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Sleeping at a stranger’s house in Greece, the Vietnamese girl escaped thanks to a saying

The 19-year-old girl fell into a situation of “thousands of pounds hanging by a hair” when she asked to sleep at a stranger’s house on the island of Santorini.

“Why did you dare to come here alone? Aren’t you afraid?”

“Then what should I be afraid of?”

“There are a lot of robbers in Greece too.”

“Really? I don’t really have anything to steal.”

10 girls from your country stared at me and then burst out laughing. A short, dark-haired Vietnamese girl – it’s me – is standing in the middle of the pedestrian street in Athens. I was 19 years old that year, go solo travel first.

My name is Ngoc Ha, a Vietnamese student in Budapest, Hungary.

Studying in Europe is a blessing because traveling within the EU is quite simple, I want to travel whenever I want. But the hardest part is finding a companion, but if you want to go a lot and fast, there is only one way: Traveling alone.

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Athens is the first city I visited in Greece. Photo: NVCC

So I “lonely and alone” took my backpack on the road, told myself where to go and then made friends there.

In such solo trips, “professional travelers” often look to a social network called CouchSurfing. This is a place where people can ask to stay at the house of an indigenous person in the place they travel, save money and understand more about the local culture. Not a few of his friends have traveled this way.

I told myself safety comes first, so when I was traveling alone for the first time, to Greece, I carefully booked cheap accommodation for both destinations – Athens and the island of Santorini.

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A street corner graffiti in Athens. Photo: NVCC

Greece, which is the cradle of Western civilization, has a lot of historical sites that I want to visit. In addition to the monuments identical to “Greek Mythology”, the scene in the city of Athens has many similarities… Vietnam.

Here, motorbikes are jammed, people’s houses are also built in a fairly modern style. The interesting thing is that right opposite a modern 3-storey residential house can be a construction built in BC.

I was very happy in Athens, I met a few acquaintances through this person, acquaintances in the rest room… then went with them to visit the Parthenon, the ancient city of Metropolis, the Olympic stadium.

I also happened to connect with a group of 10 Greek girlfriends, who were taken to Athens pedestrian street for an evening walk.

Sleeping at a stranger’s house in Santorini

After 4 days of tired legs in Athens, everything went very according to plan, I carried my backpack and moved to Satorini.

When I was about to board the plane, I “carefully” called back the reserved room to remind them that I was coming. But now I “fall back” when I was informed by the other end of the line: I made a mistake. My room is not located on the island of Santorini but on another island 2 hours away.

Panic and heartbroken because of the complete loss of the $90 reservation for 3 nights. Looking back at the room price at Santorini 40 USD/night, I regret it even more.

Meanwhile, an idea popped into my head. When it’s time, I’ll use CouchSurfing to find someone to sleep with!

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Donkeys and green grass on the island of Santorini. Photo: NVCC

So I contacted on CouchSurfing a European (but not Greek) landlord living on the island. This guy took the initiative to message me first and invite me to stay when I come to Santorini.

As soon as I texted back to ask if I wanted to stay at home, the owner immediately agreed and even promised to pick me up at the airport.

45 minutes later I landed at the airport, the person who greeted me was a man in his 30s, tall, thin and bearded. The landlord told me to get on a scooter to take a tour around Santorini at sunset.

Although I found this car quite majestic, there were not less than times when I had to scream because he “thrown” the car so much that my knees almost touched the ground.

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A corner of Santorini. Photo: NVCC

My house is located about 4km from the center of the island. This guy lives alone, the apartment is quite neat, but what makes me uneasy is that there is not a single neighbor around.

Seeing that the host was still very polite and kind, I also went into the house to sit and talk.

In the evening, he ordered pizza, poured wine to invite him to eat and talk. I nodded to hear all kinds of stories about his life, from the reason he came to Santorini to his current job as a waiter on the island, but I only dared to drink a glass of water and not touch a drop of wine.

At 12 o’clock at night, seeing the owner of the house drowsy and drunk, I said it was late, we should go to bed. I went to the bed in the outside room that was divided in advance. But now many things out of control happened.

“The landlord started… inviting me into the inner room to share a bed with him.”

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The area where I live is especially deserted. Photo: NVCC

Landlord says: “I really like you, I haven’t met many Asian girls, but I think you’re very pretty. If you like it too, we can share this bed.”

After hearing that sentence, I felt a chill down my spine, my hands were shaking. I tried to put my hands in the back pockets of my pants to hide my extreme tension. Even though I spoke cleverly to find a way to refuse, he still hadn’t given up his intention of persuading.

At this point, I realized that refusing was still not enough to “get out”. The only way is to make him lose interest.

I clear my throat: “I’m so sorry and I know you love me. But I’m not interested in men.”

He rolled his eyes at me, I immediately attacked: “Actually, I’ve never liked boys since I was a kid. Just thinking about hugging a boy gives me goosebumps. It’s so weird.”

I told another series of self-composed stories to convince the other party, although my hands and feet were still shaking, but fortunately for me, he believed it.

The landlord nodded and told me to stop going to sleep, and I hurriedly hugged my pillow and ran to the bed outside, my limbs were soft. That night I had a sleepless night. I just hope it’s morning soon so I can pack my backpack and run out of there as soon as possible.

The very next morning, I followed an older sister traveler Chinese and avoid the nightmare host.

Never take such a risk again

Thinking back to my experience in Santorini, on the one hand, I feel surprised because I took more risks than I thought. I could totally spend an extra $40 a night to stay at a motel, but I wanted to experience something more special, and it turned out that my reckless limit “went that far”.

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On the other hand, I told myself never to take such risks again. There are a lot of “red flags” about the owner in Santorini, he is remote, driving unsafely, no previous comment on CouchSurfing. But I left it all.

And if it wasn’t for my luck, who knows what might have happened that night?

After that trip to Greece and so many other solo trips. I realize one thing that meticulous, detailed planning is never superfluous. Trusting, tongue-in-cheeking is an extremely dangerous thing and 90% will lead to unpleasant experiences.

According to the Fatherland

You are reading the article Sleeping at a stranger’s house in Greece, the Vietnamese girl escaped thanks to a saying
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