Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
If we look at the pages of some old atlases or travel notes, we'll see, in addition to the actual descriptions of travel, also a 'selection of facts' about distant countries, where you can definitely meet, for example, people with dog heads, one-eyed cyclops or completely bizarre animals, the degree of whimsicality of which depends only on the author’s imagination.
Today, many centuries ago, we have everything to have comprehensive info about almost any country. Google Maps, Wikipedia, numerous videos and books - sources for every taste. And yet, sometimes tourists give out completely wild phrases or questions about the countries they are traveling to, practically admitting their ignorance. And threads like this one in the AskReddit community collect these stories for us.
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
There were a couple of tourists who decided that it would be a good idea to stand directly in the path of the Queen's guard to take a selfie with them. Those guys don't stop for anyone, they will walk through you if they have to. I've seen so many videos of it happening online but I never thought I'd get to see it with my own eyes. Man, the look on their faces when they got yelled at to move out the way... it was like a weird mixture of terror and offence. Like they completely expected them to stop and pose or something.
It always baffles me that people seem to forget that they are actual soldiers and not just some guys playing dress up for the sake of tourists.
#2
In Thailand, berating locals for eating Italian food because Thai food is "so tasty".
B***h, Thai people eat Thai food every day. Going out for Italian is like you going out for Thai food in your home country.
#3
It wasn't about the country exactly but I was working in a hotel reception in a Mexican beach and an American women told me that the water of the sea was very hot, if I could do something, I thought OK maybe I didn't understand correctly can you speak slower and she repeat the same question.
Of course I did a Mayan dance and the water was colder afterwards.
In fact, people quite often aren't very interested in the world around them - more precisely, the world outside their own town or country. In this case, travel really comes to the rescue - after all, Mark Twain wrote a century and a half ago: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, fanaticism and narrow-mindedness.” Today, travel is accessible to many people (compared to the 19th century, of course) - so people willingly share their prejudices and fanaticism with others...
#4
Holy s**t I live in Hawaii and one time a tourist asked about turning the waterfalls off to clean them.
I wish I was making this up.
#5
“We’re here for a week, so we thought we’d drive out to the Grand Canyon, stop in Vegas, and then see the Golden Gate Bridge.”
They landed on the east coast.
#6
Had a dude come up here to Canada. We are talking business and what not then he says “too bad you guys are completely communist now.” Like dude, I don’t think you even know what that means.
Did I say that out loud? (he/him)cis/het 7 months ago
Yeah, you fűcking commie Canadians and all the other fűcking commie countries that don't bankrupt people for going to hospital.
It is always human nature not only to expand our horizons, but also to adjust the world around us to it, using the so-called 'availability heuristic' - that is, if we know some fact - about a person, animal, country or phenomenon, then we will unconsciously use it almost every time we encounter something like this.
An excellent example is a Canadian friend of mine who, having lived in Ukraine for almost ten years, sincerely believed that a resort village called Sanzheika on the Black Sea was actually pronounced San-Jacob. Simply because this kind of sound was much more familiar to his ear.
#7
"Everyone here speaks such good English!" *In London*.
Also – I've been asked repeatedly what my plans for thanksgiving are.
#8
This is coming from the other side, but I'm from the US and had someone come back from a trip to Italy saying "Italians are stupid. I don't know what's wrong with them, but they don't know how to talk"
The way she said it made me think she didn't even know that other languages exist, and so many Italians speak English my first thought was that nobody wanted to talk to her rather than no one spoke English.
#9
“If it wasn’t for us, you’d be speaking German” -Some stupid yank, in Germany.
SparkDragon 7 months ago
Well... Yes, if you weren't here, we would be speaking German to each other....
The availability heuristic sometimes does whatever it wants to us. We may have, for example, read a book or watched an adventure film about the travels of heroes through different countries in the old days - and these clichés are firmly deposited in our heads. And then, when fate brings us to this country, the subconscious 'shoots out' a half-forgotten fact, forcing us to do an instant facepalm. Well, or the people around us do it, in case we're entitled enough not to notice our own gaffe.
#10
Heard an american couple behind me be completely outraged that the italian restaurant we were in would not accept them to pay in dollars.
"Wait ... you don't take ... AMERICAN dollars???" with a huge emphasis on "american". It was pretty funny how dumb those people were.
#11
Was asked if we had electricity.
