was completely shocked when I was not allowed to enter. My skin colour had them thinking that I was coming to deal drugs.
Luggage: On another occasion I travelled to Munich via Frankfurt. I booked my luggage straight into Munich but when I landed in Frankfurt, I decided to head into town to buy myself a nice leather jacket, which I still have to this day. I then missed the connecting flight and the panic kicked in worried about my baggage, forgetting that this was Europe. Customer services assured me that it was waiting for me in Munich, and it was.
Mugging (not): Last but not the least, walking in one of the back streets of Paris at night, I heard someone running in my direction. You can only imagine what was going through my mind coming from the Western Cape, so I started to run myself only for this guy to overtake me because he was late for something.
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