Thompson, you evidently have a species-specific food sensitivity or allergy. Not nice, but at least you know what questions to ask when you see oysters on the menu. In Canada, by regulation, oysters and mussels must be identified at point of sale (including restaurants) by source location and species; I hope it's the same in Europe.

Asian techniques for cooking tripe take much of the curse off the stuff, probably because cultures that eat large quantities of processed bean products such as tofu are good at redeeming tasteless ingredients of questionable texture. Alas, no quantity of ginger and scallions is enough to get me past that slippery rubberyness.