Was told we don't have central heating in our houses.
Was told 'i just love your queen'.
I'm Irish.
Hugh Cookson 7 months ago
How to say that the person / people who asked these questions come from the USA without saying that very thing .....
#12
"I've been here three days and I haven't heard the British accent yet"
Yeah... That's because you've heard *several.* We are a multitude of accents and dialects, like every other country. There is no *one* 'British accent' 😅.
Did I say that out loud? (he/him)cis/het 7 months ago
And if you take into account that there are over 300 languages spoken in London alone, yeah, good luck trying to find the "British " accent.
Be that as it may, tourism and travel have always been, are and will be - which means that people with prejudices will continue to roam around the globe and sometimes confuse local natives with their unexpected judgments and wordings. And we'll read these stories, crack up at them and, perhaps, share our own narratives too. For example, why not in the comments to this post, huh?
#13
I've heard multiple tourists plan to take "day trips" to places in the US that are on the other side of the country.
I also watched some Asian tourists try and get a selfie with a black man, who was just trying to ride the subway in peace. He looked so uncomfortable.
detective miller's hat 7 months ago
I had some random Japanese tourists ask to take a selfie with me at this outlet mall near my house years ago. I understand a pretty decent amount of Japanese. They wanted a picture with me because my boobs are huge. I was like.... is this really happening, or am I on d***s?
#14
When I was bartending in college I had an American woman insist Iceland was so safe because everyone was carrying a gun at all times, like she didn't just say it once, she kept contradicting and arguing with me after I told her Iceland has insanely strict gun laws compared to the USA and definitely does not allow everyone to open/conceal carry.
#15
“So, I’ll be able to make it to New York in a few hours from here.”
Ma’am. You are in Southern California. You’re talking about driving to New York. That is the complete opposite side of the country, and it is a long way from here. You have no concept of the scale of this country. You’re gonna be really upset when it takes you a good six hours to get across Riverside County, let alone the other five days, maybe six or seven, to drive to New York.
No, you cannot get to New York in a few hours without flying.
detective miller's hat 7 months ago
Fastest California to NY I ever witnessed was my cousin. He came over from Ireland, landed in LAX, drove to Texas, drove up to Chicago, and then to us in NY state. In 3 days.
ElfVibratorGlitter 7 months ago
And even flying takes a few hours. You can get from NYC to London in as much time as NYC to California
Lavern Defazio 7 months ago
5 days cross country...on a Greyhound no less. Freak city. It's weird riding all the way from start to finish with people you just met getting on the bus. It's a weird bonding experience.
Joanne Earle 7 months ago
I had a friend who was in LA on business and he called me up in the San Francisco Bay Area and wanted to have lunch. I asked if he was flying up here as well and he was surprised and said no....but he thought LA and SF weren;t that far apart. I told him I was at least 450 miles away from him. He was shocked.
WoodenLion 7 months ago
i used to go from jacksonville to chattanoga as fast as i could have driven it. same to st. petersburg, fl. mississippi to iowa in 16 hours. great hitching back then. got a lot of stories.
Load More Replies... 
Jessica SpeLangm 7 months ago
Well, that's the fault of the person believing what's in the movies. If that person is that gullible, then let them try to travel that distance in a day. LMAO
Load More Replies...
Mason Kronol 7 months ago
I can do Cleveland to Times Square during the day in 10 hours if weather and traffic are perfect. Add snow or rush hour it's at least 12. and that's minimal bathroom and food stops.
Guess Undheit 7 months ago
Civilized and developed countries have reliable and wide ranging commuter rail. Yankland doesn't.
#16
When my British friend said he didn’t want to visit me in Seattle unless he also had time to visit New York. Had to explain to him that’s like saying you can’t visit Dublin if you can’t also make time for Istanbul.
#17
Am Australian asked me when the igloos would go up and did we have move our work and school into them every year? while in Vancouver, BC, a location in Canada with similar weather to Seattle. Edit: she was very serious, she was a young teen from a small town, visiting on a school trip. Aside from whatever airport she left from, Vancouver was one of her first visits to a city.
Bonus: An American asked me, while I was in the States, if I was impressed by the bridges. I was not in a place with any famous bridges, I was in Idaho, so I asked him why he asked. Because Canada doesn't have any, he replied, in a This Is So Obvious Voice. Baffled, I prodded him to continue. He believed that because Canada was frozen, everyone just drove over the perpetually frozen rivers. .
