12+ Travelers Reveal Their Scariest Experiences Abroad

For most of us, traveling is a treat. We save up a nice chunk of change to see a part of the world we’ve never seen before. But the more you travel, the more likely you are to run into the darker sides of the world abroad.

And that’s exactly what happened to these 15 people.

#15. Incredibly lucky

“I was traveling in Nicaragua several years ago when I got lost and ended up having to take a taxi at 9:30pm back to my hostel. When the taxi pulled up to the curb, the taxi driver locked the taxi doors and told me that I had misunderstood the fare. He claimed I owed him $100 USD which was several times more than we had agreed upon. I tried to pry the doors open from the inside but was completely trapped. Thankfully, he let me out of the taxi after taking all the money I had on me.

The hostel workers told me I was incredibly lucky. A few days earlier, a taxi driver had kidnapped another young female, assaulted her, then dumped her barely conscious body in a field outside town thinking that she was dead. A few local schoolchildren found her on their way to school in the morning.”

#14. The cops spoke with us

“On the red-eye train, stopped for a layover in New York. My friend and I are half asleep, sitting across from each other. A homeless guy snuck into the train, pulled his pants and underwear down and tried to sit with my friend, encouraging her to “help him out.” I woke up just in time to see it happen. Took me telling at the guy to find another place to sit for him to hurriedly pull his pants up and move somewhere else… only to try the same thing to another woman, who was extremely vocal about it.

The cops spoke with us. Apparently this guy was known for stealing cans from the subways and this was a new MO for the guy.”

#13. A Russian militant roadblock

“I went to visit Ukraine with my parents because they wanted to see the small villages where their parents were born. We have no family in the area so we hired a guide to take us around since the country can be a bit corrupt. As we were driving around on a highway we suddenly were stopped in traffic (literally middle of nowhere). The guide gets out of the car and takes a look, then quickly jumps back into the car, does a U-Turn and drives off telling my mom we can’t go to her mom’s village. We ask why and he says that was some kind of russian millitant roadblock. This was during the whole Crimea thing.”

#12. A night train in Naples

“A friend and I were waiting for a night train in Naples and after someone tried to steal our bags decided to go everywhere together. It was a good thing because a man who had been whistling at us for an hour tried to follow us into the bathroom.”

#11. I would be safe from then on

“I was walking around in a town in Algeria. I wandered in to a neighborhood, and noticed there were hardly any people out. A little further, and there were literally no people out. I started to feel a little uneasy. And then I see an extremely tall man walking towards me, straight towards me, obviously with intent. He gets closer, and I see an older gentleman with a long grey beard and wearing a grey tunic. I stop. He comes right up to me and says, in pretty good English, “you’re not safe here, we need to get you off the street”. I say “OK”, and he says “follow me”.

We walk a few blocks and we come to a door, he says “wait here a minute”, and he goes inside. He opens the door again and invites me in. When I get inside, there are maybe a dozen men. They are all dressed in black, and they are staring absolute daggers at me. Grey-beard lays in to them, starts shaking his fists at them, gets really worked up. Then one of the younger guys goes in to the kitchen and brings out some tea and cookies, and offfers them to me.

So, I’m drinking tea, and trying to smile, and one of the young guys asks where I’m from and I say “The States” and he starts talking about the CIA and stuff… and then I say “you think the CIA is bad here? Let me tell you about Central America”, and then pretty soon everybody is warming up to me and we’re laughing and talking shit about American foreign policy and drinking tea.

After a bit of that the older man invites me back to his apartment. He has a huge library. I gift him a book that I had finished. And then he tells me what had just happened. His little brother, who was one of the younger men, was the leader of a radical group, all the other men I had met. He had overheard them getting ready to kidnap me. But he had shamed them for not being good hosts, and for disrespecting him because it was his house. He said that I would be safe from then on.

TLDR: Gandalf saves my life and got a copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for his trouble.”

#10. A long screwdriver

“1992 I was walking up the stairs to the ticket booths in the Warsaw, Poland central train station. All of a sudden this dude is falling down the stairs coming to rest a few stairs above where I was standing. Dude had a long screw driver sticking out of his abdomen.”

