Ugly Tourist Story: Can You Top This?

Ah, nice. They probably did no research, and asked people what were the "must-sees" in the area. All right, we're going to Auschwitz! Fun! Bring the cooler with the six pack. Who's got the frisbee?

Wow. Unbelievable. I have a few ugly American stories but they don't top this one. You all were so lucky you didn't see them again!

I like the title "Ugly Tourist Story". Americans tend to be a little self deprecating and the title opens up the discussion. Cant say i have run into something that bad, but if someone pushes me out of a line, its a Russian. If someone cuts in front of me in a line, its an Asian, if someone is blind drunk its a Brit and if someone is complaining endlessly about something its an Indian. Okay, flame me for stereotyping ............. oh if someone is making an incredibly inappropriate and uninformed comment then its an American. Oh wait, i have one. I once ran into a group of French girls (early 20's) at a holocaust monument in Budapest. The message of the monument is nt immediately clear so one of the girls asked what it was I explained that the bronze shoes were placed in the location where the Nazi's lined up the Jews on the riverbank and shot them letting the bodies fall into the river. Shoes were in short supply at the time so often the Jews were made to remove their shoes first. The girl that asked the question, with a big smile, said something to the effect of "cool". Cool? Really? I pushed her into the river, Naaaa, but i wanted to. My wife stopped me.

We have and they were Americans. At least in this case, they were not Americans. Ugly tourists are ugly regardless of where they are from.

Two camera-related stories:
-back in the days of film, I saw a tactless shutterbug in the antiquities area at the British Museum use a painted sarcophagus as a tabletop, laying his shoulder bag and jacket on it and then carefully putting a new roll of film in his camera, resting his forearms and canister carefully on the two-thousand-year-old object so as not to shake his camera.
--more recently, a group (maybe a team) of teens standing before Picasso's Guernica in Madrid arranged themselves so a couple tall boys were blocking the view of the guards while a couple shorter girls took many many many flash photos of the mural. I started gesturing towards them to get the guards' attention and another large young man then moved in front of me until I gave up.

I saw the same kind of thing at the Guernica. A large group of young tourists came in flash cameras a-blazing. I'm sure they got good pictures of each other in front of that exceptionally moving painting. Somehow they managed to not see the "no flash" symbols. There was only one guard on duty at the time. I caught her eye, pointed to the flashers, and she shrugged as if to say that she could do nothing about it. Needless to say, none of that group spent any time with the painting at all. They simply took their pictures and moved on.

Taking pictures of anything, especially art, where it is forbidden makes me angry. When done with a flash camera of any kind, it makes me both angry and sad. It's either narcissism or ignorance or both. They think they can do whatever they want no matter what anyone says, and/or they do not realize that multiple flash pictures over time can harm the art.

From the ugly Americans in America file:

http://articles.latimes.com/2014/feb/01/nation/la-na-nn-boy-scout-rock-vandalism-20140201

It took 20 million years of wind and water erosion to form an eye-catching, mushroom-shaped boulder in a Utah state park. Heaving the stone off its perch took a man just 10 seconds, and the action sparked international disgust.

A pair of former Boy Scout leaders who said they destroyed the rock formation to protect people from being crushed by it were charged with felony mischief this week, Utah state parks officials announced.

Not exactly an ugly tourist story but we were doing a harbour tour in Portsmouth yesterday and there were two Asian girls on the boat and I swear to god one of them sat for about 15 min staring into her phone on her selfie stick (so she wasn't texting...unless she was using mind control), not even bothering to look at the things the commentary was pointing out. Maybe she was doing a video...but a whole video of her staring at herself? Was she that fascinated with herself??! Maybe she hypnotized herself...she was lost in her own eyes. She couldn't even be bothered to look at the scenery. Yikes

I was in the d'Dorsay when a young American teenage girl actually TOUCHED one of Van Gogh's paintings. Her girlfriends made her remove her finger but they all were laughing about it. There seemed to be no adults with them and I don't think that the guards noticed. I don't know if this qualifies as ugly, but it certainly was ignorant.

As I said above, mine don't top yours but here are two...

