I’d recently taken a trip to Germany, and, while visiting the city square in Dresden, was approached by a man who was probably in his early-to-mid thirties. I’m under twenty, and I had wandered a few steps away from my friends to have a quick chat with someone on the phone (in English); this guy heard me, struck up a conversation, and even though he was speaking with a perfectly friendly tone of voice, I kept catching him glancing down at my body, and the whole time that I had talked with him he had this kind of creepy look on his face, so I was a little nervous. He asked me where I was staying, when I was going back home, things like that, but most of my answers were lies. Eventually, we finish up, and he holds out his hand for me to shake, which I do, and then he asks me for a hug. I sort of stutter and I can’t say anything, so he asks again. Wanting to get away, I cave in and give him a really quick hug. He didn’t grope me or steal anything or anything else like that, but that whole encounter has just left a bad taste in my mouth and since I’ve though of it I keep questioning whether or not I’m being paranoid, and if I only imagined him looking at my legs or thought that the questions were too personal. It’s been hard to get it out of my head, and I don’t feel like I can really talk to anyone about it, since it wasn’t overt and he hadn’t actually done anything that hurt me.
