People would rather help you than hurt you.

Traveling is a bit scary. Well, very if you sit down and really analyze all the things that could go wrong. New place, perhaps foreign language, everyone a stranger...all the things that could go wrong, just think about it!

A lot of times, we expect the worst, fail to realize that people would rather help us than hurt us and that our fears are probably the extremes! They are the exception to all the other good things that may come of it.

I spent a few hours in Wroclaw, a Polish city. I was just passing by on my way to another city, but since there was some time between the train I had arrived on and the bus I intended to catch, I decided to explore the city center a bit. Now, since I only had a few hours, I decided to not bother buying tram tickets.

I was going to risk it and just take one tram to the center, walk around, perhaps buy a fridge magnet for my mum's fridge then move on with my travels. At the tram station, I stood there for a while trying to decipher the timetable, but that was getting me nowhere. The fact that it was in Polish did not help.

I turned to a tiny little lady standing next to me and asked what tram went to the center.

She was very kind to me, I don't even remember her name unfortunately and I regret not asking her to stop and take a picture with me, but not only did she tell me what tram to take, she insisted to come along with me since she was heading in the same direction.

Then as we waited, she asked if I had a ticket, and if my complexion would allow me to turn pink and blush I would have, so I feigned surprise, acting like it had been my intention all along to buy one, but she stopped me, went into her purse and gave me two tickets. One for the trip into the city and one to come back. At this point I would probably have turned even pinker...

Here I was, plotting and planning how I was going to evade paying for a ticket, then this sweet lady comes and gives me two out of her purse, how mortifying! I declined and headed to the machine but she insisted, said she knew what it was like to be foreign and was happy to help, and finally I accepted.

We had a nice chat on the way to the center, then when we got there, she pointed me in the direction of where I was headed before heading to work, and that was it! Gone forever. All she had to do was show me what tram to take, but she still went that extra mile.

On another occasion, my friends and I got lost in a very rural-like neighbourhood. The thing about rural places, if there are only older people around, it is unlikely they can speak English. We had no choice since people were scarce and hopelessly asked an old lady if she spoke English, which of course she did not. However, she did not just walk off and leave us stranded, she took out her cell and called her daughter, then explained to her daughter that we looked like we needed some help but she could not communicate. She then gave me her phone and had me talk to her daughter.

Now, in the end, that did not come to anything either, because the girl on the line did not understand our predicament, but I was still extremely touched!

I have about a dozen other similar stories...truth is, at the end of the day, people would rather help you than hurt you.

Of course I do not mean to suggest that it is 100 percent safe, I am now just more willing to believe in the kindness of people than perhaps I was before.