u/VarietyOne6751

Hi, I’m a 20F college student from Los Angeles. I’m planning a solo trip to Austria, Germany, and possibly the Czech Republic for 20ish days in August. This would only be my 2nd time out of the country (I studied abroad briefly in London last year). I have already booked a plane ticket from Boston (where I’ll be visiting for a few days prior) to Vienna. I have a medium-ish budget. I am going to be staying in hostels, traveling by train, and I want to save as much money where possible.

Here is my itinerary so far:
Vienna: 3 nights
Salzburg: 2 nights
Munich: 3 nights
Daytrip to Neuschwanstein castle
Cologne: 2 nights
Hamburg: 2 nights
Berlin: 3 nights
Dresden: 1 night?
If doable, Prague: 2 nights?

My must sees are Vienna, Salzburg, Cologne (main thing is the Cathedral), Munich, and Berlin. The rest I’m very flexible on but I do want to hit as many cities as possible while still taking a decent amount of time to enjoy them. I am between Dresden and Nuremberg.

Please be brutally honest with me! I enjoy history, art, and going to museums but I don’t absolutely need to prioritize them. Love sightseeing and pretty nature areas. I’m goth and enjoy witchy/mystical things, metal music, etc. I’m not a huge party person but want to get out of my comfort zone lol.

I know I’ll be back to Germany in the future, so if there’s a place that can be cut on a first time see, I’m fine with it. My partner is Swiss and we plan to visit Switzerland & Germany within the next few years.

I have received it the last 2 years (around $600) but not this year even though nothing has changed about my financials and I’m taking the same amount of units. I know that the University Grant maximum was lowered from 3k to 2.5k, but did they get rid of this grant as well??

I was lowk relying on it to pay my rent 💔💔💔

The award wasn’t actually Cal Grant it was a supplemental summer award from UCLA for students who receive it during the regular year.

My mom is visiting me this weekend from Friday early afternoon -> through Sunday.

I’m a UCLA student and she has visited me probably 15 times in my time here. I have officially run out of ideas of what to do.

An important thing to mention is that she is disabled and terminally ill, so she can’t walk super long distances all at once, hike, bike, kayak, or anything like that. She tires easily, but always wants to have packed days since we don’t see eachother often.

One part of her illness is that she has very few safe foods that don’t make her sick, nor can she eat very much. So restaurants/good eats aren’t really a factor in where we go. She also gets sea sick easily now so as much as she’d probably love to, whale watching/taking a day trip to Catalina island is probably out of the question.

She loves thrifting, seeing the ocean (but not swimming or actually staying on the beach), and animals. We have probably been to every thrift store in a 60 mile range, every zoo (LA Zoo, SB zoo, SD zoo), and every beach. She doesn’t like concerts or comedy shows. She likes horror, spooky things, and reading.

She likes seeing cool museums and theme parks, but I took us to Universal Studios last time and she requested to leave after 2hrs. She would like to go to Disneyland at some point but I feel like it’s a little late notice to try and get a disability accommodation, plus it’ll probably be extra packed with kids just getting out of school for the summer.

We have been to:
Both Gettys, La Brea Tar Pits, Magnolia St. shops in Burbank, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Santa Monica & Venice Beach & Venice Canals, cat cafe, Walk of fame, Beverly Hills, probably every mall, Long Beach, The Queen Mary, Griffith observatory, The Grove, driving to Malibu, etc.

I know this is a difficult ask but I wanna try and make this weekend fun for her. Would prefer to keep distance within like 3ish hours. The last couple times she’s visited we just spend the majority of 3ish days going thrift shopping which can get a little boring lol. Any recommendations?

I got my first leg tattoo about 5 weeks ago (I have a few larger American trad pieces on my arms) and I had to tap midway after only 2 hours.

I have my next session in a few days to finish it up and I am literally terrified. I sat perfectly fine for every single other tattoo I have but this one I was close to tears, leg twitching, literally was biting my arm/pinching myself to try and distract from the pain. After a little over two hours of actual tattooing (and 2 rounds of bactine) I had to tap. I felt so bad for my artist but they were so nice about it.

I have maybe 1.5hrs-2 hrs left of the tattoo which is literally nothing, but aghhhh I don’t wanna do it. Does anyone have any advice on pain management?? My artist doesn’t like numbing cream so that’s out of the question. I always eat a good meal beforehand and drink a lot of water. Any over the counter pain meds that somehow will help?? Words of advice to get me thru ts if meds won’t do anything?😭🙏

I took an uber Pet home today from my cat’s vet appointment. I’m a college aged girl and got picked up by a much older man (late 50-60s) as my driver.

Immediately he starts bombarding me with questions, which of course isn’t wrong, but it was still a bit unsettling.

Then he starts flirting with me, saying I’m incredibly beautiful and that he wants me to dye his hair for him. And I laughed it off and he was like “no I’m serious, I want to take you out.” I laughed nervously again and he got more stern and was like “I’m serious. Take your phone out, take my number down and repeat it back to me.” I took his number down in the notes app.

He kept saying that he would take me out and we would go to In n Out (how charming)…that he wants to dress me up, that’d he pay for everything. He said he could be my personal Uber driver as long as I see him and dye his hair for him…This was repeated multiple times.

The most concerning part is that he started saying that if I said no that he would “put a gps tracker on me and find me.” He said he’s going to take a trip down to Mexico City soon and he wants to take me. After this, he again repeated that if I decline and don’t reach out to him by phone, he will find me.

I was shaking at this point but I just wanted to get home because my phone was at 3%, I had my cat with me, etc. I was worried about needing to call law enforcement if the worst happened and needing to get another way home. I didn’t record anything so I have no evidence.

He dropped me off a couple apartment complexes down from where I actually live thankfully, so I waited to walk to my place until I saw him drive off far enough.

I immediately called Uber Safety Line to report him and they escalated me to a supervisor. I searched his number up and his name comes up, but so does a local escort service website. I could just be reading in to it too much because I know that can be a common scam, but my overthinking mind is worried that he’s like a sex trafficker or something.

He had several thousand rides and a near perfect rating so I feel like Uber won’t do anything. I asked for an update over chat because I am extremely concerned about my safety and they said they have “restricted this users access to the Uber app and are investigating this situation further.”

My mom and friends are telling me to file a police report but idk how any of that works, if it’s worth it, if it’s anonymous or if I should fear retaliation. I know I made a mistake in laughing stuff off and not sticking up for myself but this has genuinely never happened to me before, I just kind of froze out of fear.

Does anyone have any advice?? Should I just let uber handle it?? Should I be concerned at all about my safety??