#9. Screaming like they were going to die

“Was on a flight once going into Orlando that hit some unexpected turbulence. This was no ordinary turbulence. We went from 0 to 100 in an instant. People literally flew out of their seats, luggage fell from the overhead bins, people screamed like they were going to die. There were several sudden drops in elevation strong enough that people’s arms flew up in the air and my butt came out of the seat. I’ve flown quite a bit and sometimes it gets bumpy. This was the first time I seriously thought something bad was going to happen.”

#8. Lost him

“I was stalked by a guy while walking through the Tiergarten in Berlin. I was walking a path, enjoying the park alone. I saw this guy standing on the edge of the walkway just looking off into the distance. I passed him and when I was about twenty feet away, he turned and followed after me, keeping pace. I started to take a very meandering path, even leaving the park and entering again. The guy stuck with me the whole way. Eventually I got to a place with some sharp turns and heavy greenery. I was able to lose the line of sight and put myself up against a corner. I’d just been in Switzerland and had bought a pocket knife, so I opened the blade and held it inside my jacket pocket. I stood there, waiting, and then this guy comes walking out of the path confused and obviously trying to see where I went. When he finally spotted me, he jolted and since I had the drop on him, he played it cool and continued walking as if he hadn’t followed me there. He stopped a little ways ahead, and I kept watching him. I wanted to confront him to find out why he’d followed me, but since I was a visitor in the country, I thought better of it. Instead, I waited until I saw a big group of people leaving and fell in with them. He started to follow me, but I finally lost him outside the garden. It unsettled me because to this day I have no idea why he was following me. I’m a guy and at the time I was in my early twenties, pretty fit, and had a sour disposition, so I didn’t seem like a prime mugging target. But, maybe he thought otherwise.

EDIT: Half the reason I posted this story was because I hoped someone on Reddit would know what the guy was doing. You didn’t fail me.”

#7. Our moms just started calling…

“In 2016 I went to Brussels in a school trip, we were at the train station and we left to Germany I believe. Several hours later all of our moms just start calling and texting us asking where we were and stuff. Turns out there was a bombing in the train station. It’s crazy to believe that the bombs were probably already planted when we were there.

Edit: we didn’t actually got on a train, we were just visiting the station.”

#6. Thankfully

“A good friend of mine in Zimbabwe was grabbed at gunpoint and forced into a van, thankfully they only took her to an ATM and made her drain her account then they left her somewhere outside town. Could’ve been so much worse.”

#5. A pack of wild dogs

“I had a pack of wild dogs chase me from my bus stop to my hotel at 3 am in Kosovo. I also had a old woman yell at me in Russian about not making my bed right on the train and then watched over my shoulder til it was to her satisfaction when I was on my way back to Bucharest from Moldova.”

#4. Losing my wallet

“Got pickpocketed by a group of 3 on a Paris metro. I’m paranoid of losing my wallet, so I’m always checking myself. When I realized it was missing, I made a bigger scene than the pickpockets were making (they shoved me into their friend and were trying to convince people I knocked him down). I stopped the train from leaving the station. One of the other passengers left to get got conductor and security. I guess that didn’t sit well with the pickpockets, so they gave me back my wallet and took off running.

Edit: This event still freaks my wife out.”

#3. Staring at me while I slept

“I was staying in a weird hostel by myself in Barcelona, woke up to a man staring at me while I slept. He was looking over a one of those wood dividing screens that the shared room had. I pretend to still be asleep because I was afraid of what he would do if I move or confronted him and I didn’t know if there was anyone else in the room. He stared for like 2 hours until finally my alarm rang cause I had to to take an early train, so I put all my stuff in my bag and left the room. As I left I told the owner, but I was really in a hurry and didn’t ask what he was going to do with the guy.”

#2. Face to face with a cow

“Hiking in Huaraz Peru, has been told to watch our gear as locals (and apparently foxes) might make off with items left around the campsite. So we made sure to clean the campsite extra well, packing all our gear in the tent and inside the fly. And after a long day hiking, off to bed. Middle of the night our tent starts shaking like crazy, I wake up freaking out thinking we were getting robbed, I started yelling and screaming. Part of the tent pushes in real far. I manage to get outside to start swinging and come face to face with the cow that had wandered into the tent ropes and got startled. Pretty lucky that it didn’t step down into the tent and hit us.”

#1. A bus from the 80s

“In India our bus rounded a corner in the mountains and another bus was on the other side of the curve. Both busses skid to a stop about 1 foot from one another. Both drivers started laughing and poking fun at each other. We saw a bus from the ’80s that fell down the mountain about 15 minutes later. Hella intense.”

