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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask what the scariest thing ever to happen to you abroad was?

221 replies

RainbowBriteUk · 13/09/2021 16:49

Mine was unknowingly walking in to a cafe where only men where allowed in the Balkans and they just all stared. Some quite icily. I just turned on my heel and walked out!

OP posts:
IHaveNoOneToTalkTo · 13/09/2021 19:21

Being harassed by men when I went on a family holiday to Paris. It was constant. I had men shouting inappropriate things at me and trying to grope me, it was awful. My Dad decided it was my fault and refused to speak to me for the rest on the holiday, I was 12.

Whoopsies · 13/09/2021 19:26

I went to Paris with my family when I was 11, we were on a packed underground train and when it was our stop to get off my mum signalled to me and my 14yo sister, we got off one door while my parents got off another. A man obviously thought we were by ourselves and grabbed me by the arm and tried to drag me away, fortunately my dad saw and grabbed me back off him and shouted. the man looked shocked and ran off into the crowd. I have always remembered it.

MissAmbrosia · 13/09/2021 19:32

Dd breaking her wrist in France the day we arrived. We were moved from A&E to a clinique as she needed surgery and dh couldn't find where we were, nor find his way back to the gite. So I was stuck in a hospital with dd under GA and had no money and no food. It was all sorted by morning.

The taxi driver between Rome and the airport. His driving was terrifying and I actually cried.

Driving over the Susten Pass in Switzerland. I am scared of heights and mostly cried all the way too.

I am a very nervous car passenger basically.

GreenSpiral · 13/09/2021 19:38

I was 10 yo and on holiday with my family in Grand Canaria. I always drew attention as I had blonde hair and bright blue eyes, I hated it!

We were going through the shops one day, I was dawdling, dragging my heels when I was grabbed by a man and dragged though a shop and almost through to the back.

Luckily my grandfather just saw me in his peripheral and chased after me and grabbed me. The man let go of me and started to show off some stuff in the shop as if that's the reason why he dragged me in there Hmm

AmyDudley · 13/09/2021 19:40

Didn't happen to me but to my sisters stepchildren. Age 12 an 14 their grandmother took them abroad on holiday (Spain IIRC) and on about the third day there, the grandmother dropped dead. Can't remember how it was all resolved - I think their Dad had to fly out to make arrangements, but obviously it took time for him to get there. Must have been horrific for those kids.

OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow · 13/09/2021 19:41

I was oblivious as I was 3, but when we emigrated to Australia there was an epidemic of measles onboard, I along with all the other kids was quarantined in the infirmary. I woke in the night, no nurses so I walked alone across the ship, along the deck, up stairs to my mum's cabin. It wasn’t till I was much older that the import of it hit me. Needless to say, after all the parents sat in the infirmary overnight, there were nurses in duty the next night.

generalh · 13/09/2021 19:42

My husband had a heart attack in Belgium. Scary but a positive outcome.

Subeccoo · 13/09/2021 19:43

Mistimed walking back to our hotel in Prague, me and 11 year old ds. Couldn't buy a bus ticket for some reason, phone was nearly dead too. A drunk flashed at us, well at me, thankfully my ds didn't see. I was so shaken up, then had to get in an uber with the wrong number plate and about 3% phone and pray it was legit.
It was and I went straight to the hotel bar for a huge glass of wine, all the whole pretending it had all been normal, I was terrified.

Strokethefurrywall · 13/09/2021 19:45

Was robbed at gunpoint in South Africa.
Had an anaphylactic reaction in the middle of the Thai jungle.

MsTSwift · 13/09/2021 19:47

In Goa Packing for an early flight so was dark and stupidly left curtains opened. In a deserted stand alone lodge by a beach. The friend I was with had pulled so I was on my own. A group of Indian men walked up the stairs to our apartment and banged on the door shouting. I turned lights out and sat there thinking a plywood door is between me and gang rape. I was literally gibbering in fear. Got mugged in Paris but that wasn’t a patch on the Indian thing.

Whatelsecouldibecalled · 13/09/2021 19:47

19 in New York on my own. Youth hostel messed up bookings. Another lad there also in same situation. We decided to try and looks for somewhere to stay together. Found a hotel. In the bronx. That rented rooms by the hour and had mirrors on the ceiling. Why we didn’t just go to the airport (flying out the following day) I’ll never know. Thank god the lad was decent and we just sat up chatting until we could get the first train to airport. Looking back now I dread to think. I was lucky

SlamLikeAGuitar · 13/09/2021 19:48

Only 2 words required:

Camel Spiders.

