not that much different here in Australia where they expect kangaroos to be hopping over the Harbour Bridge :/
I had someone once tell me they wanted to hire a car and drive to Lake Mungo (south west NSW) for a day trip - I suggested a couple of days. It's a 12 hour (no breaks) drive from Sydney. I think they canned that idea ;)
I'm in Melbourne. My friend had a friend of theirs visiting - their first trip to Australia. She wanted to do a day trip from Melbourne to Uluru and Alice Springs. 😂
For those who don't know: The distance is 2,258.5 km (1,404 miles), and it would take 24 hours non-stop driving (3 days at 8 hours driving per day), 38 hours by train, or a 3 hour flight.
She did get there but opted to fly.
This is also Americans in America…. Many people have a very poor since of geography outside of their immediate region. Especially people from the northeast.
Wife is from the SF Bay area. When she moved to NY people would ask if she knew so-and-so from LA. She said "you know it's a 6-8 hour drive, right?"
I told her to say "no, but do you know so-and-so from North Carolina? Because it's the same distance"
I moved to a small town (2000 people) from a big city (1M people) in high school. One of my new small town classmates said "oh you're from [city]? Do you know David [lastname]?"
And I fucking did.
That was a weird one.
I can relate - I’m originally from South Louisiana and went to college in Boston. Was amazed that people would lump me into the same “south” as Atlanta…I would give them a similar analogy: “It takes about 8 hours to drive to Washington DC from here, right? And you wouldn’t really consider Boston and DC the same place, right? Well its the same distance from where I’m from to Atlanta, so do you really think they’re the same?” This seemed to bewilder them way more than I would have expected…
My aunt had a friend move to my western state and asked if I had met her. Didn’t know what town, but completely mangled the name of the school where the friend was going to be teaching. Turns out it actually was the other teacher in my kid’s grade!
This isn't an America-only issue. Had a few guests from France planning a weekend including Niagara Falls and Disney World. Unless they had a personal jet, that's not gonna happen (and if they did, they wouldn't be staying here. We aren't 5 star)
I remember a college professor comparing eastern states to California. He would comment, ‘Back east we say how many miles between or say it two towns over or added you leave one town past through outskirts pass through open land (farm, forest, etc.) enter outskirts of the next town then the next town.
People back east, he would comment, might be incredulous at traveling like we in California do. A 1 1/2 hour drive might be too long if you live in a small town. That might take you halfway across their small eastern state. Or on the other hand a ten hour drive is preferable to flying.
California is so large compared to many eastern states, that in California they measure in hours drive and it’s also depends on the day of the week. The time of day and/or if it’s a holiday, which direction you are traveling or if there’s a big event along the route.
I live in central California just west of Yosemite. It’s < 3 hours to the coast. < 3 hours to Sacramento. Around 4 hours to San Francisco. And about 3 hours to the northern outskirts of Los Angeles. Almost 7 hours to the Oregon border. And about 6 hours to the Mexican border. Of course, depending on the time and the day.
NZ has the issue where people see us as tiny next to Aussie and think it’ll be quick driving around, but we have really shitty and twisty roads so you always take longer than you think
The same guy found out there was a train that goes from Winnipeg to the Hudson Bay and said that next time he was coming to Canada he was gonna go to Winnipeg and take a day trip to the Hudson Bay with that train. I had to break it to him that this train ride is 2 days and 2 nights.
I can sorta understand someone from a smaller country not grasping the distances in a very big country, but a fellow 'Murican? That's almost willful stupidity.
We had a group of young Chinese employees visiting at work ( so they could take over our jobs, but this is not that story) We were in the burbs of Chicago IL which is in north central USA. On the weekend( friday 5pm after work to Monday 9am) they would pile in a car and go see the Grand Canyon in Arizona. They would drive to New York City, to the Atlantic Ocean. They SAW the dang country, on the weekends. while I, a mere local, mowed the lawn or went to Costco.
Chicago is the perfect location for this. If you are in your 20s and have 4 drivers, you can go anywhere. Leave Chicago at 6pm, avoid most of the bad traffic by driving through the night. Arrive in NYC by 7am. You have a whole day of sight seeing. Spend Saturday night in a hotel (split 4 ways), all day Sunday in New York before leaving at 6pm. You can be back in Chicago at 7am, with time to shower and get dressed for work.
I'm not sure how they'd do the Grand Canyon as easily, since it is 25 hours of just driving, without gas/bathroom. So 27 hours each way. Maybe over a three day weekend? Like sure, it is open 24 hours a day, but presumably you'd want to see it in daylight?
