Experiences travelling abroad

ElizabethB

ElizabethB

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[Mod.Edit: This post (partially edited) and following few posts moved from another thread to form new topic]

I am really grateful for the wonderful experiences I have had while serving in the USNR. Thanks to Uncle Sam I spent three weeks in London (93) and 3 weeks in Spain (94). I have traveled to most of the coastal regions of the U.S. I sometimes extended my visit on my own nickle - London, Spain and NYC specifically. My air fare was paid for. I just had to change my return dates. Since these trips were pre 911 there was no problem making changes.

I have some amazing stories to tell. I really should write a memoir. I started a riot in front of the American Embassy in London. An Air Force Master Sargent from San Antonio TX. invited us to stay at his home in Madrid. NYC - what can I say? We made friends with undercover NYC Detectives who took us out to places that a casual tourist would never find.
 
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ElizabethB said:
Thanks to Uncle Sam I spent three weeks in London (93)
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We were living in the UK in 1993 and at that time, we were going to London pretty much every other weekend, so there's a good chance we were at least in the same city at one time. :)

There was some kind of USN functionary in West Ruislip, just a large house, really, but they had secure parking that was accessible to us because of our DoD sticker. West Ruislip happened to be the farthest-out stop on one of the Underground lines, so we'd zip down from Upper Heyford, park at Ruislip for free, and walk right around the corner and hop the Tube, then into London for the day, or the night, or the whole weekend. It was fabulous!
 
I was the only one from my Unit. I did meet a number of other U.S. reservist from various parts of the U.S. Subways in the south - NOT. I fell in love with the Tube. The other reservist called me the Mole because the tube map made perfect sense to me. I could hop on and off and get us to our destination - no problem. I was warned that the Brits did not care for Americans. I found the opposite to be true. As soon as we opened our mouths we were pegged as Yanks. Londoners were curious, inquisitive and gregarious. Also very helpful.
 
ElizabethB said:
I was the only one from my Unit. I did meet a number of other U.S. reservist from various parts of the U.S. Subways in the south - NOT. I fell in love with the Tube. The other reservist called me the Mole because the tube map made perfect sense to me. I could hop on and off and get us to our destination - no problem. I was warned that the Brits did not care for Americans. I found the opposite to be true. As soon as we opened our mouths we were pegged as Yanks. Londoners were curious, inquisitive and gregarious. Also very helpful.
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When I was in Seoul my wife and I did a tour in a 12 seater mini van/bus and there were a group of about 6 air hostesses on the tour. I've never met so many loud mouthed yanks in my life . I told them so too. Not the nice "yanks" we have here. !!

Russ
 
rascal
I hate hearing stories about "Yanks" showing their back sides when traveling to other countries. I have only made two trips "across the pond". I found the locals wonderfully friendly, helpful and full of questions about life in the very deep south of the U.S. London was a blast. I rented a car and traveled on the weekends. Driving in the UK is a story.
After my 3 weeks in Rota I spent an additional four days in Madrid. One day I took a train to Toledo. I wondered the twisted streets and alleys. Stopped at tiny restaurants for a bite or a beverage. All of a sudden I realized that I had no idea how to get back to the train station. I had a map which is useful only if you know where you are. I knew that I had to get back to the train station quickly in order to get the next train back to Madrid. I was in an alley/courtyard place where lots of locals were dining al Fresco. I walked from table to table pointing to the train station on my map. FINALLY a very handsome gentleman understood what I was asking and mapped out a route to the train station. Too bad I had to rush away. He was very good looking man. In '94 I was I was still a good looker. I could see his interest. Oh well. In my dreams.
I am so off track. Yanks across the pond have a bad rep. I do not understand why my fellow countrymen find it necessary to show their backsides when they travel to other countries.
 
ElizabethB said:
rascal
I hate hearing stories about "Yanks" showing their back sides when traveling to other countries. I have only made two trips "across the pond". I found the locals wonderfully friendly, helpful and full of questions about life in the very deep south of the U.S. London was a blast. I rented a car and traveled on the weekends. Driving in the UK is a story.
After my 3 weeks in Rota I spent an additional four days in Madrid. One day I took a train to Toledo. I wondered the twisted streets and alleys. Stopped at tiny restaurants for a bite or a beverage. All of a sudden I realized that I had no idea how to get back to the train station. I had a map which is useful only if you know where you are. I knew that I had to get back to the train station quickly in order to get the next train back to Madrid. I was in an alley/courtyard place where lots of locals were dining al Fresco. I walked from table to table pointing to the train station on my map. FINALLY a very handsome gentleman understood what I was asking and mapped out a route to the train station. Too bad I had to rush away. He was very good looking man. In '94 I was I was still a good looker. I could see his interest. Oh well. In my dreams.
I am so off track. Yanks across the pond have a bad rep. I do not understand why my fellow countrymen find it necessary to show their backsides when they travel to other countries.
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I'm sure it was their first time there, they were pretty excited. I have some very good friends from the states, they aren't loud people. :)

Russ
 
ElizabethB said:
Driving in the UK is a story.
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I was actually surprised by how quickly I picked up driving in the UK -- even in London. Now, my wife was scared to death because she was sitting where the driver sits in the US, with no steering wheel or brakes. Some of the narrow country roads, especially in the hills of the Lake District, had her just about to climb into my seat. :laugh:

Now, there is no way I would even try to drive in Paris or Rome. :eek:

CD
 
ElizabethB said:
I do not understand why my fellow countrymen find it necessary to show their backsides when they travel to other countries.
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If it's any consolation, it's not just Americans who exhibit bad behavior when traveling. I've seen absolutely atrocious behavior from English, Australians, Germans, Italians, Canadians (yes, really!), Japanese, French, and probably some others I'm forgetting.