#18
Both of these overheard in a souvenir shop in Amsterdam:
Cashier: That'll be 30 euros, please.
American tourist: What's that in real money?
(Different) American tourist: What do you mean you don't accept dollars?
And not really something anyone has said, but still worth mentioning; apparently some Americans don't realize they can't just take their firearms with them to Europe.
BarkingSpider 7 months ago
Please understand that these idiots are a minority. How they end up being the ones with money to travel is beyond my understanding.
#19
I was talking to a lady in a bar in NYC once and told her I grew up in Malaysia and she genuinely asked me "Do you guys use money there or trade stuff?".
#20
I love this part of England. While in a store in Edinburgh. Edinburgh the Scottish capital.
#21
An American couple on holiday in the same hotel as my mum told her they'd visited England and seen the Eifel tower.
She told them that was in France, and they condescending said "no ma'am, its in London."
She agreed it must be and walked off.
Did I say that out loud? (he/him)cis/het 7 months ago
I really need to what they saw in London to make them think that. The only thing resembling the Eifel tower is Blackpool tower which is just over 200 miles away.
#22
Where do you keep the vikings?
An American tourist visiting Denmark… left him very confused and a little dissapointed by telling him the truth about Vikings and that we did in fact not have resevations or anything.
WindySwede 7 months ago
also tell them "you do know they 'found' North America long before Columbus?" 😶
#24
Just yesterday: "I don't want to follow Italy's traffic laws. What's the best way to get away with driving a vehicle I'm not licenced to drive?"
More funny than offensive:
"Where's the Parthenon?"
About 800 miles that way.
#25
I overheard an American woman saying that she was surprised at how well us Australians spoke American, although the accent made it a little hard to understand.
#26
I once heard a US tourist speaking to someone back home about how London was okay but things were kind of old-looking.
#27
« it doesn't look anything like Emily in Paris ». Yeah no s**t.
#28
Foreigners coming to India and speaking Hindi in non Hindi states. Half of India doesn't speak Hindi.
#29
I was up in Edinburgh visiting a friend who was studying for her masters degree there. We decided to do some touristy stuff, and went to the castle and did one of the guided tours. In our group were two middle-aged American women (I think they said they were from Tennessee).
From Edinburgh Castle, you can see quite far, over the Firth of Forth, an estuary, and beyond the river. One the women pointed to this and asked the guide, "Hey, is that Ireland?"
She thought the Firth of Forth was the Irish Sea, despite clearly not being a sea, there being a bridge spanning it, her being on the opposite coast, and facing the wrong direction, and the other bank of the estuary was the Republic of Ireland. I understand maybe not being completely clued up on the geography of a foreign country, but, to that extent, it was almost impressive.
The tour guide let the question hang for a few seconds before letting out an exasperated, "No".
Did I say that out loud? (he/him)cis/het 7 months ago
The response makes me wonder how many times they'd been asked that.
#30
Someone compared Canadian money to Monopoly money and then asked if we had Monopoly in Canada.
#31
I was the tourist. I was told by many concerned coworkers and friends that I shouldn't travel alone as a woman to dangerous Eastern Europe because I was going to get trafficked or Hostel'd.
The dangerous Eastern European country with criminals waiting behind every corner to snatch away Spanish women?
Slovenia...
Tomaz Zsthorother 7 months ago
As a Slovenian, can sarcastically confirm. :P On a serious note, we are a very safe country. We're also not Eastern Europe but Central Europe. So wrong on two counts. :)
#32
An American on tour in Italy asked me why we Australians didn’t all know each other.
Another American asked me do I know what a back yard is and do we have them in Australia?
Michal Dolyniuk 7 months ago
And when I been in England folks ask me if we got polars bears roaming in the streets so...
#34
An American in Australia who asked "do you guys have the same moon down here?"
Edit: more responses here than I expected so just to give a bit more info. A British friend of mine living in Australia was asked this by a visiting American over twenty years ago. If it was to me I would have asked, what exactly do you mean? I've only been to the Northern Hemisphere once and can't recall looking at the moon. The explanations given now make perfect sense. Cheers.
#35
When a friend from Germany came to visit me in Turkey the first thing he asked the people here was if we also spoke Arabic and why most women don’t wear the hijab.