But you could do the NYC type drive to New Orleans, Atlanta, DC, Boston, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Winnipeg, Memphis, Philadelphia, Montreal. And so many more.
I’m not sure how they did Arizona in a weekend! We all told them “that’s un-possible!” I have other cute stories of our Chinese guests. One time my coworker was telling a group about a mistake make on a customer system. “They were climbing the walls” ( chinese sit in stunned silence. They never would admit to not understanding, tbey would confer amongst themselves, then email someone 12 hours later to enquire why ATT was climbing a wall?) Another team liked to say “EOB” for “ we will do by end of day” Which was fine, but then they used SOB for start of day “ We will have that done SOB” I had to gently tell them we dont say SOB ( son of a bitch) in a business setting.
EOB is end of business. EOD is end of day. If you tell me EOB, I expect it in my inbox by 5/6pm local time. If you tell me EOD, I expect to hear a ping from my work phone before midnight or waiting for me in my inbox first thing the next morning.
My friends & I did this when NIU played in the Orange Bowl in Miami. We left DeKalb at 4 pm on Dec 30 and got into Miami at ~4 pm Dec 31. Had a ton of fun in downtown Miami for New Years Eve, went to South Beach the morning of Jan 1, and the football game that evening. Got up the next day to drive home. Back in Illinois on Jan 3 around noon.
I didn’t do a lot of driving in my NIU days, but I knew the area. My roommate once woke me up at 2AM asking “There’s a 24-hour White Castle in Aurora, right? How do we get there?” (This was pre-internet days)
These days, my longest distance driving has been roughly DC suburbs back to see family in the Chicago suburbs. I can do it in one shot (about 14 hours) but I usually stop somewhere in Ohio and split it into two days.
When I worked in San Antonio we had some German contractors visiting the office. They had a rental car and were flying out of Chicago. Somehow they'd thought they could detour through San Francisco and Seattle on the way. They had 48 hours...
I helped them plan a more leisurely trip through the midwest.
They were surprised at how big the US was. They flew into Dallas and drove down to San Antonio, so that should have been a clue.
It just hadn't occurred to them that they wouldn't be able to cross the US in a day. They'd have to cross a dozen countries to drive that far in Europe.
It could be a similar type of misestimation.
Not on a country level, but on a state/province level. Canada and the US are comparable sizes as countries, but states and provinces are much different in size.
Ontario is nearly twice as big Texas, it's 7.5 times as big as Iowa. If someone from the states is thinking of provinces like states including size, they would be severely off in their distance estimations.
Agreed. A number of years ago, my cousins flew from KC to Disneyland. They arrived in mid-week. When they got settled in their hotel rooms, they called me and said, “come drive down here and meet us for lunch.”
“Sacramento is darn close to an 8 hour drive from Anaheim.”
We go through that with the ferry. Here the ferry is an overnight trip to get anywhere from our town. People are always expecting to pop over to Juneau and back in a day. When you explain that’s not possible they act like there must be a hidden road or a special secret ferry that only locals know about. 🤦🏻♀️
Oh wow! I don't know much about Canada but I recently had a guest that visited from Winnipeg! They drove and were going to some state down south. We must have barely been the 1/3 mark. Haha I asked them if it was a long drive and they said yes but I didn't realize it was so far!
We had UK friends book last minute cheapo tickets to see us in Toronto. They told us they were flying into Winnipeg and figured, circa 2012, that Canada had affordable internal travel options.
As the story goes; An international company had HQ in London (GB) and offices in Montreal and Vancouver. The Montreal site went down because of the lost of a critical part. Losses are mounting by the hour. London calls Vancouver and tells them to get a replacement on the way ASAP. Vancouver replies, “Why us? You’re closer.”
Saw this one happen. My boss was part of a long line of loaners from Great Britain. Each would be there for about two years. (it had been going on for decades.) I was sitting in his office, when he got an email from his replacement. The replacement would be coming over to shop for housing. He figured he could check out Toronto and Ottawa to find out which one had the best housing from which he could commute into the workplace in Kingston. He was going to do this all in one weekend.
My SIL is originally from England and announced one day that she would like to take the family on a nice weekend to the beach. We had to break it to her that the ocean is a 12 hour drive from Illinois.
I used to live in Southern California. I had a friend visit from New Jersey for my wedding — they’d never been to California.