The worst driving experience I've ever had was in Dublin, by far. I don't mean this as a stereotype, because it could be me as much as them, but I've always had difficulty getting directions from locals when in Ireland. In my mind, their directions are more like very general suggestions, and the written directions the hotel provided from the airport were comically lacking.

I think I've told it here before, but the funniest "lost in a city" tour was when we were in Munich, we took a late bus, it stop service for the night somewhere in the middle of the city, so we had to find our way back to the hotel, and after wandering lost for a good bit, we finally spotted a late-night convenience store, called for a taxi, gave the driver the address of the hotel, he looked at us a little funnily, then drove to the end of the block, then around the corner, and there we were, back at the hotel. We were literally a five-minute walk away. :laugh:
 
Some of you may recall this.

The French Misconnection
Ever have a menu misunderstanding?
Back in September 2007, I went to Marseille for business. The folks I was doing the job for put me up in a hotel and I was on my own for dinner. There was a little bistro across the street and I had eaten there for the past two days. I had been lucky in my selections those two days as the menu was in French only, which I don't speak. However, I do have a little knowledge from some familiarity with Cajun food names. I'm really familiar with Andouille. I also thought that the French, by adding "ette" to the end of a word meant pettite or small. So when I saw Andouillette on the menu, my mind read "little Andouille". After conferring with a lady that spoke a little English, which mainly involved pointing and head shaking, I decided that this would be good and ordered it. Big mistake!
ohmy-gif.gif
When the plate arrived, there was one large sausage looking item, a good size bowl of mustard sauce and some roasted potatoes. After poking around some with my fork at the browned sausage casing, I decided that sausage is sausage and cut off a bite. After popping it in my mouth and starting to chew, I realized what that mustard sauce was for!
shock-gif.gif
This was offal, but I managed to get about 3/4 of it down before the mustard sauce ran out. BTW, the large grin on that lady's face should have given me a clue. Next evening I found an Italian place around the corner.
wink-gif.gif
It wasn't until the flight back that I found out what Andouillette is. It really is offal, as in tripe, and apparently some sort of national dish. They can keep it!

I did manage to bring back 2 kilos of Papillon Black Label roquefort!
 
TastyReuben said:
If it's any consolation, it's not just Americans who exhibit bad behavior when traveling. I've seen absolutely atrocious behavior from English, Australians, Germans, Italians, Canadians (yes, really!), Japanese, French, and probably some others I'm forgetting.

The worst driving experience I've ever had was in Dublin, by far. I don't mean this as a stereotype, because it could be me as much as them, but I've always had difficulty getting directions from locals when in Ireland. In my mind, their directions are more like very general suggestions, and the written directions the hotel provided from the airport were comically lacking.

I think I've told it here before, but the funniest "lost in a city" tour was when we were in Munich, we took a late bus, it stop service for the night somewhere in the middle of the city, so we had to find our way back to the hotel, and after wandering lost for a good bit, we finally spotted a late-night convenience store, called for a taxi, gave the driver the address of the hotel, he looked at us a little funnily, then drove to the end of the block, then around the corner, and there we were, back at the hotel. We were literally a five-minute walk away. :laugh:
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Very good point. Russians can be fun too. I wonder if bad behaviour whilst abroad comes from some sort of entitled superiority based on a colonial past.
 
caseydog said:
I was actually surprised by how quickly I picked up driving in the UK -- even in London. Now, my wife was scared to death because she was sitting where the driver sits in the US, with no steering wheel or brakes. Some of the narrow country roads, especially in the hills of the Lake District, had her just about to climb into my seat. :laugh:

Now, there is no way I would even try to drive in Paris or Rome. :eek:

CD
Click to expand...
I don't mind driving on the "wrong" side of the road, but only in a car designed for that purpose. Driving on the right hand side in a right hand drive car is too weird.
 
CraigC said:
Some of you may recall this.

The French Misconnection
Ever have a menu misunderstanding?
Back in September 2007, I went to Marseille for business. The folks I was doing the job for put me up in a hotel and I was on my own for dinner. There was a little bistro across the street and I had eaten there for the past two days. I had been lucky in my selections those two days as the menu was in French only, which I don't speak. However, I do have a little knowledge from some familiarity with Cajun food names. I'm really familiar with Andouille. I also thought that the French, by adding "ette" to the end of a word meant pettite or small. So when I saw Andouillette on the menu, my mind read "little Andouille". After conferring with a lady that spoke a little English, which mainly involved pointing and head shaking, I decided that this would be good and ordered it. Big mistake! View attachment 41102 When the plate arrived, there was one large sausage looking item, a good size bowl of mustard sauce and some roasted potatoes. After poking around some with my fork at the browned sausage casing, I decided that sausage is sausage and cut off a bite. After popping it in my mouth and starting to chew, I realized what that mustard sauce was for!
View attachment 41103 This was offal, but I managed to get about 3/4 of it down before the mustard sauce ran out. BTW, the large grin on that lady's face should have given me a clue. Next evening I found an Italian place around the corner. View attachment 41104 It wasn't until the flight back that I found out what Andouillette is. It really is offal, as in tripe, and apparently some sort of national dish. They can keep it!

I did manage to bring back 2 kilos of Papillon Black Label roquefort!
Click to expand...

I love Andouillette. Only time I've eaten it was in France and I've eaten it on more than on occasion. :D Generally, I like offal very much.
 
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