 Poster: A snowHead
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I once saw a huge frozen fish, at least a metre long, going round and round on the carousel having broken out of its polystyrene box. No one seemed to want to collect it.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I was visiting a friend in Courchevel, by car, and asked if he wanted me to bring anything out. I was expecting him to ask for bacon or similar, but he asked for his niece.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@rob@rar, I like it 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Saw customs remove what was either a sheep or goats head from a suitcase at Gatwick last year. The giveaway (apart from the stench), was the blood that was seeping through the suitcase.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I had a bag last week in my office which was unclaimed at Gatwick full of dried fish. Stank to absolute high heavens. I think somebody took it by accident and then returned it later that day. Unfortunately the owner didn't file a missing report, so it was sat unclaimed at LGW for a few days before making it's way to me.
Joints of meat, vegetables, dildos, I've seen it all, on a fairly regular basis.
Some of these cases have been missing for quite a while (in hot countries) before someone opens them, so you can imagine the smell!
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@mikeycharlton, it appears we're all playing for second place here, now that you've arrived! What DO you do for a living? (And where do I collect Steely Dan  ?)
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@Scooter in Seattle, i deal with unclaimed/delayed luggage, or luggage that nobody knows who the owner is (tagless)
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| risb98 wrote: |
| Poshprop wrote: |
| welshflyer wrote: |
| Haggis (from Harrods) for a Burns Night in Courmayeur (Jan 1982). |
Could job you weren't travelling to the USA as illegal to import Haggis. Something to do with the lung content, I believe.
Back in the early nineties I packed a balaclava to Corfu. Needed it for my miners impression. |
Can confirm this as true, had one confiscated at Logan Airport in Boston in 1992. Spent an awkward hour in a small room with US customs. I never did find out which bit of the haggis they had an issue with! |
Why is Haggis banned in the USA?
If you’re in the US then you won’t be able to buy a traditional haggis as it has been banned in the country since the 1970s. It became illegal to import haggis from Scotland in 1971 as there was a sanction on food containing Sheep lungs which constitutes a large portion of the traditional Haggis recipe.
According to a report by iNews it’s known that Americans “can’t even make their own haggis as US-produced foods containing sheep lungs are also prohibited.” Joelle Hayden who works for the US Department of Agriculture, the Food Safety and Inspection Service, confirmed that the ban exists as they “determine sheep lungs to be inedible and, therefore, cannot be utilised for human consumption.”
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| hang11 wrote: |
| I have worked in the hotel biz on and off for a few years and this is definitely a thing. But it’s by no means the worst thing……. |
 Cˋmon, you can’t just leave that hanging……..
Andy
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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After a rather memorable weekend birthday bash in Kiev and environs (well before the current war of course) a member of our party (but fortunately not travel) group decided that the Rocket Propelled Grenade he’d unwisely purchased after our visit to a weapons range should be fine in his checked baggage !
Fortunately, Boryspil airport security picked it up and were ‘understanding’ and merely confiscated the item ! I dread to think what would have happened had he landed back at Arlanda and been detected then.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Nothing much I'm afraid however my parents regulry travel to Italy with several kilos of fertiliser* in their luggage.
*Yes you can get it over there but dad is very specific about what he uses.
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You know it makes sense.
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A yogurt pot filled with Dead Sea mud caused something of a curiosity at Ben-Gurion. The only time I've had my bag searched on the way into Cardiff (where they x-ray the cases onto the conveyor belt) was when it was full of about 30 jars of German sunflower seed-based spreads (flavoured with things like horseradish and beetroot or assorted herbs), and a couple of bottles of Obstler. The customs officials were remarkably interested, and I'm still not sure why: maybe they thought I might have hidden drugs in them. After making me explain several times that it was a product that you simply can't get in the UK they eventually let me through.
I once managed to get a large jar of lacto-fermented pickled gherkins through security in my hand luggage at Berlin-Schönefeld, despite it being a liquid-filled glass jar, well over the 100ml limit. I think the staff took pity on me when I explained that at the time (before the proliferation of Polish delis here) it was near-impossible to find lacto-fermented dill pickles in Britain, and that otherwise I'd have had to make do with the vinegar-based version.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@JayRo,
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A yogurt pot filled with Dead Sea mud
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Poster: A snowHead
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@Hurtle, does that mean my effort is up there with the weirdest?
It was my first (and so far only) trip to Israel and Palestine, I think in 2008. Amazing trip (we happened to be in Ramallah to witness Mahmoud Darwish's funeral procession). We did a flat-swap with a friend who works at one of Jerusalem's only combined Jewish-Arab schools (with fully integrated classes, each class co-taught by one Jewish and one Arab teacher). We went to Ein Gedi and to the Dead Sea, as you do (and climbed up to Masada in time to see the sunset the following morning)--and brought back some of the mineral-rich mud to do a kind of home spa treatment.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@JayRo,
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does that mean my effort is up there with the weirdest?
