Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Bonehead Blog Hop


Welcome to the Bonehead bloghop, hosted by Cherdo at Cherdo on the Flipside and Diana Wilder at About Myself, By Myself. We have all done boneheaded moves not full realizing how idiotic it looks or, should I say we look.  I have had many, so many, in fact, that I forget all the moves I have done. Now most are just funny but some can be a bit scary so I will do the latter because I still think it is somewhat funny, in retrospect.

In a land far, far away, many eons ago when I was fresh eyed and bushy-tailed, Ok I never had a tail bushy or otherwise but you get my meaning that I was young and stupid. Yes, I was that magical age  of 18 years old. I went to Europe in 1982, Just little ole me and met up with my Aunt and Uncle. I was there for 6 weeks and loved every minute of it. I was in Graz, Austria for 4 weeks and, being 18, I became bored so one day, while sightseeing I saw a 4 day tour to Budapest. I wanted to see Budapest ever since I heard the lovely Rise Stevens say that city in a dreamlike state in the film "Going My Way." My mom, fearing I would be taken to the Siberian Gulag was in a state of panic but she was all the way here in Canada and I thought she was nuts so did my Aunt and Uncle. We booked the tickets and I went with a whole bunch of old people and one 16 year mountain girl that was hornier than a toad croaking for a mate.

The tour was great (another story for another day) and we were coming home on the bus. The tour was in German and the lady travel agent spoke in a German dialect so when we were coming to the border, I understood nadda! Our bus drove into No Man's Land. Remember that Hungary was a Communist State back then. We were in between the barbed wire fencing with 2 Guard towers positioned at each gate. We had to give over our passports and Visas and get off the bus while German Shepherds  sniffed in and under the bus. I was on my own looking around and thinking how cool this was with all the armed guards and suddenly I had the bright idea..yup, Bone head move!,.....to take a picture! Why not? This is a cool thing and my 18 year old brain was in top notch blond bimbo form. I took out my camera and pointed it to the guard in the tower to snap his pretty picture. He looked at me cocked his rifle, said something of which, to this day, I have no idea, and pointed it at me. As the blood drained from what was my tiny brain, my heart stopping and doing all I could not to pee and or poop myself, the words of the German lady on the bus was suddenly "translated" into my brain. It was "Do not take any pictures or they can confiscate your camera!" I looked at the guard, waved and saw a bunny rabbit (no kidding!)  to my right. I pointed to said Bunny Rabbit and pointed to my camera and took a picture of the rabbit.

I gulped and the guard moved on to the other side probably giggling to himself that he scared an 18 year old innocent looking dumb ass. My camera was not taken and the Bunny was no where in sight. That bunny saved my ass! When I got my pictures developed, the bunny rabbit picture was not there. This was my bonehead move early in my life that I will never forget.

47 comments:

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    1. I still think he was just scaring me...maybe I am still naive

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  2. Definitely something an 18-year old could do and get away with. Oh to be so young and dumb again.....(for a while at least :)

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  3. So YOU'RE the reason for that bunny picture porno I saw the last time I was overseas?

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    1. Yes...I can not tell a lie, It was difficult to get them all into, um, positions

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    2. I think you had to bribe them with carrots. And naked pictures of lady rabbits.
      NOTE: I've never seen a rabbit with clothes, either.

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  4. About ten years ago I took the train from Vienna to Budapest while on a tour. Our guide told us that when we cross the border the train will stop and the Hungarian Police will enter the train and check our passports. We were told not to talk, ask questions, smile, or pass gas (well, I made that last one up). The Police were some of the scariest looking thugs I have ever seen. The city though was marvelous and the table runner I bought is covering my cocktail table this very moment.

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    1. Oh yes they do look intimidating. The city is beautiful and I bought a runner for my mom

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  5. You were really lucky! Although if she'd told you in German, how were you to know?

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    1. I was I think and I was the only English speaking gal on this trip

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  6. LOL, I literally laughed out loud when reading the part about taking a picture of the soldier, because I might have been tempted to do the same thing!! Oh the adventures we have in our youth :)

    betty

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    1. Oh gosh yes. I still think of how I just thought it would be neat-no brain in my head that moment

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  7. you do cheer me up Birgit!....I am laughing out loud.....falling off the sofa...xxxx

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  8. lol saved by a hare so they wouldn't take your camera or throw you down a rabbit hole.

