We went out in Luxembourg capital city today and had a very interesting experience. Gaz is back at school, so he wasn’t there (would have been interesting to see if this would have happened with him there too…). It was just us and Fifi.
We were looking for a pharmacy that was open (we found the address, but didn’t know where it was, so gave up and were walking back to the car) when this guy came up to us and started saying something in a mix of German and Italian and French. The guy was wearing this white outfit with ‘Italia’ and a flag logo on it. Like a footballer’s training kit or something, without being a footballer. Anyway, he kept trying to communicate, eventually telling me in French (after I told him I could understand French) what he was trying to say, since his English wasn’t very good and Matt couldn’t understand him at all. Thought I’d add that while he looked and acted unusual, he didn’t seem or smell drunk. Just strange.
Basically what he said was he was just walking along, when he saw Fifi and made eye contact with her, and it made the hair on his arms stand on end. He said he got this incredible feeling came over him, like she was a ‘special child’ (he said), and so he came over to talk to her. He kept touching her, and talking just to her and she was giggling and smiling at him, making him smile at her. Then he did something really weird – I don’t know much about Catholic things, but he gave her what looked like at least 2 different Catholic blessings, then kissed her head and waved while walking away. We looked at each other, and then looked back and he was gone. He’d disappeared completely (even tho there was nowhere he could have really gone so fast), which really kind of freaked us out. These 2 guys had been sitting on a bench at the side of the road watching this in bemusement, and even they looked weirded out.
I still don’t really know what that was all about, but it was just a weird thing to cap off a weird day.
My life and other animals 
05/02/2014 at 6:04 pm
Okay, you’re right. This would have really weirded me out! Thankfully he just blessed her and then left…
Does Sophie usually get strange attention like this or just the garden variety little old ladies exclaiming over how sweet and cute she is?
05/02/2014 at 8:17 pm
She does get a lot of the garden variety little old ladies (and kids) cooing over her, a lot more than the other babies I’ve seen around. And I do notice things like this, cuz it’s just weird how much attention she gets from everyone. But she also gets random people just giving her things too. It’s almost off-putting and I am really not sure what to think of it.
At the Chinese shop in Luxembourg, this lady in line just randomly gave her an expensive stuffed monkey, saying ‘gift’ in English, tho Matt said she was actually Portuguese (there are a LOT of Portuguese in Luxembourg.), and another time, the girl working at the same shop just randomly gave her a shell necklace from the display behind the counter, waving off any offers of payment. (we do know the owners as long-time regulars, but still…)
But yeah, she just gets so much attention that I really don’t like taking her out places because I don’t know what will happen. I don’t really like the attention, even if it’s benign. I just can’t explain very well, sorry. It’s just… idk. I’m not that kind of person, so it just freaks me out completely. Never mind that I worry someone is going to try and steal her on me.
(Matt flipped out on these women who were trying to help me get her calmed down in Trier once, making it clear he thought they were up to no good, when she was just showing me what she thought would help. (and it did…) It was really upsetting, because to me, his actions were racist, and not based on reality – the women were Muslim, though I don’t know where from, and given it was a packed shopping centre on a weekend, they wouldn’t have gotten very far, even if they were intending to take her, so… *sighs* I like to think that with a few exceptions, I’m a pretty good judge of character, and am not about to hand her to anyone I think will steal her, y’know? It’s just a case of the situation at the time and how out-of-line he was, imo.)