I got on a bus, and I realized there was a problem.

The problem was becoming very obvious, but at the time I didn’t know how big it actually was.

Earlier that day I had been walking around in Porto (Portugal) and saw this street vendor selling various leather things: bags, wallets etc.

I had always wanted a nice leather shoulder bag but could never find what I was looking for. Now, my inner hippy was on full alert.

Every bag this guy had was absolutely beautiful.

Finally I chose one, paid and caught a bus back to my hotel.

The bag looked similar to this.

So yeah, the problem became very apparent as soon as I got on that bus.

I tried ignoring it, but it just wasn’t possible.

Thank goodness the bus wasn’t crowded because… my new bag stank. Badly.

I wondered why it didn’t smell so bad outside when I was buying it, but the day was windy and quite chilly (it was winter), so there was hardly any smell except for the normal leather smell you could expect from leather items.

As soon as I stepped on the bus though…

At this point I started realizing that probably this particular street vendor was a street vendor for a reason. Most likely it was a very conscious decision because no way he would’ve been able to sell his merchandise indoors.

I ended up getting off the bus earlier than I had to and walking the rest of the way to the hotel.

It got even worse once I got back to my room. I wish I could describe that stench - it was eye-watering.

The internet told me to leave it outside to air, so I left it on the balcony for a while. But of course, this wasn’t going to work. It had been hanging outside for quite a while when I bought it.

Next, the internet advised me to wrap it in newspapers and stuff some newspapers inside the bag, so they can absorb the smell. That didn’t work either.

Finally, in a desperate attempt to save the beautiful bag I covered it in A LOT of baking soda, put it into a large plastic bag, then put the whole thing in another plastic bag, tied it up and left it in the balcony.

I kept checking every couple of days to see if the smell was gone. Baking soda is a great odor remover, so it should work, right? And it did seem to work at first. However, after keeping the bag inside the room for half an hour or so, I realized it still stinks, and the longer it stays inside, the worse it gets.

Now it was time to face the truth — the leather had been improperly tanned. Which means that… it was slowly rotting. That’s why it stank to high heaven. No matter what I did, it was going to keep stinking.

In the end, the beautiful bag went to the trash without having been used once. The stench was so bad, I haven’t smelled anything quite so horrible since.