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Ok, as most of you know I've come back from Canada and I've been thinking about some things, like the nature of nationalities when on holiday.

For example, the rest of my family went away to Gran Canaria when I was away and my dad told me a story about the Germans and how they were up at 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning to put their towels on the chairs etc, even though you are not allowed to do it! Is this normal for Germans?

Give us your examples of what nationalities do on holiday when they go.

It is so embarassing to go with my cousins. Because we are typically Pakistani. It is a lot of fun
We are loud, sleep till late, really loud, enjoy ourselves immensely and then get stares from everybody around.
Oh yeah none of the rules of the hotel or whatever apply to us when we are on vacation.

Hmmm...tourists. Typically the bane of all Englishmen (and women ), we absolutely hate them. All of them. And the French, Japanese, Italians, Americans and just about all of them are the worst. However, I've noticed a strange fact - when we English, who hate tourists probably more than anyone (most likely because they don't have stiff upper lips and dare to speak another language), go to another country, we are at least as bad, if not worse...all the things that we despise in tourists, being loud, disrespectful, annoying, lost ( ), come right out to the top of our characters. Is it something in the brain that as soon as we go to another country, we instantly become neanderthals, incapable of obeying the simplest of rules of common courtesy?

Us Kiwi's must be a strange lot then. No matter where you go you'll find a New Zealander on holiday there. And for the most part, we're a friendly, adventurous lot who are more that happy to try out what other cultures have to offer.

Tourists are also quite welcomed here. Heck, a fair part of our economy relies on them!

I've noticed there seem to be two different types of tourists - the kind who appear to go out of their way to annoy everyone (and wear stupid clothes ), and the kind who visit someplace because they're actually interested in the area/culture/etc. and tend to be polite. Nationality makes no difference.

From Norway there are two kinds of tourists.

1. The young "posse" of friends who travel to some Mediterranean island to party for 1 - 3 weeks. They drink ALOT, parties every night and generally don`t care about others. My brother (18 years old) just got home from Magaluf and he told me that they were the worst of them all. There were some English boys there but they left their rooms around 22.00.
There were so much noise from my brothers room they couldn`t even hear their own music. However this is a place for the youths, so nobody really cared about it. Infact almost the entire hotel met in their room for a vorspiel before going out to the town.


2. The families. Parents taking their kids out for summer vacation.
They also travel to the Mediterranean area but they choose a more family oriented place to stay. They visit different places and torture the kids who just wanna stay at the beach or near the pool.

Originally posted by Nippy
the Germans and how they were up at 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning to put their towels on the chairs etc, even though you are not allowed to do it! Is this normal for Germans?

YES!
In the summer many Germans come over to Holland, since we have a beach.

They all start digging holes in the sand, and then they .... sit in them. When the come back next day they expect everyone to stay away from their hole. If their is someone else in it, they they can get pretty angry.

But they are pretty cool people, though we like to piss them off any way possible. They do the same with us.

Re: Re: Holiday Habits...

Originally posted by Rob-hin


YES!
In the summer many Germans come over to Holland, since we have a beach.

They all start digging holes in the sand, and then they .... sit in them. When the come back next day they expect everyone to stay away from their hole. If their is someone else in it, they they can get pretty angry.

But they are pretty cool people, though we like to piss them off any way possible. They do the same with us.

Strange customs. People basically claim small pieces of sand and expect it to be theirs on the next day. That is weird. On all the beaches Ive been to, I have never heard anyone acting that way.

Well, they actually do it.
Sometimes they even stick little (german) flags around them.

Originally posted by Rob-hin
Well, they actually do it.
Sometimes they even stick little (german) flags around them.

LOL Its like theyve conquered terratory and claiming it as their spoils.

The germans are back, run for the hills!

LOL!
They are pretty sensetive about those jokes.
So we make them every chance we get!

When we visited Plovdiv, Bulgaria for several weeks about nine years ago, the person whose home we stayed in was a translator effective in several languages. She told us that in her daily job, dealing with international conventions, the worst customers were invariably the Finns, and the Japanese. She said that their respective cultures are relatively restrictive to individual privacy and expression, so that when they traveled anywhere, excesses were common. She said she took a defense class just to deal with drunken, lecherous Finnish delegations.

Re: The germans are back, run for the hills!

