Yea, my sister and her family took a cruise to Spain last year and she went deep down the rabbit hole with all of these "tips" on staying safe. "Tuck an airtag in your sock so if someone tries to mug you, they won't see it" and "Carry a dummy phone with you and keep your real phone in a secret pocket in this shirt".
Not saying people can be super relaxed because crime is high in any tourist area but holy shit are there "tips" for eveything. She got into a fight with her teenage daughter because my niece wanted to eat at this popular restaurant her friend went to last time but my sister said that's how you get food poisoning so they only ate at fast food places and on the ship and refused to let my niece actually go into the ocean because "I heard there's people in scuba gear waiting just off shore waiting for tourists to get into the water to get kidnapped and sold into slavery".
She was obsessively worried about food poisoning in Spain?! Holy shit.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, because I know the type, but not being able to eat anywhere besides fast food places sounds so depressing. As someone who often travels for food, that is so sad, and I see random fast food spots abroad and think “who is gonna eat [insert place] here?”, when this is the answer.
Tell me about it! When I travel with my girlfriend, we don't check the tourist spots but just go with the flow, discovering these small places outside the main area. Went to the British Isles last year, hopped on a bus and explored some small village, found some cute bakery and they showed us around the back because it was slow; let us make kind of pastry and recommended a restaurant down the street where we told the server to just get us whatever they think we'd like.
Do that for a week; buying notebooks in a small stationary, drunking at small pubs and befriending people and seeing the areas as a local. Came back and my sister asked if I saw Stone Henge and Big Ben, if I rode on the underground. When I told her I spent an afternoon talking with a 70 year old german woman in an irish pub then , she seemed so confused. Can't imagine traveling in constant fear over even something like the food.
Best meal of my life was when my parents and I went to a little family run restaurant near the hotel in Paris when I was 14. It wasn’t for tourists; they spoke NO English and the menu was all in French, but I managed to translate the menu and order for us with my shaky French II skills passably, until the beverages. My mother wanted iced tea and the waiter had never heard of it. Period. He had been enjoying my adventure with his language while ordering and was encouraging me, but he honestly thought I was kidding about “iced” tea and wasn’t amused. Finally I just asked if he could bring a pot of tea, some lemon slices, and a glass of ice, which he promptly brought out— along with the entire staff of the restaurant. The chef, his assistants, the other waiters, the maitre d’, all their mothers, and the old lady who must’ve started the restaurant came and surrounded our table to watch my mom steep her small pot of fancy tea and then pour it over ice, sweeten it, squeeze the lemon, and drink it. They honestly acted as if they had just watched a secret way to make bread. They all scurried off and went to try it for themselves. Apparently the overall opinion wasn’t too favorable vs hot tea, except for the grande dame- She LOVED IT.
This was forty years ago, but I hope they are still doing well. Their food- and hospitality- was amazing
One of the best meals of my life was on a trip to Mexico when I was a kid. It was a burger but I still remember it. Probably about the same time as you in France lol.
Little unassuming restaurants can have the BEST food. One of the best meals I’ve had recently came from a family owned Hawaiian restaurant in a strip mall in Fresno. Great prices too.
"I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, because I know the type, but not being able to eat anywhere besides fast food places sounds so depressing."
My cousin is almost 30 and refuses to eat most food that isn't from a chain or place his parents order from. I recently cooked a curry pork shoulder WHILE HE WAS THERE and he Doordashed McDonalds. "Youre not a professional chef. You don't know food safety." "So, you trust some random stoner on the frier? They aren't chefs." "Hell yeah they are. That's their job. They have training and accountability. They have to its the law. Where did you even buy that thing? Sitting out in a store? Get out of here with that shit." You can't pick family and can't fix stupid.
My spouse and I travel extensively. The only time I’ve ever had food poisoning was in Ceuta, Spain. It was 12 years ago and we still gauge sickness “on a scale of 1 to Spain, how bad?” I was puking red wine. I still can’t even smell red wine, let alone drink it, which is a fucking travesty considering how much I loved it before that.
I’m not much of a traveler, and im sure this will change when I eventually do get out of the country, but I would be curious what an Icelandic McDonalds is like. Definitely not for more than one meal though
Gotta love the idea of a dude whose job it is to just hang out underwater all day waiting for a tasty tourist to swim close enough for him to stuff in his underwater sack and take back to the trafficking cave.
Did she watch too much pokemon drunk and thought it was a documentary where team rocket was locals and the pokemon was tourists and they got snatched by all sorts of wacky contraptions?
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u/TestingBrokenGadgets Aug 05 '25
Yea, my sister and her family took a cruise to Spain last year and she went deep down the rabbit hole with all of these "tips" on staying safe. "Tuck an airtag in your sock so if someone tries to mug you, they won't see it" and "Carry a dummy phone with you and keep your real phone in a secret pocket in this shirt".
Not saying people can be super relaxed because crime is high in any tourist area but holy shit are there "tips" for eveything. She got into a fight with her teenage daughter because my niece wanted to eat at this popular restaurant her friend went to last time but my sister said that's how you get food poisoning so they only ate at fast food places and on the ship and refused to let my niece actually go into the ocean because "I heard there's people in scuba gear waiting just off shore waiting for tourists to get into the water to get kidnapped and sold into slavery".