Not really creepy, but the scariest thing to happen to me was traveling through Europe with two friends, we’re all women. We arrive in Paris and exit the metro and ride the escalator up to the street, and froze. It was, according to the directions on the hostel website, the correct metro stop, but the area immediately felt dangerous to the three of us. The space surrounding the elevators were encased by chain-link fencing, and bodies were pressed against them all up and down the sides. There were fights breaking out, yelling, etc, and it was mostly men. I don’t have problems with men or anything, but… yeah, it was scary.
So we stand there for a bit trying to figure out what to do. The directions on the website said to exit the metro and follow the building numbers “up” to get to the hostel, which was a good 15 minute walk for us. So we decide, okay, no biggie, we’ll exit the fence area and just start heading in a direction and follow the numbers on the buildings, figure out which way is which and just bolt ahead without stopping to talk with anyone.
And that’s what we do. Except every single number on the side of every building is 18. Over and over again as we walk, it’s all 18. And we can’t see any other numbers. So we pause, because there was no other direction on the website, just “follow the numbers up”, but there was no “up” or “down”, just 18.
We stand there for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do. I was the only one who had traveled overseas before, and the other two started to seriously panic, and I know I had to make some kind of decision, because we didn’t feel safe just standing there and if the panic really set in for them this would become much harder.
These two men walk by, and one of them catches the terrified look of one of my friends, and asks in perfect (but british-accented) English: “Are you ladies okay? Are you lost?” And we’re like: “Yes! Do you know how to get to this hostel?” And he looks at the name and says: “Yes, I know where this is, and you’re going in the wrong direction.” Then he pauses and says: “This area is pretty dangerous, its on our way, we can show you.” Then, he points down this particularly dark (it was daytime), narrow alley and says: “we’re just stopping by a place to eat this way, would you like to come?”
And this was where a decision had to come in. On one hand, the area we were in wasn’t good, and even though we knew which direction to head in now, I didn’t feel safe walking there. I didn’t feel very safe walking back to the metro we’d just left 3 or so blocks down. On the other hand, I didn’t really feel much better following a random guy and his friend down a dark alley in hope he might be telling the truth and escort us to our hostel after eating.
Literally, in my head I’m running the chance of us fighting these two guys off if they attack. I could get in a good hit, and my one friend is perry strong and capable, but my other friend would be useless. So I’m thinking of some sort of defence plan where I both help my one friend fight but also pull my other friend out if the way, because yeah, we decided to follow these guys into the dark alleyway of Paris and hope he was as kind and harmless as he seemed.
We got to the Caffe and sit down for a nice lunch and his friend goes to the restroom. And the guy tells us how they’re artists and paint giant murals on the sides of large buildings, and he was super nice. Eventually I asked if his friend was okay cause he was in the bathroom for a while and he told me yeah, that he’s just shooting up in there.
Oh, okay.
We ate lunch and they escorted us to the hostel and we give him some snacks we brought from home as a thank you and they were off.
And there was a fucking metro station right in front of the hostel! One that was NOT listed anywhere on the hostel website. Fuck that hostel, never again!
I’d go back to Paris though, 9/10, it was a good time.
Your poor wife. A terrible husband and two terrible best friends. I hope she find someone who loves her enough not to sleep with her friends, or sleep with her husband.
Not sure why, just that I was in a building when one was being performed and it stunk up the whole place to the point I almost went home because I was going to vomit. My boss put out a bowl of liquid that neutralized the odor, thank god.
I’m a designer that works with a bunch of engineers and yeah. I’ve got two projects that we had to rush in a two week deadline. Now we’ve been waiting for months on a reply about something. Just waiting.
I think social media should be 18+ only. In fact, I don’t think anyone under 18 should have phones that connect to the internet at large, only things like maps or whatnot to get around. I think this would solve a lot of fundamental phone addiction problems we’re seeing from our youth.
I also think filters of any kind should be banned on social media. They’re fun, but not worth the damage they cause.
My problem with scifi and movies is that most of them are scary/horror. Not so much the case recently, but I remember walking the scifi section being mashed in with the horror section.
I enjoy reformers pilates a lot, but that’s because of the deep stretching worked into the routine. It’s a game changer. If I could, I’d be doing it every day.
I fucking hate cardio with the passion of 190 million burning suns. However, I have experienced a runners high before. You get a bit lightheaded and dizzy, but not so much that you pass out. It just feels good. However, not good enough to get me up off my ass and do it, lol.
Mom, don’t sacrifice your retirement savings to keep our lifestyle the same. It’s not more important than struggling so hard in your retirement years. Your kids will get used to living with less, we’ll get over any sadness we feel over it, as long as we’re together.
Also, you have a bad case of sunk cost fallacy. You’re going to lose the house over it.
Dad, if you run away from your kids when it gets tough, they are going to be traumatized, and it will come back to bite you when you’re older. Your son especially will want nothing to do with you. Your last years will be lonely enough, don’t abandon the only people who will be there for you.