Tourist Traps

I just recently traveled to many places in Europe with my boyfriend and I've noticed something that not many tourists are aware of and therefore, they're easily swindled by street vendors and fake homeless people. So I'm writing this article based on my experience to warn my fellow travelers of this problem. These street vendors and fake homeless people tend to hang around all famous landmarks such as the Colosseum in Rome, Italy or the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France and they'll try any tactics as a way to steal your money. I've encountered many of them and I'll be sharing their methods down below.

Rome, Italy.

"Free" Gifts

1) The Bracelet

My first encounter was actually when I had just arrived near the Colosseum with my boyfriend. An African man approached us and pointed at my boyfriend's shoes saying he liked them. My boyfriend politely says thanks, but the man doesn't let us walk away. He's friendly and knows immediately from our accents that we're from Quebec in Canada. He's pleased to meet us and then he offered us 'Hakuna Mutata' bracelets as a welcome to Rome gift for free. We hesitantly accepted and as we expected, he started to ask money in exchange for the free gift. We gave the bracelet back, but he still kept asking for money, but this time for his family. We pretended not to have any and walked away.

Side note, this free bracelet also happened to me in the street of Manhattan, New York. A lady grabbed my hand and slipped the 'free' bracelet on before asking for money.

2) The Roses

Similar to the bracelet event, many men would approach people on the street and forcefully put a rose into their hand, saying it's free, but then they will proceed to ask for money. This happened to me as I was walking up the Piazza di Spagna's stairs. A man popped out of nowhere and forced a rose in my right hand. He kept saying 'free' and insisting I take it so he can charge me for it. He ignored me telling him 'no', so I had to drop it to the ground among many other rejected roses for him to leave me alone. Besides, if I wanted a free rose, I could have picked one off the ground easily....

3) Polaroid Pictures

At the Trevi Fountain there was a man offering people to take free pictures of them with his Polaroid camera. Obviously, he asked for money afterwards... It's stupid, they insist it's free, but then they will harass you for money and if you refuse they curse and insult you.

Besides all the 'free' gifts, many other men will stop you as you're walking around asking if you want a water bottle, a cheap fedora hat, power banks, selfie sticks, umbrellas to hide yourself from the sun, tickets to whatever museum or place you're near to and they often don't take no for an answer. For example, I was feeling faint from the massive heat wave and I wanted a hat, so when we came across one of these vendors I made the mistake to look at his hats that were displayed on a blanket on the pavement. I didn't even make eye contact with the man, but that didn't stop him from approaching me. He kept insisting I buy a cheap fedora hat for 20 euros... I politely said no, but he then proceeded in following me and my boyfriend for two streets. He lowered his price down to 5 euros, but still couldn't comprehend the meaning of no. It was when I told him that he was pissing me off that he finally backed off.

Fake Homeless People

As me and my boyfriend were walking around Rome we came across many homeless people. We didn't think too much of it until two people in particular caught our attention.

One of them was a woman lying in the street on a blanket. She had her head covered with a shawl and her face was buried in her hands as if she was praying. She was crying and mumbling something in Italian and asking for money. The woman eventually glanced at her surroundings quickly, probably to see if anyone was buying her sob story, and it turned out it was actually a man. It was a man disguised as a poor helpless woman.

The second person we came across pretended to be disabled as he sat in a wheelchair. He was asking for money like all the others, but later on, we saw him happily walking. He was pushing his wheelchair around and on the chair sat a takeout box from a restaurant. It just makes me mad that there are people out there pretending to be homeless and giving us trust issues when there are actual homeless people who need our help.

Paris, France

More Street Vendors

Now for Paris, there were a lot of street vendors as well, but instead of harassing you they sat quietly on a chair next to their products and waited for you to approach them. I don't understand why they didn't harass us like those in Rome, but I was grateful they didn't. The only place, however, where they were annoying, was at the Eiffel Tower. My boyfriend and I wanted to sit and bask in the moment in the presence of the Eiffel Tower, but those sellers drove us away. In the 20 minutes we were there, we were approached by men selling wine, little Eiffel Towers, water bottles, power banks, selfie sticks and many more. They would even bother me as I was posing in front of the Eiffel tower asking me if I wanted a selfie stick and therefore ruining my picture.

Fake Charity and Donation

This was a new one for us, a group of 30 twenty-something women had fun approaching tourists asking for signatures on their fake petitions. Their petition honestly didn't look legit, but they would still try to get us to sign it. They would also tell us that even though on the sheet it was written 'donation' we weren't obligated to do so. Obviously, it wasn't true. When they realized we weren't buying into their scams, they immediately started insulting us and then, they walked away. They hung around the Eiffel Tower, and while we were there, we were approached by a different member of the group at least four times.

Brussels, Belgium

More Fake Homeless People

While walking around Brussels, we came across many Muslim women sitting on a blanket with a toddler asking for money. I cannot say for sure they were homeless, but they were dressed in clean clothes. Another one of them was also walking in the street in between cars at a red light while carrying a toddler. She was knocking on car windows asking for money. She was wearing white clothes without any signs of dirt on them, even her kids were clean. I mean, if you sleep in the streets and are struggling to get food, why are so you so squeaky clean and look healthy? I can't really. judge, but how can I trust them to be telling the truth when so many people fake it to make it?

Manhattan, New York

Fake Musicians

I know New York isn't in Europe, but I had to include it because it's relevant to my topic. In Manhattan, there are often people claiming to be a struggling artist and they will ask you to buy their CD in order to support them. They usually sell their CD at 5$, but the trap is that the actual CD is blank. They're not artists, just pretending to be. Again, I find it horrible that they do such things because there's actually artists out there who are struggling to make it. They'll never be able to sell their CD's off the street due to trust issues caused by the fake ones.

Anyway, be careful out there my fellow travelers <3 And avoid making eye contact with these people, I promise you it works most of the time.