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Chokes McGee posted:I want to come off well and not be an ugly american You know those things that seem like common sense and courtesy to do? Yeah, do those! And not the other things! It's not really that hard.. there are a few specifics that conform to the stereotype, most of which revolve around dining customs really. -Drinks will very rarely be served with ice (though in hotter countries like Greece idk, it might be different there, but hopefully the weather is mild in October). You can ask for it but they may refuse -- and honestly, don't even ask for it. Enjoy living life a little differently for a change, something most Americans seem to be incapable of. The drink will still be cold. -Likewise you are entitled to tap water if you insist on it, but that's definitely not the default, and asking for it makes you seem weird imo. The default when you just ask for a water will be sparkling, and they'll either bring it out to you as a small bottle + a glass, or as a larger bottle that the entire table shares. You'll have to specify if you want non-sparkling (still) water. -Don't be a Karen and ask to see the manager for every little inconvenience. -You're very unlikely to have the waiter come to you and ask fifteen times during your meal if everything is going okay. They'll come to take your order and bring you your food. When you're ready to pay, you'll have to let them know -- either by asking a waiter passing by, or just doing a polite gesture when you catch eye contact with them. Unless they are super extremely busy, you're unlikely to have any pressure to leave. Meals in Europe take much longer than in the US and are used as time to chill out with your family. -Look up how tipping works in Italy and Greece beforehand. American-sized 15-20% tips are definitely rare (because waitstaff earns a living wage and doesn't have to rely on tips). Re: accent, do you sound like you just walked off the set of Slingblade or something? You really shouldn't be worrying about this. Just don't be overly loud, rude, and entitled and you're 100% fine. Drone fucked around with this message at 06:50 on Apr 29, 2020 |
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Apr 29, 2020 06:43
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I wouldn't count on being able to travel in October tbf
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Apr 29, 2020 09:19
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Chokes McGee posted:hello yes I am a yank who will be taking a week holiday in October Rome and Athens, the only time I've spent in Europe has been a month in France where I had to be on my very best tip top accent for people to not hate me, I think I may have ptsd and am terrified of going other places where I don't know the language well Don't expect to be travelling till 2022
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Apr 29, 2020 12:24
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Chokes McGee posted:hello yes I am a yank who will be taking a week holiday in October Rome and Athens, the only time I've spent in Europe has been a month in France where I had to be on my very best tip top accent for people to not hate me, I think I may have ptsd and am terrified of going other places where I don't know the language well Just don't be an ugly person (on the inside) and no one will care if you're an American. Don't try to hide the fact that you're a tourist, because it's impossible; you'll be speaking English with an American accent (or really terrible Italian with what is no doubt a hilarious American accent) and you'll be walking around gawking at all the touristy stuff with all the other tourists. Just be polite and respectful and treat the people you meet with kindness (unless they're trying to scam you, in which case, gently caress 'em) and you'll get along just fine. Drone posted:The default when you just ask for a water will be sparkling, and they'll either bring it out to you as a small bottle + a glass, or as a larger bottle that the entire table shares. You'll have to specify if you want non-sparkling (still) water. Hell no, that 1l bottle is all mine. It's already too drat small as it is. (Seriously, the lack of tap water in restaurants kills me when traveling in Europe; I drink a ton of water and I can't survive on a single piddly little 30cl or 50cl bottle with each meal.  )
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Apr 29, 2020 14:44
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Drone posted:
Yes actually pls do not make fun (I meant French accent speaking French not English) Thanks though, seriously. Most of my problem is already having social anxiety in my own culture, throwing a different environment and even language barrier in there is liable to make my brain slip a cog and start acting like a huge weirdo. (See: this thread) I doubt very seriously I will have any language problems since I'm going to huge tourist areas but it's something I always dread. Maybe if I learn s little bit I'll feel better 
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Apr 29, 2020 14:59
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My current situation is that Priceline is only offering me travel credits because that's all Air Canada is offering. They're required to give a refund under the DoT guidance if they cancel or reschedule the flight, but they haven't done that even though it's only 3 days away. So I disputed the charge with AmEx, but I don't know if that will work out. I'm not sure if I should go ahead and cancel the flight in the meantime so that I at least have guaranteed flight credits if the dispute doesn't work out or if that would screw up my dispute.
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Apr 29, 2020 22:04
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Honestly, if you bother to learn like the two most basic words in any language (Hello, and thank you) you will be miles ahead of every single other tourist out there, and by greeting people in their own language they will almost certainly be willing to help you out in English afterwards because you gave it a shot and they understand that not every single tourist out there is supposed to be fluent in Greek before they arrive.
