There’s no denying how romantic a honeymoon in Italy is, or how wonderful your well-deserved annual vacation in Greece can be. But before you go on that epic Europe trip, it pays to do a little research, lest you unknowingly break laws or fall victim to petty crime — like these folks in Singapore who learnt their lesson the difficult way.

“I was going up the escalator at Gare du Nord train station with my boyfriend, when a French guy slotted himself in between us on the steps. He started speaking French to me, but I ignored him. Then three guys came up to my boyfriend and asked if he needed help, and he said no. When we reached the end of the escalator, they jumped over the train station gantry and disappeared. We got to our hotel and my boyfriend discovered his bag had been opened and his wallet was gone. He had already expected this to happen and prepared decoy wallets with 10 euros (S$15) inside to throw the pickpockets off, so that was what they got.”

- Janice Ang, 31, lab technician

“My girlfriend and I got on the tram and were looking for small change to pay for tickets on the tram. This was the first tram ride we took upon touching down in Berlin, so we were still finding our bearings. Then, the tram started moving off as we were still trying to figure the machine out while also downloading the ticket app to pay. Suddenly, two guys who identified themselves as tram conductors of some sort jumped up from the passenger seats near the machine. But rather than letting us pay the fare and get on with life, the guys aggressively insisted that because the tram had already moved off, it meant that we did not pay for our ride. They forced us to get off at the next stop with them. Once we did, they told us that we could either pay 30 euros to them in cash there and then. If we didn’t, they’d call the police, and we would then have to pay a heftier fine of 60 euros. As we weren’t sure how legit they were, we told them to call the police, which they did. Twenty minutes later, two police really officers really did show up, and issued us a fine of 60 euros each.

“We asked the officers about the ‘tram conductors’ and they told us that they are affiliated to the tram company to catch passengers who didn’t pay tram fares. That’s fine if people are really riding for free, but it was clear that we were trying to buy a ticket. After the whole fiasco, we went nearby to buy a week-long tram ticket, and when we returned to the same tram stop, we saw the same two guys confronting another girl.”

- Ben, 44, procurement director

“Prior to the trip, we’d heard that you should be extra careful of your belongings in the city. So we made sure to keep our phones and other valuables out of sight if we were walking on the streets or even dining al fresco. But I let my guard down for a moment when we were seated inside at a Starbucks. I assumed it was safer as we were indoors, and left my digicam on the table. Suddenly, a boy — about six or seven years old, I reckon — squeezed his way to our table to show us a drawing he did, and started speaking to us in Spanish. He might’ve been asking us to buy his drawing. We tried to tell him we didn’t understand him, and asked him to leave. Instead, he put his drawing on the table and continued talking. But we insisted he go, so he took the paper and turned to leave. He’d just taken a couple of steps when I realised my digicam was gone. I saw that he had it under the piece of paper he was carrying, so he must've swiped it when he collected his drawing from the table. I managed to grab the camera back from him, and before I could do anything else, he’d run off. It all happened so quickly and we were a little shaken for a while, but it taught us to be even more careful with our stuff.”

- Elizabeth, 36, legal counsel

“A group of eight of us were in Florence for about two days, and I’d rented a minivan to go around the city. All was fine and dandy until four years later, I received a letter from the police in Florence, stating that we had driven into restricted areas in Florence on two counts. We weren’t aware that there were restricted zones for drivers in some cities in Italy, and all traffic signs were in Italian so it was impossible to know while we were on the road. It was 370 euros per offence, so we had to pay 740 euros in total. I appealed and they reduced the fine to 206 euros per fine — what I’d received was apparently the second letter they sent, but I told them that I did not receive the first letter, so they lessened the charges.”

- Celine, 35, marketing manager

“My backpack was stealthily opened by a pickpocket in Athens. I suddenly noticed it was opened and checked my valuables but nothing was missing, so I thought I’d forgotten to zip it and pulled the zipper securely back to the side. A few minutes later, I felt my backpack flapping behind me, and it was open again. It was impossible for the bag to open by itself. This time, a neck pillow and a pouch containing some non-valuables were gone. Luckily, I’d stashed my wallet and valuables in another secret compartment. The scary thing was, I was on a wide street in broad daylight and didn’t see anyone following or walking near me. It was like a ghost pickpocketed me.”

- Cheryl, 29, writer

“We bought train tickets for a specific stop in Budapest, but decided to alight one stop later because we realised it was nearer to our destination. We met two women standing beside the exit escalator who asked to check our tickets. They then requested to see our passports, and showed us a translation booklet saying we have to pay a 30 euro fine because our tickets weren’t valid for this station. If we refuse to pay, they would not return our passports. Smart move. Should have known something was wrong when the locals started walking away in the opposite direction when they saw the women.”

- Kelvin Yeo and Jennifer Ang, both 31, engineers

“Two of my friends were approached in Paris by two Frenchmen. They surrounded my friends, and the guy at the back showed that he was pointing a gun at them from inside his jacket. He asked my friends to follow his group into an alley and once there, they told them to hand over their valuables. They took my friends’ phones, wallets and watches and ran off.”

- Kelvin

“I was walking in Covent Garden when a man cut in front of my path and inexplicably jiggled the handle of a random door beside us. While I was looking at him, his female accomplice attempted to open my sling bag, but was thwarted by the complicated turn lock on my bag. When I yelled at her, the woman, the man and three other men in the vicinity immediately ran off together. Turns out there was an entire gang surrounding me.”

- Geraldine, 28, content creator

Photos: Pexels, Unsplash