Originally posted by Rob-hin
LOL!
They are pretty sensetive about those jokes.
So we make them every chance we get!

No disrespect intended to any Germans on the board...but LMAO I have lived and travelled in Europe quite a lot and I remember this custom vividly.....of course....the numerous jokes were always inevitable.

I have also spent a lot of time in the mountain huts and youth hostels of the Canadian Rocky Mountains....and I have noticed that large groups of travellers from both France and Germany have the habit of taking over the hut at mealtimes..... monopolizing the cooking facilities and spreading vast cloths over the crude wooden tables ( a rather bizarre habit to us uncivilised Canucks ). Both groups will then tend to peer down their noses at us as we eat the freeze-dried "food" we have brought along..... (when you have to pack it in..... you tend to sacrifice taste....)

@Nippy, btw, welcome back Hope you had a good time

I have no idea how Swedish people as a group behave as tourists. I hear they drink a lot, especially at the ski resorts in the Alps.

It's always easy to ridicule or become annoyed at tourists because they are unfamiliar with the local custums and may look differently or behave differently.

Unfortunately, there is a sense of "freedom" that captures many people when they go abroad, a sense of "nobody sees me, and nobody knows who I am" which can make people behave in the most horrible way. Many people drink, take drugs, spread litter around them, drive drunk, buy prostitutes etc just because they are abroad.

I have travelled a lot, and I have almost only positive experiences from all the places I've been to. The least friendly places I've been to are Moscow and England (not the UK, England).

Not to promote stereotypes....but I also have a somewhat humorous story.....

For a number of summers I worked as a tour guide at British Columbia's provincial legislature, and thus I was exposed to large numbers of visitors from various countries. On numerous occasions, I found people from the US to be somewhat poorly informed about our system of government and the role that the Queen plays in it......

Near the Legislature stands a large period hotel, called the Empress, and it does somewhat ressemble a castle of sorts. Quite frequently while working I was asked if the Queen lived there, and of course since I was on the job I politely explained the nature of a Constitutional Monarchy and Canada's role within the Commonwealth. However, I confess.... I did get a little tired of this question.....

One day I was in the general area during some time off, and somebody asked me the same thing...... Well...I wasn't at work....*evil grin*....so I nodded, pointed to the ornate balcony adorning the centre of the hotel. and informed the poor individual that in fact the Queen stepped out on the balcony at 2 PM every day in order to give a public address.

The incident slipped from my mind, and I did not think further of it....until, while chatting with some co-workers later that day, one of them pointed at the large crowd assembled in front of the Empress and commented..... "I wonder what the occasion is..."

It was 2 PM....

LMAO!!

Very funny story DW.
I had no idea you could be so evil.

Re: LMAO!!

Originally posted by Rob-hin
Very funny story DW.
I had no idea you could be so evil.

*grins* You don't know me very well then...

Originally posted by Kameleon

Hmmm...tourists. Typically the bane of all Englishmen (and women ), we absolutely hate them. All of them. And the French, Japanese, Italians, Americans and just about all of them are the worst. However, I've noticed a strange fact - when we English, who hate tourists probably more than anyone (most likely because they don't have stiff upper lips and dare to speak another language), go to another country, we are at least as bad, if not worse...all the things that we despise in tourists, being loud, disrespectful, annoying, lost ( ), come right out to the top of our characters. Is it something in the brain that as soon as we go to another country, we instantly become neanderthals, incapable of obeying the simplest of rules of common courtesy?

And demand a fry up for breakfast

Though admittedly I cannot face ham or cheese for breakfast, I do prefer the continental start to the day A coffee and a croissant - how civilised

American

Alright now... I have a question. I have never been off my great Country the United States of America. I wonder how certain people react to my non grounded Capitalist American friends, in other words my question is "Do you (Insert foriegn countryman) react differently to Americans? Or is it all based on character with or without knowledge of who thier alliegence is laid?"

thug

@Thug.....
well there are certainly perceptions out there that include among other things a view of Americans as Imperialist invaders who still uphold the notion of Manifest Destiny, and are generally ignorant of the customs of any nation beyond their own....

Personally, however, I try to view people as individuals, and I do not form opinions of them until at least getting to know them somewhat. IMO to not do so fosters intolerance....and is wrong....