Anyone Else Been to United Kingdom, Spain, Morocco?

[Dennis H]

Yes but here I’m likely to have my Mopar, Vodka, and 38.

 

[ct71rr]

Years ago the wife (then girlfriend) and I backpacked around Europe - Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, France and Spain. One of the places we went to was Barcelona. Getting off the subway there from Normandy, I think, we were assaulted too. We were walking up the stairs to exit the subway and three women started walking down toward us. One of them was holding a piece of cardboard, flat, in front of her about waist high. She walked right into me begging for change and stuck the cardboard against my waist. The other two were trying to distract me while the one with the piece of cardboard tried to hide her hand with the cardboard while she tried to pickpocket me. I knew exactly what she was doing, grabbed her arm and nearly tossed her *** down the rest of the stairs while telling her to F-off. The other two ran the other way. My wife didn't know what was going on and was yelling at me until I explained it to her.

Later on in this same trip, we were traveling by train, from Spain to France I think, and were in a sleeping cart. These carts had 6 beds, 3 stacked on each side. I was on one side, the wife on the other in the bottom beds. Our packs were on the middle bed above my wife. I was half asleep, it was probably about 2AM and thought I heard something. I looked over to my wife and saw a person standing at her side. I thought I was dreaming at first then realized that this dude was trying to unzip our packs. I got up real quick and he took off and out the door. By the time I got to the door he was gone. There was another American couple standing guard over their mountain bikes in the aisle and were like what the F just happened. Pretty crazy stuff. Other than that, it was a great trip!

 

[VFilms]

A film shoot took me to Johannesburg, Capetown, Brunei (Borneo), Jakarta Indonesia, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Dubai, Paris and London. The trip was wonderful except for the bombing of the hotel down the street in Jakarta.
2019 my wife and I attended the Heeperbahn Film Festival in Hamburg, Germany. Got to visit the club where the Beatles (kinda) got their start.
Like Chuck Berry sang...
Looking hard for a drive-in, searching for a corner café
Where hamburgers sizzle on an open grill night and day
Yeah, and a juke-box jumping with records like in the U.S.A.

 

[cr8crshr]

I have been all over the World which most here cannot fully say. Thanks to the USAF and being a Crew Member, travel to and from was free. The big thing and as 69a100 said above, strength in numbers!!! That is a must when one doesn't know the good places from the bad. That was your first mistake Dibbons. You were a mark and all by your lonesome. Perfect pray. I enjoyed some Countries over others. Spain was one as it reminded me of the similarities of Spain and CA. Portugal also. I even took the ferry from Gibraltar to Morocco. Man that place really SUCKS!!! No sooner did you get off the ferry, then those damn pocket thieves...MONKEYS!!!... would swarm your *** and steal any thing they could. Lots of kicking and punching to get them away from you. After all my travels, I have absolutely no desire to go any where any more. With one exception...The Good Ol' USA. And not by air either. I have on my bucket list to take the train from here in Reno, back to my home town of Chicago. Then catch a train southbound and eventually wind up in Texas. Then to the left coast and back to Reno. Another trip would be from Chicago to Glacier National and then the Canadian Pacific to Banff, Alberta, Canada. Any other trip would be by vehicle so I could stop and sight see at my leisure. Any way, those traveling, stay safe and have fun. But by all means be careful...cr8crshr/Bill

 

[70chall440]

I've been all over the world (over 30 countries), spent a lot of time in Asia and Europe. There are 2 types of people in the world, sheep and wolves. The wolves are always looking for the sheep and the sheep are usually oblivious. There is always someone looking to take advantage of anyone they think they can.

 

[Dibbons]

Alaska one, if not only, last frontier.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

I've been all over the world (over 30 countries), spent a lot of time in Asia and Europe. There are 2 types of people in the world, sheep and wolves. The wolves are always looking for the sheep and the sheep are usually oblivious. There is always someone looking to take advantage of anyone they think they can.

Truth... Some see the world through rose colored glasses... They have victim written all over them... Go out in the world with an understanding that there are wolves & you gotta pay attention and can't act like a sheep & chances are you'll be fine...

 

[70chall440]

I've been in some pretty wild and wooly places and if pay attention you can see the wolves surveying the crowd looking for sheep. Not real hard to spot and at the same time too many people are oblivious. In Asia the kids could cut out the pockets of your pants or backpack with a razor blade taped to a popsicle stick and be gone before you knew it.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

I've been in some pretty wild and wooly places and if pay attention you can see the wolves surveying the crowd looking for sheep. Not real hard to spot and at the same time too many people are oblivious. In Asia the kids could cut out the pockets of your pants or backpack with a razor blade taped to a popsicle stick and be gone before you knew it.

Oblivious to the wolves is bad, but to many tourists are beyond oblivious, they have their attention focused on a damn phone... Can you say "victim"...

Couple of my best friends grew up in Rio De Janerio, they tell stories about how it was growing up amongst the street kids in the 60's... Life is cheap when you got nothing...

 

[Outsider]

Been to the three places the OP mentioned, didn't have an issue. Lived in Rome for a summer, perhaps the pick pocket capital of the world, and some of group got hit. Last time I went to Raleigh, NC for work, one of our party was violently mugged on walk about two blocks from our 4 star hotel 30 mins after we checked in. Was at the old Denver Airport when two gangs were fighting inside the terminal breaking out the windows and the snow was blowing in.

My rules for travel, don't pack more than you can carry 3 blocks, don't get drunk in places you don't know, and don't carry all your money when you go out. Cities anywhere in the world can be dangerous. All things considered, some of the most valuable experiences I've had were from travel and I hope to get back to Europe one more time. In my travels, met some good people, and some bad, all over the world.

 

[Skytrooper]

Been damn near everywhere;
Virgin Islands
Cuba
Dominican Republic
Turks and Caicos
Italy
Spain
France
Germany
Finland
UK (England & Scotland twice)
Kenya
Iran
Australia
Mauritius
Israel
Egypt
Greece
Panama
Czech Republic
Costa Rica
Puerto Rico
And a couple of SWAsian hot spots

Only time I was ever rolled was in the U.S.