What Are Some "Foreign Tourist Horror Stories" You've Heard Of?
Posted by Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 562 comments
Aside from the Death Valley Germans and regular encounters with large wildlife, that is. This is prompted by this story: Heat-stricken tourist airlifted to hospital after skin melts off feet in Death Valley.
revengeappendage@reddit
It boggles my mind that people hear “Death Valley” and think yea. Nah. I’ll be fine.
TheBimpo@reddit
It seems that the prevailing opinion among foreign visitors is that national parks are akin to theme parks, not the vast wildernesses that they actually are.
MrLongWalk@reddit
We had to explain to the European kids at my college that even the relatively tame national forests near our school will absolutely kill you.
Vesper2000@reddit
The forests in Europe will too, not sure why that’s so hard for them to understand. I assume it’s just the fact that people in general have an easy time evaluating danger in a familiar environment but that sense falls apart in an unfamiliar one.
veryangryowl58@reddit
I think it's because their forests are so much smaller, and more "controlled". They don't leave their parks untouched they way we do, and oftentimes have developments in them. I went to a national park in Eastern Europe that wooden planks on the trail and a series of food huts near some pretty waterfalls.
We have vast, dense, untouched acreage. Step off the wrong part of the trail in America and no amount of walking will save you.
Vesper2000@reddit
If you’re out in the bog in Ireland at the wrong time of night in the wrong time of year, chances of you dying from hypothermia are decent. The Irish folks just know not to do that.
veryangryowl58@reddit
I mean, if you want to go that route, I could drown by stumbling into the neighborhood pool after a few beers.
What I mean is that their national parks are much smaller and controlled, so it's highly unlikely that you could get lost or hurt unless you're seriously clueless. Even if you do get lost, you'll likely find your way out or to a trail with a doable amount of walking.
You can and will die a few miles from the trail in America if you get lost. And that's not taking into account our weather - both much colder and much hotter than they're used to. I doubt anyone from Ireland (where the weather ranges from like 40 - 70 degrees F on average) is super prepared to hike in Northern Michigan. And that's not including our animals.
dew2459@reddit
Since it is mentioned a few times here, Death Valley national park alone is about 1/5 the size of the whole country of Ireland. The US Tongass national forest is several times bigger, only a little smaller than Ireland. Our parks can be huge.
Training-Willow9591@reddit
That's a good point!
bbboozay@reddit
Even experience hikers can get turned around and lost out here in the US. It's that vast and dense. I remember the story of a 65 year old woman who had been a lifelong hiker and wanted to do the Appalachian trail before she died. She was well prepared and had all necessary equipment but at some point got turned around. They sent out search parties for weeks and when then finally found her she was like 7 feet from the trail. She passed away during this time but it's scary to think that 7 feet was all that separated her from being saved.
IridescentMoonSky@reddit
This is probably a dumb question, but I don’t understand why her being 7 foot from the trail meant she couldn’t be found? Was she hidden behind something?
justdisa@reddit
If it's the person I think u/bbboozay means, it was more than 7 feet, but it wasn't very far. The question for rescuers is where along the trail was she just a short distance off into the woods? The Appalachian Trail is 2190 miles long. They were able to track her to a section of trail about 22 miles long--which is still a lot of ground to search.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/lost-hiker-was-two-miles-appalachian-trail-when-she-died-n581611
SciGuy013@reddit
the one thing that does blow my mind, however, is that this mentality goes out the window when it comes to European ski resorts. super dense, popular resorts with absolutely zero avalanche mitigation.
Livia85@reddit
I think that’s different. The people who live there (and whose families have lived there for centuries) are extremely aware of the danger of avalanches, because dying in an avalanche while just going about your day was an absolutely common way of dying until well into the 1960ies. Everyone still knows the stories of avalanches destroying whole villages. So when mitigation became possible, because it’s fucking expensive, they limited it to endangered areas, like villages, roads, infrastructure and for the sake of tourism, designed ski pistes. Also, the ski resorts are not resorts in the sense that they belong to one company. They are towns with mountains, which belong to different people with different interests. People just know not to venture in the mountains in winter, because that gets you killed. And if you do, it’s at your own risk. A bit like Death Valley, probably, just colder.
EmpRupus@reddit
It is also that the US is a first world country - so many people (mistakenly) assume that everywhere is safe and technology and help is always around.
The same individual might take higher precautions in the Gobi Desert or forests of Africa. But when some thinks the USA, they think - "Oh. First world country."
People don't understand that outside of big cities, there are large swaths of the US where you can go completely off-the-grid. You can get lost for days and even a helicopter won't be able to find you.
If you are in the middle of a canyon in Nevada with miles of miles of no civilization, it doesn't matter that you are technically in the USA, you still have to prepare and read up on safety and think and act like you are in completely wilderness.
zeezle@reddit
Reminds me of a time I mentioned the Death Valley Germans and someone from a different European country replied and said the Germans do that shit to them too in their parks, and there's even less excuse there since it's still the same general climate even. Even if it's a less remote and wild at some places, there are still plenty of steep cliffs and avalanches and plenty of opportunity for misadventure.
RDCAIA@reddit
I remember traveling in Europe many years ago and groveling all the signs. And regularly seeing British tourists ignoring the signs and going right to the edge of waterfalls or other dangerous areas. At that time, I remember them being the worst offenders and Amefixan being happy-go-lucky rule-followers. I'm sure I can't make generalizations based on experience, and especially not experiences from 20-39 years ago...but I can say that the number of tourists that ignore all precautions while on vacation is very, very high regardless of what part of the world you're visiting or what part of the world you're from.
birdsy-purplefish@reddit
Yeah, I think a lot of this is misattribution. It seems to be a problem everywhere.
Come to think of it... I can't think of any other incident in a National Park where international tourists made a deadly mistake like the Death Valley Germans. I can't find any lists of incidents, fatal or not, but I'm guessing that they're not any more common than similar deaths of American tourists.
blackbird24601@reddit
in florida and in the UP- 2 different vacations-people in the ocean/lake with significant thunder. distant visible lightning all the americans knew to run to the beach.
the germans stayed in with the kids.
i think they don’t understand the vastness of the area, how weather is different…
Stuebirken@reddit
Germans generally doesn't understand how insanly dangerous any body of water larger than a puddle can be.
I'm a Dane and every summer our coastline's are almost invaded by German tourist, and they seemingly have a fondness of the part facing the northen sea, which can be pretty fucking dangerous even to the strongest of swimmers.
I get that it's hard to recognize the dangers of an environment that you know nothing about, but some things are so obviously dangerous that mere logic should do the trick.
But somehow that isn't the case when it comes to Germans, they would still jump in to the ocean even if it was on fire.
GF_baker_2024@reddit
Oh, lord. Storms get bad very quickly over the Great Lakes, and the subsequent riptides are no joke. I don't know why people think they're just like smaller lakes. They're inland seas.
j4kefr0mstat3farm@reddit
Every beach I've ever been to with lifeguards will make people get out of the water if there is thunder or lightning.
blackbird24601@reddit
absolutely. but there were no lifeguards
how do you not see that everyone has left the water but you?
Nyxelestia@reddit
I call it colonial arrogance. It's not that they literally still hold colonial, imperialist worldviews; but rather that the worldview that they are stronger and superior to the natural world is carrying through, regardless of whatever their actual politics are.
karnim@reddit
I mean, in general Europe is much more temperate, they deforested most of it, and they've killed off most of their dangerous fauna. I'm not convinced their forests are anywhere near as dangerous inherently. Not that they can't die in them, but they're less likely to have to face anything too bad.
r2d3x9@reddit
They have some alps
Strict_Definition_78@reddit
Oh whatever, I just need a few elephants & I’ll get through there with no problem!
OldKingHamlet@reddit
The "I'mma gonna get close to this wildlife that, if annoyed, could casually flip a Honda over" mentality scares me. Way too many videos of people treating legit wildlife like something in a petting zoo.
duke_awapuhi@reddit
I saw someone in Yellowstone trying to put their kid on the back of a bison for a picture
OldKingHamlet@reddit
How do....
How do you look at a literal ton of muscle, horns, and smell, then go "Yeah, my kid can go up on there."
CrownStarr@reddit
The attitude seems to me to be “Well if it was dangerous, Someone wouldn’t have let me get this close.” Just an implicit assumption that it’s a space that’s been scrubbed of any serious risks.
djcurry@reddit
I also think that’s partially because Europe doesn’t really have any serious dangerous wildlife left. It’s been all destroyed over the course of human history. For some it might be the first time they’ve actually encountered a potentially dangerous animal in the wild.
Training-Willow9591@reddit
Wow I didn't know that! So no more wolves or bears?
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
We've got a boar problem in my corner of Italy. I've had more run-ins than I can count, and I got chased once. Well, that's the biggest nastiest critter you're likely to come across in these parts. There's no predators to keep them in check, and you can't just blast them yourself like in Texas.
firestar32@reddit
Are halberds legal? Cause I bet those would be at least somewhat effective.
Bearded_Toast@reddit
For one, sure. But it’s almost never just one boar haha
firestar32@reddit
Halberds. Grab 2 and go beyblade on their bacons.
Bearded_Toast@reddit
Hahahaha love that visual
WolfShaman@reddit
Sounds like some Texans need to get with your local government and make a hunting arrangement.
Lugbor@reddit
Really goes to show the sheltered kind of life they've lived. Someone always looking over their shoulder and stopping them from doing something stupid, meaning they don't have to think about their own actions all that hard.
saltporksuit@reddit
We have made society too safe. Just like the sheer numbers of anti-vaxxers who haven’t buried five or six kids to measles, mumps, flu, typhoid, etc. They have the luxury of being fools.
The_Real_Scrotus@reddit
At least that problem will be self-correcting.
Charlierexasaurus@reddit
I guarantee that the anti-vaxxers deciding not to vaccinate their kids, have themselves been vaccinated.
The_Real_Scrotus@reddit
I meant self-correcting in the sense that if vaccination rates drop low enough there will be lots of kids dying preventable deaths from childhood diseases and that will convince all but the true die-hards to vaccinate their kids.
Lugbor@reddit
Unfortunately, you end up taking a lot of collateral damage with the people who can't be vaccinated for medical reasons.
TheBimpo@reddit
People believe that they're tame. Employees/rangers at Yellowstone regularly get asked questions about where the animals' pens are, etc. Visitors think they're theme parks/zoos.
weetweet69@reddit
One has to wonder how people can still fail to realize these animals are wild creatures and not some tamed petting zoo attraction. Even with the signs and warnings there's still someone that'll defy it only to find out after fucking around.
OldKingHamlet@reddit
I guess that's my disconnect. Even if it was tame, and had a goddamned guy standing there with a jaunty cowboy hat asking for $10/ride, I'd still feel cautious putting a young child on such a large animal.
justdisa@reddit
This. Even a tame bison could accidentally crush an adult, let alone a small child.
astarrynight44@reddit
I went to the Everglades during a government shutdown. There were paper flyers at the entrance that warned you not to wander off or get close to an alligator because there was no one to help you.
buyerbeware23@reddit
Starts with being SELF ABSORBED!
Kellosian@reddit
A lot of the world just doesn't have these sorts of animals roaming around, they would have been killed centuries if not millennia ago. What sort of megafauna are running around in southern France or the English countryside outside of a barnyard?
LionLucy@reddit
The scariest animal you'll encounter in the English countryside is a bull (not underestimating bulls, they're pretty powerful creatures!). I guess also ticks, but they're dangerous in a different way. The main way people get killed in nature here is by falling into bodies of water, getting swept into floodwaters etc, or by getting injured in the Scottish Highlands in winter and freezing to death.
EmpRupus@reddit
They think it's like a horse-stable or a petting zoo farm.
In many countries, where there is actual wildlife, human beings are not allowed. The only places humans are allowed are very curated experiences. Like how you can ride an elephant in Thailand or ride a camel in Dubai.
So many people cannot grasp the concept of "Humans are allowed here BUT simultaenously this is REAL wildlife." They think the two concepts are mutually separate.
LittleFalls@reddit
I mean, they let my kid feed the giraffes at the zoo. How much more dangerous can riding a bison be?
JessicaGriffin@reddit
And that has been happening for ages. My parents are from Cody, Wyoming, right outside of the park. My dad and his brothers were driving through one time with my grandpa, and grandpa had to pull a kid off of a bison and almost beat the dad up for putting the kid up there and trying to take a picture. That was in the 1950s.
HippiePvnxTeacher@reddit
The child of a Chinese tourist literally died doing that back when I was a park ranger in 2014. It was beyond insane and stupid.
deadplant5@reddit
Not strictly an American phenomenon. I saw a Chinese tourist try to put their toddler on a sleeping sea lion in New Zealand next to a sign saying not to bother the sea lions because they are dangerous.
Darthwilhelm@reddit
At what point is it just natural selection?
Hello_Hangnail@reddit
Petting moose! Fucking MOOSE??!?!
One of the few remaining megafauna left
OldKingHamlet@reddit
Yeah. A moose will happily fuck you up. Especially a bull during rut, but they all know year-round a good offense is the best defense: Moose attacks man after residents warn him to leave animal alone | USA TODAY (youtube.com)
birdsy-purplefish@reddit
That's not just foreign visitors. Americans are like that too.
GodofWar1234@reddit
It genuinely baffles me how people can go to places like Yellowstone and think that it’s ok to go up to a 2000 pound bison and try to pet it. Like brother, this ain’t the local petting zoo, these are wild animals who will fuck your day up, especially if they got kids. As much as I’d love to pet the bison or hug the bear, I like coming back home with all my limbs intact if I could.
StoicWeasle@reddit
They also can’t comprehend the size. Yellowstone and grand Tetons is 1/4 the size of the uk, IIRC. A London based city dweller would experience “large parks” as being a few dozen acres. Our parks can land you in spaces we can barely get helicopters into. I suspect that’s part of the disconnect.
I also think that’s what you get from the bullshit nanny state that is Europe. We say: “You have the freedom to tackle this feral wilderness. You may die.” They say: “Where are the safety labels and warnings and government officials to hold my hand?” I suspect that’s an even bigger part of the disconnect.
steveofthejungle@reddit
I think at least for Europeans, most of their national parks and natural areas are still inhabited as they have been for centuries, so there’s little worry of getting lost, not having places to stop for food or water, etc. then they come here and there’s not a quaint forest pub full of beer and they’re not ready to for the work that hiking and carrying everything you need entails here.
