Kindness of strangers

One of the things I love about travelling is the people you meet along the way. From the weird and eccentric to the mellow and laid back, it’s not surprising that you meet all types of people on the road.  But one thing I’m often surprised by is the kindness of people when we travel.

Of course, there never seems to be any shortage of people wanting to scam you or rip you off. There was the nun in the Vatican who pushed me out of the way in a crowded post office to ensure she got her stamps before me, the waiter in the Italian restaurant who was as nice as can be until we ordered a small dish and just water for lunch – after that he treated us with absolute disdain despite us being the only two people in the restaurant.

And then of course there was the man who pretended to be nice to us when the trains finished earlier than we thought in Rome, and we had no way of getting back to our cabin. He offered to share a cab with us, and then proceeded to work with the taxi driver to scam us. That was one expensive ride.

And while all these things happened in the one country, I don’t for a moment believe scammers and rudeness are isolated to Italy. They can, and do, happen anywhere.

But the flip side of these experiences is the people who go out of their way to help you or to welcome you to their country. Like the man in Salzburg – which I must confess here, is one of my favourite places in the world – who saw us trying to figure out which way we were meant to go while riding our bikes and stopped to help us read the map. He persevered, despite the fact we didn’t speak German, and he didn’t speak English.

Then there was the man in Munich who stopped to chat to us in the middle of the city and encouraged us to go and have dinner at Augustiner Brewery instead of Hofbräuhaus, where most tourists go. Augustiner Brewery, he explained, was where all the locals go and was far cheaper. He was right, the meals were cheap and there were no other tourists in the place besides the six of us. And luckily for us, we were seated next to a very helpful woman who helped us read the menu – of course they didn’t have “tourist menus” and the menus were all in German.

And then at the end of the night this lovely lady offered to drive us home – all six of us! We opted for the train, but the gesture was amazing.

In India, we were blown away when a man finished his meal, chatted to us briefly and then paid for our food on his way out. On the same night a second man got chatting to us while we were drinking chai from a roadside stall (one of my favourite things to do in India and if you’re ever there you really must try it). When he went to leave, he paid for our chai alongside his own.

We still smile to ourselves every time we think of those people.

And when that kindness occurs in your own country, it is often even more surprising. Returning home from an overseas trip, we had caught a train from the airport and were waiting at the bus stop for the final leg of our journey when a young guy came along, also planning to catch the bus. We soon realised we had missed the last bus. “Don’t worry,” he told us, “I’ll get my dad to pick us up, he’ll drop you off too”.

We protested, he insisted, and sure enough, when his dad turned up, they drove us home and wouldn’t accept anything but our thanks in return. 

It is these moments that make travel – home and away – all the richer and definitely sweeter.

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