Tabitha 7 months ago (edited)
If you go to Turkey and notice that the people are not speaking Arabic, and the women aren’t wearing hijabs, there are very good reasons for it. They don’t speak Arabic because they’re Turks in Turkey speaking Turkish. Hijabs might be seen in the cities, being that Turkish Muslims living in cities are part of a more liberal and cosmopolitan sect of the religion which allows the women to choose whether to wear one or not, so yiu may see Turkish Muslim women with no head covering at all. However, in the more conservative rural areas, most Turkish Muslims are part of a more strict sect of the religion that makes wearing the hijab mandatory. As for the even more extreme niqab, that’s only seen in the way stricter ultra conservative sects, and is pretty rare in Turkey.
What do you think ?
Lotekguy 7 months ago
As an American, the totality of the posts is rather embarrassing. Most of the ignorance of those who came here was related to not realizing distances in such a large country. By comparison, our ignorance abroad embraces a wide variety of subjects and issues. Please don't judge us all by our dumbest. They may annoy you briefly, but we have to live with the results of how they vote here.
Beck 7 months ago (edited)
Some of the loveliest people I’ve met are American. Y’all are a fantastic, generous, optimistic and welcoming people, for the most part :) I’m sorry you all get judged and defined so often by the loudest/angriest/dumbest people or the decisions made by your government that most of you disagree with. It’s not fair to the rest of you.
Load More Replies...
Chickens are fluffy 7 months ago
I swear not all of us citizens of the U.S.A. are this stupid.
Sapna Sarfare 7 months ago
Dont worry.. we know that.. but such Americans give a bad rep to others who are wonderful. Americans i see are curious people..
Load More Replies...
Ima Manimal 7 months ago (edited)
From Louisiana here. We do not: Have pet alligators; Go to New Orleans every chance we get; Travel exclusively by boat; Eat nutria; All speak French; Live in the swamp
Iyelatu 7 months ago
If i ever visit NZ, i would like it if locals there could tell me the direction to Mordor.
Jen 7 months ago
NZ is one of my favorite places to visit. If you really want to go to Mordor, they will not only give you directions but the number/address of one of many tour companies taking groups. That goes for pretty much every other filming location of Middle Earth.
Load More Replies...
T'Mar of Vulcan 7 months ago
South Africa DOES have electricity by the way (I answered facetiously further up); they just keep turning it off in selected areas so the whole grid doesn't go down. It's now the run-up to the elections, and by some miracle we haven't had load shedding for a week. The ANC is so transparent.
Dan Flo 7 months ago
This belongs here: " A US couple who took part in a cruise to northern Norway, filed a complaint to the operator, wanting a total refund of the trip. They referred to the advertisement of the trip, describing the 'very special midnight sun in Norway'. After a few days of cruise, however, the bright couple figured out that the sun indeed was the very same one that they had home in America (!), nothing 'special' about that. So they claimed to have been cheated, mobilised their lawyers, demanding the mony back!" https://britishexpats.com/forum/rec-travel-europe-44/us-couple-complained-midnight-sun-253873/
Marilyn Russell 7 months ago
I remember years ago back in the good old 80’s when it was fun for Canadians to drive down to DisneyWorld in Florida, a girl at McDonald’s said, “Ya’ll from Canada? Do you know Stephanie?” Now I’m older though, I suspect she was trolling the teenage me.
Pittsburgh rare 7 months ago
Twenty years ago, a couple of American tourists asked a coworker and I how to drive back to the States. We were in Spain. My workmate and l clocked eyes and sent them towards Portugal. We figured once they got to the ocean they'd realise. I sometimes think about them.
rainbowbrite141 7 months ago
If Darwin is correct they did not realize it when they got to the ocean.
Load More Replies... Jaquibear 7 months ago
Overheard on a tour boat on the River Thames in England. Tour guide: "On the left you'll see Runnymeade, where the Magna Carta was signed in 1215". American tourist, looking at his watch: "Damn Margo, it's twelve-thirty. We just missed it"
Dogs accept all (She/They) 7 months ago
... Okay that's a whole new level of stupid.
Load More Replies...
Petra Schaap 7 months ago
i think this is more about ignorant people than ignorant tourists... dont think they will be the brightest when they are back home.