MarcusAurelius0@reddit
Europe extirpated most of its dangerous wildlife several hundred years ago.
psychologicallyblue@reddit
People can be clowns. At Joshua Tree there's a million signs warning people not to poke cacti. Literally 10 seconds in, some lady is screaming bloody murder because she reached out to poke a cactus. What can you do?
MerryTexMish@reddit
Read “Death in the Grand Canyon/Yellowstone/Yosimite/etc”; each on details literally every single death in a particular natural park. They are fascinating, and also reassuring, because a huge number of park fatalities are from stupidity, ignorance, or that exact attitude — that national parks are like amusement parks.
ST4RSK1MM3R@reddit
Only foreign? I feel a large number of average Americans think the same lol
Phyrnosoma@reddit
Not exclusive to foreigners sadly. I’ve seen my fellow Americans do dumbass stuff regularly
Educational_Crazy_37@reddit
Many visitors (Americans too) think national parks are a controlled environment that has wilderness danger elements at least partially mitigated.
OhThrowed@reddit
Man, Yellowstone tries to mitigate danger around the geothermals with big Ole signs warning of the dangers and repeated warnings to stay on the walkways and behind railings... somehow that isn't enough and people still manage to die from highly avoidable danger.
Mysteryman64@reddit
"Psh, how hot can it really be?"
Dissolves
Agente_Anaranjado@reddit
I was there in December and a ranger we spoke to told us that a young man drunkenly jumped into one. They could see his shoes at the bottom, and a layer of fatty residue at the surface.
birdsy-purplefish@reddit
They're either lying or mistaken. I recently did a Very Normal Amount of reading about this and there are some similarities to known incidents in that story but it doesn't match up to any of them. Il Hun Ro's 2022 death was the most recent but only one shoe was found, it's not clear how or exactly when he died, and he was 70 years old.
Colin Scott wasn't drunk, he went off trail to touch a pool and accidentally slipped and fell. His sandals were found next to and floating on top of the pool. Nothing was found the next day. [The full accident report is linked in that article (with redactions, obviously). It's both tragic and haunting.]
Cade Edmond Siemers was likely drunk when he stumbled into a geothermal feature in 2019 but he survived. And he was 48.
There are at least 22 other incidents but those are the most recent.
classicalworld@reddit
In the meantime, Iceland has tiny ropes along their geothermal streams, 5cm high, saying “don’t touch the water - it’s 60°”
They’re attractive, you can see the steam coming off them. But the signs seem to work. ❤️Iceland, I’d go back anytime
Mysteryman64@reddit
I can't help but feel like at least part of that is because how many of the tourists they get are Americans. We're slightly better than many places about not fucking with deadly geothermal pools, since we have some ourselves.
devilbunny@reddit
One item that came up in a discussion here was the matter of what people mean when they say "it's a desert". Apparently, in German, the most commonly used word is more akin in meaning to "wasteland" - little or nothing grows there. It has nothing to do with precipitation per se. So at least some of these tourists are embarking on these journeys in a mistaken belief that nothing really grows there for some reason other than "there's almost no water".
revengeappendage@reddit
Ok. I get you. But again. Death Valley. Like it’s in the name lol
devilbunny@reddit
This is a fair point. Perhaps we should rename it Totental?
rawbface@reddit
The name is in English, maybe it's a language barrier thing?
RollinThundaga@reddit
Like, we spent centuries at war with the Indians and slaughtering bears and bison by the horde;
So if one considers that after all of that, we got to this place and named it DEATH VALLEY, perhaps we had a point in doing so.
TheGleanerBaldwin@reddit
Wasn't it named Death Valley by the Indians or something similar?
RollinThundaga@reddit
Nah, apocryphally it was by a ragtop settler train bound for California that got wasted by the desert while trekking through. As they finally crested the last ridge to leave, one of the survivors turned, shook their fist, and yelled 'goodbye, Death Valley' and the name stuck.
MaizeRage48@reddit
I was there on one of the superhot days last July. It was pretty neat, I'd probably go back someday, but
1) I'd go in the Winter if I went back
2) I brought a case of water and was chugging the whole time
3) I never left the car or the visitor centers for more than 5 - 10 minutes
4) It was very hard to shake the feeling of "If this rental car that I have no idea when it was serviced last breaks down unexpectedly, I will die."
justdisa@reddit
I want to see the bloom in Death Valley. I went at the end of January last time. Too early. Things were just starting to green up.
AshenHaemonculus@reddit
"Would you die in Death Valley?"
"Nah, I'd win."
that_one_bunny@reddit
I think I'm just built different
veryangryowl58@reddit
I honestly think they’re just primed to be dismissive of Americans. So when we tell them, hey, this place is super dangerous, they think pfft, what does this American know?
MrLongWalk@reddit
I think that's it as well, so they're so used to just knowing better that it doesn't occur to them they might not. German tourists especially seem to take things like "road closed" or "do not drink water" as rumor at best.
JeddakofThark@reddit
Germans are gonna German. I think most of them see the rest of the world as detective Germans just waiting around to be told the right way to do things. You know, the German way.
BrackenFernAnja@reddit
I wonder if it has to do with the fact that Germans tend to overdo it with making and posting rules. Maybe that leads to them not taking the posted rules as seriously. That and the very human tendency to pump up the bravado when on vacation.
LionLucy@reddit
If you mean "defective", that's the most accurate thing I've ever read. I work with Germans every day 😭
JeddakofThark@reddit
I did.
I was once pretty good friends with a German, but I eventually cut him off for just being too much of an asshole to deal with all the time. Then I met a lot of other Germans and found that everything that caused me to cut him off was standard German behavior.
meipsus@reddit
Once I met a German guy in Rio de Janeiro. He complained that he had drunk tap water all over South America, but when he did it in Rio he had to spend almost a week in the hostel bathroom. FAFO.
ghjm@reddit
Imagine being a German municipal employee doing town hall meetings with rooms full of Germans.
Livia85@reddit
There‘s a whole (German language) subreddit dedicated to the misadventures of German hikers. They and their disregard for local advice are a meme in the Alps.
nosomogo@reddit
This is really interesting and I had no idea the idiocy of German hikers was larger than my own local experience. In Arizona, every summer, German hikers die like flies. I always thought it was something specific to Arizona, having to due with a combination of German's love for hiking and their complete ignorance of desert climates - but it sounds like it happens everywhere!
Lilypad1223@reddit
No they die like flies here too
SciGuy013@reddit
same experience in Arizona! so many germans halfway down the grand canyon with no water, no hat, flip flops, and no sun protection.
AgathaM@reddit
I ran into German tourists in Death Valley that wanted to hike in the 127°F heat. They were not wearing appropriate clothing (snug, dark colored Lycra with most of their skin exposed) and only had a water jug in their car, not packs to carry water.
They didn’t listen to us.
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)
I have always been under the impression that Germans are among the most competent hikers, but I guess there are enough idiots in every group to supply a number of stories!
Livia85@reddit
The few that live in the Alps maybe. The rest not so much. Also their difficult relationship with cows is legendary. Makes the news every other week in the summer season. But to be fair, of course it’s also a numbers game, in a big group you have in absolutes more idiots than in a small group.
veryangryowl58@reddit
Wait can you expand on "difficult relationship with cows"? I'm intrigued.
Livia85@reddit
Well, the Alps are not a remote place. Farmers, cows, tourists, hunters etc have to coexist. Meadows are fenced off only for cattle to some extent but not for humans. So when hiking you sometimes have to cross a meadow with cows. You have to proceed with prudence. And it’s NOT a good idea to have your dog on a leash or pet the cows. Cows hate dogs and they hate people getting close. German hikers have a tendency to bring their dog and then try to pet the cows. There are really many accidents of tourist (or dogs, but they can at least run fast) being at least seriously injured or even killed by the cute Milka chocolate cow with it’s charming cowbell. Then some try to sue the farmer, because he didn’t keep the cow from charging at the dog and owner. It makes the news at least once a week.
Casus125@reddit
YO WHAT THE FUCK
German Tourist Killed By Cows
Affectionate_Data936@reddit
Ugh now I want a Toblerone.
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
I once heard a Swiss guy say that the North Cascades look exactly like the Swiss Alps... if you had fallen through a time warp 10,000 years into the past. He found the complete lack of settlement to be quite uncanny. Totally blew his mind.
gratusin@reddit
My wife is Slovenian and her family has a few of those cute Milka cows complete with bells around their necks. I couldn’t believe how friendly they were, even the bull, eating out of my hand, coming when called. Her dad was making fun of me because I was a bit hesitant to just be friends. I help my buddy on his ranch here when he needs it doing cowboy shit and the cattle here are not nice at all. I have no premonition that I could not be eviscerated if I fuck up. Good statistics don’t lie, they do kill a lot of people. I can only imagine what would happen if a misguided German wandered on to the ranch and started to make nice with the livestock. Toss up between a horn to the asshole or a .308.
ghjm@reddit
Your cows only shoot .308s? Mine insist on .50 BMG because they want the stopping power and can easily handle any amount of recoil. And of course, they're not the ones paying for the rounds. Fucking cows.
gratusin@reddit
Damn, your cows have a lot of money. I’d love to shoot a Barrett again, I can’t afford it. I’m assuming they got in on bitcoin in 2015 and didn’t tell you. Sneaky bastards.
MarbleousMel@reddit
I…have no words
mcm87@reddit
And then they come here and meet the fluffy cows.
veryangryowl58@reddit
Huh. Interesting, thanks! I'm picturing this all happening to the tune of yakety-sax. Seems funny that they haven't grasped "don't pet the cows" yet!
MrLongWalk@reddit
Europeans also simply leave common sense at home when visiting the US. Even the most rational among them seem to try to be unreasonable here. To the average European, the US is not a serious place, so they have nothing to worry or think about.
worsthandleever@reddit
You just made so many idiotic tourist interactions I’ve had make sense.
Livia85@reddit
These types of tourists definitely do not limit their foolishness to the US. They love to underestimate the Alps just as much.
MrLongWalk@reddit
I think you misunderstand, even those Europeans who behave rationally elsewhere seem to go out of their way to do the opposite here
Nyxelestia@reddit
They certainly think they're the most competent hikers.
Vesper2000@reddit
Sometimes the most competent hikers end up dying, like Julian Sands. I remember hearing about a Navy SEAL dying on a whitewater rafting trip. He didn’t take the danger seriously, because he was so attenuated to much more dangerous situations.
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)
Complacency can indeed be a killer.
Gyvon@reddit
You could say it's slow and insidious
purdueaaron@reddit
Complacency is the worst (best?) killer.
I worked on a road reconstruction where one of the primary factors was a middle school that was a few blocks away, so it wasn't a "school zone", but there was a subdivision within walking range across a mildly busy 2 lane road. Nothing that screams "danger" but it was enough that a kid would get tagged about every 6 months or so. And the story would almost always be "But we cross that road in the middle all the time, I don't want to walk all the way to the corner to use the cross walk and come all the way back!"
ericchen@reddit
For a bunch of supposedly rule following people this seems surprising out of character.
ghjm@reddit
They follow rules only of those rules have been developed and promulgated in the proper German way. They don't see other countries' governments as legitimate creators of rules.
DrPaulReedColemanIII@reddit
You reminded me of this: https://www.dexerto.com/twitch/tourist-demands-twitch-streamer-pay-him-because-of-filming-laws-in-his-home-country-2591380/
KaBar42@reddit
You might like this video, wherein an American conducts the Marshall Plan 2.0 Electric Boogaloo, rescues the entirety of Europe from Death Valley and even features a unicorn, a German father who doesn't unduly risk his family's lives and listens to the advice of a much more experienced American in how to safely do a dangerous task!
https://youtu.be/Vn4IJFERCRM?si=08gkokb8VVhWPVJr
Affectionate_Data936@reddit
It's wild to me that a person would even wear flip flops to go hiking, especially around Death Valley. Like what is actually wrong with you.
-plottwist-@reddit
Was talking to a guy in Scotland and said he went to Chicago in the winter. He said he didn’t bring a coat bc he thought it would be fine, I asked him what made him think that, he said I thought it was close enough to the southeast coast that it wouldn’t be too bad…. I had visible confusion for a few minutes after that I’m sure.
RatherGoodDog@reddit
Lost in translation...
ItsBaconOclock@reddit
To be fair, in German it's just Tod's Tall which sounds much less concerning. 😀
Skaftetryne77@reddit
We’ve got them over here too. Europeans travelling to Scandinavia tends to forget that you can fall off cliffs, die of exposure, and in general submit yourself to enormous amount of stupidity in our national parks.
My two favourite accidents are:
1) The couple who ignored their professional guide's directions and warnings, and after their guided tour on the glacier ended chose to cross a fence to approach the edge of the Nigard glaciar in high summer, just to be crushed beneath several hundred tons of melting ice in front of their kids
2) The five skiers who decided to climb Sorbmegaisa in winter to randonee down, ignoring that Sorbmegaisa means “Mountain of many deaths” in Sami.
Mainland Europe is a park, and most Europeans have no concept of what dangers real nature represent.
G00dSh0tJans0n@reddit
Dude, every week there's a European tourist asking in the roadtrip subreddit "I'm heading to Mojave and Death Valley in August." Do they not have the concept of summer in Europe?
LionLucy@reddit
In northern and central Europe, summer is the best and often the only remotely easy or pleasant time to do anything outdoors. Obviously that doesn't translate to hot desert climates, but the "it's July, we need to go outside and make the most of the summer" instinct is strong.
Fat_Head_Carl@reddit
Recently, a friend of my German friend, died visiting death valley. The heat took him.
scarlettohara1936@reddit
I live in Arizona. You couldn't even imagine the amount of out of towners that come here and try to prove that they can do it and go hiking when it's 113° at 2:00 in the afternoon. There was just a family this weekend who had two infants under the age of one in a 10-year-old girl.
revengeappendage@reddit
Oh I am familiar with “the general public.” I can totally believe it.
CaptainPunisher@reddit
It's just a name, like the Death Zone, or the Zone of No Return. All the zones have names like that in the Galaxy of Terror.
01WS6@reddit
My favorite galaxy
Hello_Hangnail@reddit
When I see a park called Bear Mountain National Park, crazy thing, I assume there may be bears. There's always a hidden bear quotient in any park where I live
01WS6@reddit
But the bears are nice, right? Right!?
revengeappendage@reddit
I’d probably also assume some mountains, but yea. No flaws in your logic!
