"No! Go Away!"

Vatican City, Italy 2012

In Minnesota, where I am from, the only place you really ever see "street theater" or "beggars" are around the cities, such as St. Cloud, St. Paul and Minneapolis. Although traveling around the major cities in Europe it is very common to either see a form of street theater or be approached by someone begging for money.

I traveled with the organization EF Tours and as we walked throughout the cities our tour guide reminded us that if a beggar came up to us we must be strict and say "No! Go away!". Since I'm from a small town, I'm not accustomed to being approached so often and being begged for money. It was something I needed to get used to but when people constantly keep invading your space by jingling an old rusty can of change, it gets extremely annoying! Needless to say, I adapted quickly at being aggressively saying "No! Go away!".

Another big thing, especially in Italy, if they aren't beggars, they're pit pocketers. It was highly encouraged by EF Tours that we all brought a money belt that we could tuck under our shirts because pit pocketing is such a common thing in big populated areas. If you think about it, tourists are always gawking at buildings and sculptures that they've never seen before and often are so distracted that it makes money snatching very easy.

Rome, Italy 2012

The picture above, shows several men completely coated from head to toe in something that makes them look like aluminum figures. They stay still all day long like human statues. The image on the lower right is also an example of a human statue. Yes, that is an actual person. I stood there for the longest time staring at the mummy statue until finally I saw the person blink! I did the same thing that most everyone does, stop and stare. I believe if you stare at them long enough, they human statues will wait for you to blink or slightly look away and then they'll move.

There are many different kinds of street theater such as, musicians, singers, mimes, people who act like statues, magicians, and so on.

Many of these beggars and entertainers  make tons of money everyday doing what they do, so our tour guide did not want us giving our money to those who really didn't need it. (Though I did give some money to the occasional entertainer that I personally thought was good at what they did.)

Is That "Normal"?

Some things in the U.S. you might say is "common knowledge" or "normal", though it's not until you travel throughout other areas that you may realize there are other ways of doing things.

If you're in Germany it is very common for people to ride bikes everywhere and it's common knowledge that if you hear a bicycle bell ring behind you, you are to stay to the left side as they are telling you that they are going to pass you. Now, since I'm from the U.S. I wasn't aware of this "common knowledge".

There are many things in fact that just the European countries alone do that people in the U.S. don't do.

For instance, did you know that most public bathrooms in Europe you have to pay to use? The usual cost to use a public bathroom is about 1 to 1,50 Euros, or in American terms it's $1.37 to $2.06.

Also, the tour guide that I traveled with told the group that whatever we do, do NOT ask for a free glass of water at restaurants of any sort. It is looked down upon that Americans expect to get things for free and over in most of the European areas they expect to receive payment for every service that can be provided.

As I was learning this new found "common knowledge" and "normalcy", I couldn't help but compare the European ways to the American ways.

If I was riding my bike and someone was in front of me, I'd just yell at them to move. I would never pay money to use a bathroom, in fact, I remember most of the people on my trip saying they'd rather go outside somewhere. And lastly, I used to work at a small town Dairy Queen where we would always have free water and on especially hot days we would be sure to offer them to our customers.

But my point is not to say that there is a right or wrong way of doing things. Though I can see where some stereotypes of Americans and American culture come from. My tour guide and supervisors were very keen on making sure we knew the importance of embracing new ideas and trying new things.

At first, I had no idea what to expect when I was traveling because it's something I have never done before. But a few other things that I had to adapt to was the different ways of transportation, crowds and food.

A common and fast way to get from place to place in big cities in Europe is to use the Metropolitan or otherwise called the "metro". Which in America we commonly use the term "subway". But on this trip, I road the metro with a few of my friends and we had to teach ourselves how to get from place to place. At first this was nerve wrecking, being a small town Minnesotan and especially since I was only 18 years old. Though to my surprise it was very easy to pick up on. I learned that it was as simple as looking at a map with color coordinated lines that told me where I wanted to or where I could go.

Typically I'm used to getting into a car and driving to where ever I need to go but in the busy cities of Europe not many people have cars. It's common in Germany that when you turn 16 years old you are given a bicycle instead of a car because the costs are too much and because there is limited space in Europe. Since Europe is one of the earliest continents, it was never designed for vehicles and fast transportation. That is why most areas over there have close by buildings that are extremely tall. It's meant to fit a lot of people and buildings rather than make room for transportation.

The main thing that I was encouraged to follow when I was over there was to try new traditional foods. A lot of these foods I had never heard of were considered to be a delicacy. And instead of following along with any American stereotypes, I made myself determined to maintain an open mind and try these new foods. Now some of these newly tasted foods were instantly delicious to some of my classmates and others there was not one new food that seemed to taste good at all. It all depends on how much your body will let you adapt because of what you were used to eating previously your whole life.

All in all, after this trip I found myself feeling much more cultured and aware of what else goes on in our world. This is something I highly encourage others to go out and experience. Since knowledge such as this isn't common to everyone, it's a great way to put yourself out there and adapt to new ways of doing things.