Both posts were interesting!

Three lager louts/football hooligans/maybe just drunks, were striding through the airport singing rude songs . . . wearing plastic German/Nazi helmets.>>

mmm - as a certain red-haired member of the royal family reminded us a few years ago, this sort of behaviour is not restricted to the lower classes. i don't think that he was on holiday at the time - just living it up.

BTW, "faggot" as well as being a meat-ball, is also a bundle of fire-wood - which is where this particular train of thought started.

Not in Europe but Buenos Aires is called the Paris of South America .....

A person was mugged in a park and an American and his wife, both tourists, ran to the person and tried to help him.
Other people just watched, but the Americans ran right over. Crazy Americans

Like all of you, I have seen bad behavior in many nationalities. Probably the rudest group who visit NYC are those who speak French. I am not sure they are French or Québécois. Years ago before the Albertville Olympics, the French always treated Mrs. Adu and I rudely. For years when someone would ask me for directions with a French accent, I would intentionally send them in the wrong direction.

Although I have not done that in decades, the rudest visitors are still the French.

<I have seen bad behavior in many nationalities> PLUS NEW YORKERS. It seems to me that the Mayors of New York city in the last decade or two were trying to get New Yorkers to be more friendly to tourists. Yes or No??

Aduchamp, it would not surprise me if they were Quebecois. I was waiting in the departure lounge at Vancouver airport for the flight to Montreal, on my way to NYC last December. I didn't hear the gate agent's announcement properly so I politely asked the couple next to me if they had heard which rows were boarding.
The man completely ignored me and the woman looked down her nose and in perfect English said " I speak FRENCH!" Well, excccuuuuuusse meeee!!

In NYC we found people to be very friendly and helpful for the most part. It was right before Christmas and I have never seen such lively Salvation Army kettle volunteers! They were bopping and singing and cajoling people to join in, it was a hoot.

We stayed at the Hotel Wales and ate breakfast in Sarabeth's each morning and really enjoyed the people watching. I must say New Yorkers are very lively and loud!
The only sour note was a group of very snotty Madison Avenue princesses who took the table next to us one day and pushed their chairs out until they were almost on top of us, treated the waitress like crap and shouted and waved their arms around with complete abandon. During all this carry on one of them dropped her credit card on the floor and didn't notice. My friend from North Carolina picked it up, politely said "excuse me I think you dropped this". All of them stared daggers at us and Missy snatched the credit card back and said "humph, I wonder how you got THAT?!" Implying that we had picked her pocket. Nice! No thank you.
I can't repeat on here what I felt like telling her to do with that credit card amongst other things.
My friend gives a good death stare and said "on the floor where you threw it."

Adu:

The French have had a problem with tourists for years, e.g.,

"The confident and overlusty French, do the low-rated English play at dice..."

and that was in 1415.

I did find on my most recent visit to Paris that we were treated more kindly than on an earlier trip. I didn't know whether to attribute it to an overall change in attitude or that the French have always been kinder to old farts than they are to young whippersnappers. I do know my French was 20 years more rusty.

In an European up scale restaurant a table with three from Utah. One female DEMANDED lemon pepper for her salad. The wait staff was confused by the request. She proclaimed, "What is the big deal? Every restaurant in Utah has lemon pepper." Finally bought cracked pepper and a half a lemon. At which she exploded and pushed her salad to the center of the table, " I CANNOT eat this without lemon pepper."

<I have seen bad behavior in many nationalities> PLUS NEW YORKERS. It seems to me that the Mayors of New York city in the last decade or two were trying to get New Yorkers to be more friendly to tourists. Yes or No??
________
Ed Koch was a mean surly cuss and Rudy Guiliani was the most vindictive man in NYC, so I am not sure they were capable of giving lessons. But time after time in Trip Reports people always say how accommodating NY'ers are. There are 17 million people in the Metro area and if we did not know how get along there would be dead people littering Times Square instead of being the safest big city in America.

Telling tale. I was waiting for our coats on line at MoMA and the fellow behind pushed us a a few times. On the third time I turned asked him to wait for his turn. He said he was a tourist and was acting pre-emptively because he heard NY'ers were rude.

____
The attitude toward tourists improved after the Albertville Olympics in 1992 when there was a national campaign regarding civility. In the late 80's we visited Paris and to the person they were rude and nasty.

But during our first trip in 1971, Mrs. Adu and I were admiring the wrought iron work on the doors at Notre Dame and an elderly man engaged us. We was pleased in our interest and asked to go to cafe. He told us he always appreciated Americans for what they did during WWII. When we said the obvious, that it was parents who did that, he said that since could not thank them, he could thank us as paid for drinks.

Yanks abroad :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAgX6...e_gdata_player

I luv em.

Still, we would have never beaten the Spanish Armada without them.

I though they were useful at Crecy

Stonehenge, Hadrian's Wall and Preston bus station just some things that would never have happened without help from our "special friends".

My cringe-worthy moment:
I was having a very elegant lunch at Les Crayeres in Rheims when a large group of Americans arrived, all wearing jeans/boots (sorry, but they had to be Texans). After perusing the menu one of them proclaimed loudly "Damn, don't they have a cheeseburger on this menu?"

How about a boorish Boer old bag from South Afrika on another K-D boat ride on the Rhine - we were sitting in the best seats in the house, or boat - right up front of top deck and this old Boer bag was sitting next to some Italian tourists who did not speak English it seemed - for some reason she said she wanted them to go and she said 'this will get them moving' and she pulled out a big cigar and literally blew the Italians away! I was aghast at such rudeness and bragging about it.

Being propositioned by a Brit on an airplane to join the mile high club. I said "no" to the offer. If he had been an American, I might have given another answer.

PalenQ, I so agree with <i>"I was aghast at such rudeness and bragging about it."</i>

And I think this applies to tossing beach towels into the pool as well as giving incorrect directions to French-accented inquirers, both mentioned above.

Tosing towels in the pool is normal behaviour in Europe now, especially in Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland.

2 from the same location come to mind. Selinda camp in Botswana.

Group 1 - Got had us in stitches when they loudly asked the camp manager if the safe was safe.
The same family had 2 tents - one for the teenagers and one for the adults. Around 1 am the father decided to go back to his original tent. He screamed at the top of his lungs for a guide to come take him. I'm sure the lions left in disgust.

Group 2 (from Tx)- Came to beautiful Botswana to hunt what we came to photograph and enjoy. These people had 2 very spoiled daughters who complained about the hot water. Hated them!

Tosing towels in the pool is normal behaviour in Europe now, especially in Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland.>>

do they have pools in Ireland?

Group 2 (from Tx)- Came to beautiful Botswana to hunt what we came to photograph and enjoy. These people had 2 very spoiled daughters who complained about the hot water. >>

cybor, perhaps they were the same girls [aged about 14 & 16] who were on safari with us who at 6am came out in full makeup, and immaculately attired, and spent the next 4 hours looking bored out of their skulls [which I suspect they were]. didn't hate so much as pity them.

I have never taken my tossing towel into the pool.