Weird people you meet on holiday.

[Diddumz]

1988 - went to Majorca with my family. There was a woman who kept pretending she was drowning in the pool.

Have you met any oddballs on holiday?

@Diddumz

1988 - went to Majorca with my family. There was a woman who kept pretending she was drowning in the pool.

Have you met any oddballs on holiday?

I can't stop laughing at the mental image of that woman pretending to drown all the time on holiday.

Yes, I have that kind of face that compels strangers to tell me all of their woes!

In Gran Canaria, there was a family of 4. The 15yr old daughter was in a perma sulk and the 17yr old son was very introverted. He took a shine to my then 16yr old daughter and followed her literally everywhere with sad puppy eyes. I asked him if he had any nice plans for his 18th birthday and he said he was going to a large airport to watch the aircrafts take off and land.
Then he kindly invited my daughter to join him. Needless to say that she declined his offer.
On their last day, his mum burst into tears and wailed how much she would miss the hotel staff 😂

In Turkey, there was a lone man who was the Ukrainian equivalent to Mr Bean.
He wore the same suit and shirt morning, noon and night for the entire week he was there.
Apart from one afternoon when he appeared beside the pool, stripped down to his Y-fronts and dived in.
Then he thrust a camera in the hands of a sunbather and asked her to take a snap of him coming down the water slide, before putting his suit and shirt back on and sauntering away. No towel, no drying himself, just straight back into the suit and shirt.
We saw him waiting for and boarding his transfer coach still wearing the same shirt and suit, completely empty handed, obviously still in the same suit and shirt.

Italy in a hotel that fully catered, normally we all had our own assigned table but one night they did a chef bbq, and we outside assigned tables that were shared with other parties. Great we thought, we get to chat with other people.

The couple we were assigned with didn’t want to sit with anyone else and kicked up a fuss. No worries it was quite a social night anyway, but then she (older than me) took a fancy to my DD’s BF and wouldn’t leave us alone all night. It was very bizarre.

@Diddumz

1988 - went to Majorca with my family. There was a woman who kept pretending she was drowning in the pool.

Have you met any oddballs on holiday?

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

We once flew from London and changed in Vienna to fly to the Caucasus. On both planes where a woman was travelling with a cycling helmet on her head. It was so bizarre seeing this helmet sticking up a few rows ahead on the plane. It wasn’t the kind of helmet people might wear if they’ve had a skull or brain injury. Just a big standard cycling helmet for about 5hrs of flying time plus the change in Vienna airport.

@NordicBerry
Definitely not her. Never stays in hotels in UK with family.

On honeymoon an American couple approached us. They were LOUD, brash and in your face. Think Wolf of Wall Street. He actually said:

‘My school was awesome. You’d love it. No Jews or blacks AT ALL!’

WTF?

I actually laughed out loud at this 😂😂

[quote pumyin]@NordicBerry
Definitely not her. Never stays in hotels in UK with family.[/quote]
It wasn't in the UK

For me, it's more weird to still remember something that happened 33 years ago and start the thread.

@Boood

An American couple plonked themselves down next to us at the Oistins fish fry in Barbados, saying how relieved they were to find some white people. We told them they’d made a bad decision coming to a country owned by black people and asked them to move.

Can’t think of any others, I tend to be quite tolerant of weird foibles on holiday and just wander off if someone is boring.

We had this is both Barbados and St Lucia Americans warning us to stay away from the locals and not get too friendly with the hotel staff. The Entertainment Manager arranged for his brother to take us on a boat trip and we had an amazing time. When we arrived back an American couple told us that they were glad to see us back safely and they had decided that if we weren’t back by x time they were calling The Police!
We knew exactly who to stay away from and not get too friendly with and it wasn’t the locals or hotel staff

Yes and they're now our pen friends and we visit them once a year and write letters to them!

We got married in Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire and honeymooned in the local area, doing all kinds of crazy things. One of the crazy things was visit a museum (I won't say which one) which was run by the Husband and half way through his wife made us tea and home made delicious cake and we chatted - We found out that despite being 85 and us in our late 30's, they have very similar likes / dislikes - love gothic architecture, his wife loves gardening as do I - we both have a love of antiques, mu husband is very much into engineering as is the Husband..... it was amazing!

After we got back from honeymoon, I wrote a very positive review on tripadvisor and got a phone call from the Husband saying thank you - and then we sent the wife a Birthday card as it was her Birthday the week after we got back, so they sent a letter, so we sent a letter.....

.... 3 years later, we write letters to each other every 4-6 weeks! He writes the most beautiful letters in copperplate handwriting and I write letters on MS word and print them out and send them through the post .

The last letter they sent had a picture of him, wearing a WW2 German hat and a monocle, having taken a 'selfie'

I know we're pretty weird... so they're also weird, but in a nice way, and it's a lovely friendship - already looking forward to seeing them next year!

