I’m not sure this picture would be allowed in America.
Brief intro because I haven’t posted in ages. I was in Europe for a full week for mostly pleasure. I attended a party hosted by one of our vendors, but that was my only real duty. I visited Frankfurt, Wuppertal, Prague, and Budapest. I’ll attempt to do the same as I did last time and post about 5 or 6 posts on circumstances I run into. This one will take a look at the people I encounter which will say more about me than the people.
Extrovert Plane Man – “I’m spending more money than Michael Jackson at Neverland Ranch.” “I’m flying Lufthansa, a first class airline, this isn’t Nigerian air.” “I’ll let you know if I see any Albanian migrants.” This was all overheard while he was on the phone. I chuckled to myself a few times by the window and he had the aisle with no one in between. He started up the conversation asking me if the flight is always this empty and said I had no idea. He told me he was a real estate agent and had a few rental properties in Alabama. He was more of a talker than a listener and cracked me up when he was giving me his opinion on problems in Philly and said that little Chucky should be getting his MBA before having 3 children. I’m sure he was a borderline racist, but not in a harmful way. Human Rating – 4.5
Mom & Sarah – I took a 6 hour tour in Prague which I would not recommend. It’s too long and if you get a scenario where there are only 3 people, you’ll be ready to jump ship if the introduction is off. I met Sarah and her mom who were from the States. They said they were from New York which sounded like the city, but it was Saratoga. Big difference. Sarah was a military girl with 8 brothers and the Mom was flown over from the US to help care for their kids while they were stationed in Italy. Sarah was a know it all and kept saying “oh I know that” as the tour guide was explaining the history of the city. The mom was bizarre and kept looking around saying we lost me when I was literally next to her in the crowds of people. Conversation was a bit forced, but I tried my best. If Sarah was reading this today, I have no idea what she’d think except that about my description except I’m being a prick. She was on her phone the entire time throughout lunch and it was flat out disrespectful. Once the mom started talking about Somalians in Maine, I had enough. Human Rating – 3.0
Kathy and Rainer – He told me people call him Rhino. I met these two at a bar in Budapest watching the NFL. They spoke English and we hit it off quick after Kathy said she was from Carlisle. Rainer was born in Germany. Kathy was retired military and the two had been traveling the world for the past 7 years. I enjoyed their down to earth mentality about money, life, and spending time. They didn’t have to worry about money at their current age which I would guess was mid 50’s. She commented on herself as a minimalist and he was an entrepreneur. We bar hopped a bit and they showed me a few places they liked. I asked them questions about their lives and enjoyed their answers. They had a plan and were living the lives they wanted. They also listened to me which you’ll notice no one else had done so far. Human Rating – 9.0
Cycle Ball Man – It’s probably not worth including this guy as he was next to me on the plane and we only spoke a limited amount, but I never knew this sport existed. He was over in Basel, Switzerland for a tournament as a Canadian from Montreal. There was no flow to our conversation and I happily watched A Quite Place instead. Either way, you learn something new everyday.