The Ugly Tourist. The obliviousness of it all.

[Dartz]

Every so often a post comes along which plays into every national sterotype - one so grotesque in character and oblivious of reality that it can only be fake but you *know* it's not because you've met these people in real life.

The tourists who treat their destination as a theme park, where everyone is an employee there to make the experience they paid for happen. You're all things they paid for, so you better know your place....

These is blowing up the Irish internet. It's gone completely Coronaviral here

[robkelk]

These is blowing up the Irish internet. It's gone completely Coronaviral here

As it should. Polite visitors don't flout the local rules.

[classicdrogn]

... is it bad that I'm more interested in the scenario as something that could be part of a wider plot, like a spy story where not-YL missing the dead drop has international repercussions, or that specific seat for that run is in exactly the right place for a short-lived portal to open and get the daughter issekai'ed, or something along those lines? As it is, it just sounds like assholes happening to each other...

[Labster]

I don't get it. What did the Americans do wrong?

[robkelk]

He sat in a seat that had somebody else's name on it. If it was a bar, he could have been kicked out for doing that.

[Dartz]

Basically, you can buy a train ticket that'll let you on the train. And if there's a free seat, you may sit. If there's no free seat, then stand. If you care to - you may book your ticket online in advance, in which case, you can also book a specific seat which guarantees you won't be standing for the whole journey in the vestibule at the end of the car beside the jacks. If you do, your seat will have your name above it on an electronic sign.

It's one of the few things Irish Rail almost does better than the Shinkansen --- all cars are general admission, but already booked seats are electronically labelled so everyone can see that someone has booked that seat and they shouldn't sit there.

So, what they did was take a seat someone had specifically paid for, act incredibly entitled when politely asked to move, insult the spelling of someone's name because they couldn't comprehend non-english spellings, and generally start talking down to someone who just wanted the bloody seat they paid for.

[Jinx999]

The self-righteousness and the patronising attitude really don't help.

[hazard]

While I understand where the American family is coming from.... they're really not helping themselves.

[Matrix Dragon]

The girl was polite to them, giving them a chance to move without even admitting they were at fault. The tourist decided to be bigoted, condescending and insulting. They were totally the asshole.

[robkelk]

While I understand where the American family is coming from...

Could you explain it to me, please?

Would they have piled into a limo where the driver is holding a sign with somebody else's name on it? Would they have sat down at a restaurant table that had a "reserved" sign on it when they didn't have a reservation? If no, then what makes this case different?

[hazard]

Could you explain it to me, please?

Would they have piled into a limo where the driver is holding a sign with somebody else's name on it? Would they have sat down at a restaurant table that had a "reserved" sign on it when they didn't have a reservation? If no, then what makes this case different?

Like American trains, Dutch trains don't do reserved trains, except possibly the international trains, of which I'm not sure.

So having to comprehend 'wait, that is a thing?' and not doing so particularly gracefully I can understand.


Of course, after they grasped that was a thing their reaction went from 'wait, what' to 'we shall not be inconvenienced for we are Americans', so they kept digging the hole ever deeper. At least their eldest daughter appears to have understood the situation.

[classicdrogn]

Hazard's got it. Meanwhile, blowing up at someone and cussing them out over a single reserved seat in public transport is not exemplary behav8ior either (hence my imaginings about why that specific seat might be important) and since when is three people a large group?

Mind you, Not-YL was certainly legally in the right there, but I take it actual living conductors to complain to over such a situation are a thing of the past since none showed up to mediate or just kick them out of the reserved seat.

[hazard]

Hazard's got it. Meanwhile, blowing up at someone and cussing them out over a single reserved seat in public transport is not exemplary behav8ior either (hence my imaginings about why that specific seat might be important)  and since when is three people a large group?

Mind you, Not-YL was certainly legally in the right there, but I take it actual living conductors to complain to over such a situation are a thing of the past since none showed up to mediate or just kick them out of the reserved seat.

8 people.

It was the father, mother and their 6 children.

[classicdrogn]

8 people.

It was the father, mother and their 6 children.

Ah, I missed that part. That does make the tourists bigger assholes for not reserving seats if they had known such a thing existed, but also !YL for losing it in front of a bunch of kids, not that I'd expect to do better than her, really. A few hours later I'd probably kick myself for not saying something like, "Fine, I'll sell you my reservation. Ten Euros," though (? Five? I don't know how much a ticket costs or if there's a surcharge for the reservation, but I'm aiming somewhere between a cup of coffee and a light lunch at a tourist trap restaurant here)

[Dartz]

The tourists are also insulting how her name was spelled, calling it a random string of characters. Which, you know, is a pretty shitty and insulting scumbag joke to make.



I mean, this thing probably came out of a research lab in China - it's tailor fucking made to infect the internet here.

[ckosacranoid]

Karen, Karen, Karen. Just have to piss off everyone in other countries now do you not?
Sorry, I just have to make this comment. A story about a group being idiots. I kinda wonder why the young lady did not go to the train people and say something since she did pay for the seat. But who knows. At least the lady tried to be nice to start and then only told them off after Karen got into it.