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Possibly, but I was just wondering what you brought it back for and you've now answered that. Did the home-made spa treatment work?
I've never wanted to visit the Middle East, except to visit Masada - lucky you.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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This is very tame alongside some of the foregoing, but I once went on an organised camping trip to the south of France, by coach, with a group of ‘girls’. We opened our luggage in the tent and one girl produced a triple dressing table mirror from her case; she brought it as she needed to be able to do her hair and makeup and reckoned there wouldn’t be one in in the tent. She was right. There wasn’t a dressing table either.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Montan, haha, love the punchline! 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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my son takes a suction showerhead holder. He's been caught out a couple of times with just a hand shower connected via hose to bath taps, the suction shower head holder solves the problem.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Hurtle, it sat in the bathroom for over a decade (including a move from Berlin to Cardiff), eventually getting used up shortly before my last house move. Using it was pleasant enough, but I think it’s telling that I’d not felt motivated to do so over the previous 12 years. Mostly it served to remind me of the trip, so yes, I guess it did work—but the orange squeezer also does that, as do the memories.
@Montan,
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My father regularly took a frozen (but fresh) salmon to Dortmund. Wrapped in newspaper and tin foil. It usually arrived still frozen enough to be stuck in the freezer at the other end.
I am taking a frozen, homemade Dishoom House Black Daal with me next month.
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Frozen fillet steaks from Malawi to my aunt in Reading at the end of every school holiday (they were dirt cheap and she is a cheapsteak!)
A microwave oven from UK to Solomon Islands
3 months supply of disposable nappies
Have also smuggled many haggis into the US and other places
My kids think it weird that I pack a plate, knife and fork for our annual salmon fishing trip. We stay in a hotel but always get takeaway pizza one night and watch some rubbish film. I think pizza is improved by being consumed formally....
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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A hand luggage scanner operator at Leeds Bradford airport once came to shake my hand as I was the first person in his 20 years career that had two items in hand luggage that he did not recognise. A turnip and an oil seal press for a mountain bike fork.
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@Scooter in Seattle,
There is nothing quite like a stuffed animal, meeting his relatives
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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We took a blow up lounger and footstool because in the picture of the apartment looked like there wasn't much comfy seating. Wasn't totally sure about it, but it turned out to be excellent - we took a tiny batteryoperated pump. It was so comfy - it will go everywhere with us now as long as we have the 3kgs spare that it took up.
http://tinyurl.com/loungerlink
http://tinyurl.com/batterypump
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@DrLawn, well played
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Many years ago, when I was in my 20s I was travelling back from visiting my family holiday home in Kalkan Turkey, my father asked me to bring back a bag of about 30 small white door knobs made of china, suitable for kitchen cupboards, these were duly wrapped up and packed and prompted the only time I've ever been stopped by customs. Had to explain what they were to the customs agent at Gatwick and also ask him to let my sister (who was picking me up) to know why I was delayed, my sister is known to be rather prickly when annoyed. Customs agent came back and sympathized with me over said sister
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You know it makes sense.
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| Timmycb5 wrote: |
One of my mates regularly travels to the western isles for work. He quite often bring back live lobster in his hand luggage, and sometimes in the hold
He’ll get them from the fisherman on the morning he leaves, pack them in a polystyrene box with some seaweed, some ice blocks and some towels soaked in seawater, then put said polystyrene box in his suitcase/cabin bag. |
If you ever travel to Alaska in the summer, you’ll find stack high on the luggage drop off site many polystyrene boxes, NOT in suitcase/cabin bag.
Everyone knows these contain frozen salmon/halibut (or bear meat)
Equally “weird” by the standard of many, but perfectly acceptable are 20 lb bags of orange, in mashed bags, at various airports of Florida. That’s one of the “snowbirds” favorite item to bring home to their home in the frozen north, a bag of sweet juicy Florida sunshine (yours truly had done that a few times)
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Gravy granules in a snap seal bag .... apparently look similar to Heroin 
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Poster: A snowHead
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a jar of marmite in one snowboard boot. a jar of (frank coopers) marmalade in the other. both stuffed with socks on top. in the board bag. in the hold.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@UtahGetMeTwo, that's not weird, it's completely standard in my book.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Full on olympic recurve archery kit in hold luggage (of course) The French customs called me over the tannoy and requested I put it all together because they'd not seen one before! Not skiing though, on one of my summer flights to Nantes to meet up with my then girlfriend.
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FAQ
until one night they had to bring a sick child to the hospital, and as it was snowing, they used our snow chains. In a rush to the hospital, they missed the removal area for the snow chains before the motorway junction and therefore stopped by motorway maintenance officials who were not impressed by the scenario, asking them to wait for the Police to arrive.Figuring that the request was just that and the motorway officials did not have the power to detain them until the police arrived they continued their journey.
