Picking up strangers

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Or maybe, being picked up by strangers.

I had a slightly weird experience this evening. I’m in Göttingen, as a convenient place to spend the night en route to a square dance event. I’m on my own, because my husband doesn’t do this kind of square dancing. I went out to eat dinner. I was sitting alone, and a single guy, much younger than i am, at a nearby table heard my English and saw me peering at the menu through my phone, and offered to help me translate the menu. I declined help, saying that Google translate is really good enough these days. But we chatted a little about the menu. (They had an insert for asparagus season. Big fat spears of white asparagus are a thing in Germany, and the season is short. )

So i was debating between getting the schnitzel, since it’s really a schnitzel place, and getting the asparagus, which is somewhat special, when i saw they had an entree that had both. So i ordered it. And after doing so, i went to his table and told him I’d done so. Shortly after, he asked if he could move to my table, and we could talk.

I said yes, and we had a pleasant dinner conversation. He was surprised i wasn’t in town to see the University. And then, when we were done,he asked if I’d like him to show me around town. So i said yes. And we walked around the old parts of town, talking about architecture and plants (he’s a botanist and i like plants) and he asked if I’d like to walk through the botanical garden. I said, “isn’t it closed?” He says, “yes, but i have a key”.

So at this point i paused, because it meant leaving well-populated streets and wandering in a locked garden with a man i just met. But i said yes, because i love botanical gardens, and he seemed okay.

And he gave me a wonderful tour of the University garden, and then showed me a few more historical features of the town before walking me to my hotel.

I offered to exchange contact info (he plans to visit my city in the fall) and he declined.

Anyway, it was a delightful evening. And not the first time I’ve had this sort of experience. When I was twenty, i spent a week in a dorm at Trinity college with a woman who picked me up at a Chinese restaurant. And in Japan, i was escorted by a group of people whose hobby is showing off Kyoto to visitors. (Although a person i know hooked me up with one of then, it wasn’t quite as random.) And there have been other examples that aren’t quite as striking.

Anyway, anyone else get picked up by strangers?

2

That’s a nice experience and shows that, with some caution and smarts, the world is not always a shitty place. I have accepted a ride only twice and given a ride even more rarely.

Reminds me of a thread I started a few years ago asking a similar question, with some interesting replies…

3

Wow! You’re brave.
You obviously are a good judge of character.
I couldn’t trust my own, that well.

I’m glad you had a great experience.

4

Once that I can recall:

5

Back in the 1970’s, I used to hitchhike and then, after I got a car, to pick up hitchhikers. It was pretty common at the time.

It gradually became a lot less common. But, maybe 10 years ago, I saw a young woman hitchhiking on a local road. I picked her up; she said that she was trying to get to a job interview; her car had broken down and she was afraid she’d lose the chance at a job. I knew the place she meant (a local nursery), it wasn’t far out of my way, I took her there.

A few weeks later I went there to buy something – and she was working there. I don’t remember whether she recognized me; I’m partly faceblind and wouldn’t have known her face, but I recognized her tattoos.

6

I’ve picked up a couple strangers while driving. The first time was in 2018, when my son and I were vacationing in Canada. We were driving in the Sagamok Reserve when we noticed a guy walking along the road. We picked him up. He said he was walking to the reserve’s admin building to perform some repairs, and I drove him there. The other time was in October 2022. I was driving to work one morning, and noticed a woman walking along the road. She appeared to be middle-aged, and underdressed for the weather; it was cold out, and she wasn’t wearing a coat or jacket. She also looked a little bit distressed, and not “out for a walk.” I turned around and offered her a ride. She accepted and I drove her to her residence, about six miles away. I didn’t ask her why she was walking along that road. Strange. Still scratching my head over it.

7

When I was in Japan, I spent one day exploring Tokyo on my own. At one point, I was looking at a local map. I knew where I was, and where I wanted to go, and could see two paths leading generally in the direction I wanted to go, but the map was unclear on which path was the right one. I was just thinking I’d have to use my very basic Japanese language skills to ask directions, when a little fellow tugged on my sleeve.

