TRANSCRIPT
Someone recently asked in a comment if I could share a story of my travels that was negative, something bad that happened. And usually, I don’t do this because I don’t like to speak negatively about foreign countries that I visit. However, I realized I could do it in this case by keeping the country anonymous.
I was recently traveling in a country in the mountains, hitchhiking in the mountains. It started where I was staying with some people who had a dog, and the dog actually really liked me. I played with the dog a lot and petted the dog, and the dog was jumping all over me. It was very fun, and I felt like I had a friend in that family aside from just the people in the family.
Well, the next day I went off hitchhiking further into the mountains, and it was getting cold. It was getting rainy, and it was very muddy. It was hard to get rides, and I did end up getting some rides, but it took a long time. A lot of the rides were very short. They were just taking me sometimes from town to town. Sometimes people would drop me off before a town, and I would have to walk several kilometers, miles, through the town before I could catch the next ride.
It was getting colder, it was raining more, I was getting wet, my shoes were wet, and it looked like it was going to snow. This in and of itself is kind of negative; it was making me stressed out. Except the people I was meeting were so friendly. Everybody was so kind to me, and it was beautiful where I was. But because it was getting darker and rainier, I couldn’t see so much of the view, and all I was focused on is where am I going to sleep tonight?
Well, the last ride that I got took me for about 45 minutes, and then it got dark. The person asked me through Google Translate, because I didn’t speak the language that this person spoke, “Where are you going to sleep tonight?” And I said, “I have no idea.” Then they said, “Well, I can’t let you stay in my house for x, y, and z reasons, but I have a friend you can stay at their house.” So the person brought me to his friend’s house—a couple. They had kids, very nice people.
I got there, I offered them money to stay there. They’re like, “No, no, no, we won’t take your money.” And it was okay. The only thing I had is, “Please, can you dry my shoes? My shoes are wet, and they’re the only shoes I have.” And they’re like, “Well, we don’t really bring shoes in the house,” and they didn’t even have heat in their house. So I was like, “Okay.” So I left the shoes like everybody else, just outside the door of their house.
Well, didn’t think much of this, but I was like kind of disappointed thinking in the morning I’m gonna have to put on cold, wet shoes when I continue my hitchhiking. Slept well, had a nice meal with the family, ended up giving them a gift of some money. They were very grateful, and then I went downstairs. It was all packed, ready to go, had my backpack on, had my little guitar with me, and picked up my shoes. I smelled something funny, and I was like, “Oh my God, that’s not what I think it is, is it?”
I looked around, and about 20 feet away, peeking around the edge of their house, was a big tomcat. He was looking at me like he did not like me. And it suddenly clicked what the smell was—a traveler’s worst nightmare, especially the worst nightmare of a traveler who only has one pair of shoes. The cat had urinated in both of my shoes, and a lot of urine, and it stank. It was still wet—wet from the cat urine and wet from my shoes.
I looked at it, and I’m like, “What do I do?” Yes, I had a pair of flip-flops in my backpack, but I can’t wear flip-flops. It’s like right at the freezing point; my feet will freeze and die. But then I’m like, “Oh, they’re gonna freeze and die if I wear these wet shoes.” But I can’t go hitchhiking in the mud and flip-flops. So I put the shoes on with cat urine, and the minute stank. I thought about it as I left the family, and I never told them what happened because I didn’t want them to be embarrassed by what had happened to me in their house—this bad experience.
And then I thought, “Gosh, when I get to the next larger town, I’m going to try to find a pair of new sneakers to buy.” But then I knew it was going to be difficult. I ended up hitchhiking all day, got to a larger town, finally went looking for new sneakers to buy, but like I thought, it was difficult—practically impossible—because my feet are too big. I’m basically taller than every single person I met in this whole country. Nobody has my shoe size; it’s a very difficult shoe size to find, even difficult to find boots in my size.
So for the next six days, I had to wear shoes that were wet and stank like cat urine. Well, finally I was able to dry them, and what I did is I took the insoles of my shoes and I took them out and threw them away and bought new insoles and bought a whole bunch of cheap insoles, which I would keep replacing. But somehow that stink was all over.
But what I also thought about that cat afterwards, because that little image—I wish I had taken a photo of the cat. Maybe I’ll just put a different photo of some cats in just to share some cats that I’ve seen that remind me of this one in some ways.
Well, what I thought about is, “Ah, I think I know what happened.” The night before I stayed at the home of this cat, I stayed with that family who had a dog, and I think that cat hated dogs. He smelled her—the dog smelled all over my shoes—and he was like, “I hate you, I hate your shoes, and I hate dogs, and I hate the smell of dogs around my house and my territory, so I’m gonna get even.” So in a way, this is a story of an enemy I inadvertently made on my travels.
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