Europa Aliena (Our Three Strangest Continental Incidents)

1. Metz: Freestanding Shower

At the Hotel Bristol we asked for a three person room. The receptionist looked at us strangely. When we saw the shower, we knew why. It's position and size created, um, modesty issues, since it stood in the middle of the bedroom and had glass walls.

2. Interlaken: The Funny Farm: Laundry

The name says it all--dirty carpets anonymous bedmates (human, canine, insect and rodent), Australians (drunk, high, smashed, stoned). After 10 days on three pairs of clothes, we were desparate to do laundry. We should have waited. The machines out by the "potshed" were broken. The ones inside were out of tokens. So we did laundry in our questionable looking bathtub. I washed, Ann rinsed, Matthew dried. In his boxers. On the terrace. A bus suddenly disgorged 2 dozen Japanese tourists who started taking pictures. He thinks they were taking pictures of the Jungfrau in the background.

3. Rome: The Metro

The train is so crowded that we have nothing to hold on to and Matthew bumps into a dark skinned and sinister looking man who offers him a drink from his whiskey bottle. Matthew declines. The man explains in broken English that there are many pickpockets in Rome but he is not one. Further, he is from Translyvania but is not a vampire. Later that day Matthew is offered a sandwich for one of his sisters.