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September 17, 2018

Check out These 7 Interesting Facts About Roald Dahl

Were you a fan of James and the Giant Peach when you were a kid? How about The Witches or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

One man was responsible for those tales and many more that we devoured during our childhoods (and after): Roald Dahl.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Although he passed away nearly 30 years ago, Dahl remains a literary giant that kids and adult still read on a regular basis. Here are 10 facts about the great author.

1. Writing was not his best subject

A teacher once said about Dahl, “I have never met anybody who so persistently writes words meaning the exact opposite of what is intended.”

2. He served in World War II

Photo Credit: Public Domain

Dahl was a fighter pilot with the Royal Air Force. He crashed his plane in Libya during the war, which inspired him to start writing.

3. He got into some spy games

Dahl supplied intelligence to an MI6 agency called the British Security Coordination along with fellow officers Ian Fleming and David Ogilvy.

4. Quentin Tarantino adapted his work

Dahl’s short story “Man from the South” has been adapted for the screen three times: twice for Alfred Hitchcock Presents (in 1960 and 1985) and by Tarantino for the segment he directed for the film Four Rooms in 1995.

5. Dahl’s first children’s book was inspired by his time in the military

Photo Credit: Amazon

Dahl’s book The Gremlins was published in 1942 and was about a bunch of mischevious creatures who mess with the Royal Air Force’s planes. The rights for the story were purchased by Disney, but it was never made into a film.

6. His first published piece was a bit of an accident

Dahl was assigned to Washington, D.C. to work as an assistant air attaché. Author C.S. Forester interviewed Dahl about his experiences in the war. Dahl wrote some notes about his time during the war, and Forester was so impressed he didn’t change a word. The Saturday Evening Post published the article on August 1, 1942. Dahl was paid $1,000 for the story.

7. He wrote a lot of stories for adults

Dahl is best known for his children’s books, but he also wrote for Harper’s, The New Yorker, and even Playboy. He also wrote about dark subjects including wife-swapping, promiscuity, suicide, and adultery. Who knew?

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September 17, 2018

Waffle House Can Help You Measure the Severity of a Natural Disaster

Over the course of the Hurricane Florence news coverage, the term “Waffle House Index” has been used quite a few times. The chain restaurant is so prevalent across the country, and their locations are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so FEMA uses it as a barometer to see how bad a storm is affecting an area.

Photo Credit: Facebook,Waffle House

Former FEMA administrator Craig Fugate said, “If a Waffle House is closed because there’s a disaster, it’s bad. We call it red. If they’re open but have a limited menu, that’s yellow … If they’re green, we’re good, keep going. You haven’t found the bad stuff yet.”

Photo Credit: Flickr,mikeporterinmd

If a Waffle House location is having trouble getting supplies, then FEMA knows transportation has been slowed down because of a storm. If only some of the menu items are available, there might have some utilities and not others. If a Waffle House restaurant shuts down and locks its doors, FEMA knows that the weather is really, really bad because many of them will stay open even in the worst weather to help first responders.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

What a brilliant concept. So remember, if you live near a Waffle House and you’re having a storm, see what’s going on there to get a good idea of how bad the weather might get.

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September 16, 2018

8+ Kitchen Hacks To Ease Your Stress in the Kitchen

There’s bound to be few tasks in the kitchen that make you think hiring a cook might not be such a bad idea, even if you’re someone who enjoys their baking and cooking,

Check these hacks out, and thank me later for all of the extra time you’ve got on your hands!

#10. Boil eggs in the oven.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Line a muffin tin with paper cups, then put an egg in each one. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and heat the eggs for 30 minutes, then submerge them in ice water for 10 minutes. I’m definitely going to try this one!

#9. Help your greens out.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

I don’t know about you, but nothing grosses me out faster than wilted greens in a salad. You can help yours stay perky longer by lining a plastic container with paper towels, tossing in DRY greens, then covering them with more paper towels. Simple and effective!

#8. Don’t watch your pot – but bring it to a boil faster.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

First off, remember to use only as much water as you’ll need to do accomplish the task at – the more water, the longer it takes to boil. Second, pop the lid on the pot and let the steam help you heat the water faster. Voila!

