Spoiler: Don't look down
This took place when I was teaching English in the Czech Republic. A group of us had just finished our ESOL training and celebrated by going away for the weekend to a town called Český Krumlov. Lovely picturesque place, lovely picturesque bars. On the Friday night, I fell asleep while standing in one such bar, waking up with my pint glass still in hand, which I feel is somewhat impressive on both counts, but this story is about an event later that night, when we were wending our way very drunkenly back to our hostel. As we crossed a bridge, my friend Chris leapt up onto the railing at the side of the bridge (balustrade, I think is the technical term for it?), and performed a series of ninja-like jumps, karate kicks, etc. before jumping back down. As he put it, "See, I told you, even when I'm drunk I'm like a cat!"
The next day, we happened to cross the bridge in daylight. Beneath the bridge there was not, as we'd assumed on the moonless night before, the river. Beneath the bridge there was in fact a 10m or so drop onto a road below. Chris's face paled as he realised how lucky he'd been. *shivers*
The next day, we happened to cross the bridge in daylight. Beneath the bridge there was not, as we'd assumed on the moonless night before, the river. Beneath the bridge there was in fact a 10m or so drop onto a road below. Chris's face paled as he realised how lucky he'd been. *shivers*
Spoiler: My career as a drugs mule
This happened when I was on my way back from China to UK by train. It had already been a memorable trip, from the contrasting scenery of autumn in China to the Gobi desert to Siberia, where the trees were already bowed by the weight of snow on them, to the games of blitz chess with Russians over drinks in the restaurant car, to having my wallet stolen in an enterprisng manner in Ulan Bator (the thieves brought passports, told the guard they were travelling on the train, came into our apartment, distracted my travelling companion's attention, and nabbed my wallet which I'd ironically left in there for safekeeping so I wouldn't get it stolen from me while I was out on the platform). There were a few other pulse-raising moments, like dashing the 400m to Lake Baikal and back (to touch the water, a good luck superstition amongst trans-Siberian travellers) in the five minutes the train waited at that station was also fun, while finding ourselves in a Russian bar having drinks with an insistently friendly 'businessman' who sounded increasingly dodgy with each glass was pulse-raising in a more disconcerting way. Now, I was heading from Moscow to Prague on an overnight train, and sharing a compartment with a Russian mother and daughter and a German businessman.
As we approached the border from Russia to Belarus, the guard in our carriage came into our apartment, and gave each of us a bag with a few bottles of vodka in. This was a bit bemusing, but not unwelcome. However, as soon as the border control staff had come through the train to check our passports, the guard came back and collected the bags. At a quick calculation, if he'd given bottles to everyone in the carriage then that was maybe a hundred or so bottles of vodka that he'd managed to smuggle across the border. So, technically, I'd been a drugs mule... Postscript: The German businessman later told me that he'd been on another trip where a similar event had occurred; that time, the border staff had come through the train to find everyone wearing identical fur coats!
As we approached the border from Russia to Belarus, the guard in our carriage came into our apartment, and gave each of us a bag with a few bottles of vodka in. This was a bit bemusing, but not unwelcome. However, as soon as the border control staff had come through the train to check our passports, the guard came back and collected the bags. At a quick calculation, if he'd given bottles to everyone in the carriage then that was maybe a hundred or so bottles of vodka that he'd managed to smuggle across the border. So, technically, I'd been a drugs mule... Postscript: The German businessman later told me that he'd been on another trip where a similar event had occurred; that time, the border staff had come through the train to find everyone wearing identical fur coats!