OldDale@reddit
We used to test cars at Death Valley. Towing trailers in summer. Legit 125F. We had a chase truck and plenty of backup. Then there were German Tourists on bicycles. The test schedule was “Stovepipe”
PomeloPepper@reddit
"Weird name. Wonder why they did that?"
nt011819@reddit
Hottest plae on earth. Lets wander around
revengeappendage@reddit
No water. No shoes. Let’s just raw dog it. What could go wrong? lol
itsjustmo_@reddit
There's a sand dune on Lake Michigan that is just an enormous cliff. There are a ton of signs at the top of the hill explaining that it's such a dangerous hike that it costs $3k to rescue you. Yet they average 30+ rescues a year because soooo many morons don't take that seriously.
I was not at all kind to an OOP here a few months ago who was searching for tips on dayhiking Death Valley. I asked them wtf they think 'Death Valley" means and they tried to report me for "uncivility in the comments."
down42roads@reddit
Hawaii had a similar issue with the Stairway to Heaven on Oahu, to the point where the state decided to dismantle it.
_banana_phone@reddit
Even just their regular hiking trails have big old warnings that say things like “many dogs have died on this hike, bring water” and heat stroke warnings for humans. We went to the “pillbox hike” in Kailua on Oahu and it’s not very long, but hoooo buddy it was super sweaty with a pretty substantial elevation change for a casual mainlander tourist.
SciGuy013@reddit
not to be annoying, but isn't it barely 280ft tall? why do people struggle with that so much?
note, i hiked High Dune in Great Sand Dunes NP and it was pretty easy, even when I was out of shape
Hottoddy1@reddit
450’, it’s like climbing a 45 story building without handrail and the steps are made of sand.
SciGuy013@reddit
Ah, so still like a little under 2/3rds of High Dune, and not at altitude. People in Michigan are probably just not used to that level of gain though
theCaitiff@reddit
Go try it. I'm sure that "it will cost $3,000 to rescue you" sign is exaggerating. Come on, what's the worst that could happen? All sand dunes are the same everywhere right? There's never any differences in how steep they are.
SciGuy013@reddit
Will do! I regularly do day hikes with over 5000ft of gain, so this should be easy!
kadje@reddit
Go for it. Make sure you report back to us.
SciGuy013@reddit
Will do!
theCaitiff@reddit
SAR definitely doesn't vary from place to place either as this non-existent sign helpfully warns you.
SciGuy013@reddit
Ah, my confusion was that the park service does not charge for SAR; it’s private contractors that they may or may not use to help you that could end up charging you
engineereddiscontent@reddit
My guess is that it's a lot of older out of shape people. Meaning 50+ish or very overweight under 50+ crowd. I haven't been in years but remember when I was a kid that it's a bitch and a half to scale.
Also if I remember correctly it's a hike to get TO the water front from the car and it's a hike to get back.
And northern michigan is largely a tourist destination for a lot of people from the suburbs who get winded walking to and from their desk at the office.
JMS1991@reddit
That's correct. The hike down is easy (gravity is on your side), but the hike back is steep as hell and on sand, so it's way more difficult than it looks.
When I was there, I wondered if there was a reason a local couldn't chill out at the bottom of the dunes with a boat and offer to "rescue" tourists for like a few hundred bucks. I guess it would be a long hike from the marina back to the car, but you could always gain admission to the park as a cost of doing business and drive them back.
SciGuy013@reddit
You need to be an approved concessionaire for the national park unit to operate a business inside.
kadje@reddit
I was at those dunes once and a young couple, I'm guessing early 20s and their dog went down there. Of course, they were totally surprised that they couldn't get back up. Somebody did call 911. We didn't stick around to watch the rescue.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Sleeping Bear Dunes. Absolutely beautiful but yeah the hike back is brutal. Even in decent shape with water and a snack. It’s like hands and knees almost and every step forward is a half step back as the dune slides you back.
RatherGoodDog@reddit
I just googled it - my first thought was "oh, that's pretty, and it does look quite steep".
Second thought when I saw this photo was "bloody hell, that's huge!"
https://www.michigan.org/sites/default/files/listing_images/profile/11156/a635565b05e3814c3e83196510bb66a1_sleeping-bear-dunes-21.jpg
That's clearly a slope you don't want to climb up, never mind take a tumble down.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
I mean you do want to climb up otherwise you’re stuck. You just have to budget plenty of time and take it slow.
CrastinatingJusIkeU2@reddit
What is the obvious answer I am overlooking as to why they can’t have some sort of sleigh and pulley set up here?
Dogsnbootsncats@reddit
It’s actually like a mile walk to a parking lot with stairs and shit, if you seriously can’t make it up you can just head back down, walk along the beach to that, then head up, then walk along the road to your car.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Probably expense, incredibly sandy soil, and not wanting to disrupt the natural environment. I have no idea if anyone ever proposed anything like that.
Mesoscale92@reddit
Not exactly a “horror story”, but the tourists were horrified.
Friend of mine is half French and some of their French relatives visited Wisconsin once. As if Wisconsin isn’t horrifying enough as it is, they were driving through a heavily wooded rural area when a deer ran in front of their car and got completely obliterated. They were traumatized, but a nearby cheesehead heard the commotion and came out to see what was going on.
The French family was asking in broken English what to do: do they call the police? Some animal agency? Cheesehead just yells back to their house “come out here, we got a fresh deer!”. A few more cheeseheads emerged from the woods and loaded the deer carcass into a truck bed and took it back to the house.
The French minds could not comprehend harvesting fresh roadkill.
No-Conversation1940@reddit
"Want some jerky? We made it overnight"
IBelongHere@reddit
Gotta love the sconies, they would absolutely spend all night making it and then offer it for free to anyone who wants some
Power_More_Power@reddit
well the thing about jerky is that you always wind up with more than you thought you would
velociraptorfarmer@reddit
Deer bendy and cheese, a match made in heaven
EK60@reddit
Fresh deer jerky, for free? Sign me the fuck up
fartofborealis@reddit
Local legend. Bet everyone gets a good laugh!
UnfairHoneydew6690@reddit
I mean that’s just being thrifty and environmentally conscious but my book haha
Kellosian@reddit
I'm pretty suburban myself, but throwing the deer away to rot absolutely seems like a waste. It's already dead, might as well eat it if you know how to make sure it wasn't diseased
birdsy-purplefish@reddit
Waste not, want not. It seems like the best way to honor the deer, really. What else can you do? People would probably be pretty pissed if you left it for scavengers.
coco_xcx@reddit
That is so painfully Wisconsin 😭 I love it. My cousin has the head of a deer that she hit awhile back, named him and everything lol.
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
I was gonna go with "wholesome" but that doesn't quite fit. Hmmmm... I think "adorable" might be a better fit.
UltraShadowArbiter@reddit
You have to remember, they don't really have wildlife in France, or Europe in general. So it must've been a totally new experience for them.
Pleasant_Studio9690@reddit
Haha! I can just imagine them re-telling that story in France. I have a few fresh roadkill = free meat stories from my old workplace.
Karen125@reddit
My stepdad hit some quail with his motorhome. Marinade and grill over a campfire.
LionLucy@reddit
I've eaten pheasants my husband hit with his car. Part of it was a bit smooshed, but it was fine. It's technically illegal here though, to eat an animal you've hit yourself, but you can eat roadkill you just happen to find. I think that's to stop people just mowing down deer on the roads as a form of hunting, which is obviously cruel and super dangerous!
Jeppeto01@reddit
I hit a black bear almost a year ago up in the Northwoods with my truck, near Tomahawk. When the deputy came and asked if we were ok, the next question was, "Did you find the bear?"
No, we didn't.
mesembryanthemum@reddit
I drove from Madison to Wausau once and saw 17 deer carcasses by the side of the road.
SuperiorHappiness@reddit
I’m from Wisconsin. 😑
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Here in Maine police and rangers will actually take a fresh kill to people in the area that are in need and know how to clean a carcass.
I’ve not seen it personally but I know it happens from talking with folks.
strippersandcocaine@reddit
My FIL in NH did the same thing. He couldn’t understand why I wasn’t interested in his venison.
Aggressive_FIamingo@reddit
When I was in middle school I was one of the first people on the school bus every day - I had to get on the bus at 5:45. Early morning in rural Maine = you're playing deer frogger. My bus driver once every couple of months would hit a deer, then immediately radio the bus depot to call his son to come pick it up. They must have had a constant supply of venison.
hippiechick725@reddit
I cackled at this…I see it happen all the time!
Inevitable_Cicada@reddit
I live in a town that gets a decent amount of foreign tourist and it just so happens that I’ve volunteered during events 99.9% of the time they were very polite but one time someone came up to me and asked “ how much is this “ when I explained to her it was free she thanked me but under her breath she said “ yet these people can’t afford anything “
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)
Weird and rude!
Inevitable_Cicada@reddit
I know right mind you I was 15 it even said on my name tag “I’m volunteering from (my high schools name ) please be patient “ like she knew that i was a kid and STILL said that to me
_Smedette_@reddit
I’m from Oregon, and you’d be amazed at how many people hike/climb around Mt Hood completely unprepared. They seem to think because it’s one of the smaller Cascades it will somehow be easier.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Mount Washington too. Oh this run little New England mountain, I surely won’t need a raincoat or a water bottle.
A-Ginger6060@reddit
A shocking amount of people underestimate Mount Washington.
WorldsMostDad@reddit
I hear it's windy up there.
mangoisNINJA@reddit
The observation building is held down with chains so, a little I guess
CupBeEmpty@reddit
It’s more than just held down by chains. It’s built like a bunker. We are talking thick concrete walls.
Highest overland wind speed recorded in the US. A gust of 231 mph. I’ve climbed it in winter and we turned around because we had a foot of snow dump on us in 30 minutes with 52mph wind at the summit and with temps around 15 degrees.
We did not make the summit that day.
BranchBarkLeaf@reddit
Who climbs Mt. Washington in winter??? That’s asking for trouble.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Lots of people. People ski Tuckermans Ravine in winter. There are mountaineering groups that do it. We were mountaineering so we had ice picks, rope, snow pickets, harnesses, ice screws, etc.
Two of our group had avalanche safety training, all of us were WFR or WEMT trained, it was not some little jaunt.
Most importantly we all knew when it was time to turn around and there was no BS pride about not summiting or trying to push it.
kmosiman@reddit
Yeah. Highest recorded wind speed (by a human) some remote unmanned station in the ocean got a little higher.
When I was there they were testing a new gage to be used on Everest.
TheVentiLebowski@reddit
"Mount Washington ... recorded a wind chill of -108.4° Fahrenheit Friday evening–the coldest wind chill in the history of the United States."
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Yeah with the wind and cold it is crazy. I’ve seen really bad weather there doing winter mountaineering but nothing on that level. That would be an immediate scrub the whole trip scenario.
The thing is though that people don’t even attempt that type of weather. It’s the more moderate spring and fall days that get people because conditions will degrade fast rather than being very obvious non starters.
Negative-Yam5361@reddit
Yep, I live in the area and it's amazing how much of our own resources are pulled away from the communities and wasted on these dipshits.
jimmythevip@reddit
I worked in Colorado one summer and I ran into multiple people trying to climb Mt. Elbert (the tallest mountain in the Rockies) with no food and only one water bottle.
_Smedette_@reddit
Ooof. Mt Hood is close to Portland, so a lot of tourists will drive to Timberline Lodge (elevation 6,000 feet/1,828 metres) and think, “Hey! I’m already halfway up a mountain, let’s explore!” without any gear and granola bar.
I’ve also been asked “Where can I see bears?” 🫡
jimmythevip@reddit
Yeah we had issues like that. Moose eating willows right next to the road in a pretty popular recreation area. We had people getting out and trying to take pictures with it despite myself and the other rangers yelling at them to get back
BrackenFernAnja@reddit
How many bodies are still up on Mt. Hood, anyway? I’ve heard there are quite a few that have never been retrieved due to the difficulty of reaching them.
_Smedette_@reddit
Good question. 130 people have died on Mt Hood since 2002 (that we know of), and between 25-50 people require rescue every year (again, that we know of).
Yankee-Tango@reddit
A lot of Rocky Mountain hikers think they’re hot shit because they hike high altitude. But they don’t realize that when you live at 5000ft elevation, and hike to 10k on a horse trail with switchbacks, it’s just a nice walk with thin air. They aren’t ready for steep slopes, jagged rocks, slippery surfaces, etc. They just can’t handle the cascades or Appalachian hikes where you’ll have to use your hands to climb sometimes. Those rocks take em to ankle snap city
TheLastRulerofMerv@reddit
That's like for any of them. I found that on Mt Jefferson too.
I love eastern Oregon. I remember driving out there towards Washington and I was actually able to see Mt Shasta all the way up into WA. LIke you could piece together the Cascades. Hot as Hell out there, but it's really cool. Smith Rock was one of the coolest places I've ever been.
Sp4ceh0rse@reddit
I remember hiking from cloud cap to cooper spur in my first few years living in Oregon. We were camping and definitely underestimated the hike. Reached the glacier and got VERY sketched out. Also around that time my very fit dog began to lie down. Turned around real quick.
Jazz_Musician@reddit
How long is that hike?
Sp4ceh0rse@reddit
It’s only like 7 miles with 2680 feet of elevation, tops out around 8500 elevation I think. Definitely in my wheelhouse now, certainly was not back then!
MrLongWalk@reddit
I used to help foreigners get settled in/travel around the US. I currently manage a bar in an area popular with tourists. How much time do you have?
Agile_Property9943@reddit
Give us some stories!! We wanna hear some!
MrLongWalk@reddit
Brits and Germans are the most clueless, Australians the most confrontational, Chinese the most outright unpleasant. The French tend to be chill until suddenly they’re not.
yungmoneybingbong@reddit
I don't know if it's that Chinese people are the most unpleasant, or just the most oblivious group of people I've ever met lol
BigGameMunch@reddit
I skipped complementary breakfast @ a hotel a week ago because there was a travel group. some lady decided she needed all eight omelets for herself right when they brought out a new pan. And I had to bark at another lady grabbed my shoulder to get in front of me for the hashbrowns
mostie2016@reddit
There actually used to be a whole subreddit about Chinese tourists and the shenanigans they’d get up to.
Different_Mud_1283@reddit
"Why wouldn't my group of 30 stop in the middle of the sidewalk, at a corner, and not even get out of the way of other pedestrians?"