It turns out, he was a very well-dressed panhandler, looking for 500 yen. But he spoke English, so after I gave him a coin, I asked if he could point me on the correct path. He didn’t just do that, he actually walked me down the path, a distance of a few blocks, and started asking me about where I was from. Turns out, he’d spent some time in Canada, in a city not too far from mine. A pleasant conversation for a short walk.

8

About 30 years ago when I was in my late twenties, I was invited to a party in my hometown. Because I wanted to have some drinks, there was no public transportation to the town where I lived at night and a taxi ride would have been too expensive for me, I arranged to stay overnight at my parents’ house in my old room. After a real good party, I walked back to my parents’ home around 2 AM and when I arrived, met a guy my age who asked me for the direction to the train station. I answered “The station is only 400m straight ahead, but where do you want to go at this time?” After I got his destination. I told him that the first train in the morning would only leave at 6 AM, and asked him where he’d stay because the station didn’t have a roofed and sheltered waiting space. He just shrugged, but he was sober and looked completely harmless. My parents had a guest room with a freshly made bed all the time, so I asked him “Do you need some sleep? Come up with me, I have a bed for you”. So I showed him the room and the next bathroom, gave him a bottle of water, went to bed myself and had a good night’s sleep after all the beer I had drunk at the party.

The next morning, my mother woke me up for the breakfast and asked “Who was that friend of yours who slept in the guest room?” Turns out that incidentally, this morning she had to get some things out of the guest room and was surprised to find someone sleeping there. The guy said “Good morning, sorry to surprise you, your son let me in and sleep here, I’ll be leaving now.” My mom said “Oh, it’s alright”, because she supposed that he was a friend, at least an acquaintance of mine.

When she heard that he was a total stranger, she first was a bit upset and said “How can you let some stranger into the house and sleep here?” But when I told her that I just had pity and the guy seemed harmless enough, and reminded her that she was the Christian, who are all about hospitality, she mellowed down.

9

Spargelzeit! And a restaurant with a spargel karte. Sorry that’s what excites me most about your post.

10

Only one time I can remember. I was in my late teens, maybe 20 years old.

I was walking home really late. By late, I mean it was probably after 11. It was a very long walk, I’m talking 2 hours or more. I used to walk a lot because I didn’t have a car, and took the bus everywhere, but the bus didn’t run 24 hours a day. So if it was really late, I had to walk.

In this case I was walking from one town to another. I had been hanging out with a friend in one town (who also had no transportation) and walking back to where I lived in another town. (A female friend, who was more than a friend, so you might get my motivation in this.)

I was maybe halfway through my walk and feeling like a zombie (as it was wintertime and I was cold and exhausted), and a car pulled over. It was being driven by a guy about my age who was wearing a Red Robin uniform (the restaurant chain). He asked if I wanted a ride, and at first I was worried about getting a ride from a stranger so late at night, but then I thought, fuck it, I’m exhausted and freezing and don’t care.

It turns out the guy did work at Red Robin but he’d just quit his job. He spent the drive talking about how crappy his job was and how happy he was to be done with it. I totally empathized because at the time I was working at Toys R Us and my job was also awful. And every once in a while, Toys R Us people would go to Red Robin as a group and take up multiple tables, which he remembered, so we chatted about that a bit.

He was a nice guy, it was a pleasant, short ride, and he dropped me off at the house I was staying at. I thanked him for the ride, he thanked me for listening to him, and I wished him good luck on finding work after Red Robin.

He totally could have been a serial killer or a robber or someone else dangerous, and I would never encourage anyone else to do what I did. But it was a nice encounter and I was glad I did it. I was a little less tired and cold when I got home that night.

11

Hey, i included the detail because i thought it was exciting! It was delicious, by the way. Perfectly cooked.

