I was almost kidnapped in Paris. And it was all my fault.

I was 20, female, American, and in Paris for only 2 days before I continued on to Spain and Portugal to meet up with some friends. I was staying in a dumpling little hostel in the Latin Quarter and I met a girl who spoke a bit of English and had also been in Paris for only a day. We were both equally as clueless, so we decided to stick together for the day.<br><br>We set out for Notre Dame, which we thought was only a few blocks from our hostel. After 5 hours of walking, we just decided to stop to eat and get a drink. Why did we walk for 5 hours not getting any closer? Well, first, we had no map. I speak a little French, and I figured, how hard can it be to get around? We were absolutely, 100%, hungry and thirsty, but every time we stopped to ask for directions or eat a snack, we were met with nasty stares and serial killers looks. I remember one woman chillingly grinning at me and saying "you're lost." I was like, "yes, I have no idea where I am." "No, you're *lost*." <br><br>So after like our 5th creepy encounter with locals, we stopped for the day and decided to eat at a small bistro and get some water. I had a salad, a glass of wine, and paid with a credit card with no problems. After lunch, we stopped to get some water and snacks at what I thought was a normal convenience store. It wasn't. I didn't realize this until we were inside and I tried to pay for a bottle of water with a credit card. The owner looked at me, disgusted, took my credit card, and called my bank to confirm my information. I found out later he was not just the owner, but a police officer.<br><br>While my bank was on the phone, a customer took a liking to my new friend and tried to start talking to her. After trying to get him to go away (me with my French and her with hand gestures), he said "you shouldn't be in Paris." My French kicked in enough for me to say "excuse me, what?" He repeated "you shouldn't be in Paris." I said "sorry, but why?" He shrugged and said "because you're so beautiful, I don't think you should be in Paris." I said "thank you" and he said "no, I really don't think you should be in Paris." That's when a few other customers started, what I assumed, agreeing with him. The store owner then took the phone from me and starting yelling at my bank for not confirming my information yet. The customer told me and my friend to go outside with him for a second, "just for a minute." I didn't find this weird since I, like an idiot, thought he was just trying to help us. <br><br>As we left the store, he started walking us down the street away from the direction we were headed in. I asked him where he was taking us and he said "to dinner." My dumb, idiotic self didn't find this weird at all. Until he started walking us down a long, dark alley with no streetlights or windows nearby. By the time we started down the alley, there were 3 men total with us. I had no idea, but luckily my friend who was a bit more street smart than me knew something was up. She whispered to me that we had to get away from them. We tried acting dumb and saying we didn't know what he meant by "dinner," and when we realized we weren't going to be able to fool them into thinking we were stupid anymore, my friend said "just run."<br><br>So we did. As soon as we were out of the alley, both of us were in tears. We ran for like 5 minutes before we thought we lost them. We decided to stop at the next store we saw and explain that we were lost and being followed. When we ran into the next store, I asked the store employees to call the police (which I, of course, knew how to say). The cashier at the store was dumbfounded, though, when I told her I had been followed for the last 5 minutes and lost for 5 hours. When she called the police, she also called the man from the convenience store who had tried to kidnap us. I found this out when the cashier asked me "what convenience store did you stop at." I told her and she said "that's not a convenience store, that's a front for murder." (I'm paraphrasing, but she basically said it was an underground place for fake human trafficking)<br><br>The police came and picked us up, escorted us to a coffee shop, fed us, and put us in a cab for free. Before they dropped us off, they called our hostel owner to make sure we got in okay. When we got back to our hostel, the police had already called ahead and told them what happened. The owner then interrogated us for like 30 minutes to confirm whether or not we had been followed and almost kidnapped. She then looked at us both and said "you're not leaving this hostel until you leave Paris." So, we didn't. The rest of our stay, we hung out in the common room reading, sleeping, eating, and hanging out with the owner.<br><br>The owner ended up calling ahead to our next 2 hostels in Spain and Portugal and letting them know what had happened in Paris. When we arrived in Madrid the next day, the hostel owner, a tall, older British man named Dave, let us skip the line to check in and took us up to our room. And then he sat, and talked, and talked some more. He told us where it was safe to go and where not to go, what to eat, what to drink, and how not to act. We then continued on to Lisbon and had a similar, if not the same, experience with the owner.<br><br>In the end, I learned 2 things: you can get anywhere with kindness and, if you treat someone nicely, they will treat you even nicer in return.<br><br>EDIT: WOW! This blew up fast! Thank you so, so, so much kind strangers for the awards and messages. It makes me never want to travel alone again, but also grateful for the kindness of strangers and the beauty of the world!!!