Don’t recommend googling them Confused

Holidaytan · 13/09/2021 19:48

I was doing a job where I was completely naked and painted as if wearing clothes in Barcelona.
I went to the toilet in a cubicle on the street and came out and the people I was with had disappeared.
I had no phone, or money, or bag and I spoke no Spanish. I tried to be casual, wandering around looking for them but people were noticing and staring hard…… I eventually found my colleagues.
That was scary!!

Whatelsecouldibecalled · 13/09/2021 19:49

My sister tore her ACL and PCL ligaments first day skiing. She was sledded off the mountain straight down I had to try and follow without breaking anything.

crankysaurus · 13/09/2021 19:52

Playing in the woods next to the campsite in Bavaria with my two younger siblings, all under ten. Man appeared and pulled a knife on us, laughing at scaring is. I picked up one, took the others hand and ran back to the tents. Never did tell my parents.

MoonlightMedicine · 13/09/2021 19:53

When I was about eleven (around 1990) I visited Tunisia with my parents. We went into the market and an old man grabbed me by the arm and leg and ran off with me. My parents didn't notice at first (they were distracted and it was noisy). He took me into a kind of cubby hole where there were lots of older men (not PC language but back then I would've called them beggars) and started kissing me. He stank of cigarettes and alcohol and had lots of teeth missing. I can still see him now :(

I screamed and screamed and eventually my dad found me and peeled me away from him. The cliche offer of camels was made and my dad just ran away with me.

It was so scary and I refused to leave our hotel for the remaining 12 days of the holiday!!

CharlotteRose90 · 13/09/2021 19:55

Scariest for me was in new York on the subway with me and my mum in 2015. 2 guys got on and were robbing people with a gun in the next compartment. Me and my mum were terrified and shaking. Thank god the next stop was our hotel and we got there and ran like hell off the train and to the hotel. Refused to get on another one for the rest of the trip .

Dontwatchfootball · 13/09/2021 19:58

Got lost walking around Manila. Suddenly surrounded by a group of men who started jostling me and deliberately bumping me, brushing against my breasts etc. Who knows what would have happened, but it felt very dangerous and I was imagining at least a gang rape. One of the jeep buses things came along and I ran over and hopped on, pulled up by the passengers who had seen what was happening and were calling out to me. I had no idea where it was going and only dollars on me, but they could clearly see I was in trouble. I was very grateful to them. I think the driver went out of his way to drop me near my hotel.

OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow · 13/09/2021 20:02

I was doing a job where I was completely naked and painted as if wearing clothes in Barcelona.
Whoa, whoa Holidaytan. You don’t just slip that into the thread without a bit more detail.

Prisonbreak · 13/09/2021 20:05

Chased by a man with a gun in Turkey. A taxi driver saw what was going on and drove up beside me and let me in his car

Tempusfudgeit · 13/09/2021 20:05

Being caught up in a tornado in Buffalo, NY.

JorisBonson · 13/09/2021 20:05

My dad lived in the Emirates for years. My friend and I went to a party with him but got bored and went to one of the hotel bars before getting a taxi home. Didn't notice the driver had turned the meter off until we pulled up outside my dad's house. He locked the doors and demanded some obscene fare, which we didn't have. He was screaming at us and we didn't know what to do.

Luckily my dad chose that exact moment to stumble up the road, pull the car doors open and rescue us

This was well over a decade ago and the taxis there are thankfully much more regulated now.

InconvenientPeg · 13/09/2021 20:08

Followed by a man in Italy, followed by a man in Germany, followed by a man in Ukraine 🙄 after the Italy experience, I just used to stop in the middle of the street and shout fuck off as loud as I could until they left me alone because they thought I was unstable. But obviously then everyone else on the street gave me a wide berth too 🤣

Molested by a train guard whilst I had a d&v bug in eastern Europe. That night felt never ending, pretended to puke on him to get him to take his hands off me!

I'd have traveled a whole lot more if there were no men around!

Original poster
RainbowBriteUk · 13/09/2021 20:10

I've learned two things from this thread - Paris sounds extremely rough. Not the magical, romantic place I'd imagined. That, and some men around the world are absolute cunts praying on vulnerable children and women :( It's terrifying to be female in this world.

OP posts:
TB4444 · 13/09/2021 20:14

I lived in Cairo. I got into a taxi one night after a heavy night out in a touristy hotel. I was pissed. Told driver in Arabic where to go. So off he went, past my road. And kept on driving. I complained, he carried on. I was so pissed I didn't much care Shock For some reason, he was pulled over by police about 20 mins later. Luckily I realised I ought to get out, and find a taxi back.

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