#7. Get creative (and neater) with your pancake making.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Instead of using a million measuring cups, spoons, and bowls to get a fairly simple batch of pancakes done, try mixing everything in a gallon plastic baggie, the cutting off one corner and using it to pipe the batter. This way you can even make fun pancake shapes!

#6. Help your avocados ripen faster.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

If you’re like me, you love avocados…but you have trouble getting them at just the right time. We often buy them a little too firm and then wait (and I always forget about them until they’re bad). If you want to hurry them along for a planned meal, just seal them in a paper bag for a couple of days. If you add an apple to the bag, the ethylene gas it gives off will also help the ripening process along.

#5. Rejuvenate your stale bread.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

This trick doesn’t work for slices, but if you’ve got whole loves or baguettes that have gone stale, try it: Simply run the loaf under water (briefly) and then toss it in a 325 degree oven for 6-7 minutes. The steam from the evaporating water will rehydrate your bread while keeping the crust nice and crisp!

#4. Peel ginger with a spoon.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Because of the odd shapes fresh ginger root comes in, a spoon is often more effective than a peeler for getting into all those nooks and crannies.

#3. Keep your brown sugar soft.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

There’s nothing more annoying than pulling out your brown sugar for a recipe and finding it hard and crumbling. You want to make sure you’re storing it in an airtight container, for starters, but you can also toss in marshmallows, bread, or slices of apple to absorb extra moisture and keep it soft and yummy even longer!

#2. Keep your grill clean with an onion.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Grills need to be scraped clean now and again, and it turns out that an onion cut in half is the perfect way to do it. Just make sure your grill is nice and hot to help loosen things up, then slide the onion half over the grill flat-side down with a fork. It’s all natural (and won’t smell half bad, either).

#1. Rescue your fresh herbs from the trash.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

You’d be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t agree that fresh herbs are preferable to dried ones, but when it comes to waste, the former can be a bummer. If you’ve got herbs about to wither and mold in the fridge, toss them into some olive oil to make yourself an herb-infused topping.

Alternatively, you can freeze them with oil or melted butter in ice cube trays and use them in future recipes.

h/t: Mental_Floss

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September 16, 2018

15 Reasons to Hug Your Left-Handed Friends

Lefties are still in the minority, so let’s take a moment to remember that being different can present some challenges. International Left-Handers Day was August 13th this year, and chances are everyone has at least one special lefty in their life that reminded them we should be celebrating. My grandpa was a lefty and took every chance he got – through words, mugs, and apparel – to remind the world that he was superior to us boring righties.

#15. Oh, the humanity!

Photo Credit: Twitter

#14. Pro-tip worth filing away.

Photo Credit: Twitter

#13. It’s like the mirage in the lefty desert.

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

#12. Hey that’s quite the classy hack right there.

Photo Credit: Bored Panda

#11. Bonus: You learn how to read backward!

Photo Credit: Reddit

#10. She was excited about her new ice cream scooper. Until…

Photo Credit: Reddit

#9. Who knew you could adjust the shortcuts?

Photo Credit: Tumblr

#8. Just imagine being the cause of all the seating chart stress!

Photo Credit: Twitter

#7. Related to genius.

Photo Credit: Reddit

#6. The care and feeding of the lefty in your life.

Photo Credit: Twitter

#5. Why AREN’T you??

Photo Credit: Tumblr

#4. Cheated by the fork-knife.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

#3. It’s always the little things that turn into big things.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

#2. Dreams vs. Reality.

Photo Credit: Tumblr

#1. Those are for other people.

Photo Credit: Twitter

h/t: Bored Panda

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September 16, 2018

10 Super Weird British Foods

The British have some pretty interesting food and drinks that you can’t find anywhere else.

Despite being staples of their diet, many of those items don’t translate to the rest of the world, and people around the globe find them to be downright weird. Take a look at these 10 examples from people who shared their thoughts on Buzzfeed.

1. Crisps in a roll

Photo Credit: Instagram,such.a.flannel

“The weirdest British dish is without a doubt crisp rolls. A dry roll. With crisps in them?! Why?!”

2. Spotted dick

Photo Credit: Flickr,Brad Lauster

“What is spotted dick and why is it called that? Is it named after someone? I’m confused.”

3. Scotch eggs

Photo Credit: Flickr,Brian Malcolm

4. Brown sauce

Photo Credit: Instagram,peacockdrums

“A food defined by its colour and category. They didn’t even both to name it!”