12

There is nothing more easily cooked than fresh white asparagus (I just had it yesterday): cut of the ends of the asparagus (2-3 cm, so about an inch), peel it, boil water in a big enough pot, put in the asparagus and add some salt and a bit of sugar. Let simmer for 15 minutes. Done, you have perfect asparagus. (Yeah, I’m showing that I’m German. We are obsessed with spargel season :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:)

ETA: the sauce it goes best with is IMHO Hollandaise, but just some melted butter also is quite good.

13

My Mom used to pick up strangers all the time. I am happy and proud that she is so generous. But as she would pick up anybody who seemed to need a ride, we were concerned about her safety. It is rather amazing she was never robbed or assaulted. She refused to stop offering strangers rides altogether. We agreed that she could still offer rides to strangers in her gated community.

I have never driven. I have once or twice accepted a ride from a stranger. One winter day, I was on the bus home. About two miles from my apartment, the driver stopped and announced that I needed to get off. I was surprised and asked for an explanation. He said that the snow emergency rules were in effect. Instead of stopping a mile north of my apartment, the bus would stop here. I could call a cab. I could call a friend. I could walk. But he could not take me the rest of the way.

It was snowing heavily. There was over a foot of snow on the ground. I had my backpack and a heavy carry on bag. I started to walk home.

A pickup truck stopped. The driver yelled. He saw that I was struggling. He offered me a ride without even asking how far I needed to go. I briefly worried that he would rob me. I got in anyway. I am ashamed to admit I can’t remember his name . May blessings rain down upon his head for as long as he lives.

14

Yes, mine was with hollandaise sauce.

Did i mention that it was way too much food, and i saved half the schnitzel for lunch today? (And it was too much for lunch, but i ate it anyway.)

15

Hah! What are the odds of two serial killers in the same car. [from the joke thread]

Seriously, Japan. We often looked/were confused. Multiple times we got guides to the correct train platform, taken out of their way to a restaurant, to a hotel. It’s like a national duty. Sat near a girl at a train station, I mentioned the smell of French fries, she turned and said, “Would you like some?” Yoshiko was studying English and we were the first American she had ever spoken with. From that day forward for two years, she and a fellow classmate, Maho, were constant companions for my wife and I on trips. Maho eventually came to America to study and vacationed with us in the Seattle area.

16

Oh, no no no. All the clean-up! I couldn’t handle that.

“Maho” in Japanese means “magic” or “witchcraft”. I wonder if she was ever teased for it?

(It’s not an uncommon given name for girls though.)

17

We live in northern Virginia - where there’s a phenomenon called “slugging” due to the HOV-3 restrictions on one of the major routes into the city. So yeah, I’ve picked up (and been picked up by) strangers many, many times. For a while there, I’d actually cruise the bus stops in our neighborhood, offering free rides; I had a couple of regulars who looked for me.

Outside of that: we’ve occasionally offered rides to someone who looked stranded. One time, my son was picking us up from a weekend trip to NY; we’d arrived at the bus stop near home at close to midnight. There was a single woman there who said she was waiting for a different bus to her destination. While I know there are a few buses that run that late on a Sunday night, we offered her a ride to where she was going.

Decades ago, we were at a SF convention in North Carolina. An afterparty ensued at one of the club members’ places. Late in the evening, a young man nobody knew asked if anyone had a place he could stay - he’d taken a bus up from Fayetteville (he was in the Army, I think) to attend, and had no way to get back that night. We took him home and let him sleep on our sofabed.

I love the OP’s story - never had an encounter like that.

18

I was stationed in Germany for two years. The restaurant that had a special spargel menu would hang a wooden sign outside letting you know. I would love to go back.

19

I really enjoy those random, chance encounters that lead to pleasant times like you had. As always, trust your gut and intuition. I do the same. And it’s good that you’re aware of your surroundings and situations.

It’s vastly different for a guy than for a gal, but personal security has to be considered for all of us.

But yes, I’ve had some very nice chance encounters like that. They can really make one’s day. Or week.