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Traveling Alone
tallndutch
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I’ll be travling to Holland – Germany and Switzerland to visit family and after that I’ll be traveling to Italy – Greece – Spain and Portugal. I’ve heard that men in the mentioned countries are extreemly forward, how does one respond and act out towards that without looking like a fool. Hey, yea there are aggressive men all over however; when I mentioned forward I’m meaning right out grabbing out and touching you.

Jester
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I’m getting depressed now, wondering if I am so ugly because I didn’t get grabbed a lot… Nah, doesn’t happen that way. There’s freaky guys all over the world that grab your ass once in a while, but if you’re walking down the street and taking pictures, no one will come and say "I love you" and grab you. It’s mainly an attitude thing. It may happen a lot in clubs, but then again, if you are wearing the mini skirt and lesbo dancing with your friend to one of Beyonce’s songs, yeah, it may happen. The same, if you meet an italian (which have a reputation for finding a sexual connotation to everything you say or do), you just set your limits from moment one. The things you say, the way you say them, body language, and if that doesn’t work, then don’t be affraid to be rude. But it’s not as bad as it seems. People tend to exagerate a lot.

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Actually, not 100% true that if you’re just walking down the street, people won’t grab your ass. I’ve had drive-by ass grabbings in Florence, Paris, Rome, Spain…I dress conservatively and generally have a strong attitude (in the non-victim sense), but these things happen. The best defense is to be shocked and pissed off and tell them to leave you alone. Learn how to say it in the languages of the countries you’ll be traveling to; learning how to say "Leave me alone or I will call the police" is a good phrase. Every time this has happened to me, the offender has laughed at me, but left me alone after that.