Just back from a trip to Great Britain. Had a great time, thanks for asking.
Some interesting things I saw there, mainly done by tourists:
Many, many people coming to a complete halt for no apparent reason in the middle of a busy pedestrian area (airport, sidewalk etc). Just stopped, and let everyone bump into them. Appear to be confused as to what these other people are doing there
A group standing in a close family knot at the base of an escalator in a busy train station, peering at a map and arguing. Someone had to actually physically move them out of the way.
Coming out of a tube station, and the crowd of people exiting comes to a halt. Probably four dozen of us are stalled and cannot get out. When I finally exit, the cause is a tour group who have all decided to stop in the exit area and take a group photo. They seemed genuinely peeved that people were walking in the way of their photo.
Another group photo in the middle of Westminster bridge, with the photographer standing in the middle of a busy bus lane
A family at the Imperial War Museum posing in front of one of the 4 actual mockups of the “Little Boy” atomic bomb. Grinning and smiling away. When they leave, one of them says “what was that anyway?” reply: “I dunno”.
I used to work at the Smithsonian on the National Mall in Washington. Walking anywhere during the summer tourist season you would see that kind of stuff constantly.
I recall an article from The Washington Post about the tourist invasion titled Visitors From Another Planet.
I noticed that as well in England: people walk on all sides of the sidewalk haphazardly. They also seem to walk on all sides of the road haphazardly but I was walking on mostly country roads that weren’t very wide to begin with so maybe it didn’t matter too much.
Years ago, folks in London seemed to reliably walk on the left. This time, it did seem more haphazard - left, right, down the middle etc. We were confused.
Pokemon Go has caused this “stopping for no apparent reason in the middle of the road, line, restaurant” phenomenon right here outside my window. Up to 30 people standing in traffic as if “But Pokemon!” were an adequate excuse.
I used to live in the New York City area, and all of that silliness is quite familiar.
Get to top of subway stairs, stop, check map.
Leave busy building, stop right outside of the door, check map.
Stop in middle of the sidewalk, check map.
Could also be “take photo” instead of “check map.”
Yeah, but Brits - well, most of them anyway - instinctively grasp that the corollary of this is that you make room for those walking in the other direction. Whereas groups of tourists can be relied upon to take up the full width of the pavement, whether when walking along it or, even worse, when they’re just standing in a group chatting to each other.
so, normally in the states, we walk on the right side of the walkway. Do people in England walk on the left? (since they drive on the left). I always assumed we walk on the right because we drive on the right but maybe not.
It’s not just tourists. I see it all the time at work, shopping, or public events. Some people have just no concept of the fact that they are holding other people up.
I’m a pretty easygoing person most of the time, but my family still speaks with awe of the time I lost my temper at Delicate Arch. We had hiked up a lot of bare rock in the heat to see this thing, with a whole lot of other people, and when we got there, folks were sort of taking turns. Get in the Arch with your family, take pictures, look around for a few minutes and get out. Except for four young jerks who got in the Arch and lay down to take a nap. I could not believe how inconsiderate that was.
Another time, we were in Barcelona touring La Sagrada Familia. We had gone up to the top of the towers and were coming back down a tiny spiral staircase (again, with a whole bunch of other people). The cute little couple ahead of us stopped about twenty times on the way down to take each other’s pictures, obstructing the whole procession. My husband was beginning to get pissed off, but then I started turning around to take his picture every time they stopped. I have a bunch of pictures of my semi-gruntled husband and the folks behind him laughing.
I had to wait quite a while to get some photos of the arch without a lot of people in the way. Then I went and lay down directly under it to take a photo directly upward, with the arch spreading across the sky. It only took a minute, but produced a great shot!
And I lived in NYC for 25 years. In addition to what mcgato mentioned, there were times when six tourists walked abreast, slowly, taking up the entire sidewalk, not letting anyone else through.
Speaking of Aruba and wreckage, it greatly amused (and concerned) me that the Caribbean airports seem to leave a lot of wrecked/scrapped planes next to the runways. Not the best thing to see when coming in for a landing. Like when we landed in Puerto Rico, there was the tail of a plane sticking out of a pond.
I think Iran was the last place I saw, where fatally wrecked vehicles were left at the roadside to remind drivers of the unhappy aspect of motor crashes. Mexico continued to do that up to a few decades ago, as well. I think Montana was the last US state to do so, and that would be maybe into the seventies. There was a southern state, I forget which one, which until recently erected a white cross on the shoulder, one for each person killed, at the spot of fatal road accidents. A little cluster of 5 or 6 crosses on an open stretch of road was a sobering landmark. There would sometimes be flowers there, placed by survivors.
In L.A we get tons of tourists, too, but it’s not the pedestrians, but the drivers, who are a menace to navigation.
One of my favorite “Far Side” cartoons showed Satan conducting a new recruit by past several doors. I can’t remember what the other two doors had written on them, but the last one said “People Who Drive Slow in the Fast Lane.” Right on, my brutha.
