Leave me alone

People are weird. It's a fact.
My Grandma used to say the following: " All the world's queer except thee and me, and even thee's a little queer."
See? She was old, she knew things.
As a traveller, this saying holds true. Constantly seeing new things, countries and cultures means coming into contact with the foreigners who live there (duh). But also the tourists who, like you, are flocking to, let's say Dubrovnik, to see some church which is 1500 years old. Or to Belgrade, to see the grave of the Marshall Tito (or all his presents, they were massively cool).
Anyway.
As a foreign western woman, travelling mostly by myself, I've copped some strange blicks from some even stranger looking folk throughout my trip.
Many of these, such as the "What on earth are YOU doing?" look (popular on the underground with a middle-aged or older crowd) come down to breaking some kind of unspoken cultural rule. Such as blowing ones nose on the subway in Japan, a bit strange given that it's perfectly acceptable to vomit in the street there. Ditto having a quick wee.
When i visited the golden temple (it's big, it's gold and there's a lake around it. enough said.) in Kyoto, a group of country kids on a class trip ran up to me an asked me to be in their photos. Strange. They'd never met a Gaijin before. Odd.
They were nice, except their teachers kept pointing at me.
Dirty old men.
There are unspoken rules on the underground in Germany too. Everyone pushes past each other as they're trying to get on and off the train, but you're not allowed to ask someone to move over. People in Germany appear to have no shame in looking at someone, I kept meaning to stare them down. Of course it doesn't help that I occasionally wear ridiculous clothes (NOT the jumpsuit yet, but I will!), such as stripes and other patterns.
Many Germans are really nice though, in ways that are often surprising. Offers of help, travel advice and food recommendations have abounded. Sometimes it's ok to be a woman travelling by yourself.
Sometimes it's not.
Last week, as I ventured out East to the Berlin-Museum Karshorst (to the Russian-founded "Museum of Capitulation"), I got stalked. Some strange German guy, (who may or maynot have spent tiem in jail) decided to follow/give me a tour of the museum. It was founded by the Russians, to teach East Germans about the crimes of Nazism. Against the Socialist Motherland, but that's another story. There was a place for the Holocaust and other persecutions, but as usual with Soviet/former Soviet histories of the war, the focus is on the suffering and subsequent victory of Socialism over facism.
This guy pointed out all manner of random shite whilst following me over 16 rooms, 2 floors and three exhibitions. He laughed at my BVG suggestions, aghast that an Australian could know the Berlin train system better than him, and was disappointed that I did not share his fondness for Soviet tanks.
I eventually ditched him at the train station,but not before a strange bus ride and an invitation to "stand outside the Foo Fighters concert to soak up the vibes" followed by a ride home on the train together.
Needless to say, I jumped on my city-bound train, jumped right to track 19 of Disc 2 of the 2008 Eurovision cd and vowed never to visit a military museum without my own Soviet tank again.
Strange people, it seems, are everywhere.