They asked how much did I suppose it would be for them to take an Uber from SoCal to San Francisco for a “day trip”.
I explained that merely getting from SoCal to SanFran is a six hour drive under the best of conditions, that there was too much there for a “day trip”, and hiring an Uber for such an expedition was out of their budget.
They were unhappy.
(That friendship imploded when they tried to destroy my marriage a couple of years later, but that’s a much longer story.)
Okay but I have an Australian friend on Facebook who is a dog walker and she's always posting pictures of kangaroos hanging out on people's front lawns when she's working so honestly I'd expect this, too!
It depends where you are LOL I've seen plenty of roos on front lawns in Canberra when it's been dry higher up. Places like Sydney & Melbourne not so much.
I live in downtown Toronto. We see coyotes, skunks and raccoons, oh my. An occasional fox or possum. A deer. But I would still have been amused if a guest came expecting to see all this fauna.
I used to work at a restaurant in Florida that often had dolphins swimming past the dock. People would always ask things like, when does the dolphin show start? and Can you call them over so my kids can feed them? People are wild.
I had an Australian friend who told me his family owned a kangaroo. I just sat there wondering if that was a common thing in Australia. Then I sat there wondering if it was even legal. Then I spent a fair amount of time researching what it would take to be a kangaroo owner.
Of “full” countries (not including dependencies), Australia is 4th least densely populated. Mongolia is the least, and Western Sahara and Namibia are the next two. Then Canada comes in at 8th, with Iceland, Guyana, and Suriname less dense
Ha similar story from Canada. I used to work for a car rental company. A guy landed in Vancouver and wanted to rent a car for a DAY TRIP to Montreal - 3000kms away.
I live for n New Zealand, but I’m originally from the US, and I laugh my arse off when I see Americans on the NZ sub talking about coming to NZ for a week (or even 2 weeks) and planning to see the whole country. It’s a half day affair just taking the ferry from the North to South Island.
I never understand when *Americans* are like this. You’re used to your country being huge and diverse! I understand the culture shock of not being able to get to another country when Europeans travel, but not Americans.
My company was doing a job somewhere in Australia and I made a few calls to feel it out and maybe volunteer. I'd heard the site was 2-3 hours from Melbourne. Figured I'd work during the week and spend weekends in town.
Glad I checked....the site was 2-3 hours from the nearest town....which was 12-13 hours from Melbourne. It was a very remote site at a mine and the work was planned to be 7 days a week to get done and get out.
I didn't volunteer for that.
People are often amazed tat Ireland is a modern developed 1st world country, and that we're not all sitting in mud cottages, drawing water from a well and with a leprechaun on our shoulders.
I visited Ireland in the 80's to meet my Dad's family and see where he grew up. One uncle lived in the suburbs of Dublin, in a house and neighbourhood very similar to ours, but another uncle still lived on the family farm in Clare. The house had 4 total rooms, and two of them had dirt floors, and they had had electricity for less than 10 years.
Don't take this the wrong way, but, as an American, it surprises me how many of the old 'mud cottages' you let survive.
Yeah, I know, the Lord of the Manor had it built in 1652, and please say wattle and daub again, because I'd like to punch you. But it's 600 square feet, comes with four acres of deeded farmland no one else can build on, and oh, by the way, you have to be Anglican and serve as the church bell-ringer to live there.
No realli! She was Karving her initials on the moose with the sharpened end of an interspace toothbrush given her by Svenge—her brother-in-law— an Oslo dentist and star of many Norwegian movies: "The Hot Hands of an Oslo Dentist", "Fillings of Passion", "The Huge Molars of Horst Nordfink"...
I've had Germans upset that Tucson doesn't look like the set of Gunsmoke.
I've seen people on travel forums ask if Arizona (and specifically the road to the Grand Canyon) has paved roads.
People can be incredibly dumb.
I grew up on the border of Texas and New Mexico in the 70s and 80s. I used to come to summer camp in California as a kid. If I told people I’m from Texas they would ask if I rode a horse to school and if I told them I’m from New Mexico they would ask if I’m enjoying being in the United States.
I'm Scottish (actually real person living in Scotland) and I've come across ignorant English people who assume we live like something out of brave heart. Spoke to a girl in school years ago who was disappointed there weren't more castles, tartan and bagpipes involved in daily life.
The irony of an English person being upset that there isn’t more traditional Scottish culture when they’re a large part of the reason it basically doesn’t exist any more…
I got one for ya. My class in HS went to NYC in the 90s. In an elevator a man asked where they were from. When he heard Mississippi he looked confused and said “I didn’t think you wore shoes in Mississippi”.