Margaret Shannon 7 months ago
I embarrassed myself by asking a German friend if there were shopping malls in her country. In my defense, I was thinking that because Germany is a European country, the weather was probably nicer than my home state of Georgia, and therefore enclosure wasn’t needed.
mandy the capibara 7 months ago
It's not such a stupid question, as malls are not that common in (north) Europe. They do exist, but they are not very popular, and local governments oftrn don't want them, because they threaten the historic city centers ( as shops will move away from the center towards the cheaper malls(
Load More Replies...
D Hammerman 7 months ago
Viewing a Roman mosiac of a feast in a London museum. An American woman loudly, in a southern accent, questions, "You mean they knew what crabs were back then!?"
Sherman 7 months ago
.... n this is exactly why I lied about being from the US when I travel abroad... I even put a Canadian patch on my bag n use a Canadian accent... lol. Not even kidding. Learned the hard way after the first time I traveled abroad as an American. It's crazy how much different you're treated when you're not considered a dumb American. Which.... is valid to assume all Americans are dumb. Bc we are.
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 7 months ago
As you said in your earlier post, speak for yourself. Not all of us are dumb.
Load More Replies...
Camilla Koutsos 7 months ago
I was once asked if we have electricity in Aotearoa/NZ. I won’t say the nationality of the person asking.
Lotekguy 7 months ago
I'm hoping it was a guy from Kazakhstan named Borat.
Load More Replies... Did I say that out loud? (he/him)cis/het 7 months ago
This thread reminds of the story of a tourist asking why they built Windsor Castle so close to the airport (Heathrow). Windsor Castle was built in the 11th century and isn't even the oldest castle in England.
weatherwitch 7 months ago
My own personal favourite was when I was working at Calke Abbey (stately home in Derbyshire) and an elderly American tourist asked if this was the way to the dungeons... It was the tight old dingy staircase for the staff! 🤣🤣 There was no dungeon, it was a domestic house converted in 1537 from Calke Priory .... 🤣 My favourite as told to me was at Speke Hall, Liverpool dating from 1530 when an American tourist said it was a pity they built the house So close to the airport 🤦🏻♀️🤣🤣🤣
Alewa 7 months ago (edited)
When I lived in Australia, we had this lovely, kind but somewhat naive and very young research assistant who had just moved from a small town to the big city and was very curious about the world. She told our Thai PhD student how impressed she was with him to have gotten an education that enabled him to study in Australia, considering he grew up in a hut with not healthcare system etc. His response was very gracious, showing her pictures of Bangkok, the place he grew up in and telling her about his upbringing. She was flabbergasted. She also wondered why so many places in England are named after places in Australia. She was eager enough to learn though and genuinely curious. It wasn't her fault that she had grown up in a remote place and apparently lack of education about the rest for the world.
Alewa 7 months ago
I have to admit I underestimated the size of the US and Australia - no, you cannot travel across the entire country even in 2 months if you're on a budget. Explored smaller regions of the country and came back another time. I think I prefer that to hopping from one place to another anyway.
BoredBranzino 7 months ago
I apologize on behalf of all Americans with a modicum of sense (which is fortunately exponentially more than the traveling nitwits), and I promise that when I see them behaving badly abroad, that I have a word with them about it.
JayWantsACat 7 months ago
I guess Americans never travel out of our own country but when we do we're incredibly stupid. Got it.
CuttlefishHierarchy 7 months ago
They're not wrong. I've traveled extensively, usually on my own. Whenever I've gone with another American, I've inevitably been mortified by their behavior. Rude, loud and often distressed because things aren't the way they are at home. The majority of Americans never leave the country, except maybe to Canada or an all-inclusive resort somewhere (filled with other Americans). Our distance and lack of learning to appreciate other cultures makes many perfectly lovely people in making a**es of themselves when they go abroad.
Load More Replies... ADZ 7 months ago
I've had 3 separate American twenty something year old women abuse me here in Australia when I was a barista demanding "real coffee". They wanted percolated c**p in a jug and refused to accept what we had was coffee. 3 separate times.
CuttlefishHierarchy 7 months ago
That's weird. Coffee culture has finally caught on here and young people are generally pretty into it. Most people who like coffee have a Keurig or fancy espresso machine. That kind of thing. I haven't seen anyone use a percolator since the late 70s, I think.
Load More Replies...
Anony Mouse 7 months ago
As usual it deteriorates into America bashing again. Nothing is guaranteed to get more clicks and comments, except maybe tipping culture rage-bait.
