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Jimmy Fallon Got Lost in Bavaria Before the Olympic Closing Ceremony
The Tonight Show Host was "saved" by some new friends in Germany ahead of co-hosting the Olympics Closing Ceremony.
Co-hosting the 2024 Olympics Closing Ceremony in a city like Paris is a huge adventure in itself — but Jimmy Fallon had an exciting experience one day before the big event, one that included hitchhiking, wandering lost amid the German countryside, and ultimately befriending a few nice locals. The Tonight Show Host shared his story on social media, and provided some jolly video proof of his escapades in Bavaria.
"I'm calling this story 'Lost in Bavaria,'" Fallon said at the top of the TikTok posted on Saturday, August 10. He explained that before he headed to Paris to hang out with the likes of French president Emmanuel Macron, Mick Jagger and track and field gold medalist Sha'Carri Richardson, he was staying in a hotel in the German state of Bavaria.
Planning to take a stroll to a Bavarian lake, he realized it was going to take too long — "it was probably an hour and a half from my hotel" — so he decided to double back.
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"I turn around, I'm listening to some book about breathing and zoning out, I go, 'I'll make a left here,'" he continued. With no map, and a phone at just five percent charge, "I just kept walking, and I end up in someone's yard. And I don't know where I am. Completely lost."
Checking directions on his dying phone, Fallon decides to hoof it the hour and 40 minutes back to his hotel in the Bavarian sun. If only it was that easy.
Jimmy Fallon hitchhiked in Bavaria on his way to the Paris Olympics
Fallon said he got the idea to take a shortcut through a big field, but "halfway through the field, they just stopped mowing the field. It's all tall grass." Describing his outfit as "'80s basketball player shorts," he says "I can't walk in this tall grass, because I'm gonna get bit by a snake or something. That would happen to me."
Walking back to the main road with cars zooming past, 'I go, 'maybe I'll hitchhike.'" While warning those watching the TikTok that it's definitely a risky idea they shouldn't try, he admits he gave it a try to no avail.
So Fallon keeps on, coming across an auto body shop where a couple of "very nice" guys instruct the Host to climb over a fence...and cut through a field...before scaling another fence and crossing a golf course. Just as he's about to give the journey a try, one of them tells Fallon, "you look a little like Jimmy Fallon."
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The two snap a selfie together, and the auto body employee says he'd love to give Fallon a lift to his hotel — except he doesn't have a license. Fortunately, though, his mom does.
And that's how Fallon made it back to his hotel, making it to France in time to catch a few events before hosting the Closing Ceremony with Mike Tirico. Fallon shared a video of his pastoral drive with Leon and his mom on Instagram.
After meeting the young man Leon's mother and father, Fallon, Leon, and his mom hopped into her Volkswagon Golf took to the road, blasting '80s songs like "One Night in Bangkok" Queen's "Killer Queen" and singing along.
A grateful Fallon thanked the mother and son again at the end of his TikTok, saying, "you were just nice people, and it's always great to see nice people!" He also added that he has love for "gorgeous" Bavaria, so perhaps he'll see that lake one day after all.
