1. Eiffel Tower
In Paris, especially around the Eiffel Tower, there were many women holding onto young children, and they will walk up to you and ask you to sign something as a "donation" but once you do, they make you give them money and say you've already signed it so you can't say no. One of the ladies from our tour said no to them, but instead of leaving, the woman and the child took food from her (we were having a picnic on the grass next to the Eiffel) and when the lady from our tour told them they couldn't do that, they asked "why not?"icily.
2. Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur
Also, in Montmatre, we ourselves encountered those scam artistes who try to do the "bracelet trick". What they do is forcefully grab your arm and force a friendship bracelet onto your wrist and because its those thread ones, it is difficult to remove after it has been pulled tight. Then the scammer will force you to pay them for it and it will be difficult for you to remove it and say you don't want it. So there at the staircase to the top, we saw a group of dark-skinned and big sized men waiting. I don't know why we didn't go the other way because there were two stairways leading to the top to the church. We saw them harassing a bunch of girls before us but we went for it anyway. We were separated from the tour because we went to get souvenirs. So as we were passing, the men tried talking to my BF asking him where he's from and he made a grab for his arm! luckily my bf and I managed to pull away without being forced to wear their stupid bracelet.
As all of the hotels we stayed at, our hotel in Rome was far away from the main sights and we had to travel a bit to get to the touristy spots. The Metro experience in Rome was by far the creepiest. For starters we were almost shut OUT of the Metro the first time we tried it. Thankfully my BF forcefully held the doors open for the 3 of us left-behind girls to hop in,or I wouldn't know what would've happened. The Metro in Rome is really dangerous and shady, because it is filled with pickpockets and scammers. I don't mean to generalize it but its true. One of the tour members took a photo of the railway and there happened to be a French man on the other side. He got really angry because he thought he was taking a picture of HIM and he shouted that he wasn't even doing anything, why is he taking his photo? It was a good thing he was on the other side of the rail.
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| photo taken from Google |
Okay, pickpocket story.
The stairways leading to the tube is known to have a lot of girls carrying babies in their arms. These are the girls you should be cautious about. Make sure your bags are always zipped and that you have nothing in your pockets. Alas- one of the eldest members from our tour did not was unfortunate and was pick pocketed on our way to the Colosseum. He had his wallet in his backpack and a group of young girls managed to take his wallet and hopped out the tube seconds before the doors shut. The scary part was that the poor man had no clue until one of the tube passengers told him that the girls that hopped out just took his wallet, He hopped out of the Metro too but he was never able to retrieve his belongings. When I asked him how he was later, he said "things like these make you want you to do things you never thought you would want to do" and I thought that was deep. But thankfully he was able to call his children back home in Australia to cancel his credit cards. Good thing he still had his passport safe.
If I had a choice, I wouldn't want to sit in the Rome Metro ever again because it is not an experience I want ever again. The Paris one too, because the Paris metro is really shady too and smells suspiciously like piss.
Travel safe,guys! x
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