5. Chips with vinegar

Photo Credit: Flickr,LearningLark

6. Mince pies

Photo Credit: Flickr,Yortw

“Once my British friends and I made a savoury pie with minced meat (ground meat) and I called it a mincemeat pie and they were like ‘oh actually…’ because apparently that’s WRONG!?!?”

7. Sausage rolls

Photo Credit: Flickr,Alpha

“Why are y’all so obsessed with sausages and sausage rolls? Specifically from Greggs. What’s so great about Greggs?”

8. Black pudding

Photo Credit: Flickr,Andy2Boyz

“Being an American with an English boyfriend, I spend a decent amount of time in north west England. Can’t wrap my head around black pudding. Pig’s blood and cereal? And it’s at every breakfast place ever there.”

9. Yorkshire puddings

Photo Credit: Flickr,Rob Friesel

“They are awesome, but so weird, like weird-shaped savoury pancakes.”

10. Beans on toast

Photo Credit: Instagram,slimming.world.abby

“Yeah i don’t get the whole ‘mushy carbs on top of toast’ thing, i.e. beans on toast, fried potatoes on toast, etc.”

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September 16, 2018

Women Share Their Terrifying Stories of Being Stalked in Public

Maybe it’s been in a bar, at the movies, or walking down the street, but every woman has likely had an experience where a random male stranger has made her uncomfortable, at the very least. At the extreme (but not uncommon) end of the spectrum are the men that have made us want to run away or send a desperate text to a friend or loved one.

Women have even come to expect this when they go about their business alone in public and yet, for men, it can be hard to comprehend how prevalent these encounters are. That’s one reason these tweets, and the women who were brave enough to share their experiences and face the backlash, are so important.

#15. Be there for your fellow ladies, gals.

Photo Credit: Twitter

#14. “Don’t worry.” Right.

Photo Credit: Twitter

#13. Trust your instincts.

Photo Credit: Twitter

#12. Never too early to educate your kids.

Photo Credit: Twitter

#11. So much nope.

Photo Credit: Twitter

#10. My heart is in my throat just reading this.

Photo Credit: Twitter

#9. Talk to your kids.

Photo Credit: Twitter

#8. Good looking out.

Photo Credit: Twitter

#7. Another good example.

Photo Credit: Twitter

#6. When the people who are supposed to protect you don’t.

Photo Credit: Twitter

#5. When not even your dog is a deterrent.

Photo Credit: Twitter

#4. I wouldn’t have left my house for a week.

Photo Credit: Twitter

#3. Making new friends is a bonus.

Photo Credit: Twitter

#2. Don’t hesitate.

Photo Credit: Twitter

#1. Nightmare.

Photo Credit: Twitter

h/t: WokeSloth

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September 16, 2018

This Redditor Shows the Transformation of His DIY Home Office

If you work from home, you realize pretty quickly that a room with doors is a priceless commodity (especially if you have young kids). However, if you watch any renovation shows on television, you probably think that the only sort of floor plan anyone wants these days is a completely open one.

When DIYer Rajen Kishna and his wife learned they were expecting a baby, and therefore the office space they’d claimed from a bedroom would have to be converted, they got to work. Instead of simply shoving a couple of desks in a piece of their formal living room, the couple decided to make their own office – walls, windows, french doors, and custom desks included.

If you think that’s way too much work for you to do yourself, think again – the two of them figured it all out with the help of online design programs and YouTube and, with some help from a neighbor when extra muscle was required, put the entire thing up.

The project took about 4 months of evenings and weekends, and if you’ve got questions, check out Kishna’s Reddit thread, where he’s answered quite a few.

Check out the transformation below, from taped off space on the floor to a room with drywall, paint, and all the fixings!

Photo Credit: Imgur

Photo Credit Imgur

Photo Credit: Imgur

It looks stellar, but I have to wonder what the cost is of doing it yourself vs. having it done… Either way, props to him!

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September 16, 2018

Russian Man Creates Rehab Center for Wolves and Images Show Their Gratitude

A Russian man provides wolves, these majestic predators with everything they need to recover and re-enter their natural elements, including his unconditional love. Kirill Potapov, a St. Petersburg native has a love for animals that extends beyond that of the normal person, and it has led him to start a rehabilitation center for wolves in need of medical attention.

Despite all odds and their struggles with trust at the outside of the project, the wolves seem to respond with great affection and gratitude of their own. You can see this in the images below.