We were visting my girlfriend’s family in Slovakia. Her cousin, who is an airline pilot, was also visiting at the same time and he spend his vaccation flying a small single prop plane to drop of parachutist at a small local airport. Really small. The runway literally was a just a field of gras. However it does have a MiG-21 flighter jet just causually chilling next to it. No fence or anything, it’s just sitting there next to the road.
Anyway, so wie visited the small airport and watched my GF’s cousin for a few hours. After he was done dropping all the parachutist, he still had a little fuel left, so offered to give us a little joyride, which we accepted.
Now I’m not sure if thats the standard for small planes used for the described purpose, but that plane was completly empty. There were the two pilots seats and behind that just … empty plane. No seats, no handles. It was a bit odd, but I didn’t think much about it … until we took off … with the DOOR OPEN. So we cowered as far away from the door, trying to hold on to anything.
Eventually her cousin turned arouned, smirked and laughed and eventually closed the door. The flight was a lot more enjoyable after that.
On my first trip to the UK, we booked into a hotel recommended to us by local friends. The room had “Shower en Suite”, which we assumed was a bathroom en suite with a shower (in contrast to one with a bathtub).
When we entered the (fairly large) hotel room, there was a blue plastic booth like one of those festival toilets in the middle of the room. It was the shower, and you had to insert coins to actually get hot water. No actual bathroom at all, just the plastic shower in the middle of the room. The toilet was a shared, ultra-small room halfway down the stairs. And lacking toilet paper. “The owner did not buy any” was the reason given by the staff.
The breakfast was interesting, too: You only got either this or that of common English breakfast stuff - either Toast, jam, and marmelade or fried egg, sausage, and beans. Either orange juice or half a grapefruit, etc. No buffet like about any other place offered.
That was quite an awkward situation for our friends who had recommended that hotel - based on their own experience 40-50 years ago. I assume it was one of the better places then.
I was in Salzburg back in 95 with a HS exchange program. We were traveling around and having a great time. That day we went up to the castle kinda near closing time. The entry booth was unmanned so our group walked on in.
We walked around, saw lots of the castle and the views over the city were enchanting. Most of our group left, but about six of us were still in the castle later. It turns out they close and lock the main gates once all of the tourists are out. Since we didn’t get tickets in, we apparently went uncounted and got locked inside.
On my my buddies came running up to me as I was sitting on a battlement being morose (summer fling issues) and declared with alarm “we’re locked in!” so I jogged to the gate with him.
This is pre cell phone and we weren’t great at German. I told him to rally the rest of our stragglers and stood by the gate to think of how to get out. As the group was walking down the path to me, I heard keys jangling outside the gate.
After a moment the smaller postern door opened. Standing outside was a kid about 13 years old with a sack of groceries. I said entschuldigung and blocked the door open. Our group all piled out through the gate and ran off down the road while the kid just stood there looking shocked.
That was the first time I accidentally got locked in a castle in Europe. They’re remarkably effective at keeping people both in and out, both are issues I’ve had to deal with at various times.
I was in Germany working on a cruise ship that was being finished up in the Bremerhaven dry dock when I was 19, it was after work and a bunch of us went out and got drunk as we did and while coming back after all our fun, we passed by a roll-up door that had “einfahrt” painted in huge block letters on it. One of the people in our group looks at it, points at yells “I fart too, but I don’t brag about it!”
Definitely the highlight of the trip.
I also remember hanging out at the bar that was on the docks having dinner and some of the other people on my ship were trying to ask where the bathroom was and the waitress and bartender didn’t understand a single way they were putting it until the guy was like “Ok, I’m sorry this may be a little crude but it’s the only way left I know how I might ask… Where can I take a scheisse?” Turns out they call it “water closet” (bathroom is just labeled “WC”) and that was the one term none of us had ever heard before.
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