Affectionate_Data936@reddit
lmao I had a really rough time in London because of this. I'm not a big city person, I'm a country bumpkin through and through. London was at the end of a 3 week trip around the UK. At some point before I left Florida for my trip, I was exposed to mono and I finally came down sick with it when I got to London. The few moments of energy I had was me trying to see things around hoards of other tourists just standing in the way so I would give up, go back to the walk-in-closet-sized flat I got on Airbnb and sleep, maybe drag myself to the Wetherspoons around the corner to get some sustenance.
RatherGoodDog@reddit
Sorry to hear that! I am curious, what's your honest assessment of 'Spoons? It's a national institution here.
Affectionate_Data936@reddit
lol it was a non-horrible way to get me calories affordably. Not great but not disgusting, ya know? It's like....hospital food, but like a nicer American hospital that has decent food (I don't know what NHS hospital food is like either way). I will note that I don't eat meat and the fact that it had vegetarian options was nice.
HuckleberrySpy@reddit
Per my friend from Hong Kong, it's that the mainlander Chinese who can afford to travel abroad have an outrageous sense of entitlement.
Educational_Crazy_37@reddit
It’s both. Asian lack of spatial awareness + DGAF attitudes = Worldwide lack of likability.
thatswacyo@reddit
Finally somebody else who has shared the truth about Australians. People always post on this sub about how Aussies are so laid back, carefree, easygoing, friendly, etc. And it makes me wonder if I just had terrible luck with the 20-ish different Australians I worked with over the course of a decade. I've worked with people from all over the world, and Australians were the absolute worst to work with, and it wasn't even close.
StrangeLikeNormal@reddit
My brother plays Aussie rules football here in the US and they actually have a limit on how many actual Aussies can be on the field at once. I guess at a certain saturation the game becomes too violent 😂
emarvil@reddit
Mad Max is an Aussie.
I rest my case.
WorldsMostDad@reddit
A friend and I were having drinks at a British pub, arguing over which was more violent: hockey or rugby. A game of Australian rules football came on the TV next to us, and settled the debate for all time.
JeddakofThark@reddit
I've never worked with Australians, but I've tended to find their level of partying matches my own, so I've always liked them. I don' know that I'd enjoy working with those same people though...
MrLongWalk@reddit
They're fun to party with, but damn they can turn anything into why the US is mordor and Americans are literal hellspawn. I had an Australian, unprompted, ask me if the fenceposts near a farm were for tethering slaves. This was in Concord Massachusetts.
Sad-Suggestion9425@reddit
A friend of mine got married to a New Zealander, and my God their main bonding point was how shitty the US is. I mean, I agree, the US has a lot of problems that need to be fixed, and has caused a lot of problems internationally, but can that not be your entire personality please?
GF_baker_2024@reddit
And a lot of the hatred isn't even based in reality. I've met NZers who believed that Americans didn't know anything about the metric system and were all horrible Christian nationalists and racists, and that the entire country was worth dismissing because they hadn't liked Orlando and Las Vegas.
Affectionate_Data936@reddit
Aw I always found NZers to be a lot nicer than Aussies (except one college roommate's mom from NZ who was actually pretty rude).
veryangryowl58@reddit
IIRC on a international poll they had like the second worst unfavorable opinion of Americans behind some Middle Eastern country that probably just hates us because of Israel.
They massively dislike us, which is weird because I feel like we really don't interact with them all that much, comparatively.
MrLongWalk@reddit
A big part of their national identity is feeling prude because they aren’t us.
Stigge@reddit
Same with Canada (sans Quebec)
MrLongWalk@reddit
Quebec too, I have to deal with them daily
G17Gen3@reddit
It goes back to World War 2. When American military personnel had any downtime from saving Australia's ass, they dated the local women. A lot.
80 years later and they're still salty that Grandmum gave it up to some farmboy from Nebraska.
saltporksuit@reddit
Be sure to ask any Australian if they still keep the “abos” as slaves. Because they did. And they still abuse them. And still call them that word. And they’re in denial about how racist they really are.
Educational_Crazy_37@reddit
First time I ever visited Australia I step off the train at Circular Quay and within 3 minutes an older White Aussie and someone of south Asian origin accidentally bump one another and from the mouth of the White Aussie came 3 solid minutes of racist slurs that would make any Klansman blush…
After several trips to Australia I’ve found Aussies to be sort of like the Italians: some are the nicest, most outgoing people ever while the others are hostile, racist dickheads with very little in between.
wongo@reddit
Well, like any random sampling of humanity, you're going to hear the loudest ones. Doesn't mean there aren't a bunch of quiet ones you don't notice.
Tayjocoo@reddit
Same experience here. I was one of those that had always assumed Aussies were super chill, but I spent a few months working for a company out of Australia and I was SHOCKED at how hard strung and straight up rude they were.
Like, you think hustle culture in the US is problematic? These people were cult like. Proudly bragged that they would work two or three jobs just to get by, but treated me like I was insane for not wanting to pay an hour’s worth of wages a day for the privilege to park in their rental office (after the job had been remote for months).
I have no idea if that’s a general Australian attitude or specific to this company/state, but it really killed any desire I had to interact with the culture.
Educational_Crazy_37@reddit
Which nationalities are the friendliest?
Also It’d be great if you could share an anecdote about each of those nationalities (Aussies, Brits, Germans, French, Chinese, etc) previously mentioned.
MrLongWalk@reddit
Irish, Polish, Norwegians, Japanese tend to be pretty chill as well.
Tried explaining to us that we aren't actually free because solar power is illegal in the US. The college he was attending owns a massive solar farm right off campus.
Hard to pick. My favorite are probably the Brits who get frustrated with the locals because of how cold and snowy our winters are. A lot of them feel we lied to them about how warm and sunny the US is. One of them literally called it propaganda when he got to Vermont and saw that isn't 60 and sunny here year round.
Constant, unsolicited stone house phenomenon. Another favorite are those who decide "closed" does not apply to them.
Tried to pet a coyote, got mad when there was no table/dinner service at a beer garden, their "day was ruined" because the "shithole" was so poorly run.
Dumping a trash can out on the ground to make room for their trash.
barrrking@reddit
Please explain stone house phenomenon.
MrLongWalk@reddit
An American sees a German house made of stone and thinks nothing of it.
A German sees an American house made of wood and is sure we don’t realize how to build houses.
It’s easier for them to believe an entire country simply doesn’t know how to build houses than to think maybe there’s things they don’t know about why we build them that way. It doesn’t just apply to construction.
Uber_Reaktor@reddit
As I understand it, it's the phenomenon of (as the prime example) a German complaining and insisting that a house built of stone is completely superior to one built of wood, like many American homes.
It doesn't stop at house construction though, and it's not just Germans, though they really seem to get off on it thr most.
barrrking@reddit
thank you!
Sad-Suggestion9425@reddit
I've been reading about how hardened the Chinese people's spirit has become after the Revolution. Cultural trauma and all that leading to a general lack of kindness.
JeddakofThark@reddit
Those Germans really took their building lessons from The Three Little Pigs. The first wolf to come along is going to blow down all our houses.
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)
They could've saved themselves a step and just thrown theirs on the ground! /s
Dmbender@reddit
You could sum up most of French history with this statement haha
MrLongWalk@reddit
They had a great time, enjoyed the local scenery and culture, until the beer garden at the local brewery didn't have table service or a dinner menu. Suddenly it was a shithole and the entire city was backwards.
Croquetadecarne@reddit
I work with people from around the world and can also attest to this
Stigge@reddit
Old habits die hard.
matbea78@reddit
And none of them tip.
MrLongWalk@reddit
Or they do and treat it like a crucifixion.
majinspy@reddit
Re: the French: as many an erstwhile leader found out.
spitfire451@reddit
He was upset that you were merely in possession of a hatchet?
MrLongWalk@reddit
Yep, he went on how obsessed with violence Americans are.
vulcan1358@reddit
Says the guy from a country where department stores have to keep kitchen knives locked up like they’re expensive electronics….
birdsy-purplefish@reddit
"We learned it from our dear old mum."
GF_baker_2024@reddit
Yes. Very violent to want to chop firewood while camping.
Yankee-Tango@reddit
You should have showed him a gun to make him cry
spitfire451@reddit
Dude must have just finished watching Last of the Mohicans or something jeez.
Agile_Property9943@reddit
Lmao
Stuebirken@reddit
Unfortunately I'm not the least surprised about the demand for alcohol from the Danish kids.
We have a ginourmous problem with alcohol consumption in general, and amongst our kids in particular.
75% of all 15-16yo Danes have consumed some amount of alcohol in the last 30 days. 40% of them have been down right drunk.
Every Dane above the age of 15(fifteen) consumes 9.1L pure alcohol yearly. There's a not insignificant number of 15yo Danish girls, that drinks more booze yearly, than most grown ass men in the rest of Europe.
From the age of 16 you can legally bye alcohol that is up to 6%Vol, but "only" from various stores, so trying to buy it at bars, clubs, restaurans etc is still illegal at that age.
It's perfectly legal to drink in public (but public intoxication can be illegal curtesy of the nearest cop, but it usually takes some form of added disrupting behaviour), so it's fare from unusual seeing a bunch of teenageres, hanging out at the beach or the local park being more than tipsy.
From the age of 18 you can buy whatever % you like and wherever you might see fit.
Alcohol is legal to sell any day at any hour year round.
Most Danes gets weirdly pissed if they for whatever reason can't have alcohol, at a place, time or situation where they would normally do so.
So a bunch of 19yo Danes having a tantrum because they are prohibited from getting drunk, unfortunately sounds more than likely.
MrLongWalk@reddit
The annoying and surprising bit isn't their drinking, its their sense of entitlement.
Stuebirken@reddit
I agree on it being freaking annoying but it's not surprising to me, since a fairly large number of them seems to think that the sun only rises in the morning, because they do.
We call them "curling kids" because their parents will make sure to remove any and all obstacles, challenges and inconvenience that could make their kids path throug life anything but absolutely smooth sailing.
So it's par for the cause that a bunch of snot nosed culling kids actually believe, that just because they demand it, everyone will scrambled to bend the laws of a foreign country.
I'll bet you anything that at least half of them called their mother's, wanting her til call up the US president and yell at him, because everyone in the US is such big meanies.
MrLongWalk@reddit
Frankly that all sounds about right, I liked Danes and my time in Denmark, but there definitely seemed a significant number of extremely entitled young people.
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
Hopefully they used their time in America to dry out!
I know we're kind of on the other extreme. I wouldn't blame a 20 year old European for being cheesed off that he can't have a beer at a bar or go inside of a club. But as with most things, surely there's a happy medium between the way we roll and someone who pukes in mid-air between the balcony and the pool while trying to throw a punch at the guy who jumped from the next balcony over at the same exact moment.
Stuebirken@reddit
Their liver must be extremely grateful at least.
Damn, were you in Rome sometime around August 1997? Because that description is weirdly close to something that happened on a school trip back when I was in high school.
I stopped drinking some 20 years ago(I actually hate being drunk) so I'm probably pretty biased but I personally think, that a "happy medium" is still pushing the envelope, no matter how you slice it alcohol is extremely harmful especially to a developing teenage brain.
And in the end, no matter how unfair or stupid a 19-20yo European think that the US law might be, thinking that they have the right to demand that they get an exemption, no matter the degree of whining while doing so, is not a good look on any of them.
No_Name_Necessary@reddit
The hatchet one is funny -2 when I was crossing into Quebec from Maine, the Canadian border guard asked me if I have any weapons in the car, and like the good NYer I admitted to the camping hatchet that I had because I had just come from Acadia.
She gave the most puzzled look, as if to say “why wouldn’t you have a hatchet?”
She goes “No, more like an uzi or a bazooka, something like that?”
I think she would have leant me a hatchet if I needed one.
admiralkit@reddit
I once forgot to take a pocket knife out of my backpack when flying through O'Hare and basically got read the riot act by a police officer. I kid you not, he measured the blade and went, "This blade is 2.75" and any blade 3" or longer is a weapon under Chicago law! This is nearly a weapon!" and he did not like my response of, "So you're saying explicitly it isn't a weapon?"
Vesper2000@reddit
There’s a tiny rural town on the California coast famous for its natural beauty that gets a fair number of tourists from outside the US. We were at a restaurant and from where we were sitting we could see they had a whole chalkboard covered in silly or insulting questions they’d fielded from tourists over the years. It was pretty funny stuff like “Do people actually live in this town or is it just for tourists?” and “Is everyone here homeless or do they just dress that way?”
sluttypidge@reddit
I used to work supply shack/restaurant near a lake in a state park, and a British man asked me why we let rattlesnakes in the park.
My dude like I have control over them.
Public-Map-8515@reddit
They pay their taxes just like anybody else!
PersuasionNation@reddit
What town.
Vesper2000@reddit
Mendocino
PersuasionNation@reddit
Ah. Never been. Unless you count their sandwich farms.
Hello_Hangnail@reddit
The bums are influencers. The cardboard box houses are the latest tiktok challenge
Kellosian@reddit
Honestly if someone told me "There is a TikTok trend where people pretend to be homeless for a day and are gentrifying actual homelessness" I would absolutely believe it
Vesper2000@reddit
There are no homeless people there, just farmers and artists. The tourists were asking why everyone wasn’t dressed like city people.
huhwhat90@reddit
Who the shucky darn heck looks at Vermont, a state that borders Canada, and expects it to be as warm as Florida? Do they expect Canada to be as warm as Florida?
dr-tectonic@reddit
Vermont is at the same latitude as the south of France, where lots of people go on holiday because the weather is lovely.
Europeans get fooled because Europe is unusually warm for being so far north.
epauli3@reddit
It's called The Gulf Stream. How do they not know this?
CommitteeofMountains@reddit
Why would you randomly research thermal winds and currents?
GF_baker_2024@reddit
And yet we're the ignorant ones...
Stigge@reddit
They've been getting fooled by similar latitudes since 1607.
ABSOFRKINLUTELY@reddit
Seriously-being able to Google the temperature of any city worldwide- or pull up average temps for any month for any place on the globe...
I mean no one can complain about this anymore...
Hell I do a quick check whenever I'm packing for a trip - even when it's within my same state!
Karen125@reddit
It stops at the border. /s
TheVentiLebowski@reddit
What was the complaint about the hatchet?
MrLongWalk@reddit
It was a weapon and inappropriate to have out and about
TheVentiLebowski@reddit
What'd he think of all the guns you obviously had on you?
