The Funniest Travel Moment

Sometimes, when traveling, something unexpected and often funny happens. Even if I didn’t travel all that much – I still have many places left to see – I do have some funny stories.

How many degrees?

I was in Vienna with my husband. One day, in the hotel we were staying at some new people arrived (where were they from doesn’t matter). We were just getting back from a walk and we were getting the key from the reception when we heard one of these new people’s discussion with the receptionist (a great helping guy).
– Does it make tea?
– Yes, it does!
– Is it hot? Boiling?
– Yes.
– Degrees?
– Excuse me?
– Degrees. How many degrees!
– It’s very hot.
– Yes, but is it 100 degrees?
– I don’t know for sure, but if it is boiling, then it should be…

Yup… that person was asking how many degrees the boiling water from the tea machine had…

The look on the receptionist’s face was priceless. But he was very polite, and that look was just for a second – and only for the two of us (we were hardly trying not to laugh)

Look at her! How she is shuffling her legs!

Another funny moment was also in Austria’s capital. We were getting back to the hotel after a full day. We were going from a station of U4 (U-Bahn – underground/subway) to another one of another line (U2) and then getting out, very close to the hotel. As we were walking, and not necessarily very fast, someone behind us was really shuffling her feet. And not only that, but she wore slippers – so you can imagine that on that looooong passage between the two subway lines, the noise was amplified and very clear. As we were approaching the escalators to go to the surface, I said – not very loud, but it was an eco and each sound was very clearly heard by anyone – I said to my husband in our language, Romanian:
– Oh, Lord. How she is shuffling her legs!
– Indeed so! Andrei replies.

The woman stared at us for a brief moment. She didn’t say anything – she just went in front of us, like 3-4 stairs. When we got off the escalators… surprise-surprise. She was NOT shuffling her legs anymore.

Yup. She understood Romanian! And she did listen to us.
I have to admit it was a funny situation. I also have to add that I didn’t use a harsh or a disgusted tone. And she took our observation – indirect observation! – into consideration.

There probably were other funny moments in my travels, but right now only these two come to my mind. But I would love to find out funny moments and stories from all of you, fellow travelers.

So I’m thinking about turning this into a tag – The Funniest Travel Moment – and I’m inviting you, tagged here or not – to share a funny story on your blogs. To start the tag I’m inviting, and I really hope they’ll honor my invitation: Keith – Velvet Escape, Gray – Solo Friendly, Michael – Easy Hiker, Abby – The Jungle Princess, Simon – Wild about travel, Ayngelina – Bacon is magic and Jeremy – Budget Travel Adventures. I really hope you’ll want to have some fun answering and passing along this tag:). I also think we could use #travelfun as hashtag on Twitter.

I’m also inviting anyone who wishes to take this tag to answer it – consider it an open invitation. Or you can tell me your funniest moment in a comment here ;).