My parents met a lovely couple in Ibiza back in the 80’s. We made friends with their children and all had a great time. The husband asked my dad for our address to keep in touch but he had an inkling that something wasn’t quite right and gave a fake address. When they got home, the husband was on the news as a wanted criminal. He was on the run after some bombings!

Me and DH, first day by the pool on a greek island. Reading my book, people watching, became aware of an english couple near us, late 70s ..... the woman kept getting up and walking around to the other side of the pool to chat to an American family - mum, nan and daughter. From the body language I got the feeling the mum and nan weren't particularly keen on her. I did wonder what the relationship was, it was all a bit odd. The man kept telling the woman to sit down and leave them alone. She'd get in the pool when they were in there, and keep walking round.

The following day the english woman got talking to me and said the american family were 'great friends' of theirs. Turns out they had met at the same hotel the previous year and became 'facebook friends'. The american mum had put something on FB about returning to the hotel, just a general post , 'same time as last year etc, can't wait'. The English woman decided to surprise them and booked the same week . WHO DOES THAT!! It was all soooo awkward.

Greek Island when the kids were younger. An English couple with a daughter about 3 year old. They were very 'well to do' (going by their loud booming voices),I noticed they kept doing that thing of steering their DC over to the toddler pool when DH or I were in their supervising the kids, and burying their heads in their books, but hey ho, seemed right enough.

One morning, the woman comes over and asks if they could borrow our youngest's buggy for the morning, as their daughter wasn't well and they wanted to walk her over to the Drs surgery. Of course, no problem etc, hope she's okay.
So we hang around the hotel, no sign of them all day, but just concerned that the child isn't too unwell. Getting showered and ready to go out to eat that evening, DH on the balcony calls that he's just seen the couple, daughter and our buggy heading out of the hotel grounds .

We go down to the harbour area to eat (husband carrying huge toddler) and bugger me, if they aren't chilling out with cocktails on the waterfront

We went over to them, asked about the child etc and they genuinely looked confused for a moment, like they'd forgotten why they had someone else's buggy! She very nearly asked if they could keep the sleeping child in it, but thought better of it when she saw the look on my face . I don't actually know if they did need to take the child to the Drs but they clearly felt entitled enough to use somebody else's property without a second thought.

@NordicBerry yep. Thought it was her. Very strange set up yes husband is fat

Ive traveled alone around much of the Middle East where single women in hotels are often seen as fair game. Ive had male staff knock on my door at night. I just ignored them as they are obviously scared of persisting unless they wake other guests. Ive also had them call my room so I always unplugged the phone at night!

If the room has an old fashioned key I always half turn it in the lock so that a pass key cannot be used from outside. Otherwise a good old fashioned door wedge (of the kind you can get on Amazon) will keep them out.

When I was alone in Iran the male hotel staff tried all kinds of stratagems to get to see me with my head uncovered. You are supposed to wear a head covering outside your room. They would knock on the door and say they had brought my XXX and I would tell them to leave it outside. Or I would open the door a couple of inches and speak to them from behind it. In those days I had long auburn hair down to my waist so it was a necessary precaution.

Went to Majorca- Cala minor with just my 3 kids in 2007 and met another lady holidaying with just her 2 kids although her 2 dc were late teens, mine were 5 & twins 7 at the time. One night after the children had all gone to sleep she stayed & we had a few drinks on my balcony. She starts talking about this book she's been reading about an older woman kills a younger woman she's befriended & drinks her blood for youthfulness 😬 needless to say I made my excuses for her to leave and avoided her for the rest of the holiday.

On one mine and DH’s first holidays, in a European resport, an older woman (we were only early/mid-20’s, she probably in her 50’s) did a Sharon Stone Basic Instinct number on us twice. First in the bar whilst, and then later that evening in the restaurant. Both times she had made sure she was right in her line of vision. Both times we got up and left. I still feel traumatised.

@Diddumz Please tell us more about the woman who kept pretending to drown! We need deeeetails!

Not weird people, just a strange event. We were the only family staying in a boutique hotel in Wales, it was off season and the hotel had nine rooms if I remember correctly.

On our third night a couple from Ireland booked in. We had a brief chat and they inroduced themselves .. they had the exact same first names as myself and OH.

Ok, coincidence, it happens... the wife then showed me photos of her two dogs. One had the same name as one of our sons and the other a bit of a strange(ish) nickname we called my OH's father! I kept thinking someone was tricking us or we were in the twilightzone!

I felt like I didn't want to ask any further questions in case it got weirder! Turns out rhey live in a larger village next to a tiny B&B we visited two month's prior (for the first time).

Totally out there.

In case anyone thinks we were being listened to or stalked, we arrived at the tiny B&B super late and left before anyone was up the next day to drive quite a long way to our next destination. Spoke to no-one except b&b owner briefly.

I'll never forget it!

@AmandaHoldensLips

American Mike who was totally obsessed with guns and insisting that we wouldn't have crime in the UK if everybody had guns because then you could "take them down" if anyone looked criminal for any reason.

LOL, oh yeah, the USA, no crime there!