The kindness of strangers
Posted Thursday, September 04, 2008, 11:36 PM by Lonely Planet
The Kindness of Strangers
One of the best things about travel is experiencing random acts of generosity from strangers. It reminds me that for all the scams and troubles travel can present, kindness usually prevails.
I've been reading The Kindness of Strangers, an anthology of short stories. It led me to reminisce about the many times I've been in a pickle, and have been levered out of the jar by strangers who expect nothing in return.
Don George introduces the stories with these wise words:
'I have learned two things: the first is that when you travel, at some point, you will find yourself in a dire predicament... The second is that someone will miraculously emerge to take care of you – to lend you money, feed you, put you up for the night, lead you where you want to go. Whatever the situation, dramatic or mundane, some stranger will save you.'
Indeed, I have found myself in most of those situations – both dramatic and mundane – and have been saved countless times.
My first, mundane, yet to this day most memorable experience of this kind was in Helsinki. In an act of teenage foolishness, I arrived in the city with no cash when the banks were closed and the snow heavy. I had a whole day before I was to meet my Helsinki contact.
As I wandered around town with an empty stomach and a heavy backpack, a little old lady approached me at the traffic lights. She wanted to know if I was from New Zealand, and, quite reasonably, what I was doing wandering around in the snow. When I explained my stupidity she took me to a Scouts stall and bought me a big bowl of hot soup. She then took me to the art gallery - she was a retired art teacher - and spent hours leading me around explaining Finnish art movements. When we left the warmth of the gallery, she took me for tea at Café Engel. In one of Helsinki's oldest buildings we whiled away hours chatting about nothing in particular before she took me to the station to meet my contact.
When we parted ways we exchanged only names; there was no expectation of any recompense, not even a postcard.
I'll never know what she had planned to do with her day, but I will always be grateful she chose to spend it saving me from my own stupidity. She was the first, now one of many, and undoubtedly not the last.
- Louise Clarke
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Once when travelling in Northern Ireland my boyfriend and I got ourselves in a real mess! We were trying to get home from the Giant's Causeway but took a different bus away than we had to get there. This bus terminated in a small town and we missed the only bus out until the afternoon of the following day! There was no train station and we were well and truly stuck. The bus driver knew our predicament but there wasn't anything he could do, he was still on his shift and the bus was going in a different direction! So we (quite sensibly I think) decided to sit with a cup of tea and decide what to but on our way to a cafe a car pulled up beside us and said "Are you the couple who missed the bus?" It was an off duty Ulsterbus driver in his car. Our initial bus driver had called him and asked him to come pick us up! He drove literally over 100mph to get us to a town where the last bus of the day going our way would be coming through in just a few minutes. He called ahead to his mate the bus driver and asked him to stall for us and we made it thanks to the kindness of these people. I will never ever forget how wonderful it was to find such kindness!
This is one of the great things about travel and one of those things that you can't explain to people who don't travel.
http://mycheckedbaggage.blogspot.com/
WOW that's interesting..
Yes,there are always kind strangers all over the world. A few years ago, while my wife and I were in London, we got lost in the TUBE (London subway).
We ask the first person we saw and she was very helpful and offer to guide us to our destination. Needless to say, we took the offer as were completely lost. We become friends and still keeping in touch.
Louise,
You make a great point. I have experienced this same situation many times while I have been traveling. The most dire of situation was when my husband and I were on our Honeymoon in Africa and we were drying through the dirt roads in Namibia. The car we were driving was not meant for the roads we were driving on and we got stuck in the mud. In the middle of nowhere, we had a satellite phone but who would we call? There are no tow trucks or anything even similar. So my husband got down on his hands and knees and started to dig us out. About 15 minutes later a man rides up on his bike, hops off and starts helping my husband. 30 minutes later and covered in mud they maneuvered the car out of the mud and the man showed us how to drive through the mud so you don't get stuck. It is amazing the Kindness of Strangers!
Hope this wasn't too long, but I had to share. I really enjoy your blog.
I ran across a site you might enjoy. It is a travel site baraaza.com. You can write reviews on destinations, upload pics, and get info for your next adventure. I think you might like it.
Keep up the blogging!
When I first travelled to the U.S. I the early 90's, I found myself in Denver short on cash. I asked around and was told to see "Big John Schwartz" in the Tourists Office. Next thing I know, "Big John" is on the phone to a friend saying " I've got this big strapping Englishman here looking for work, and I can thoroughly recommend him"....big and strapping hardly being a description of me, and this is only 5" after meeting him. Needless to say, I got the job, worked hard all summer, didn't let him or my new employers down, and I've never forgotten his kindness to a complete stranger.
I read with emotion, you writing of being rescued in Helsinki. The same happened to me in Iceland. Despite thinking I was a well seasoned traveller, I got into difficulties - bigger than big time. I still think of that day, 16years later.
I read with emotion, you writing of being rescued in Helsinki. The same happened to me in Iceland. Despite thinking I was a well seasoned traveller, I got into difficulties - bigger than big time. I still think of that day, 16years later.
I read with emotion your comments about Helsinki. 16 years ago - i was in Iceland. Stranded, hungry and very cold. help came in the middle of nowhere, when I thought it was impossible. Despite thinking of myself - at the time, as a well seasoned traveller, I was both helpless and hopeless. the event still lives with me today.
Happy travelling.... Kriss - Manchester.
We've had many experiences with receiving help from strangers. One of my favorite moments was when our RV died on the side of the road on a Sunday in the state of Phillidelphia. A car pulled over in front of us, a couple gets out of their car with a plate full of homemade blueberry muffins and they gave them to us.
Once in New Zealand hitchhiking we got dropped off in the middle of nowhere and we couldn't get a lift and were wondering where we were going to spend the night. The owner of the one house that was there came over and offered us a place to stay for the night. They fed us, they offered us to do a load of laundry they put us up and told us before we left that we could stay if we didn't get a lift. Wonderful blog thanks for letting me share.
Once in Mexico City I went from perfectly fine to delirious and almost passing out (food poisoning) in the space of 45 minutes. Stuck about an hour by metro from our hotel my partner was contemplating an ambulance, but we tried the metro route. People could not have ben kinder... Giving up seats on the metro, offering water and medical help. Of course all this had to be relayed to me afterwards when I had re-surfaced. But that is my abiding memory of the generous people of Mexico City.
When reading your story all i could think was "KARMA"... you must have helped alot of people in your own past to experience these acts of kindness. Keep doing good and it will only come back to you :) happy travelling.
The sentiment of the "kindness of strangers" echoed with me.
The ideals of traveling gracefully along the paths of our life and extending compassion to those that we bump into along our journey, are profound messages in the new book:
Step Back from the Baggage Claim:
Change the World, Start at the Airport
www.stepbackfromthebaggageclaim.com
The inspiring stories and metaphor of the airport experience, calls for every person to pass on a grateful spirit. We all share in the creation of TODAY!
It is amazing what a profound impact we can have on someone else's world just by small, intentionally-compassionate moments!
Travel gracefully.
I was in Leh a few months back and had ended up exerting myself without acclimitising. Gripped by breathlessness, me and a friend were struggling when the owner of the hotel where we were staying not just drove us to the hospital, ensured the doctor saw us, got us medicines and brought us back safely to the hospital at 10:30 in the night. And all this in a town which sleeps at 7.
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