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Apr 29, 2020 23:56
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HookShot posted:Honestly, if you bother to learn like the two most basic words in any language (Hello, and thank you) you will be miles ahead of every single other tourist out there, and by greeting people in their own language they will almost certainly be willing to help you out in English afterwards because you gave it a shot and they understand that not every single tourist out there is supposed to be fluent in Greek before they arrive. Xerete. Euxaristw. Signwmi, den katalabenw. Katalabenete agglika? Good to go 
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Apr 30, 2020 00:27
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Dance Officer posted:Don't expect to be travelling till 2022 Yeah honestly, I think if a return to pre-pandemic travelling is even possible, I wouldn't expect it any time soon and certainly not by October this year. Travel restrictions will only be lifted very slowly, and I expect that they'll be very discriminatory at first. Chokes McGee posted:Yes actually pls do not make fun (I meant French accent speaking French not English) Honestly don't worry about it. Like Hookshot said if you really want to learn just do hello and thank you. There's no point learning how to order a coffee in French if you can't understand their reply of "do you want here or to go?". If you're insistent on picking up a bit of a language, then focus on phrases where it doesn't matter that you can't understand the reply - thanks for your help, the food was very tasty. And just don't do the classic American thing of repeating the exact same phrase but louder and angrier when you aren't understood.
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Apr 30, 2020 01:20
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Really the best advice I can give Americans is to pretend they're Canadian.
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Apr 30, 2020 12:43
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Dance Officer posted:Really the best advice I can give Americans is to pretend they're Canadian. In terms of being polite and open-minded, yes. Don't actually be that American who lies and tells people you're from Canada when visiting Europe, or sewing a Canadian flag patch onto your backpack just to try to get the message across. That's very lame.
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Apr 30, 2020 13:49
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I found the best thing to do as a seppo is to wear a star spangled unitard, a la Chris Pontius, and dry hump old, local men in the town square.
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Apr 30, 2020 16:43
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WaryWarren posted:I found the best thing to do as a seppo is to wear a star spangled unitard, a la Chris Pontius, and dry hump old, local men in the town square. oh good I am uniquely qualified
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Apr 30, 2020 19:42
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Drone posted:In terms of being polite and open-minded, yes. Also, my experience is that if you speak English, they'll just be happy as gently caress you're from the west side of the Atlantic rather than the UK. Even the worst of American tourists I've seen in Europe are not as badly behaved as the average English tourist. Example: a bad American tourist may expect that everyone speaks English and become aggrieved if this proves not to be the case. A bad English tourist will automatically assume that no one speaks English, and proceed to take advantage of this perceived situation by running down the street drunk whilst shouting profanities loudly.
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Apr 30, 2020 20:23
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fortunately that kind of English tourist is only ever found in southern Spain and the Canaries (unless there's a football tournament going on)
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Apr 30, 2020 21:11
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The typical British tourist is drunk and/or drugged up and causing some kind of trouble. Not so much the dumb imperial attitude.
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Apr 30, 2020 22:54
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Julio Cruz posted:fortunately that kind of English tourist is only ever found in southern Spain and the Canaries (unless there's a football tournament going on) Yes, that checks out, I was in Granada at the time. I thought they also infest Greece from time to time, though.
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Apr 30, 2020 23:16
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Julio Cruz posted:fortunately that kind of English tourist is only ever found in southern Spain and the Canaries (unless there's a football tournament going on) Greetings from Amsterdam!
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Apr 30, 2020 23:20
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Last time I was in Venice we did the "secret" tour of the Doge's palace. There was this woman who was walking around with buttons on her jacket with "I Voted for Hilary" and other similar phrases written on it. When we got to the holding cells in the bottom of the palace, the guide said that this is where the doge kept political prisoners. At this point, the lady couldn't control herself and yelled "LIKE DONALD TRUMP!?!?!" The guide just kind of stared at her and the rest of the group kind of collectively moaned. Act like a normal person and understand that the world does not revolve around the United States.
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Apr 30, 2020 23:34
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Entropist posted:False. Yeah, I’d say Prague and Barcelona are also hotspots for that kind of tourist. Plus of course the Balearics and the Greek islands too, especially Mykonos
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May 1, 2020 00:04
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Entropist posted:False. webmeister posted:Yeah, I’d say Prague and Barcelona are also hotspots for that kind of tourist. Plus of course the Balearics and the Greek islands too, especially Mykonos in my experience these places have lovely tourists from all over, whereas the Costas and Canaries seem to be uniquely a British thing
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May 1, 2020 01:07
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At least in Amsterdam the British definitely stand out in terms of both number and behaviour. There's no other group quite like them and tourists of other nationalities don't stand out so much because there's more variety among them with a smaller percentage of assholes. e: Not that we're much better, the Dutch join right in with them in some of those Greek and Spanish island hotspots. Entropist fucked around with this message at 01:16 on May 1, 2020 |
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May 1, 2020 01:13
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I feel like Amsterdam in the 90s before everyone smoked weed in their own countries had to be the height of asinine tourism. it was insufferable just to hear American teens and college age kids talk about it.
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May 1, 2020 01:16
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Don't worry they're still talking about it.
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May 1, 2020 04:48
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kiimo posted:I feel like Amsterdam in the 90s before everyone smoked weed in their own countries had to be the height of asinine tourism. I'm not a weed expert but I have been told that Amsterdam weed tends to be quite a bit more potent than the stuff you can get in other countries and tourists who try weed in Amsterdam tend to get surprised by it. Not sure if this is still true though.
