The other day, while having a coffee with a couple of Slovenians we had just met in a little cafe on Korčula, Croatia, a slightly mad-looking quite-old woman sat down on the table near us and ordered an espresso.
After sipping for a second, she wandered over to our table, said something to me in Serbo-Croat, and gave my bare knee a rub. One of our new Slovenian friends kindly interpreted what she had said: 'she says you have nice legs.' At this, she laughed a bit, and said something else, rubbing more and more vigorously, and higher and higher, until she glanced one of my testicles. At this point, I grabbed her hand, said 'thank you,' and off she tottered. Much mirth was had by all.
This caused me to wonder, why had I waited so long before grabbing her hand in a firm but polite rebuff? I can assure you, dear reader, that I was not desirous of having my testicle make anyone's acquaintance in such a fashion. I am sure that there is some interesting psychology at play here, but as best as I can figure out:
1. I am in a new country, and am not always sure of the greeting customs, and am therefore prepared to let things go a bit further than I ordinarily would in Aus. For the same reason, I leaned in for a cheek kiss from a gentleman in Montenegro a week ago having seen others do the same in Bosnia. However, I believe I may have misread the situation, as I had to do a sharp veer at the last moment, and pretend I had stumbled.
2. I did not expect that a kindly leg rub would migrate upwards in such a fashion from such a lady. I was taken by surprise in other words.
3. I was applying gender stereotypes... women do not usually manhandle men, men usually manhandle women. I was therefore not expecting to have my men handled at all.
4. We had just weathered a storm of epic proportions, the sun was coming out, I had had half a beer, and I was therefore feeling relaxed. Not that relaxed though.
If anyone can provide and further explanations, I would be most grateful.
