I had a 10am train to Vienna. I sat alone in my carriage and looked out of the window. Then I saw two girls run for the train. As luck would have it they both chose my carriage to sit in. I smiled as they sat down all flustered and red faced. They spoke in their native German at first, except they weren't German, or Swiss, or Austrian. That intrigued me. It turns out they were from a province in mountainous northern Italy quite close to the Austrian border which spoke German primarily. This was because for many generations that part of Italy was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and only became modern day Italy after WWII.

They were both about 20. I was only 27 at the time. They had several backpacks and I surmised that they had been traveling for a long time. They had those Euro train cards and limited funds. Sleeping rough in public parks and washing in public toilets was their main tactic to save money. The travel cards were purchased before they left home and enabled perhaps a twelve month period of travel and a dozen or more countries to travel between. The conversation quickly turned to comedy or childish humour depending on your opinion. They named their backpacks bitch, whore and other amusing obscenities. We told stories and laughed.

One girl offered me a cigarette and I refused, telling her I didn't smoke. The two Italians went to the toilet together to smoke. About an hour later they went again for cigarettes and returned in the same flirtatious state. Shortly afterwards the pretty blonde asked if I wanted to join her for a cigarette. I was about to remind her that I didn't smoke, but when I saw her wry smile I accepted.

I know what you're thinking. It was a ploy for the second girl to go through my bags whilst I was gone. I took the risk and was very glad I did. On the whole though it's quite difficult to get your leg over in Europe compared to in SE Asia and even more difficult in a 2 by 2 foot toilet. I had never been to Asia at that point, but being the young handsome white guy I found many white hunters when I finally got to travel there .

Isn’t anybody here feeling a little “ deja vu “ with this OP dude yet ?

What is this crap?

Tales of the Foreign Legion