Our friend, my 11 yo son and I were at the top of the Eiffel Tower, there is a place with a railing around it where you can look straight down to the ground. A 30-something American guy with a NY accent was standing 2 ft from us, also looking down, when he said very loudly.. "F--ck (drawn out) that's a long way down!" My young son was next to me and I was furious he would say that with my son there and that he'd say that loudly enough for everyone within 30' could hear him so I turned to him, gave him a nasty glaring stare and said "Do you mind?" and he responded "Whaaaat?" I said my son is right here.. he said "I don't give a F--k, I can say whatever the F--k I want." I went right into his face (he was not big) and told him, quietly but with anger, that he was a nasty piece of garbage and slowly walked away.

Another time my son and I were in line in the Metro at the manned ticket window behind three, well dressed 60-something American women.. they didn't speak a word of French and didn't say hello to the man when they just started talking to him in very loud American English barking questions at him about how to get wherever they were going, what tickets did they need, cost, etc. The man was extremely nice to them, very patient, and answered all their questions in English as he looked through a big book to figure it all out for them. They were there for at least 25 min. They then gave him money for the tickets, took the tickets and... Just Walked Away! After all the time and effort he put into helping them they didn't say one word. No Thank You, goodbye, nothing. They just walked away. It was my turn next so I thanked the man for them, told him how nice he was and how rude those women were.. he smiled, shrugged his shoulders and said "Oh that's ok, it's my job.." all the time smiling. He was a class act.

OH I have so many of these...nothing compared to the insensitivity of the initial story but...
The one that always comes to mind was quite a few years ago, when we were dining in a very nice restaurant in Belgium. A few tables away was an incredibly loud American woman who was becoming increasingly agitated at her waiter because there wasn't ice, the waiter didn't speak good English, the service was slow, etc. What finally put me over the edge was when she started saying loudly, so the whole restaurant could hear, "I WANT A STEAK! CAN'T ANYONE AROUND HERE JUST GET ME A STEAK??!!", and she kept going on and on about the steak, that was not even close to anything this restaurant had on it's menu.
Finally a man from another table, who spoke English, went over quietly and explained that there was nothing like this served at this restaurant and then suggested another restaurant in town that could accommodate here need for a steak. They stormed out...in a country where few people meet your eye when you look their way, most people made eye contact with each other in relief and annoyance/amusement. I felt sorry for the proprietors of the other restaurant where they were headed!

No I don't think I can top your experience, that was truly awful. However on one of our visits to Dachau we came upon a couple walking through the memorial site, talking in normal tones anyone around them could hear, who were clearly holocaust deniers.

These examples of egregious behaviour, the use of blatant profanity, being flippant, etc. are all pretty bad. I've seen some, we all have, done by Americans, Aussies, Russians , Asians (presumably East Asian, what nationality were they...Korean, Chinese, Japanese ?) etc. but don't expect them to change. They won't change their behaviour and stay as the "ugly tourist."

My visit to Auschwitz a few years back did involve an actual ugly American. Was walking around the compound exploring the various barracks/exhibits. Came across a tour group from Cincinnati (I know this because they were all wearing articles of clothing with "Cincinnati" written on em) and despite numerous signs in english commanding silence, one lady very loudly decided to let everyone know in a 50 yard radius that" she was not going in anymore of these friggin buildings until I can find a baaaaathroom". Yikes!

A middle aged daughter, the mother, and a grandson/nephew were served a salad in very nice, upscale restaurant. The daughter demand lemon pepper for the salad. We were at the next table. The waiter returned in a few minutes with a pepper grinder and a fresh, lemon half. Set it down. She proclaims in a louder voice, "What is this??? I want lemon pepper. What part of that do you not understand." By that time someone in white jacket from the kitchen arrived, along with a manager/owner, who are saying something. Because we were very close I leaned in and says, "I don't think they have lemon pepper as flavored peppers are not common in Europe." Wrong thing to say or trying to be nice. She swings in my directions and says very loudly, "I can get lemon pepper in any restaurant in Utah and I cannot get it in this crummy restaurant." She then shoved her salad into the middle of the table and loudly stated, "Then you cannot expect me to eat this." The evening for them did not go well. A little later we explained to our waiter what lemon pepper was. A little later an unordered bottle of wine showed up on our table.