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May 1, 2020 07:18
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Carbon dioxide posted:I'm not a weed expert but I have been told that Amsterdam weed tends to be quite a bit more potent than the stuff you can get in other countries and tourists who try weed in Amsterdam tend to get surprised by it. Not sure if this is still true though. It's probably more that the quality of weed in general is much higher in places where its use and cultivation are legal/tolerated. The weed's probably pretty great on the US west coast and Colorado these days too, because more effort and money can be put into its production. But yeah if you're comparing it to places where it's still illegal, of course it's going to be more potent, because in places where it's illegal people are a lot more tolerant of lovely quality stuff grown haphazardly.
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May 1, 2020 07:52
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Cheesemaster200 posted:Last time I was in Venice we did the "secret" tour of the Doge's palace. Such Italian! Much mystery!
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May 2, 2020 16:45
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Drone posted:-Likewise you are entitled to tap water if you insist on it, but that's definitely not the default, and asking for it makes you seem weird imo. The default when you just ask for a water will be sparkling, and they'll either bring it out to you as a small bottle + a glass, or as a larger bottle that the entire table shares. You'll have to specify if you want non-sparkling (still) water. When I was in Rome many places offered bottled water without us asking (one bottle per table) and asked whether we wanted still or sparkling. Not everywhere but it was common, so nice.
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May 3, 2020 12:22
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Yeah in Italy you get water reasonably often. It’s not for free though, since restaurants there charge a service fee (“pane e coperto” on the bill)
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May 3, 2020 16:34
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But the wine is so cheap it makes up for it
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May 3, 2020 18:24
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Cheesemaster200 posted:Last time I was in Venice we did the "secret" tour of the Doge's palace. There was this woman who was walking around with buttons on her jacket with "I Voted for Hilary" and other similar phrases written on it. When we got to the holding cells in the bottom of the palace, the guide said that this is where the doge kept political prisoners. At this point, the lady couldn't control herself and yelled "LIKE DONALD TRUMP!?!?!" The guide just kind of stared at her and the rest of the group kind of collectively moaned. We did that tour a few years back! Venice was...my least favorite part of Italy.
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May 5, 2020 13:39
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Padua is so much nicer and only 30-40 minutes away.
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May 5, 2020 22:42
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And shoulder season Ravenna seemed like a totally undiscovered treasure of Byzantine mosaics, gourmet gelato, and free bikeshare. It's just those three things, but I happen to love those three things.
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May 7, 2020 22:06
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Yeah, I was gonna mention Ravenna too. And Matera.
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May 8, 2020 04:22
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Greg12 posted:And shoulder season Ravenna seemed like a totally undiscovered treasure of Byzantine mosaics, gourmet gelato, and free bikeshare. Those three things are all pretty great, though, to be fair! That's been my experience in every small European city/town. For every crowded, expensive place, there is a place which is cheaper, practically deserted, and almost as good (or better, occasionally) in any given dimension.
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May 8, 2020 21:29
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So, while I wouldn't count on getting into the EU from outside for a holiday right now - if you're already in Europe and want to go on holiday - they're allowing it, as long as you follow all the local rules. Rules might change at any moment so you're taking a risk doing so but if you want to you can. Anyway, to facilitate this, the EU made a website where you can check the local rules and possibilities per country. https://reopen.europa.eu/en
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Jun 15, 2020 16:35
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I'm an American living in Munich and trying to figure out what would be a good beach vacation for us (me + wife + 8 year old son) in July or August, could use goon help. We tend to just, like, dink around. As in, the most fun we had in Madeira may have been when we were climbing around the wave breakers at a cove, and looking at the crabs that lived among them. A beach area where we could both easily swim around there and that had sea life/tide pools would be pretty rad. Active stuff like surfing/boogie boarding/wind surfing/snorkeling would also be a big plus (and so are friendly neighborhood cats). We don't really care about more passive tours (e.g. whale/dolphin-seeing). So far I've been looking at Algarve and Sicily and some random Greek islands, they all seemed fine. Also looked at Sunny Beach which is apparently the mega-capitalist sort of tourist-y, might be fun for the kid just because it has lots of kid stuff like a big water park and it's cheap at least. There are clearly some good options around but nothing's grabbed me super hard yet.
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Jun 27, 2020 21:13
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just to be sure...you mean this July and August? because I can't think of many places I'd want to avoid this summer more than a crowded tourist beach
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Jun 28, 2020 00:22
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Yes. My understanding is that outdoor transmission in that kind of environment is fairly rare, and with total covid-19 infection rates low and steadily declining, I'm not super concerned at this point. If things get bad again I'll re-evaluate. And I'd prefer beaches that aren't super crowded if possible, I just realize that that might be asking for a lot. Obviously everyone wants a beach that's both amazing and that nobody else seems to know about.
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Jun 28, 2020 00:39
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Just as a logistics things, my wife are renting a car and just staying in country (Switzerland) this summer. There's still too much poo poo going on with borders and all of that for me to be able to relax once the reservations are made. Plus, people. If we don't feel people are respecting distance or hygiene somewhere, we can just go to the next place or just use the car to go hiking from home. Both Italy and Spain had it bad and they could get jumpy if things start to change.
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Jun 28, 2020 02:04
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