Last week I told you about my first London trip. Can’t remember why but I went from London directly to Marseille and spent there some more days. It rained a lot, but I also had some situations there, which actually felt dangerous. If you’re only interested in positive stories you should skip that post. But if you’re curious what happened and what I learnt from that, keep reading.
I think I hoped to get a little bit sun and warm weather when I went to Marseille but it rained nearly the whole time. This time I was staying in something like an apartment hotel where I had a kitchen in the room and could cook for myself. In London I ate a lot of that take-away meal options which mostly consist of a sandwich/wrap/salad/whatever, crisps and a beverage, because I couldn’t afford (or didn’t want to) eating in pubs often. To buy food in the supermarket and cook myself was a way better option for me. I also had a balcony with a roof so I could cook first, and then sit there and eat and drink wine even with rain. Because of the rain I spent more time in the apartment than I planned, but I enjoyed it anyway. I used the time to think about what I want to change in my life (I was not really happy then) and made one of my best decisions while being in Marseille.
But I also had some weird situations in Marseille. One was on my arrival. Since I couldn’t check in to my accommodation before 3pm I wanted to put my suitcase at the luggage storage on the train station. I arrived in Marseille in the middle of night and the luggage storage didn’t opened before 8am, so I spent some time in the waiting room of the station. While I was sitting there, hearing music with my headphone on and making some Sudoku puzzle to pass the time, I realized a guy from across the room watched me. I kept doing my puzzle and hoping he would lose interest. But there wouldn’t be a story if he would have, right? Exactly. After a while he was sitting next to me and talking to me in french. The music on my headphone wasn’t loud enough to avoid hearing him completely but I kept my eyes on the puzzle and tried to ignore him. There were more people inside that waiting room, but I only remember one old woman and a probably homeless woman in my age. They realized that I was feeling uncomfortable and that he annoys me. The old woman started to swear at him (and unfortunately I didn’t understand a lot, I could have learnt so much!) and the younger got help from the security. Instantly after their arrival he forgot that he speaks french and only spoke in english now. I explained in french that I only wanted to wait for the luggage storage to open, listening to music and doing my puzzles when he approached me and that I not reacted at all to him, because I didn’t wanted to talk with him and that I heard him speaking french before. In the end they asked him to leave that waiting room. I was happy when I finally could leave my stuff at the luggage storage but I have also to admit, when I left the station I felt a little bit unsafe and was afraid he waited there for me. Luckily, he wasn’t.
The second weird situation was at the beach in Marseille. Finally it wasn’t raining and I always love to sit at the beach, reading or watching the sea. So I went there, roll out my towel and lie on it and read some book. The beach was quite empty but one guy was walking around there. I saw him approaching and he actually asked me something but I wasn’t really listening and just waving him away. Next thing I know he is massaging my feet. I freaked out and luckily he left when I started screaming at him.
Both situations were uncomfortable and not the last time that someone approached me during my travels in uncomfortable manner. Israel was actually the only country I felt safe the whole time. But let’s be honest, (sexual) harassment happens everywhere. On traveling it feels more dangerous, because I don’t know anyone, sometimes I even don’t know the language (well), because of being a tourist I am also a better target and more often in the areas where pickpocketing is taking place, I don’t know how to reach out to the police spontaneously (everyone knows the emergency numbers of their own country by heart but while traveling?) and if they would help me or think I am overreacting or maybe they are the ones molesting me. (Yes, that happened to me too. You find the story here.) What I want to show you with that post today, is that this two situations and every other after that didn’t stopped me from traveling solo. It made me more cautious but so did every uncomfortable encounter in Germany. The only thing to avoid that completely is to stay in my house forever, but do I want that? No!
Please, when you go on traveling think about your safety. Inform yourself about the situation in the region you go to, before you go there. Save emergency numbers in your phone or write them down somewhere and keep them close. Stay in touch with your family and friends at home. It’s much easier now with wifi everywhere, there are no excuses. When there are situations you feel uncomfortable and you’re able to communicate with them, do it. Give them whatever information they could use when things get out of hand and they have to call the police for you. Avoid situations which have a higher potential of danger, like drinking too much when you’re going out. Remember, you don’t know the area that well. And no, being part of a pub/club crawl doesn’t automatically save you from having to find the way back on your own. My first night in Israel I went out on such a pub/club crawl, but at the second stop I decided to go back, because I was tired. I had to go alone and was happy that the way back was easy and I already have explored the area around the hostel during daylight, so I found the street I had to take more easily. An other time me and friends lost the volunteers during the crawl.
These are only some of many safety tipps. Some more I’ll share with you in my later posts. Not everything is always possible, some things are not always necessary. I don’t want to lie, I was careless often and so far I was lucky. I lost my ID-card on the airport of Marseille, because I didn’t put it back properly and it felt out of my pants pockets. For the way back I wanted to took the train anyway so it wasn’t a problem. But I learnt from that and stories of others. You should keep safe too!
PS: Seems like weather in Marseille was so bad, that this is the only shot I have from that trip.
Travel, learn, share, repeat... 