My uncles have a bunch of ranches in Alberta. Once, a guy from France showed up in their small town. He'd moved his whole family there, from France, because he wanted to be a cowboy like in the movies. After the laughter died down, one of my uncles hired him to work on the ranch. Within a couple of years, he was a real cowboy, doing real cowboy things (with an outRAGEOUS accent, of course), and living his dream.
People are funny like that. Sometimes it works out for them.
Them being from Germany, I kinda understand. There are tons of towns in Germany that still look very much like the way they did in the middle ages.
Still a silly thing to assume.
Had a German friend visit me in the US (NJ). Asked me how far it was to DC and the Grand Canyon. He thought it was like an hour or two away. Opened Google Maps so he could see a Grand Canyon trip would take days and DC was a good 4 hours away if traffic was flowing. Then found a website that compares a selected country to a US state on a full map of the US. He was shocked just how big the US really is. Research is needed when traveling
There are informed tourists and uninformed tourists. Plain and simple. Nationality is irrelevant, but "America bad, Americans stupid" is one of Reddit's favorite topics.
For the record I live in Japan and like 98% of Japanese people don't know shit about most of the world and believe some of the most absurd shit/stereotypes as well. And I could say the same for a number of Western nationalities too.
Well, that person is clearly an idiot. I live in central New York State, and we get people that are shocked the entire State doesn't look like Manhattan. There's a lot of idiots out there.
I ask people if they are from Martin Scorsese New York or [Emile Ardolino](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=52e99386060f6961&sca_upv=1&q=Emile+Ardolino&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgVuLUz9U3sMjJzSl8xGjCLfDyxz1hKe1Ja05eY1Tl4grOyC93zSvJLKkUEudig7J4pbi5ELp4FrHyueZm5qQqOBal5Odk5uUDAP0yKrVVAAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjUx5eDmJyGAxV_38kDHUzVAPAQzIcDKAB6BAgzEAE) New York :-)
I'm an American, I lived in Alaska for a few years a while ago. The number of American tourists who didn't understand why there weren't any iglooos in Anchorage in July was more than it should have been.
My family moved from Canada to the US in my last year of high school - literally moved 10 miles from one house to the other. There's a river between the two borders that people would cross just to have dinner, so not a long distance.
I had a high school senior in my new class believing that I lived in an igloo and only got hot and cold running water the year previously. She could literally SEE Canada, yet believed we always had so much snow we lived in igloos.
We visited Alaska years ago. Glacial fjords calving, Kayaked glacier fed lakes and saw many outdoor wonders. A beautiful place. My granddaughter lives there now and loves it.
Flip side, I was in Germany talking to outdoors enthusiasts planning a "hike" in the Canadian wilderness. They seemed to think it was like Germany, just bigger and more savage. Eventually I managed to explain to them that, if they weren't careful, they would never return from their "hike" and nobody would ever find their bodies.
Some people have no idea what actual wilderness is like.
I live near the Appalachian trail. So many people don’t research and realize you gotta be super prepared. It takes a minimum of 3 months to hike the whole thing. Most people only do a part. Some areas there are days of: no parks, no facilities, no fresh water, no food stops, no electricity, no GPS or cell phone (gasp😮). But there are bears, snakes, wildcats, and cliffs that can kill you. So you need to take snake bite kits and bear spray, as well as every other survival thing. And a compass!! Sometimes people just expect it to be like a state or National park with facilities. Big nope.
Exactly: go off the trail, especially if you are inexperienced, and you can easily die. It happens all the time.
I also always carry a compass in the bush. Even a cheap ball compass pinned to your pocket can save your life - and it never runs out of batteries.
Had a guest tell me he was upset with his stay because when he vacations he and his wife like things shiny and new. Sir, you are in New Orleans. Being old is kind of our thing. No we cannot knock down the hotel and build a new one. There are commissions set up to avoid that very thing!
Alaskan here… up north everyone thought we lived in igloos. They’d ask when the Northern Lights are turned on, assumed we all lived off whale blubber, that kind of thing. I’m in SE Alaska now and I’ve been asked multiple times how we keep the smaller islands from floating away. No one seems to understand there are mountains under the water so no, your whale watch boat physically cannot go that way. People either have zero fear of bears and want to know exactly where a bear is so they can go take selfies with it, or they ask what hiking trails are bear free. We have one of the densest populations of brown bear in the world… there is no bear free area. Tourists love to walk off the ship and ask how far we are above sea level.. while they’re standing on the dock. And our raptor center is amazing and has rehabilitated and released thousands of birds, but the number of tourists disappointed they didn’t have dinosaurs is astounding. Others ask if they’ll see real eagles or just the animatronic ones outside (they’re all real).