MrLongWalk@reddit
I wasn’t wearing a sleeveless shirt
Spinelli-Wuz-My-Idol@reddit
Tbf, I ALSO want to pet the coyotes
PuzzleheadedBobcat90@reddit
In Vegas, our news stations routinely remind people to not feed to coyotes or leave food out for them.
Many bite incidents still happen
el_butt@reddit
Same but we know better
Spinelli-Wuz-My-Idol@reddit
If only we just trained them…tamed them…honed them…
el_butt@reddit
If only
PumaGranite@reddit
Once we harness the power of coyotes, the power of the US will be off the charts!
Spinelli-Wuz-My-Idol@reddit
Power no man nor coyote has known before!
(pronounced kai-YOTE)
101bees@reddit
Um, this actually happened? Wtf
MrLongWalk@reddit
Not to me, but a colleague, apparently it "looked just like the movies" so it was ok to photograph a private family gathering.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
I mean I’d probably chat them up and offer them a hotdog or something but that’s the Hoosier in me. Taking pics of my kids would be a no though.
magster823@reddit
For real. "Food's in the house, help yourselves. You guys ever play corn hole?" And then we'd tell the story of the foreign tourists crashing our potluck for many years to come.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Do you want to learn how to play euchre?
royalhawk345@reddit
If they came up and said something friendly, sure, but if they just started taking photos I'd be pissed.
TweeksTurbos@reddit
That was the first thing i noticed in Danemark. Kids on stoops drinking.
Hello_Hangnail@reddit
Cops roll up and start busting heads for that in my hometown
JeddakofThark@reddit
The list feels a little hostile, but I get it. And it is funny.
For everybody else, this is the experience of someone who deals with this all the damn time. Most of us don't, and so aren't nearly so judgemental.
MrLongWalk@reddit
This is a thread for horror stories, not the times they act normally
JeddakofThark@reddit
Very true. And I really didn't mean anything negative toward your comment at all.
yungmoneybingbong@reddit
Tbf you can get to NYC from Burlington or Boston before lunch. It just depends when you leave lol
bloopidupe@reddit
TELL USSSSSSSSSSSSSS please.
Wielder-of-Sythes@reddit
Give me all the stories.
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)
LOL, I've seen your replies related to your experiences. One or two memorable ones, maybe. ;)
whatintheactualfeth@reddit
European (I think) woman was on an extended stay at a lake side cabin in northern Idaho. She loooved feeding the wildlife in the area. Even after being told by locals that this is a very, very bad idea.
"Zey are all so cute unt sweet. I just love zem so much, I vould feel bad if zey starved to death."
One day, a bull moose walked onto the property.She was so excited because she had never seen a moose before, and she promptly retrieved an apple for it. At first, she put the apple down a short distance away and waited. It didn't seem interested, so she moved it closer. It was then that she noticed that its eyes were all red and watery. (IYKYK)
"Oh my goodness, ze poor thing is sick."
She picked up the apple and moved up to the moose and put the apple under his muzzle.
3 broken ribs, broken clavicle, broken arms, and a punctured lung later, she believes that it is a very, very bad idea to feed the wildlife.
PSA: There are many forms of dangerous wildlife in the northern woods. Some will kill you to protect themselves, some will kill you because they are hungry, but a moose will stomp you to pulp for merely existing in its presence.
Vulpix_lover@reddit
I don't understand and couldn't find anything online
PsionicCauaslity@reddit
It was mating season and the moose was in a rut.
Vulpix_lover@reddit
Oh my, that's not a good time
Affectionate_Data936@reddit
Luckily it wasn't a grizzly bear! I went to high school in Kootenai county but if she was staying in Bonner county or something it could've very easily been a bear. My mom and stepdad got married at this castle thing near Sandpoint and there was a baby grizzly poking around outside the morning after the wedding. I can't imagine the result if she tried to feed the baby bear.
lilac_blaire@reddit
We had bears go through our trash in Sandpoint more than once! And moose in the yard all the time
Alarming_Flow7066@reddit
I don’t know. Was it in musk?
whatintheactualfeth@reddit
Yes. He was in rut and looking for love.
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
Lookin' for love
In all the wrong places
Stomping his hooves
Through too many faces
da_chicken@reddit
Well somebody sure got fucked.
whatintheactualfeth@reddit
She probably got a good lesson in the American Healthcare system, so proper fucked.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Moose are absolutely terrifying up close. The size alone should have scared her off. In rut too… she did not know.
Hello_Hangnail@reddit
A moose will stomp your ass just for fun because you're breathing the same air they are
ThaloBleu@reddit
Summer wouldn't be summer in southern/central Arizona without a couple of dead tourists of both domestic and international varieties. Geniuses who decide that going desert hiking or climbing a desert park mountain at high noon on a day when the high temp is 115 (in the shade), in flip flops or sandals, no hat, with maybe a half litre bottle of water is a really splendid idea. Sun temps can easily run 20+ degrees more and ground can hit 160-180.
alexfaaace@reddit
Every year we have tourists from all over the world visit the Gulf of Mexico. And every year someone drowns after being drug out by a rip current. It may not be the tourist, it may be the person that went to save them, that happens a lot. It will never cease to amaze me that people have no respect for the water and ignore the signs and flags at every beach entrance. Tourists are more worried about sharks than the conditions of the water.
mostie2016@reddit
Don’t remind of the tourist who swim at night and then get attacked by sharks.
coco_xcx@reddit
The waves in the Gulf are insane!! I was in Gulf Shores back in March and those were some of the biggest waves I had ever seen. They flooded the beach and were 9+ feet. I love the ocean, but I will never underestimate it.
alexfaaace@reddit
Funnily enough, I consider the Gulf waves nothing compared to the Atlantic. I’ve lived on both coasts and you see sharky waves far more often on the Atlantic. It’s the rip currents and how calm the Gulf can be that makes it so dangerous. The day after a storm, the water will be practically glass and the beach will be beautiful but that’s when rip currents are most dangerous. All the excess water that a storm dumps into the water has to go back out, causing tons of rip currents. There’s wild pictures of Navarre Beach with a rip current about every 10yds.
thedancingpanda@reddit
The brits who went to Disney World and ignored the signs that said not to swim in the creeks, and their toddler got taken by a gator.
I think some people outside Florida might have thought Disney might be to blame there, but the signs are clear, and everyone there knows that any open body of water should be assumed to have gators in it.
tarheel_204@reddit
That’s just natural selection running its course. A wise Floridian friend of mine once told me, “If you see anything larger than a puddle down here, expect there to be at least one gator in there somewhere”
sleepygrumpydoc@reddit
Im a Californian and there are no wild gators here but hell I distinctly remember
mostie2016@reddit
Don’t fuck around and find out in Louisiana and East Texas bodies of water too.
Hello_Hangnail@reddit
Having to explain to people just because it has a fence doesn't mean it's safe! The shits can climb 🐊
Endy0816@reddit
Or even push through the fence lol.
They're a living tank and they know it.
Hello_Hangnail@reddit
If they've survived 83 million years, they must be doing something right
throwawayforgood02@reddit
Damn, is that what happened? I remember hearing about a gator snatching a toddler a few years back. So heartbreaking, and newly being a dad myself, it hit me particularly hard.
Dr_ChimRichalds@reddit
It was a family from Nebraska who were on a sandy portion of Seven Seas Lagoons. There were no swimming signs, but it feels disingenuous to say that the family should have understood the dangers of collecting water in buckets to build sandcastles. Official reports declared the attack predatory and unprovoked. It was an absolute tragedy, not a "stupid foreign tourists" story.
At any rate, Disney has since put in fencing blocking access to the water and signs warning of the presence of alligators and snakes.
thedancingpanda@reddit
There have been several of these. I didn't know the 2016 one.
Affectionate_Data936@reddit
The thing is, you know tourists were feeding that alligator which emboldened it to eat the toddler in the first place. If this was just a regular degular gator not fed by tourists, it would've probably left them alone.
TheLastRulerofMerv@reddit
I just don't know if I could live after that if that were my kid.
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)
I remember that one, what a sad incident.
mostie2016@reddit
People who swim at night and expect to not get attacked by sharks.
SomeGoogleUser@reddit
I saw a Japanese couple almost get gored by an elk in Yellowstone.
Hello_Hangnail@reddit
I guess they didn't take the Don't Fuck with the Megafauna signs seriously
Lugbor@reddit
Maybe if they actually worded the signs like that, people would listen. You could do a whole series of them.
"The moose will kill you and tap dance on your corpse."
"The bison will disembowel you in front of your children."
"This geyser pool will melt the flesh from your bones."
"This desert is the world's largest oven. You will die, and we will find the body in a couple years."
nvkylebrown@reddit
There is a sign at the top of Vernal Falls in Yosemite telling you not to play in the Merced river above Vernal Falls. It includes the sentence "If you go over the falls, you will die."
Still happens occasionally.
birdsy-purplefish@reddit
There were signs even more explicit than that if I recall correctly. Explaining how you most likely will go over the falls because your body will probably be too cold to react, the water is too powerful, and you will be bashed against rocks and stuff like that. In a few languages and with some unambiguous pictograms.
...Though looking up photos it seems like they're not that specific. I probably blended those memories with reading Off The Wall: Death In Yosemite. There's one sign I found a picture of though that's just heartbreaking.
I don't blame anyone who's gone over the falls though. In the summer when the water is mostly slow and low you'd think there's no way you could actually get swept away. And it gets so hot above the misty part of the Mist Trail that it's unbearable. I would have drank that water if I didn't know about giardia. And I would have been very tempted to try to take a dip if I hadn't read about the deceptive danger of water crossings or directly experienced river-polished granite. There was a much safer place I swam as a kid that was a granite-lined riverbed and that shit will trick you! It looks safe when it's dry and you'll be doing just fine until you hit a patch that's slipperier than it looked or you don't walk on it just right. I got good at crabwalking but we saw so many people get hurt over the years.
Affectionate_Data936@reddit
They word them like that in virtually every language and the tourists still don't listen.
PuzzleheadedBobcat90@reddit
Dessicated body.
New slogan for Death Valley
"Come visit. It's like Silica Gel in the summer, but for your entire body"
Stigge@reddit
I'm a fan of "Not only will this kill you, it'll hurt the whole time you're dying."
Mysteryman64@reddit
"...Maybe, if you're lucky."
CupBeEmpty@reddit
They don’t call them charismatic megafauna for no reason… but resist that urge.
kaimcdragonfist@reddit
Different parts of Japan have bear problems too, so the idea of dangerous wildlife shouldn’t be foreign to them. I guess they just think American herbivores behave the same as those deer in public Japanese parks that you see on tv and in anime
CommitteeofMountains@reddit
Japan has semi-domesticated deer tourists can hand-feed, so not surprising.
vivipeach@reddit
iirc theres a city in japan with very very socialized deer, mightve just been them generalizing all deer to be like that? who knows
Uber_Reaktor@reddit
Nara, Japan. And those deer are indeed very special and well acclimated to humans. But it's definitely well known for that so I would hope people aren't coming to that conclusion. Reading this thread though is making me think otherwise...
mostie2016@reddit
Honestly they probably didn’t take into account that American wild life is wild unlike the Deer in Nara.
Hikinghawk@reddit
Oh man, I work for the National Park Service and while most tourists are fine (if a little helpless, come on the bathroom sign is RIGHT next to you), there are some I'll never forget.
French tourists stealing archeological material upto the felony level.
A Dutch family that had to get rabbies shots after feeding squirrels.
A British family that wanted to do a 12 mile hike in the desert, in July, in flip flops with one Fiji bottle between them.
Probably the worst was a Polish man who demanded we reopen a trail with an active search and rescue effort under way because "she is probably dead anyway, let us enjoy the scenery." That was the only time I've lost my cool with a visitor.
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)
Wow, that last one -- I'd lose my cool for sure!
Hikinghawk@reddit
Ya, it wasn't my proudest moment, but being that callus with his family in the car was just wrong. It was day three of the search and while I wasn't on that particular SAR I was on the team and my roommate was on the SAR. The missing persons remains were recovered that evening, so I guess he got his hike.
tommygun1688@reddit
Asian dude (immigrant) was up with his family near my old home. Decided to go for a winter drive. Went onto a closed highway. Got stuck many miles up. Hung out in the car until it ran out of gas. Left his family to get help. Froze to death on the walk out.
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)
I remember that one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kim
tommygun1688@reddit
Yea, sad stuff.
Me and my buddies grew up in those mountains. A few years back a couple of us were in about 3 feet of snow a couple of miles out on a fire road, middle of winter, we're in 4x4s (there's were lifted, I just had a subaru with a thick skid plate). On our way back out we came across some chick and two clueless dudes in a new toyta camry looking for the road to the local ski resort. They were helplessly stuck and had followed our tracks out. We got them unstuck and turned around. But she had just followed the GPS down a road she had no fucking business being on. And I had guys I know do similar very dumb things out in Montana (they got rescued by some kind snowmobilers).
Anyways, people make foolish choices sometimes, especially when they don't understand the consequences of those sorts of environments. Where, literally, a simple mistake can easily lead to you losing some digits to frostbite or worse.
DependentSun2683@reddit
I remember years ago thats some thugs in orlando were tracking down tourists and robbing them because rental cars had some sort of indicator that they were rental cars and Orlando being one of the biggest tourist cities in the world made it a good place for that. I want to say that the rental car indicator was corrected because of that.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
In the White Mountains we have had several foreign tourists die over the years.
A few reasons:
They don’t realize how dense the forest is
They are underprepared
They mistake how strenuous the mountains are even though they aren’t as craggy as the Rockies, Cascades, or Sierras. A few thousand feet of vertical gain is still rough even if it looks more green and rolling plus there are also serious cliffs but they are often covered by trees so they don’t look so scary.
They underestimate the weather. I have been in the Whites when it is 70 and sunny at the base and then at the peak it is 38 and pouring freezing rain with low visibility inside a cloud. So people will go on a hike in September or October thinking it’ll be fine and not have proper rain and cold weather gear.
Underestimate how wild it is. Lots of places I’ve been in Europe have structures, farms, hostels, mountain cabins really nearby and your cell phone works. You can quickly get three hours into the mountains and if you fall and break an ankle you are suddenly looking at 8 hours on the trail to get back as the sun going down, no cell, and no human infrastructure for miles.