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    1. I was save by the hare of that chinny chin chin

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  9. BIRGIT ~
    Suddenly, Clarence the wingless angel seems pretty A-list. Seeing as how YOUR guardian angel is a little bunny rabbit still trying to earn its "hop".

    ~ D-FensDogG
    'Loyal American Underground'

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    1. Yes! Thank for my favourite film reference:) I wish i did have a picture of that bunny whom I named Harvey

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  10. What you call a moment of boneheadedness I call a quick stroke of brilliance by pretending like you were taking a picture of the bunny. I mean, you didn't get arrested or shot, so I'd call that a win.

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    1. Yes i could have caused an incident and my mom would have had a heart attack. I never did tell my mom about this until many, many years later

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  11. Wowza, Birgit! Thank goodness for the Bunny Rabbit and your quick thinking. You would've made a great spy. This also would make for a great scene in a movie. I think you have a screenplay in you.

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    1. Oh I was just happy seeing the bunny:) As for being a spy? I would feel more like Lucy Ricardo trying to be a spy:)

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  12. I feel sorry for your parents. Being a parent I would not have been happy, or relaxed one bit about my kid going off to a communist country. Your parents understood the danger, understood you didn't. They probably aged double their age until they heard you were back safe. I remember some times earlier than the date you mentioned where some people who went into those countries never emerged. Scarey. Would imagine bunny rabbits will have a different meaning for you.

    Sandy at Bridge and Beyond

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    1. My mom even wonders where her head was having me go on a plane and train on my own. I met up with family over there but I had to take a train from Frankfurt to Freiburg. When my mom heard I was going to Budapest she was out of her mind with fear. My mom escaped from East to West and had many scary moments with the Russians right after the war so I did put her through the ringer

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  13. Yikes. Good thing the bunny appeared.

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  14. My husband and I also took a bus into a communist (at the time) country; Czechoslovakia. Thankfully, we had a translator on our tour so I understood not to take pictures as they boarded our bus, because I would've done the same exact thing! :) Funny!

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    1. Yes. I had heard my mom's stories but never thought about them when there. I just wanted a picture and was hoping to get one

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  15. Is anyone else fascinated by the fact that the Guardian Bunny Angel wasn't caught on camera? Was there even a picture from inside the fence? Or just nothing?

    Yep, that was a bonehead move, but also an EXCELLENT story.

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    1. Nothing was there. It is like I never took the picture, but i did take it! I remember that because I wanted that bunny who saved me. Total bonehead move:)

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  16. Yeowtch! And how rather weird that that bunny didn't appear on the roll of film. An example of boneheads being specially protected!

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  17. Sounds like you think on your feet. I'm afraid my brain would have frozen on the spot.

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    1. I never thought of that but I guess I do...maybe my survivor instinct came out

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  18. This absolutely reminded me of an episode of Archer. But well played, and quick thinking. Well, that, and one really lucky bunny. You got like, 4 times the luck of a rabbit's foot.

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    1. I was very lucky and happy that I did not cause a major incident

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  19. That is such a great story and that bunny was definitely sent to protect you... The last time I almost got my camera taken from me was at the Picasso museum in Antebes. I swore the photos were deleted and I thought they were. I just didn't understand my camera very well and had just closed the folder. The last time I had a scary man with a gun yell at me for taking pictures was in DC. I'm not even blond...

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    1. Ouch-that sounds scary with the man in DC. I have been to museums where people were escorted off the premises for taking pictures

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  20. That is such a great story and that bunny was definitely sent to protect you... The last time I almost got my camera taken from me was at the Picasso museum in Antebes. I swore the photos were deleted and I thought they were. I just didn't understand my camera very well and had just closed the folder. The last time I had a scary man with a gun yell at me for taking pictures was in DC. I'm not even blond...

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  21. Bunny to the rescue! Fun read thanks for sharing

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  22. Brilliant post - made me laugh out loud! I was very sensible at 18, of course - ahem.

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    1. Oh yes we were all sensible at that age...in our own minds:)

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  23. Brilliant post - made me laugh out loud! I was very sensible at 18, of course - ahem.

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  24. Thank goodness everything worked out okay! Definitely a mistake an 18 year old could make. The bunny saved the day and the rest of your trip. :)
    ~Jess

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  25. Stupidity makes for interesting stories.

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