Growing up in America, or any modernized Western country, we tend to take for granted some things as simple as safety and comfort. While I’ve never felt like my life was in danger throughout my four+ semesters abroad at NEU, I have definitely had some questionable experiences in the past that really reminded me of how important it is to always keep an eye out, especially during my time traveling in Africa while on co-op last semester.
I actually have a little bit of a funny story from my recent trip to Berlin. I was in a big group of friends at a train station at night. Our group was mostly German, or at least German-Speaking, so it wasn’t as if we were very obviously tourists [aka loud and American 😉 ] We were on our way to an event that my friend was performing at so we were all dressed up as the spice girls (themed dress up event) really excited and ready to have a good time! A man walks up to our group and starts hitting up a conversation with us and asked to take a picture with us. After the photo, he started to walk away and my friend notices that his wallet and cell phone are missing from his pocket. He sees the man down the platform and starts chasing him and we all follow suit. Well somehow my friend managed to catch up to the man and ended up grabbing the man’s wallet out of HIS pocket. They eventually traded each other for their own belongings back but we couldn’t stop laughing about the whole situation for the entire evening. Just goes to show, you gotta be on alert and aware at all times while traveling!
Anyway, it doesn’t always work out that well so here are some of the safety and cautionary tips that I try to keep in mind while traveling!
1 Wearing coats/shirts/jackets that are long enough to drape over pants pockets make it harder for people to pickpocket you
2 If you’re going to walk and listen to music, make sure you take out one earbud or have the music low enough so that you can still hear what’s going on around you
3 Don’t get too close to people: train stations, tourist destinations, etc. are popular places for people to talk to you/bump into you/whatever to distract you while they, or their accomplice, robs/pickpockets you.
4 BE WARY OF CHILDREN: This is an unfortunate circumstance, but children are just as, if not more likely to pickpocket you of your things.
5 KNOW the emergency telephone number of wherever you are going. ‘911’ isn’t universal.