Some people are just naturally rude, insensitive and basically totally self absorbed. I don't think it comes out just when they are traveling in Europe. They are just wired that way and are just as rude and obnoxious in their daily lives. It would be nice if these people could go on some no-travel list or be confined to their homes. Nice for the rest of us, that is.

Frank, that is a wonderful ending!

I've seen a few, none as blatant as the original post, but I will share this one. It was my first trip to Paris when we were preparing to leave the hotel on the airport shuttle bus. The gentlemen from the hotel were trying to get people onto the correct shuttle bus. My wife had boarded the bus before me while I saw to our luggage. I observed one of the gentlemen trying to maintain his composure while a woman from New Jersey was giving him a hard time about something or other.

I boarded the bus and my wife pointed out that gentlemen and said that he was helpful and nice to her. So I got off the bus went up to him as the NJ woman was about to leave. He looked at me with a stone face as if expecting another onslaught of verbal abuse. I said to him, "Excuse me sir. I want to thank you for being helpful to my wife." I then pressed 5 Euro into his hand and re-boarded the bus as he gave me a thankful smile.

Then, when we arrived at the airport i was off the bus and trying to collect my luggage from the bus. I instinctively grabbed a bag close to me and handed it out. A woman's voice said, "merci." She then
looked at me and said, "Oh! You're an American! I don't have to say merci!" Obviously she didn't have to say "thank you" either.

Long line up at St Chapelle one day about 5 years ago. We were waiting in the line for security, and we had our Museum passes.

A very British man( strong accent) was in front of us in line, maybe ten people up.
I guess he had just discovered he was on the line for folks who had tickets or passes already, and all of a sudden at top of his lungs he starts ranting " f&cking g8ddam frogs can't do anything right" " " where's a damm sign saying ticket only line"" go&dam frogs " " I am not getting in another fking line..." His poor wife looked absolutely mortifed and very cowed..and I was furious becasue their were french speakers in line near us and I am sure they understood every Foul word!

I was in a small shop in Austria. A young Brit was at the counter making a purchase, and said to the older female shopkeeper, "I guess I should say heil Hitler or something, har har." The shopkeeper was stunned speechless. I told her in my best tourist German that his behavior was an embarrassment. She thanked me tearfully for understanding, clearly shaken.

Apart from putting flash photographers on a no-fly list, I wish there was something that could be done about universal rudeness. I wonder if the bus drivers, museum guards, waiters, etc., get through it by thinking the offenders will be gone in a minute. But they are swiftly replaced.

Another genre is the abusive travel companion, loudly berating spouse or children for something while sightseeing. Way to make a memory.

Stan, it's inconceivable to me that anyone would say a thing like that, let alone think it was funny.

I have a German friend who is a personal and group tour guide (in Germany), and one of her biggest fears is having to deal with insensitive questions or comments from foreigners about the war. That chapter of history is an enormous source of embarrassment and pain for her. Even worse would be the possibility of clients who request a "Hitler Tour" - which she would flatly decline to do.

Totally agree with the callousness and insensitivity of such a statement, let alone stupidity.

Most likely those who want a so-called Hitler Tour are amateurs, otherwise they would have done the research, ie, lots of it, and track down the sites themselves without the necessity in their eyes of such a tour. But, then, on the other hand, tracking down these sites may just be beyond the skill of these amateurs.

I agree, the example provided by Stan is the epitome of boorish and insensitive behaviour. It's hard to understand why anyone would do that.

For those interested, there are tours available that cover WW-II history in many cities. Those that wish can easily take one of those.

There are some very good WWI and WWII tours. There's one I'd like to do in Belgium next time around.

We took a little tour from Jerusalem one year to Jordan. There were 8 of us, 4 Israelis, 2 Americans and my husband and I. In Amman we visited a mosque, I don't remember which one but King Hussein had financed the gold covering on the dome not too long before our visit. Anyway, we entered, it was empty except for a man who was vacuuming the carpets, and immediately one of the Americans, a woman, climbed up into what I would call the pulpit, and pretended to be delivering a sermon. It was so offensive on so many levels I can't tell you how shocked I was. I imagine the man cleaning the carpets has never recovered.