FWEngineer@reddit
To be fair, I'm an American farmboy and experienced camper, yet I very nearly walked off a cliff in West Virginia. I was at the top of a mountain, looking around, and was walking thru some thick brush that was waist-high. I noticed the leaves in front of me were a different kind than the ones around me, and they looked to be tree leaves, not brush leaves (don't remember the species now). So I stopped to figure this out, and then realized I was looking at the top of full-grown trees! I was just steps from a big cliff. I was out there camping alone, nobody had a clue where I was. If I hadn't stopped, my body might still be out there.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
I think this is exactly how it happens. Especially if the weather sucks or visibility goes dark.
Thank god you kept your head on a swivel and noticed. This is why I don’t leave the trail in the Whites. There’s a lot of 20-40 foot drops you’d never notice.
FWEngineer@reddit
Something that put me in danger is that I'm a midwesterner, I think I'm good at dealing with the outdoors, but I'm not used to thinking about cliffs. I've backpacked in the Rockies too, but there you usually have wide-open views. If you're anywhere near a cliff, you know it.
The Appalachians aren't big like the Rockies, so I was complacent. I shouldn't have been wading thru the brush like that without a clear view of the steps ahead. There could also be a timber rattler in an area like that, no way I would have seen it. But I was young and stupid.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Yeah you pretty much hit all the right notes. I’m much the same. Midwestern moved to near the Appalachians have done a bunch of backpacking out west. I guess I just had some experienced backpacking in the Appalachians buddies when I moved up here which helped with a lot of the pro tips.
Phyrnosoma@reddit
Their head is as it’s a trip how different th e weather can be at the top of a mountain. I was going from Carlsbad to Cruces via Cloudcroft recently and Cloudcroft was 50 degrees cooler and windy vs the basin
FWEngineer@reddit
One time I was backpacking in Glacier National Park (Montana). We woke up to frost in the morning. We hike out, and by that afternoon we were in Billings, and it was 95'F (35'C).
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Yeah I experienced similar in NM going up Mount Taylor. It was baking down by Grants and cold and misty up on Taylor. Not sure if it was a full 50 degree difference but it had to be close.
velociraptorfarmer@reddit
The farthest south ski resort in the US is located just outside Tucson, AZ of all places, 60 miles from Mexico
It's on top of a 9000ft mountain though, while Tucson could be 80 degrees at the base.
CommitteeofMountains@reddit
I'd imagine many show up "prepared" in hiking boots only to slide off the granite.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Yup just two years ago there was that exact scenario. Seasoned hiker and his son both prepared, for a day hike. Dad slipped off a short cliff son went down off trail to see how bad he was injured. It got dark, they lost the trail. Both died of exposure as the weather got bad because they were off trail in the woods.
There’s a really cool kettle pond near me with some very tall cliffs on one side. Scares me silly because the cliff edge gradually slopes down towards the edge. You have to be super careful how close you get because by the actual edge the rock is probably too sloped to keep footing.
They have a bunch of signs warning about it.
coccopuffs606@reddit
There’s a reason why the US Army Mountain Warfare School is in the White Mountains…
CupBeEmpty@reddit
I believe that is in Vermont in the Green Mountains.
coccopuffs606@reddit
You’re right; the point still stands though 🤣
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Yeah it’s not much better there.
They also do A10 training out of Pease over the Whites because they want the pilots to get training on making approaches around the mountains and steep gorges.
_pamelab@reddit
I was on the bus back to my car at the south rim of the Grand Canyon when some Australians in flip flops with no visible water bottle or bags got off the bus at a trail head. It was June. I had proper shoes, a hat, and like 4 water bottles and was miserable. I still wonder if they had issues.
beenoc@reddit
You would think Australians, of all people, would understand "big ass desert." Like, the Outback isn't exactly any more hospitable than the Mojave.
turtletails@reddit
To be fair, the vast majority of the population lives on the coast (because everything else to so ridiculously inhospitable) and a lot of them have never been outside their relatively cushy coast environment
CommitteeofMountains@reddit
I think there's an assumption that big photo op things are set up so tourists can roll up, walk down a Disney trail, and take a picture. I don't need a barrel to see Niagara Falls.
Yankee-Tango@reddit
You’re underestimating how urban these countries are. Nobody lives near wildlife the way Americans do. The Outback is as foreign to most Aussies as it is to us. Japan, China, Australia, everywhere in Europe. These people are 1000% urban, and don’t ever even try to go out to wild areas, if their country even has em. Even a city slicker like me has been around this country and gone hiking. They just don’t
Stigge@reddit
Some of them live their entire lives in Victoria. The Outback may as well be a foreign country to them.
Hello_Hangnail@reddit
My sister and her husband hiked the Grand Canyon last summer and his mom wanted to come along. My sister is a very experienced hiker and even going at a slow pace, her mother in law started having palpitations after a few hours and had to be airlifted out
Enough-Meaning-1836@reddit
True story - 1998 or so. My family does a day hike on the southern rim of the Grand Canyon around the 4th of July. 6/7 hours or so, not going all the way to the bottom but really getting to experience nature. 2 parents, myself at 18, two younger sisters. We're all experienced travelers, spent our vacations growing up going to the mountains in Colorado or the deserts in NM and Arizona. We had backpacks, trail mix and dry foods, LOTS of water. I STILL ended up carrying my youngest sister out on my back the last hour because, once again, Grand Canyon in July.
And I vividly still remember when we were about 100 yards from the rim watching this couple come down the trail. They had sunglasses, no hats, and a single plastic water bottle between the two of them.
All these years I just assumed they were native Arizonans lol. Now I wonder looking back if they were European tourists 🤷♂️🤣
Lower_Kick268@reddit
Back when I worked at a Rest Stop we had a couple of French Canadians ask where they could buy weed. This was early 2022, weed wasn’t legal yet, they got so confused when I told them it was illegal to purchase in my state. They said that everybody was smoking it so clearly it wasn’t illegal, I reassured them it was completely illegal to purchase in my state. They called me an idiot and left.
AdFinancial8924@reddit
Years ago I went into a 7-11 and some Brits were yelling at the cashier because they didn’t have beer and it was the 3rd place they stopped at that didn’t have alcohol. I had to explain to them that in Maryland it’s illegal to sell alcohol in convenience or grocery stores. It’s only sold in designated wine/beer/spirits stores. Then he started yelling at me about how stupid that was. Yes everyone agrees it’s stupid. But that’s just the way it is.
dhoshima@reddit
Their mistake is assuming American respect their own laws.
Conchobair@reddit
"Sure, it's illegal, but where can I buy it?"
They just needed to talk to someone in a bar or restaurant. Best place to score when you've flown.
Lower_Kick268@reddit
Yeah asking a 16yr old with hair that made him look like Meatloaf is probably their first mistake
wongo@reddit
Uhhhh actually that's about the ideal person to ask, honestly
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Yeah I had to break it to some tourists in New Hampshire in the National Forest visitor parking lot that yeah weed is legal in Massachusetts, no you still can’t smoke it in your car in a parking lot, yea New Hampshire has decriminalized possession, yes transporting it across state lines is actually still a felony, it’s also still a federal felony that just isn’t being enforced but do you really want to chance it in a busy parking lot on federal land, and yeah they could get you deported and make it a big problem to ever come back, and no it is not cool to be getting high when you are clearly intending to drive pretty soon.
OhThrowed@reddit
Its the last part that angers me. Driving while impaired is stupid beyond forgiveness.
RatherGoodDog@reddit
Is that a specific offence in itself, like in the UK? Here it is treated the same as drunk driving, and police routinely do drug tests on drivers they think may be high.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Yeah driving under the influence or driving while intoxicated (states use different terms for the same thing) is illegal whether it’s alcohol, weed, opioids, or whatever.
Even legal prescription drugs can get you charged if you are obviously impaired.
OhThrowed@reddit
Oh, its an offense. Every state in the union has laws against it. Doesn't matter much if the assholes kill someone before the police pick them up.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
I didn’t call the cops on them but I thought about it. They made some excuses about having a driver who wasn’t partaking but they all reeked so I think that might have been BS.
BranchBarkLeaf@reddit
Gee, another case of Canadians being “polite”. 🙄
TheLastRulerofMerv@reddit
They probably watched one of Kevin Smith's movies and just couldn't imagine that weed was illegal in New Jersey.
BenjaminSkanklin@reddit
I ran into some French Candians walking my dog the other day, they were wandering the street looking at the house numbers for a bit and came up to me asking where "256 6th street" was, as we were infront of 254 and 256 was an empty lot with 258 next to it. I asked them a few questions and eventually learned they'd just assumed all the streets would be sequentially number across several towns and cities, and they were looking for 256 6th street in a different county....on foot.
I advised that they were miles away from what they were looking for and the woman just kinda huffed and walked away.
SourGuavaSauce@reddit
I was wondering for a sec why they stole your dog
Hello_Hangnail@reddit
"Sorry officer I'm fresh out of contraband"
Other_Movie_5384@reddit
Yeah! What do you you know anyway. You only live here
EmpRupus@reddit
MUSHROOMS
A large number of mushroom-poisoning and deaths happen to tourists and immigrants.
This is because many people from other continents like Asia, Europe etc. go for mushroom-foraging by themselves without proper supervision.
And these people often "recognize" a harmless edible mushroom from their home-country Asia or Europe which is out of great luck is suddenly growing in North America too, and eat it.
However, a mycologist will tell you that (a) unknown regional wild mushrooms rarely spread across a different continent across an ocean and (b) mushrooms that look very similar can be completely different species.
Nicktendo94@reddit
That happened to one of my college professors when he was in the PNW, saw something similar to ones in Upstate NY, cooked it with his steak and suffered alcohol poisoning because this one blocks the absorption of alcohol or something
FWEngineer@reddit
There are some mushrooms, such as inkcaps, that are completely edible, as long as you don't have alcohol with them.
Different_Mud_1283@reddit
When I was 21 or 22 I had to save a couple from drowning (I was a lifeguard not just like, some bystander). At first it was a classic "Oh you underestimated the undertow and overestimated your swimming ability, now you're panicking and essentially doing the crabs in a bucket thing."
But...oh no. No. As it turned out, neither of them could swim, they had never gone into an ocean before (they "prefer pools") and they were absolutely furious with me for not "stopping them sooner."
You know what they'd been doing for the last two hours? Taking photos of themselves posing in front of the ocean. This was I think just before Instagram but Facebook was absolutely a thing and that's what they were doing. In all honesty I did not expect them to actually get in the water but I kept an eye on them.
They also left a ton of food out, and so when we finally got everything resolved aka they didn't die, seagulls were demolishing they're spot. Which they were then also mad at me about. The man half of the couple then demanded I shoot the birds.
Saudis. You gotta fucking love it.
CatOfGrey@reddit
When I was teaching, a colleague of mine had worked at a private school that specialized in foreign students from Saudia Arabia, UAE, Qatar, etc.
He said "The students behaved better than I expected, and parents were very responsive, though if I gave a bad report, a student might get seriously beaten. But in general, things were good, as long you understood that they saw the school teacher as a servant of theirs. An 11-year old kid would see their teacher as a servant."
BrackenFernAnja@reddit
A friend of mine was attending ground school before becoming a commercial pilot, and the students who were Saudis demanded that the female teacher be replaced.
CatOfGrey@reddit
A barrier to some women in technology, too. There are a lot of countries with a lot of people can't process any sort of instruction or command from a woman.
Different_Mud_1283@reddit
I couldn't get over the fact that this guy commanded me to shoot the birds.
SuLiaodai@reddit
I'm AMAZED by all the people who do that. Watching Bondi Rescue, so many of the people they end up saving have no swimming skills whatsoever and yet go into the ocean. One South Korean guy took his two-year-old in with him, she got pulled away from him, basically drowned, and had to be revived. It's lucky lifeguards even managed to find her in the water.
webfoottedone@reddit
I have a friend who works tropical snorkeling tours, they regularly have groups that can’t swim, and have never been in the ocean before.
Different_Mud_1283@reddit
lol do they think the tour comes with swimming lessons?
Disco99@reddit
In Hawaii (Maui, specifically) they will sometimes load the non-swimmers up with floatation belts and pool noodles so they can snorkel around Molokini or one of the turtle areas.
webfoottedone@reddit
Yes, this is exactly what they do. I guess it’s safe, but I have way too much fear/ respect for how unpredictable water can be to feel good about it.
Different_Mud_1283@reddit
I don't let people on my boat who can't swim / I don't get on boats with people who can't swim if it could be my responsibility to save them. Honestly I think it's really selfish to essentially force other people to risk their own lives, to save yours. That honestly makes me feel like the people who let that happen care more about the money they're making but...I guess if it wasn't relatively safe, we'd be hearing about it a lot more haha.
Yankee-Tango@reddit
Don’t be a pussy, condemn them.
Different_Mud_1283@reddit
lol
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)
Damn, what a strange situation!
Different_Mud_1283@reddit
I've encountered this a few times since then. Not just with Saudis but with like, a particular kind of person - namely royalty - who literally do not understand how the world actually works but have never experienced a consequence in their entire lives and so are incredulous when confronted or challenged in any way.
I sometimes deliver luxury pleasure craft / boats or will get hired to captain for people - I've had people ask me to do literally impossible things like "make the water warmer" or "send the shark away."
Real life is not a thing to a certain class of person who is also, to be real, a fucking moron.
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)
I guess water guy had never read The Rime of The Ancient Mariner:
yaredw@reddit
"This is what not to do, when a bird shits on you."
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
"The Rime! Of the ancient! Maaaaaaarineeeeeer!!!!!"
WorldsMostDad@reddit
Fucking albatross amirite?
JMS1991@reddit
It's amazing how often I hear about the same thing happening to locals. Can't swim, but "hey lets go out in the ocean!" despite stories all over the news about people drowning or needing to be rescued from rip currents.
I consider myself a very good swimmer, and I generally stay out of the ocean....but that may be more fear of wildlife.
CaptainPunisher@reddit
I'm in Central CA, and we have a little river here that's lovingly dubbed The Killer Kern. Most locals know that, though it looks relatively calm and small, hidden rocks and branches under the surface and hellacious undertows exist up and down the river. Hell, the US Whitewater Rafting Team uses it for practice in certain spots. We have signs that read "Stay out. Stay alive." Many of us make an informed choice to go in and risk it, but we reasonably know what to expect.