Scott Wilkins 7 months ago
I have little disposable income needed to visit foreign countries. The comments here certainly don't make me feel "invited" either. I can see why my ancestors left Europe.
Rachel Pelz 7 months ago
But if you had a chance to travel, maybe only once--wouldn't you inform yourself, look at maps, read about where you're going?
Load More Replies... Lotekguy 7 months ago
As an American, the totality of the posts is rather embarrassing. Most of the ignorance of those who came here was related to not realizing distances in such a large country. By comparison, our ignorance abroad embraces a wide variety of subjects and issues. Please don't judge us all by our dumbest. They may annoy you briefly, but we have to live with the results of how they vote here.
Beck 7 months ago (edited)
Some of the loveliest people I’ve met are American. Y’all are a fantastic, generous, optimistic and welcoming people, for the most part :) I’m sorry you all get judged and defined so often by the loudest/angriest/dumbest people or the decisions made by your government that most of you disagree with. It’s not fair to the rest of you.
Load More Replies... Chickens are fluffy 7 months ago
I swear not all of us citizens of the U.S.A. are this stupid.
Sapna Sarfare 7 months ago
Dont worry.. we know that.. but such Americans give a bad rep to others who are wonderful. Americans i see are curious people..
Load More Replies... Ima Manimal 7 months ago (edited)
From Louisiana here. We do not: Have pet alligators; Go to New Orleans every chance we get; Travel exclusively by boat; Eat nutria; All speak French; Live in the swamp
Iyelatu 7 months ago
If i ever visit NZ, i would like it if locals there could tell me the direction to Mordor.
Jen 7 months ago
NZ is one of my favorite places to visit. If you really want to go to Mordor, they will not only give you directions but the number/address of one of many tour companies taking groups. That goes for pretty much every other filming location of Middle Earth.
Load More Replies... T'Mar of Vulcan 7 months ago
South Africa DOES have electricity by the way (I answered facetiously further up); they just keep turning it off in selected areas so the whole grid doesn't go down. It's now the run-up to the elections, and by some miracle we haven't had load shedding for a week. The ANC is so transparent.
Dan Flo 7 months ago
This belongs here: " A US couple who took part in a cruise to northern Norway, filed a complaint to the operator, wanting a total refund of the trip. They referred to the advertisement of the trip, describing the 'very special midnight sun in Norway'. After a few days of cruise, however, the bright couple figured out that the sun indeed was the very same one that they had home in America (!), nothing 'special' about that. So they claimed to have been cheated, mobilised their lawyers, demanding the mony back!" https://britishexpats.com/forum/rec-travel-europe-44/us-couple-complained-midnight-sun-253873/
Marilyn Russell 7 months ago
I remember years ago back in the good old 80’s when it was fun for Canadians to drive down to DisneyWorld in Florida, a girl at McDonald’s said, “Ya’ll from Canada? Do you know Stephanie?” Now I’m older though, I suspect she was trolling the teenage me.
Pittsburgh rare 7 months ago
Twenty years ago, a couple of American tourists asked a coworker and I how to drive back to the States. We were in Spain. My workmate and l clocked eyes and sent them towards Portugal. We figured once they got to the ocean they'd realise. I sometimes think about them.
rainbowbrite141 7 months ago
If Darwin is correct they did not realize it when they got to the ocean.
Load More Replies... Jaquibear 7 months ago
Overheard on a tour boat on the River Thames in England. Tour guide: "On the left you'll see Runnymeade, where the Magna Carta was signed in 1215". American tourist, looking at his watch: "Damn Margo, it's twelve-thirty. We just missed it"
Dogs accept all (She/They) 7 months ago
... Okay that's a whole new level of stupid.
Load More Replies... Petra Schaap 7 months ago
i think this is more about ignorant people than ignorant tourists... dont think they will be the brightest when they are back home.
Margaret Shannon 7 months ago
I embarrassed myself by asking a German friend if there were shopping malls in her country. In my defense, I was thinking that because Germany is a European country, the weather was probably nicer than my home state of Georgia, and therefore enclosure wasn’t needed.
mandy the capibara 7 months ago
It's not such a stupid question, as malls are not that common in (north) Europe. They do exist, but they are not very popular, and local governments oftrn don't want them, because they threaten the historic city centers ( as shops will move away from the center towards the cheaper malls(
Load More Replies... D Hammerman 7 months ago
Viewing a Roman mosiac of a feast in a London museum. An American woman loudly, in a southern accent, questions, "You mean they knew what crabs were back then!?"