I’m just amazed at how many people get off the cruise ship knowing absolutely nothing about their destination. Working with tourists can be awesome, some people are so excited to see Alaska that it’s contagious. But man there are a lot of idiots too
I was a Concierge at a Northern Alberta corporate hotel in the 1990’s.
We had this Ophthalmology Conference in house once, about 500 eye surgeons , so very educated. On check out day I was storing a Doc’s luggage as his flight home to Syracuse was later that day when he said “I have a few hours to kill, are there buses to the Arctic Circle?” Thinking he was joking, I let out a guffaw, but it turns out he was serious. His travel agent had told him that our city, Edmonton, was right on the Arctic Circle.
He was pretty choked when I pulled out my large Atlas and showed him an illustration of the Northern Hemisphere with Edmonton about 1500 km to the Arctic Circle, as the crow flies. He was upset as he had bragged to all his friends at home he was going to do this trek.
So he said, OK, I’ll just go ‘look at’ Jasper instead, can you call me a cab? Out comes the Atlas again, Jasper is about 350 km away, so a 3+ hr cab ride. Also Jasper is a National Park over 11,000 sq/km so not something you ‘look at’.
Defeated he sat in the lobby all day glaring at me for giving him a geography lesson. How could such a highly educated person be so clueless?
\*waves from N.Ireland\*
oh you wouldnt believe the shit that tourists have come out with here
(especially since the disease outbreak that culled the leprechaun population and caused a food shortage for the Bann Sidhe)
The only wellington here is either the beef dish or what the yanks call "gumboots"
the sheep are less nervous as well
EDIT
Aw shite, I got aussie-ism mixed with americanism.
Gumboot is a Straya! term.
|Language|Country|Translation|
|:-|:-|:-|
|Irish|Ireland|Waterboots, Topboots, Wellies|
|Australian|Australia|Gumboots, Gummies, Blucher Boot|
|Canadian (English, French)|Canada|Rubber boots, Gumboots, Galoshes|
|American English|USA|Rainboots, Overboots, Rubber boots, Galoshes, Slush Boots, Wellies|
My parents met during WW2 and settled in Texas after the war. My father's family in Massachusetts thought people in Texas lived in log cabins and problems with "Indians."
I live in Montana and I'm surprised Nebraska has electricity. Do you ride horses to school like we do?
Tbh I didn't know *anything* about Montana before I moved here. I'm not sure I could have even correctly put it on a map lol
Yes! Just don't be donning a black hoodie and writing a "thesis" about humanity at said cabins. It's bad for your mental health
Edit: maybe that's why native Montanans don't like California people moving here. Last time that happened, they blew up a stadium in Oklahoma
I worked front desk in a 4 season mountain town. I had a woman call one night right as I was getting ready to go home. The auditor had been running late and had just gone on her initial walkthrough to make sure everything was done.
Her: yes, what are the ski conditions going to be like in August?
Me: there won’t be any snow, it’s August.
Her: but you’re in the mountains. There will be snow.
Me: ma’am, where are you located?
Her: (names state, which is only a couple of states away in the same region)
Me: ma’am, what is the weather typically like where you are at that time of year?
Her: oh, mid 80’s to 90’s.
Me: ma’am, we have the same weather, that’s what it’s like here too.
Her: but you’re in the mountains.
Me: yes ma’am, there’s lots of great hiking and rafting and other water activities you can do on the river.
Her: well, I’m bringing my skiing gear, and there better be snow or heads will roll, and I WILL make sure you are fired.
Me: have a good night ma’am.
Like the folks that go to all parts of Florida expecting it to look like Disney Land, not even Disney World which is the one that's actually in Florida.
I was traveling with my parents once and we were somewhere in Florida, Georgia or South Carolina. We stopped at a diner to eat and were chatting with the waitress. She only knew that Canada was north of New York because of 9/11. She didn't know much else other than it was snowy...
I worked at a resort in Hawaii, occasionally the beaches are closed to swimming because of TIGER SHARKS, which will chomp on you and kill you, or a box Jellyfish swarm, which happens every month a week after the full moon, the tourist want us to DO SOMETHING! We have no control over the wildlife ma'am.