Every year, we get a few stories in the news about out of towners drowning in the river. And, to make things worse, we find out in an interview that they didn't know how to swim in the first place. I'm all for people having fun in a pool or whatever, but if you're not a strong swimmer, STAY OUT OF MOVING WATER.
WarrenMulaney@reddit
I think, according to the signs, we’re up to 340 drownings.
CaptainPunisher@reddit
Online, it's listed as 335.
WarrenMulaney@reddit
People are slacking.
CaptainPunisher@reddit
We only need 5 more for your to be correct, and there are still close to 2 months left of tubing weather.
mac9426@reddit
I think it was something like 4 people who died in the river over the 4th of July weekend. Was driving through to Bakersfield and saw the rescue helicopter flying super low through the valley.
CaptainPunisher@reddit
Yeah, I went tubing a few weeks ago for the first time in at least 10-15 years, and my wife was NOT happy. It was right before that. Looks like the count is at 335 since 1968.
People who are familiar with the risks know how to best stay safe, but that isn't a 100% guarantee.
mac9426@reddit
Hi! I’m a tour guide so I have several answers to this question:
Grand Canyon about a month ago: saw a man carrying only a less-than-half-full tiny Gatorade bottle saying they’d just hike down until 11am and turn around. This was on the Bright Angel trail at about 10am and the rim temperature was already in the low 90s. Don’t know how that one turned out.
Yellowstone two years ago: was taking a family group through and had to detour the West Thumb Geyser basin because a ranger pulled a hiking boot with a human foot in it out of the Abyss Pool.
Zion and Yosemite all the time: telling people to STOP TRYING TO FEED AND PET THE WILDLIFE THEY’RE WILD AND THEY BITE also their fleas can carry the bubonic plague so really don’t get too close.
Oh and a funny one I like to mention is once, when I was walking a group to the Maid of the Mists boat at Niagara Falls, I saw a woman trying to coax over one of the black squirrels with a peanut. I told my group to keep walking and just wait. Sure enough not even 20 seconds later she comes tearing past us with a flock of about 30 seagulls chasing her.
Seriously, don’t try to feed wildlife.
peeldacheese_@reddit
Here is why Florida doesn’t offer rental car license plates anymore.
Some years ago, some German tourists left Miami airport in a rental car and got jumped and killed in the Miami hood.
verruckter51@reddit
My neighbor was doing the low and slow bbq pork shoulders one weekend. So I went over to join him for a casual day of bs and drinking cheap ass beer. I show up with a case of beer, that usually get me free dinner, and he is talking to some guys from Wales. They were riding bikes and just followed the smell. They complained about American cheap beer, so neighbor went in and grabbed some craft beers. By the time dinner was ready,they were asleep. Had to drive them back to their hotel,when they remembered. I just stuck to my cheap ass beer, there is a reason we drink this stuff. About three hours in one guy got stuck in Welsh for about an hour. Nothing like a little cultural exchange.
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
Hahahaha! We sure showed them!
verruckter51@reddit
My buddies craft beers run about 12 to 14 percent. The one guy was trying to keep pace with me drinking the banquet beer. Not good. I think they drank about 10 but was awhile ago. Just remember lots of wings, some appetizers, than pork fest with two really drunk Welsh guys.
verruckter51@reddit
That last line doesn't sound good. Had lots of pork bbq and some sides. They enjoyed the BBQ experience. Neighbor is going to visit them for pub crawl type thing later this year.
Lilypad1223@reddit
People just going into Denali thinking it’s safe, about 3 miles in phones don’t work anymore, and there are hella bears. IT IS NOT A THEME PARK. This goes for every single national park, some just have better phone service.
OhThrowed@reddit
During the summer, Yellowstone has a weekly headline of someone trying to pet the "fluffy cows" and regretting it.
Justmeagaindownhere@reddit
I genuinely do not understand how people are like that. I've been within licking distance of a bison before (not by choice), and it is the most intimidating creature I have ever witnessed. They're so huge! And they absolutely know it, they look at you like you hardly exist.
Nicktendo94@reddit
they're SUV's with anger management issues
jonathanclee1@reddit
Love the woman that tried to take a selfie with one lol it did not end well.
Educational_Crazy_37@reddit
A Chinese tourist no less…
01WS6@reddit
But why are they so fluffy if they don't want to be pet? What's wrong with American animals? Do they not know people want to pet them?
twistedscorp87@reddit
I know I'm not supposed to pet them, but that doesn't make me want to pet them any less. And so help me, if a baby fluff approaches, I'm not gonna be able to help myself.
No regrets. Have me cremated or just leave me for the wolves. As long as I got to pet the baby fluff, I die happy.
DanManKs@reddit
I'm from Kansas and I can't tell you how many times I've heard stories of tourists stopping our by cattle farms to take pictures. There's a couple problems with this ...
1) Those cows may seem cute BUT they are being bred for size and are MASSIVE. They are also very easily spooked and will stampede with absolutely no reason.
2) That's land is privately owned and if you have not made the land owners aware of your presence they have no idea what your intention might be. Cattle theft and tampering isn't unheard of and ranchers will protect their property with deadly force. You see a cow ... the farmer sees anywhere from $2,000-5,000 worth of potential property loss per head. Also 99% of cattle farmers are really big supporters of the 2nd Amendment out of necessity (theres tons of predators that have to be weaned off every year) and they will not hesistate to shoot you.
3) That land is untamed and you don't know what you might come across when you are trespassing on that property. You could come across a diamond back, a scorpion, a yellow jacket, a beehive, etc. You could be stepping into ivy, sumac, poison oak, or the famous kansas thicket bushes. Basically you don't know what's going to bite, sting, or brush against you and how poisonous that is and if you are our by the cattle farms you are probably a great distance from any hospital with antivenoms available.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Also a lot of European countries have a “right to roam” because they are so settled. I was super uneasy going through cattle gates and just continuing on a trail that went through several small farms in the mountains.
In Switzerland and England it is just kind of expected you may have people walk across your property.
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
British landowners are grumpier about it than their Continental/Scandinavian counterparts, I seem to understand.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
I guess I was up in Scotland so maybe they are more laid back about it? Dunno.
EDS3er@reddit
Don't forget the bulls! I grew up in the country. Whenever we wanted to walk to the creek we needed to call our neighbor because we had to walk through their pasture. We needed to check if their bull was out or not.
hankrhoads@reddit
Really? I grew up in Kansas and live in Iowa now and I don't think I've ever heard a story like that
Fancy-Primary-2070@reddit
It's likely they aren't used to huge factory farms like we have here in the US. Being up in New England where it's small working family farms, tourists do it all the time and it's not an issue.
the_real_JFK_killer@reddit
My family works in dairy up in New York, many aunts and uncles have small family farms, and all of them would take issue with random tourists coming onto the farm.
Fancy-Primary-2070@reddit
Yeah- I am not talking about "ON TO" the farm. Just pulling over on the road.
But yeah, trespassing is not cool.
willowoftheriver@reddit
Okay, it's not foreign, but they did travel far across the country and it is the most horrifying tourist story I know: The murders of the Rogers women. Here's a longform article on it as well: Angels & Demons.
Ravenclaw79@reddit
Who the hell wears flip-flops to walk around outside in a rocky desert? What an idiot.
alycat1987@reddit
Agree but I’ve seen it more than once. People prancing around in dresses and flip flops on the trails down the fuckin Grand Canyon, it’s wild
CommitteeofMountains@reddit
Meanwhile, I've had to learn that wearing hiking boots instead of sneakers is a rookie move in my area because tread does jack shit on rock.
stangAce20@reddit
Well, my uncle from the UK made the mistake last year of assuming the green nozzles at the gas stations Here were normal gas!
(FYI to all foreign tourists, THEY’RE NOT!!!)
That was basically an expensive lesson for him since it, of course effed up the engine in his rental car, and customs a few thousand more than he bargained for!
The slightly funny or sad thing however is that the rental car company told us that it was the seventh time it happened for them so far that year!
LionLucy@reddit
In the UK, diesel is normally black, green is normal petrol. It's like when I went to the US, I noticed whole milk tends to have red labels? That means skimmed here, and whole milk is blue!
anneylani@reddit
It isn't uniform across the US for the milk labels though. I wish it was.
LionLucy@reddit
Oh, that's annoying! I was staying with friends, and once in a hotel, so I wasn't buying tons of milk anyway. It's pretty uniform here, unless you're buying your milk from a farm shop or independent dairy or something.
nerowasframed@reddit
How did he manage that? Aren't the diesel nozzles significantly larger than the gas tank opening?
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
My friend's aunt back in the 1960s did this to her two-seater convertible. (I forget the make and model.) She was 16 and a brand new driver. She was like "oh, it's cheaper!" Completely ruined the engine.
theCaitiff@reddit
It depends, places that separate their auto/consumer truck diesel from the commercial truck pumps often have smaller nozzles. Auto diesel pumps have smaller nozzles, semi-truck diesel pumps are larger for high flow.
carp_boy@reddit
The diesel nozzle in the US won't fit in a gasoline filler neck.
stangAce20@reddit
In theory, but I don’t think it’s standardized across the entire country. Either way, my uncle still managed to put diesel in!
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)
Unfortunately, it's not uniform in the US. The normal thought is that the green ones are all diesel, but BP uses green for gas.
TheGleanerBaldwin@reddit
Perhaps that's why they're starting to rebrand as Texaco again.
Snake_Staff_and_Star@reddit
The alligator only seems happy to see you because you're softer and dumber than the turtles it's used to eating.
lavender_dumpling@reddit
I rarely go to areas frequented by foreign tourists. I've only ever met a handful and I live in a major city.
That being said, when I lived in South Korea, dude........so many fucked up stories.
mdskullslayer@reddit
You gonna tell one or……?
lavender_dumpling@reddit
Barracks tattoo artist and friend of mine got drunk in Seoul. Picked a fight and got into it with the KNP (police). He was fighting an officer and like 15-20 charged him. He was fighting them off until they dog piled him.
Dude was pretty tiny too, but more musclar than the avg Korean policeman.
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
For a second there I was thinking that our former president had secretly gotten some work done.
Pleasant_Studio9690@reddit
I was an RA for 30 Koreans on an English as a second language camp for a summer. There were some oddities, but my favorite was how they could understand me all day just fine, but suddenly couldn’t when I asked them to pick up their own trash they’d tossed on the floor of the rental van or help in any other minor way. I caught on real fast to that BS.
lavender_dumpling@reddit
Yep, after 2 yrs of living there I picked up on when they did that. Had a Chinese and Nigerian friend that did the same thing lmao. I'd speak English to the Korean soldiers embedded with us and noticed they intentionally slipped up when they didn't want to do some shit. Can't really blame them tho.
However, gotta be careful, because some folks legit don't understand.
Smoopiebear@reddit
Our wildlife will fuck you up. Not “ouchie!” But either kill you very painfully or do some serious damage. It’s amazing that I have to explain this to people from India.
03zx3@reddit
Had a German exchange student in my class in highschool. Took him fishing at our creek and we came across a cottonmouth. He said "can I pick up that snake?" I said, "Sure, but I wouldn't recommend it."
He started to reach for it, so I slapped his hand and he was just baffled. Even after I explained why, he still didn't get it. Kept saying "I can move fast." As if that snake wasn't probably faster. At one point he even said that snake bites were no big deal.
UltraShadowArbiter@reddit
Should've let him get bit.
Europeans don't understand wildlife because they wiped most of theirs out centuries ago.
Dogsnbootsncats@reddit
Should’ve let him get bit.
Yankee-Tango@reddit
A bunch of exchange students roomed with kids in the rockaways when hurricane Sandy hit. I forget where they were from, but they were shocked. The families and the exchange kids had to move into hotels and with other families because most of that area was completely destroyed. They didn’t realize what a true American weather event was like. They simply don’t have them.
hopopo@reddit
To be fair, no one in our region expected aftermath of Sandy, nor did they expect to be that severe. That is why is caused so much damage and problems.
Because people in NY/NJ didn't have to deal with anything like it in our lifetimes.
Yankee-Tango@reddit
We got warnings that it was going to be a big storm and most people took it seriously. Despite never suffering from a major storm like that, we knew that other parts of the country routinely do, and we know what can happen. Most of the damage was caused by one man refusing to leave, and his generator started a fire that burned down all of Breezy.
That’s the difference between us and Europeans. We didn’t have to learn by pain. Most of us heard the warnings and prepared in whatever way we could.
hopopo@reddit
Yes of course, most people took it seriously, but the point is that most people and even officials, urban planners, etc had no idea what to actual do other than to shelter in place and raid supermarkets prior to the storm.
That is why we go fucked as bad as we did. Because we built communities in areas that should be used as natural buffer when the weather rolls in.
Next time storm like Sandy rolls in Rockaway, and communities like it will get just as fucked as they did with Sandy. We didn't learn much from it.
Yankee-Tango@reddit
The subway still hasn’t recovered from it. 12 years later and you can still see the damage. Stations that used to be cleaner and nicer now have a permanent stench. The city did nothing to fix the subway. It’s truly a shithole now.
hopopo@reddit
Exactly, that is what I'm saying. Random kids running around during storm, or one asshole causing fire, is least of our worries when shit hits the fan.
Yankee-Tango@reddit
Right but this thread is about individual stupidity and ignorance. Which you don’t seem to get. My point has nothing to do with New York and New Jersey state governments refusing to do anything about storms. It’s about how Europeans reacted to a natural disaster.
hopopo@reddit
Right, that is why I said no one if the area expected what happened to happened, and were unprepared. Those kids were not exception, even though what they did was stupid. That is all I'm saying.
Our conversation evolved in to something that is less relevant.
NotHisRealName@reddit
"If not friend, why friend shaped?" is a joke. Wildlife doesn't act like Disney characters.
kaimcdragonfist@reddit
Every year, tons of stupid tourists at Yellowstone get absolutely rocked by buffalo. You’d think the videos would be good educational material for them
SevenSixOne@reddit
This guy has the right idea
Gallahadion@reddit
Knew what this was going to be before I even clicked, lol.