Sherman 7 months ago
.... n this is exactly why I lied about being from the US when I travel abroad... I even put a Canadian patch on my bag n use a Canadian accent... lol. Not even kidding. Learned the hard way after the first time I traveled abroad as an American. It's crazy how much different you're treated when you're not considered a dumb American. Which.... is valid to assume all Americans are dumb. Bc we are.
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 7 months ago
As you said in your earlier post, speak for yourself. Not all of us are dumb.
Load More Replies... Camilla Koutsos 7 months ago
I was once asked if we have electricity in Aotearoa/NZ. I won’t say the nationality of the person asking.
Lotekguy 7 months ago
I'm hoping it was a guy from Kazakhstan named Borat.
Load More Replies... Did I say that out loud? (he/him)cis/het 7 months ago
This thread reminds of the story of a tourist asking why they built Windsor Castle so close to the airport (Heathrow). Windsor Castle was built in the 11th century and isn't even the oldest castle in England.
weatherwitch 7 months ago
My own personal favourite was when I was working at Calke Abbey (stately home in Derbyshire) and an elderly American tourist asked if this was the way to the dungeons... It was the tight old dingy staircase for the staff! 🤣🤣 There was no dungeon, it was a domestic house converted in 1537 from Calke Priory .... 🤣 My favourite as told to me was at Speke Hall, Liverpool dating from 1530 when an American tourist said it was a pity they built the house So close to the airport 🤦🏻♀️🤣🤣🤣
Alewa 7 months ago (edited)
When I lived in Australia, we had this lovely, kind but somewhat naive and very young research assistant who had just moved from a small town to the big city and was very curious about the world. She told our Thai PhD student how impressed she was with him to have gotten an education that enabled him to study in Australia, considering he grew up in a hut with not healthcare system etc. His response was very gracious, showing her pictures of Bangkok, the place he grew up in and telling her about his upbringing. She was flabbergasted. She also wondered why so many places in England are named after places in Australia. She was eager enough to learn though and genuinely curious. It wasn't her fault that she had grown up in a remote place and apparently lack of education about the rest for the world.
Alewa 7 months ago
I have to admit I underestimated the size of the US and Australia - no, you cannot travel across the entire country even in 2 months if you're on a budget. Explored smaller regions of the country and came back another time. I think I prefer that to hopping from one place to another anyway.
BoredBranzino 7 months ago
I apologize on behalf of all Americans with a modicum of sense (which is fortunately exponentially more than the traveling nitwits), and I promise that when I see them behaving badly abroad, that I have a word with them about it.
JayWantsACat 7 months ago
I guess Americans never travel out of our own country but when we do we're incredibly stupid. Got it.
CuttlefishHierarchy 7 months ago
They're not wrong. I've traveled extensively, usually on my own. Whenever I've gone with another American, I've inevitably been mortified by their behavior. Rude, loud and often distressed because things aren't the way they are at home. The majority of Americans never leave the country, except maybe to Canada or an all-inclusive resort somewhere (filled with other Americans). Our distance and lack of learning to appreciate other cultures makes many perfectly lovely people in making a**es of themselves when they go abroad.
Load More Replies... ADZ 7 months ago
I've had 3 separate American twenty something year old women abuse me here in Australia when I was a barista demanding "real coffee". They wanted percolated c**p in a jug and refused to accept what we had was coffee. 3 separate times.
CuttlefishHierarchy 7 months ago
That's weird. Coffee culture has finally caught on here and young people are generally pretty into it. Most people who like coffee have a Keurig or fancy espresso machine. That kind of thing. I haven't seen anyone use a percolator since the late 70s, I think.
Load More Replies... Anony Mouse 7 months ago
As usual it deteriorates into America bashing again. Nothing is guaranteed to get more clicks and comments, except maybe tipping culture rage-bait.
Scott Wilkins 7 months ago
I have little disposable income needed to visit foreign countries. The comments here certainly don't make me feel "invited" either. I can see why my ancestors left Europe.
Rachel Pelz 7 months ago
But if you had a chance to travel, maybe only once--wouldn't you inform yourself, look at maps, read about where you're going?
Load More Replies...
Related on Bored Panda
