After a rather bizarre and disgusting incident yesterday, I thought I would start a thread where people could share stories of socially strange things that have happened (I saw the "only in Switzerland" thread, but I'm not sure I'd like to label all of the Swiss with this story).

So, my boyfriend and I went down by the lake yesterday for a picnic and a swim. We set up our blanket on the ground, and a few minutes later a family speaking Swiss German (I think) set up about less than half a metre away from us, when there was plenty of space on the other side of their blanket. I thought this was a bit weird and an invasion of space, but hey ho - it's a free world.

Later on, they went for a dip. I opened my Italian textbook and started to do a bit of studying. About 15 minutes later, the family came back. I then looked up from my book and the mother was changing on of the kid's sh*tty pull-ups literally right in front of my face. When I say literally, I mean literally. When there was loads of space behind them. WTF?

I was so disgusted I had to move.

Anything like that happen to anyone else? As I say, I wouldn't like to tar all the Swiss with the same brush. I don't think this is "typical Swiss behaviour".

wait until you have kids. You can't typically plan poopies

No, but you can take them a couple of metres away rather than changing the nappy about 20cm from someone's face. There were other people with kids who were changing nappies, and I totally didn't have a problem with them, because their kid's crap wasn't practically going up my nostrils.

A possible explanation is that they initially were looking to be sociable by sitting close to you. Once there, they considered it too much effort when the child had its accident.

I am sure most people would move away to change a nappy.

You were probably sitting on their spot. They were probably annoyed that you'd got there before they had had a chance to put their towels on it so they used any weapons available to them to force you to move away.

If they were trying to be sociable by sitting next to us, I'd have thought they would have spoken to us. They had no intention of talking to us. I thought it was a bit odd to sit so close when there was plenty of space, but that definitely wasn't as much of a problem as the nappy thing!

I certainly don't think it was deliberate, it was just a lack of consideration. It would have taken 2 seconds to carry the child further away, where no people were. I think it was just a question of "this needs doing, I'm just going to do it here without sparing a thought for the poor sod who gets it in their face".

Deep Purple, you're right - MOST people would move a child away to change its nappy - that's why I found the incident so unbelievable!

Yeah, it was pretty selfish of us to arrive 15 minutes before they did!

Not cool!

I got something similar about invading my personal space.

I was going back home and went off the tram. The sidewalk is 2 meter and a half large on that whole street (Morgatenring in Basel). I was walking at a good speed because I was still full of adrenaline from my workout. Anyway, I heard someone in my back when suddenly I got hit on my shoulder by a woman's bag (I don't know what was in that bag but damn it was painful).

I said something in french out loud, something like:

-Wow, the sidewalk is probably not enough large for the two of us... Which she answered back in french asking me what was my problem. I told her it was bad manners to hit someone's the way she did without apologising.

She became agressive and she bla bla bla something which I don't know what because I cut her off and walk ahead.

I thought maybe she did it in revenge but she wasn't even in the tram nor close to me until she came and hit me from the back.

Weird

If you have traveled and lived in different parts of the world, lived in different cultures, you will discover that different people/cultures/ethnic have different senses of "personal space". People who have grown up in large families generally have a different sense of personal space, cause they never had any.

Considering the rate at which the world population is growing, you are going to have less and less personal space, so unless you want to kill a bunch of peeps and not procreate yourself, you are going to have to learn to live with less personal space.

That makes sense on a crowded beach, not on an empty one where the family is almost sitting on your lap.

I don't think less personal space = changing a nappy 20cm from a stranger's face!

I took my girls (13 and 11) and their friend (12) to the outdoor pool in Murten yesterday. My 11 year came running over to, laughing her head off, specifically to tell me that they had seen a middle-aged guy sitting by the side of the pool, totally oblivious to the fact his tackle was dangling out the side of his swimming shorts.

Haha gross. Surely you'd feel some sort of breeze?

This made me think of a dude i saw on the train from Zurich to Zug at 02:00am yesterday who was picking his nose right next to me with such fervour and determination, whilst I am looking directly at him!He then proceeded to flick the offending 'booger' in the air... I was gagging.. I gave him a filthy look but he remained undeterred...

Out of interest, did they move into your spot when they managed to evict you?

@ Nil: That happened to me soooo often when I was living in Austria. Mainly old people would even change the side of the street to ramp up their ellbows into my ribs. Totally unaccaptable no matter of personal space or not. If someone feels "invaded" they should rather say something than hit.

Now to my post of completely socially unacceptable behaviour:

My friend and I went to Enge on saturday. Since badi enge was so full we decided to put our towels near the badi. A group of young boys (17 or 18) came and sat above us. All good so far. Suddenly, we hear a really loud fart. My friend and I looked at each other. Then, seriously, this guy who was lying above us on his stomach tensed up his body and let out alot of very loud, disturbing farts . We immediately packed our stuff and walked away since we did not want to experience the smell that accompanied these farts.

His friends didnt seem bothered, no one of them laughed or commented.

Now, seriously, WTF?!?!

I don't know. I walked away and didn't look back. I was pretty livid, to be honest. It was an extremely inconsiderate and disrespectcful thing to do.

I actually started my lady time yesterday. I wonder how they would have felt if I'd changed my own hygiene products right in front of them...

EDIT: That was for Carlos.

This is my first post so I'll keep it short.

People are the same all over the world.

That is disgusting, indeed, that you had to have your pleasant afternoon interrupted by watching a cleanup on the next blanket.

When my family was recently at Disneyland Paris, I saw a mom standing to the side of a walkway next to a food vendor. She had her kid, who was clearly at least three years old, naked from the waist down, bent over and practically touching the ground with his legs spread apart. She was cleaning up the nether regions of his bum with baby wipes, presumably due to a poop accident. The rest of the family (dad and a couple of other kids) were standing around watching. Why she did not take him to a restroom, where the cleanup could have been done in private, and with sinks and soap nearby to wash hands, I do not know (especially since the dad was there too, and she would not have had to take the other kids with her).

All that is to say that there are people everywhere who are oblivious at best, and completely selfish/deliberately inconsiderate/rude at worst. They change nappies in inappropriate places (like on the seating bench at McDonald's), take smelly food on the plane, try to cut in the queue, leave their buggy blocking the whole aisle at the grocery whilst they peruse the mustard choices for ten minutes. Unfortunately you ended up next to some of them yesterday. If they were just oblivious to the fact that changing the pull up while so close to you was offensive, hopefully they realized as much when you got up to move. If they did not care, then nothing you might have said or done would have made a difference anyway. Hopefully this did not ruin a beautiful day at the lake for you!

...and here all this time I thought your avatar was you proudly displaying nose-mining gold, guess I was wrong.