Dasinterwebs2@reddit
Do not pet the fluffy cows
alycat1987@reddit
This comment should be for domestic kitties, not wild animals lol
Scarlett_Uhura1@reddit
I’ve told this story before but I’ll tell it again! My husband and I were out in Death Valley camping at racetrack playa. Our plan was to take lippencott pass down into saline valley the next morning. We are experienced off roaders but knew lippencott would be challenging for us. Walking around some old mine ruins after dinner a jeep pulls up next to us with a German family inside. Dad is driving, wife next to him and kid in the backseat. Jeep is a rental with street tires on it. He asks us repeatedly, hitting the side of his door and pointing to the sign for lippencott pass saying “can make it?” And “can do it?” My husband was trying to explain to him that his tires weren’t sturdy enough and we didn’t know his driving ability to take that rough of a pass… but he didn’t understand us. Just keeps asking if his rental jeep can do it. They ended up going down lippencott. We worried about them all night but figured we’d come across them in the morning when we went down. We never saw them so I guess they made it? Was an extremely stupid decision in that jeep with those tires for sure!
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)
Wow, just wow... it really is lucky you didn't come across a bad scene.
FWIW, I used to sell tires and explaining to people why they needed LT-rated or higher on their work truck was often a chore when they'd say "But these are cheaper..." about same-sized P-rated tires.
Scarlett_Uhura1@reddit
Yep, my husband and daughter keep BFG KO2’s on their 4Runners. Some people say they’re “overkill”, but they’re not overkill in Death Valley!
Gadfly2023@reddit
I drove through Death Valley about 10 years ago in a sedan. The signs for Race Track Playa at Ubehebe Crater was very clear about needing a high clearance vehicle and extra tires.
I can't imagine people seeing that and thinking, "Yep, a rental will do." It's like the signs at the Grand Canyon warning against trying to do a rim to rim in a day.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Oh bad bad news. I worked for a summer in Death Valley and Fish Lake Valley we never even looked at the passes outside of in the early morning and on foot. We had a good SUV from the BLM rangers that were helping us. Plenty of kit for an overnight stay and a radio we could get them on if need be, plus raiding our plans every night and checking in letting them know we were back at basecamp every night.
shamalonight@reddit
Death Valley Germans
Yankee-Tango@reddit
As a New Yorker, most of them come from just rudeness. A lot of stuck up foreigners who get argumentative because they truly think they’re better than Americans. I’ve had to deliver a few backhands on rude bullshit to get some people to shut the fuck up. Stone houses, electric kettles, guns, cheese, and whatever other idiotic things they believe about America. The worst was a Brazilian ranting to me about how America didn’t invent flight. I work in the aviation industry and already hate their idiotic jingoistic myth about santos dumont. He was being incredibly rude. I don’t get it. They seem to love being confrontational.
Aussies are the worst though. I used to work at a pharmacy and this one Aussie would rant to me about how expensive his meds were, and I just got fed up and told him to go back there. He then revealed that the meds he was taking were expensive back in Australia because it was simply a super expensive drug. It was for Parkinson’s I think. He was the only guy who took it. It was not the standard in any way. It would be pretty costly anywhere you go because most health coverage would simply refuse to cover it and suggest you take something else. He literally just wanted to cry and whine about America to an underpaid cashier. Really fucking annoying.
SuLiaodai@reddit
My friend's boss (British) decided to run the Gobi Desert Ultramarathon without any training at all. He's never even run a half-marathon before. He died.
(This didn't happen in the US, but since I'm American, I'm answering.)
Yankee-Tango@reddit
Half the stories about Europeans revolve around them confidently dying like morons in deserts.
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)
What a non-surprise! I wonder how many dozens of people's advice to not do it that he ignored.
SuLiaodai@reddit
Everybody he worked with kept telling him not to do it, but unfortunately, he wouldn't listen.
TheHolyFritz@reddit
Had family across the pond in Germany visit us here in Ohio that couldn't seem to understand that no, Coyotes and Bobcats are not friendly. Had to cut the trio short because on of the teenage girls tried to pet a coyote in our yard and got bit bad. Thankfully no rabies but fuck was it stupid.
Ok_Atyourword@reddit
Germans are truly talented at getting themselves killed by nature, aren't they?
Ok_Atyourword@reddit
British guy who tried picking up a fucking COPPERHEAD SNAKE
liquidsoapisbetter@reddit
Arizonan here. It’s not just those from other countries, but other states as well. Every summer like clockwork people die or have to get airlifted on our hiking trails because they overestimate themselves. We recently had a 10 year old die, as well as an entire family of 13 who had to get airlifted with a couple of them hospitalized.
Oftentimes the fools make the decision to start a hike at 8-10AM, and end up stuck on the trail midday with no water because they packed a single bottle. Hiking here starts at 4-6AM y’all. Anything past that and you risk being toast. We get a lot of Texans and Floridians who like to compare the dry vs wet heat and make light of it, only to end up dehydrated and panting for their lives. Heat is heat folks, and the type you are not used to is going to take a toll on you
Nyxelestia@reddit
I used to think the stereotypes about European tourists in American were an exaggeration...and then I actually worked at a tourist destination that routinely got international tourists.
I had to explain to a Northern European* tourist that no, he could not just drive from Los Angeles to Yellowstone and back for a day trip.
They are literally a thousand miles apart.
^(* = I didn't ask his nationality but I'm also terrible at telling apart accents. Could be German, Dutch, Belgian, Swedish, etc.)
mjsmore33@reddit
My great aunt was visiting from Germany back when I was around 10. Her adult children and their kids came with. They kept asking to go to the ocean, which is 3 hours away so we instead opted to go to the lake. She decided to go exploring the woods and got bit by a tick. She ended up getting incredibly sick. It wasn't Lyme disease, but she still ended up in the hospital. A doctor from Germany came over to escort her home. Turns out the tick bite triggered an intense immune response, which triggered an autoimmune disease. She never fully recovered and spent the remainder of her life (15 years) sick.
adudeguyman@reddit
I took a commercial cave tour and was told that one time a foreign tourist shit in the cave.
Sad-Suggestion9425@reddit
Sometimes when you gotta go you gotta go.
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)
Nasty!
wowthatscooliguess@reddit
The death of Yoshihiro Hattori. A 16-year-old Japanese exchange student that was shot and killed in Louisiana back in 1992. He was going to a Halloween party but got the address wrong. The homeowner came out told him "Freeze!" but Hattori had limited English skills didn't understand so kept moving. He also didn't see the gun so kept moving and was killed right there (the homeowner went back inside for forty minutes until police arrived after Hattori's friend and a neighbor called for help).
Really sad. Makes me wonder how many lives GPS and map apps have saved.
JacobDCRoss@reddit
In the small, rural town where I grew up there was this tradition (partially started by my family, VERY long story) of people hosting Japanese students for a week at a time in the summers and springs. I cannot remember how many times we did it, but I want to say it was at least five.
These boys are so very, very happy and curious. And so naive. That breaks my heart to read.
Fancy-Primary-2070@reddit
A very specific one where some Florida shop charged a Japanese couple like 7K for some trinket.
Educational_Crazy_37@reddit
I still get mistaken for Japanese all the time in Europe, less so in the U.S. these days. Back when I was a kid in the 90’s it wasn’t uncommon for scummy merchants in some areas in the U.S. to attempt to overcharge or short change my parents or me thinking we didn’t speak English or wouldn’t be confrontational. Still remember when someone tried to charge us $200 for a souvenir shot glass and $50 for a soda and candy bar.
RollinThundaga@reddit
In the 60s and 70s I think, it was a common scam to carry a pineapple down the sidewalk and drop it dramatically in front of a Japanese tourist, demanding $50 for it (since they were expensive in Japan at the time) then walk back to the store, buy another for $0.35, and do it again.
JacobDCRoss@reddit
I don't know about pineapple in Japan, but I do know watermelons are crazy expensive. Put a bow on the watermelon before you drop it, and I do believe that scam would work. Hopefully enough good folks around to protect the tourists.
Educational_Crazy_37@reddit
Those types of scams (and similar variations) are still common all over Europe and parts of South America even today. Sometimes young children are used as accessories to these types of scams.
Alarming_Flow7066@reddit
That’s just scummy.
NormanQuacks345@reddit
It gets to a point though where it's like, come on. If you let that happen to you, that's on you.
coccopuffs606@reddit
I live in a major city that attracts a ton of European tourists; they simply can’t comprehend how far apart everything here is. No, going to Disneyland isn’t a day-trip; it’s a whole-ass plane ride away, plus getting a car and driving from LAX to Anaheim. Also, tons of them seem to not understand that just because this is California, that doesn’t mean there’s palm trees and warm weather year round. And the beaches will absolutely kill you if you’re not wearing a wetsuit or paying attention to the big ass signs with riptide warnings.
Blue387@reddit
Area Comparison of the British Isles to California
TheLastRulerofMerv@reddit
In the US - I saw tourists in Glacier literally attempt to pet a black bear. I'm not sure if they were foreign or not, but it was crazy. They tried to approach this thing, and then pet it. I did not slow down my car enough to find out what happened.
I spent many years close to Banff, and although not part of the US, I've seen a lot of stupid shit there. I once saw a British guy on Mount Rundle who was trying to scramble while wearing vans.
Conversely I once met a guy who tried to hike up Mt Temple while fitted out like he was trying to climb Mt Everest. He brought rope, an ice axe... It's always great to be prepared, but man that's there's only like 15 feet of actual scrambling on that route. I did with a hound dog once.
paka96819@reddit
In Hawaii, it’s not the foreign tourist but Mainlanders.
hellcicle@reddit
Despite their fuckups, tourists sue the state of Hawaii.
paka96819@reddit
They do.
Bazilb7@reddit
In Australia they either get eaten by Sharks or Crocodiles, except when they get horribly murdered and or raped by local madmen.
shavemejesus@reddit
I was working in a music venue where a quartet of musicians from Spain was scheduled to play.
For whatever reason someone on their end fucked up and sent these guys the wrong address for our venue.
These four Spanish citizens, who barely spoke any English, somehow ended up at the Point Loma Submarine base in San Diego. When they arrived at the gate and started asking where the performance venue was the guard became suspicious and called his commanding officer.
This led to these guys getting detained and questioned for three hours while the navy tried to figure out who they were.
They eventually showed up at our venue and the show started on time, but boy were they pissed.
CrastinatingJusIkeU2@reddit
Wow. I’ll bet those guys needed a big hug after that shit.
AJX2009@reddit
Foreigners vastly underestimate how quickly the weather in the US can change, how volatile it can be (e.g. tornados) and how different it is region to region. Even being from the US I was baffled driving out west when we went from 90F weather to a white out snow storm in an hour and half of driving. Another is under currents in like all bodies of water here. Sure there may be boats out on the river or lake but if you don’t see red necks in the water, there’s probably a reason.
SquarelyOddFairy@reddit
Watched an Asian tourist climb over the wall at the Grand Canyon to retrieve something he dropped. He got down to a ledge and realized he couldn’t easily get back up, which is when the person with him started looking worried. I assume he did make it back up, not positive because I didn’t feel like watching a dumbass go splat so I walked away.
ohfuckthebeesescaped@reddit
My sister worked at Buffalo Wild Wings and there was this one chav family (or at least all the girls were in the classic chav makeup) who showed up bc the dad had gotten booted from all the other bars in the area. They called the 16 yo waitresses “stupid Americans” to their faces (girl you’re in a BWW and everyone here is high on the job), were just generally insanely rude for no reason, and did not control their little brats one bit.
They actually came in twice, and the second time one of the women took off her cheap wig and just left it behind in the seat. My sister brought it to the back and her and the other teen staff dared each other to try it on.
Agile_Property9943@reddit
That’s just gross lol
mac9426@reddit
Hi! I’m a tour guide so I have several answers to this question:
Grand Canyon about a month ago: saw a man carrying only a less-than-half-full tiny Gatorade bottle saying they’d just hike down until 11am and turn around. This was on the Bright Angel trail at about 10am and the rim temperature was already in the low 90s. Don’t know how that one turned out.
Yellowstone two years ago: was taking a family group through and had to detour the West Thumb Geyser basin because a ranger pulled a hiking boot with a human foot in it out of the Abyss Pool.
Zion and Yosemite all the time: telling people to STOP TRYING TO FEED AND PET THE WILDLIFE THEY’RE WILD AND THEY BITE also their fleas can carry the bubonic plague so really don’t get too close.
Oh and a funny one I like to mention is once, when I was walking a group to the Maid of the Mists boat at Niagara Falls, I saw a woman trying to coax over one of the black squirrels with a peanut. I told my group to keep walking and just wait. Sure enough not even 20 seconds later she comes tearing past us with a flock of about 30 seagulls chasing her.
Seriously, don’t try to feed wildlife.
Secure-Badger-1096@reddit
They completely underestimate our wilderness. Where do they think the whole “don’t fuck with America” attitude came from? American wildlife/nature is not something to mess with, it scares even the average American-why do you think the majority of our population live in cities?
pneumatichorseman@reddit
Yah, I totally considered "fear of wildlife" when making a choice on where to live...
Access to jobs, culture, services, education? meh.
Sp4ceh0rse@reddit
I took care of a young woman (40 at the most) during my intern year. She was Japanese and lived in Tokyo with her American husband. They had been visiting his side of the family in our American city.
On the morning they were supposed to fly back to Tokyo, she collapsed in the shower. He heard her fall and called 911. Massive ruptured brain aneurysm. She was nearly brain dead by the time she arrived and sadly progressed to brain death shortly thereafter despite our best efforts.
We stabilized as much as we could and waited to call death until her family arrived. They rushed over from Japan and I’ll never forget the horrible weeping and crying from her sister and parents when they saw her. She was still so beautiful, but she was gone.
15 years ago. I’ll never forget her.
Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit (OP)
What a tragic story.
BackUpTerry1@reddit
French fried when they should have pizza'd
SnapHackelPop@reddit
Sounds like they had a bad time
johndoenumber2@reddit
Not a horror story, but I used to live on a bluff over the Cumberland River in Nashville. One evening, as my wife and I were walking through the neighborhood, a car of 4 Irish tourists drove up and rolled down their window asking how to get to the ferry to go over to the Opryland area. I had no idea what they were talking about, so they pulled out their map. It was 40 years old and showed a ferry crossing in the 1960s but not the proper route, so I wrote it down for them on the map.
Endy0816@reddit
People killed by gators. No, we're not fencing off all of Florida and they can climb or just push through the fences anyways.
Heat exhaustion also tends to be a big problem.
the_real_JFK_killer@reddit
Tourists, especially foreign tourists, seem to think the "danger, rocks, do not swim" signs don't apply to them.
tsukiii@reddit
It’s both domestic and foreign tourists for this one but… tourists keep walking/falling off the cliff at Sunset Cliffs while taking photos! Beachside cliffs are unstable and there are many posted signs that tell you so.