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any more stories?

a couple of stories:<BR>my uncle was on an escorted tour of Majorca and the guide explained to the tourists that they were foreigners in the country and should observe local customs and a yorkshire accent piped up loudly "eeh, we're not foreigners, lass, we're English"<BR>and another:<BR>many years ago as a teenager on holiday in Yugoslavia I wanted to iron some clothes so I looked up the word "iron" in a phrasebook and advanced on a maid saying "gvosje" - she looked at me as if I was completely round the twist - many years later my yugoslavian bro-in-law explained that gvosje means the metal "iron" rather than the steam iron. Now I also now the word for "quickly" so I am looking for a job as a production manager in a Yugoslav steelmill<BR>oh I forgot - on a train from Gatwick to Victoria - a lady with a strong southern accent was asking if you needed a passport to get to Wales - not really laughing at her because it is another country<BR>slogan on a teatowel in Wales - keep Wales clean, dump your garbage in England!!<BR>

We visited the Bunratty Folk Park in Ireland in 1996 and I caught our visit on video. In one of the cottages there was an American from Boston - he told everyone this repeatedly - who was lecturing the staff there recreating 19th c. Ireland on how they'd got everything wrong. No matter where I moved in the house you could hear his voice lecturing this poor group of women. Whenever we watch this video everyone always has a good laugh on the American who knows more than the Irish about how the Irish lived.

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Well, I'll post a few "funniest tourist" stories . . . in which the funny tourists were my family and I!<BR><BR>My mom has traveled throughout Central America, Africa, and a couple of times to Asia and Europe. Nevertheless, she remains a LOUD, SLOW ENGLISH TALKER when speaking to local people in other countries.<BR><BR>We were walking around in Shanghai, and saw a small little store full of teddy bears; her colleague collects them, so we went in to see if there might be one dressed in traditional Chinese clothes - no luck. My mother, as she left, turned to the shopkeeper, who in great communist tradition, was bored out of her mind, checking her split ends, not at all interested in us or whether or not we might buy something. My mother says (loudly and slowly): "IIIiiii'm SOOOOOORREEEEE. WE WERE LOOKING FOR A BEAaaaaaayyyyyR WITH CHIiiiiNESE CLOoooooTHES, BUT WE DON'T SEEEEeeeee ONE!" Meanwhile, I'm desperately trying to drag my mom out of the store, explaining that not only does the girl not care AT ALL, but she also doesn't speak any English.<BR><BR>A travel companion who shall remain nameless to protect the not-so-innocent, asked, after we'd finished a tour of the Parthenon; "Should we go see the Colusseum now?" I replied: "Well, I'd like to see it too, but it's in ROME and we're in ATHENS!"<BR><BR>Finally, me. Over Christmas 2 years ago, we were in Milan. We'd been expecting cold, but not lots of snow, which (wonderfully) was what we got. I wanted to go for a walk as the snow flurried down over the city (there were already more than 3 inches), but I hadn't packed anything appropriate for walking in that weather. So, I put on my nice black trousers, and my nice black coat from Paris . . . and my white tennis shoes (which I brought for exercising!!), and covered my head with a cream-colored cashmere scarf! I looked like an absolute moron, but I had the most WONDERFUL walk through the city!

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