dutyfree

I just got back from a weekend in Rome celebrating my daughter's 21st birthday. I thought that I had seen everything in most of my travels but I quess not? We are down in the breakfast room of our Rome hotel (3 stars) when a American man came in with cargo pants and proceeded to make 6 sandwiches using the ingredients from the breakfast table.He then wrapped each one up in a napkin and put them in various areas of his "zippered" cargo pants pockets.Fresh fruit was then also added to the pockets.The breakfast assistant just sat there in shock and was speechless.My daughter and I were surprised that he at least won't try to do this undercover.So what has happened recently overseas that has made you say "I cannot believe that I just saw that" and cringe?

wliwl

Hey! No fair not telling us where you took your daughter for her special meal.

MissPrism

I remember somebody on this forum once suggesting that people should take stuff from the breakfast buffet for lunch.

I remember being in a hotel in Scotland when a foreign tourist asked for a glass of red wine.
After the waitress had served her she left the bar area for a while and the tourist muttered to her husband.
She finally went up to the bar and put several ice-cubes into her red wine.

ncgrrl

How do you know he was American? Take the South Park approach and blame Canada.

Statia

It just blows my mind when people have the audacity to do things like that at a hotel provided buffet, or any buffet for that matter. I wonder what they would do if someone actually said something to them. Your story is amazing, dutyfree. Sheesh! Right there in front of everyone?

I once watched a woman come to the breakfast buffet at a hotel and proceed to dump the ENTIRE cut fruit bowl into tupperware containers for her kids for the day. I was flabbergasted.

Intrepid1

Please tell me how you knew it was an American or was it the smell?

Bird

If you've ever stayed at a Holiday Inn Express, or Fairfield Inn (or similar) in the U.S., this type of behavior seems to be the norm. I haven't asked to see everyone's passports, but I imagine the majority of them are from the U.S. Cruise ship buffets can be equally shocking. Strange since you can eat just anything you want 24 hours a day.

laclaire

OK. I have a few doozies.

1) I was at the breakfast buffet and a woman came downstairs in her pjs with a terrycloth robe over them, and her hair in curlers. Everyone else was dressed and ready to go, so she was even more out of place.

2) On a ski lift in Andorra: I was seated next to a guy I did not know who told me to look away and I did, thinking he needed to scratch or something. No, he whipped it out and peed into a bottle, then capped it and dropped it into the snow. I reported him to the guard and he just shrugged and actually said something about there being very few toilets on the mountain.

3) On the Barceloneta beach at night a couple was having sex, and there were 3 bums "hinding" around them watching.

4) At a bar in Barcelona: profoundly drunk American man sends a drink over to a girl seated near me. He does the whole "air toast" and she smiles, takes a sip, then sits the drink down and continues talking to her friends. 2 minutes later, the guy stumbles over.

AM: (severely slurred) Speak English?
Girl (turns out she is Swedish): Yes.
AM: Why aren't you drinking?
G: Uh, I am (takes the drink and toasts it feebly)
AM: Not enough for me you aren't. (grabs the drink, downs it, slams it down, and stalks out).

5) My own WTF situation: I was on the balcony of my residence in Malaga with a few other people. I asked one of the boys for a cigarette and he said "sure." I took one drag, and then was talking to a friend. The boy came up and took it away and said "if you aren't going to smoke it, then I will." We all just stared at him and wondered which wolves had raised him.

Tracey14

I was in a pub in London, having a mid-afternoon pint with some friends. When I needed to use the restroom (which was located in the basement), I was shocked to find that (a) of two stalls, one was out of order; and (b) the other stall was occupied by two people who were obviously having sex - and who were obviously aware of my presence. I went back upstairs and tried again twenty minutes later, and they were still at it! I think what really bothers me is that they chose the working toilet stall - why couldn't they have used the stall with the broken toilet?

SusanMargaret

I was in a fast food restaurant when a man across from me sat down with a tray and a box of fries. He tipped the fries onto the tray and proceeded to pour ketchup over the fries, which he then ate off the tray. ugh.

Cato

"Please tell me how you knew it was an American or was it the smell?'

Must have been the smell. Americans usually smell pretty good compared to many other people around the world.

WillTravel

Tracey14, that's funny, although it must have been annoying at the time. At home in Vancouver, I went to a coffeeshop bathroom the other day, and I saw a handwritten sign there that said something like, "No illegal activities like drugs or sex. Thank you." Now I'm curious about what prompted this. The neighborhood is pretty upscale. The coffeeshop seems completely average to me.

Kate

Not my story but my frriends. She was in Egypt, touring around the pyramids. She walked down a corridor inside a pyramid that had hyroglyphic frescos all along the walls. The woman in front of her dragged her big fat bag all along the wall, scratching a big line in these, oh what, 3000 year old paintings? Sorry to report she was American, but I won't hold that aginst the rest of you.

Cato

The woman in front of her dragged her big fat bag all along the wall, scratching a big line in these, oh what, 3000 year old paintings? Sorry to report she was American,

Kate, they must have been fake. The europeans stole most anything of real value hundreds of years ago.

Leely

dutyfree,
I have a doozy--happened in East Africa, culprit was an American (I'm American too)--but rather than adding fuel to the fire, I'll just repeat wilwi's request for the name of the restaurant where you celebrated your daughter's birthday.

And of course I welcome a description of courses!

Pegontheroad

I was on a plane coming back from Europe. I had noticed a young girl in front of me with a very unhappy, dissatisfied look on her face. She kept ordering drink after drink and talking very animatedly to a good-looking older man sitting next to her. I thought "She's going to get very drunk," but didn't pay further attention to her until later in the flight when my seatmates came back, giggling.

They told me they'd been waiting in line to use the toilet when the door opened and the girl came out. One of them made a move for the door, only to have the door open again and the man come out. Joined the mile-high club, I guess.

Worktowander

I attended an evensong service at St. Paul's Cathedral in honor of the Queen Mother, who had died days before and had yet to be buried.

In the middle of the service this guy (who looked American, to my never-ending shame) stands up and directs his children to walk up the middle aisle to toward the altar, face the back of the church and pose for pictures.

With flash.

The ushers were on him like a duck on a junebug, bless them, pointing out the signs all over the place asking people not to take flash photos.

It probably would have been useless to mention "church service," "common sense," "respect for others" and "this ain't Disney World."

P_M

Worktowander, I saw a similar situation in a church where a tourist was taking a picture at a most inappropriate time. Signs were everywhere saying photography was prohibited, but he thought the rules didn't apply to him. I got so mad I stuck my hand in front of the camera just as it flashed. They guy was ushered out, but he got a very nice photo of my palm.

dutyfree

I assumed that he was an American because of the khaki colored zipped cargo pants(I am embarassed to say my husband owns several pairs),his shoes and my radar after flying as a flight attendant for many years gave him away.Wliwl-The weekend in Rome turned out to be one bad experience after another for me-everything from not getting on the flight I was supposed to(nonstop to Rome) to flying another airline to Milan and changing to Rome(took more time and money). Then there were the 8 hours of throwing up on the flight to the diarrhea(sp?) the next day-did I mention that the stomach flu was going around our county? Our beautiful "mother/daughter 21st birthday celebration" weekend ended up
not what I had intended. We ended up hitting some different restaurants in Trastevere which were nice so all was not lost. However, upon leaving on Monday morning my daughter started throwing up on her way back to Catania.Its always something..........

FainaAgain

Yeah, unfortunately that "buffet behavior" is not limited to overseas travel. I saw it in Las Vegas. Or is it kinda expected to steal food from their buffets despite the signs not to take food out?