Randomness on the Road

 This post is dedicated to pointing out some of the little incidents I’ve witnessed in my almost two months of travel that didn’t make it into any of the other posts. In no particular order …

In Ponta do Pongo, I was at a restaurant and this woman and her child walked by my table.  The little girl looked at me then lowered her head.  The mom explained that she wanted to wave, but was too shy.  That was adorable.  I don’t even like kids, but that got to me and made my day.  I waved to the kid and she just shyly walked away.  So cute.

These are the bathroom stalls at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam.  I’ve never seen stalls like this, but the Dutch are known for being way ahead of the curve in practical (and private) design.  This was also the first time I saw these Dyson hand dryers.  Now, why doesn’t America have these?  They’re more sanitary and save on paper waste.

Waiting in line for the bathroom at Barcelona Airport, I overheard two black women mentioning that Hartsfield has more stalls.  I asked if they were from Atlanta.  Turns out they were and were coming back from a cruise.  I do love seeing other black women on the road.

I was sitting in a restaurant on Naxos and a couple of ladies came in with gift bags.  They approached one of the waiters saying that they had these three eggs and didn’t know what to do with them.  I have no idea where they got the eggs but … Dude looked a little confused as well but took the eggs in the back.  I wonder if he put them to use.

Speaking of restaurants, a couple of observations.  Both Greece and Portugal are fond of the small, handheld machines for taking payments by card.  They punch in the amount and then you, the customer, just tap your card to the top or middle of the machine until it beeps.  The machine prints out a receipt and you are on your way.  In Portugal, these machines didn’t have a tipping option.  I was not happy to see that form of extortion reappear in parts of Greece.  The employee is holding the machine and can clearly see whether you opt to tip 0, 10 or 20 percent – no pressure there at all.  Still, even when paying cash, I usually leave a couple of bucks out of habit. I like that to be my choice, though, not establishments capitalizing on the American tipping habit just looking to suck out as much cash as they can get.

Technology has also advanced in how the waitstaff take orders.  Everything is on the phone now.  Most people are staring at their phones 24/7 anyway; might as well incorporate them into their work.

Two sounds have been consistent in both countries; church bells and owls.  The bells can be kind of annoying.  A bell for every new hour is one thing, but some of them will play entire tunes in the morning.  Most of the hotels I’ve stayed in have serious noise issues, so I really don’t need the bells on top of that.  The owls, however, have been a strange yet welcome sound.  I thought it unusual that there was an owl in Woodstock, but now it seems they are everywhere.  Or maybe that owl from Georgia is just following me around Europe.  A sweet, yet creepy thought.

I’ve been through 4 countries since March; The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Greece.  Yet I have only one stamp in my passport from The Netherlands.  Schiphol was the first airport I hit after coming from the U.S. and the only place that had passport control.  Now, I certainly don’t want to stand in anymore lines than I have to, but I would still like some more stamps in my book.

Spot anything weird in this picture?  This random Micky Mouse was wandering around taking pictures with kids in the touristy part of Athens.

The music has been interesting.  Most of the restaurants in both Portugal and Greece will play modern remakes of American music.  The remakes are usually more mellow than the established version, giving every song a dreamy, café feel to them.  It sometimes takes me a minute to identify that song by The Weeknd or this other Ed Sheeran number since it’s being sung at a different speed by a female voice.  It’s been odd but I like it.  When I do hear music by the original artists, though, the songs are uncensored.  It was a real surprise to hear musical f-bombs while eating dinner.

I’ve mentioned how big coffee culture is in both Portugal and Greece.  Something interesting I’ve noticed, though.  After a cup, in either country, I don’t have raging coffee breath.  It was standard practice for me to pop some gum after a cup of coffee in the states to get rid of the aftertaste.  Here in Europe (so far) that aftertaste or foul breath have not been problems.