One of the first things you might experience when you’re in a different country is culture shock, especially if you go somewhere very different from where you live. For example, people that have been to Chile say that people there are not very serious about time or responsibilities. For example, “tomorrow” might mean “next week,” and “next week” may turn out to be “never.” When you go to a different country, you sometimes end up finding yourself in really funny and unexpected situations.

We at Bright Side did a search online and found a lot of these stories. We hope they will put you in a great mood. They might also help you avoid similar situations.

When I was 25, I backpacked through Europe. I chose an island in Greece to live on for one month (Naxos). My goal was to live like Robinson Crusoe — I wanted to live off the land. There was only one problem. I never caught anything… I spilled all my water… A Greek farmer and his wife invited me to their hut. There was retsina (Greek wine), bread, and some freshly-made, warm goat cheese on a wooden table. In return, I helped them with their sheep and their cheese. But the local food caused some stomach problems for me. I couldn’t explain it to the couple: I didn’t speak Greek and they didn’t speak English. I went to the pharmacy. A crowd of people was watching me point at my butt and say something in a language they didn’t speak. Anyway, I managed to buy a laxative. I returned home to the couple and showed them the pills. And the woman laughed and showed me that she had the same pills in her drawer. Before I left, I bought a translation book the last few days I was there. I did it because I wanted to say goodbye to them in Greek. So on my last day, I said, in Greek, “I will never forget the kindness you showed me, and will always remember you.” We all had tears in our eyes after that.

I was visiting Germany while doing an internship. On the very first day of university, I went to use the restroom. When I went near the bathroom, on one door “Herren” was written and on the other door “Damen” was written. There were no other images. I had just begun to learn German and knew that many words in German sound like they’ve been derived from English. Since “Herren” seems to be derived from “Her” and “Damen” from “Men,” I went inside Damen. I used the washroom and kept using it for more than a week. The whole time, I was wondering why they didn’t have those “standing” urinals for men. It was after a week that I learned that “Damen” actually stands for “Her” and “Herren” for “Him.” Luckily I never encountered any women inside the “Damen” washroom whenever I used it.

We were on a cruise down the Nile River and Luxor was one of the places that we visited. While we were in the Temple of Hatshepsut, a middle-aged man walks up to us, looks at my mother, me, and my father, and just says, “I’ll give you 100 camels for her.” My father just looked at him, with his eyes wide open, “Are you serious?” “I’ve never been more serious in my life.” “You don’t have enough camels for me,” my mother said. The guy just laughed and pointed into his shop, and that’s when we realized what he meant —he had T-shirts with camels on them and the whole 100 camels for my mother took a whole other turn… We just had a laugh and I bought the T-shirts in the end. Well played, middle-aged shop owner, well played. © Lara Novakov / Quora

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What funny and strange situations have happened to you when you were on a trip to a different country?

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