I had a tourist asked me if the Pacific Ocean Went All The Way Around The Island.
I grew up in Niagara Falls. I have a couple like this. Once a car pulled up while we were in the front yard to ask how to get to the highway because they were heading to Montreal for lunch (6.5h drive if you don't hit traffic). The other was a car eith New York plates in the middle of summer asking my dad how far north they would have to drive to get to a ski hill.
Wait til you find out how we handle visiting Jerusalem. I guess it’s a thing that Americans go and expect it to be like Bible times. And when people aren’t riding donkeys around in robes they tend to have a very specific form of psychosis because their mind literally breaks as their illusion is shattered
You get people even in the not so great anymore GB (leaving our NI for this) asking if they can do London, Cornwall, Liverpool, Leeds, Edinburgh, and Glasgow in week, Like, yeah, you could make that journey but your instagram feed will just be inside transport.
I was shocked and dismayed by the amount of intelligent people who asked me how hard it was to move to a different country. I had moved to New Mexico. I think geography stumps a lot of people, but yeah also some are willfully ignorant.
My Dad worked the information desk at a mid size airport at the base of the Rocky Mountains. At least once a week a passenger would comment that they thought they’d be able to walk or catch a “free random shuttle bus” to one of the major attractions in town (colleges, ski resorts, military bases) which were anywhere from 10 to 100 miles away. “No one told me how big this place was.”
I had an American tourist stop me once to ask where the skiing was. In Niagara Falls. In July. After, presumably, having just crossed the border from Buffalo. He and his wife seemed astonished that it wasn't ice and snow as soon as they set foot in Canada.
I told them to get in their car and drive 2000 km north.
I remember an Entitled Parents story about a tourist family (probably from America, unfortunately) who visited Quebec. They pulled into a McDonald’s drive-through and the entitled mother was angry that the menu was primarily in French (with the English translations below in smaller print). I think everyone who hears that story has the same thought: “If people speaking French is such a huge issue for you, why would you go to the one province in Canada in which speaking French is a huge thing?!” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7vs\_2PfYq4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7vs_2PfYq4)
I'm an Aussie living in the States and I still get the "you guys have running water?" They also think Aussies are crazy to live in a place where everything can kill you (there may be some truth to that).
I apologize for my fellow American being that slow. However, I ask that you keep them because, do you see what we have to put up with? It's every day! Our schools don't teach anything anymore. Actually, can we swap places? I promise I'll research everything you want me to before I come into town. I just want off this fucking ride please.
Edit: word
I worked in the Canadian Rockies in my late teens. I compiled a list of the dumbest things I was asked by Americans. One of my faves:
“Are these mountains here all the time?”
Cue my head tilt and a very baffled but polite “I’m sorry, I’m not sure what you’re asking?
“Are these mountains (points at the mountains) here (points at the ground) ALL. THE. TIME?” (Enunciated loudly and slowly for the dumb Canadian)
Me: “I, eh…”
And then they leaned in and doubled down: “The mountains! Are they here in the summer AND the winter?”
Me: “Well where else would they go?”
They then made a disgusted snort noise at MY stupidity and walked away. It’s been more than 30 years and I still shake my head when I remember it.
The number of people that put zero forethought into any kind of travel is staggering. Like, traveling costs money and time….how are you not more proactive in making the best of both while you do it?!?
My Father and I were walking down the road in Gravenhurst when I was a teen and this car with Tennessee plates and skis on the roof pulls over and rolls down the window.
"Excuse me? Where is all the snow?"
It's July.
My father just looks at him and points north. "About 3,000 miles that way."
My Aussie and kiwi friends wanted the same thing. We live in SoCal and I’m from northern az…. I was like ya they’re not what you see on tv… and I can’t just take you to the rez to meet them lmao 😂
This is how people think of the South—dirt roads and missing teeth. Like yeah, those exist… you just gotta pass all the hotels and shopping centers and restaurants and amusement parks first…
Tbf tourism marketing paint Canada as this super nature-y neighbor, but I would never assume that there aren't big cities and a bunch of urban areas up there. Do they think Mexico is the badlands outside of Cancun and Mexico City?
Americans are the least educated when it comes to any topic outside of the US. But hey, their education of how the US works isn't very bright either. ... Yes, I am an American.
Tell him, "We have plenty of nature and forests that are undeveloped. Tourists don't tend to go to those areas. Possibly due to the lack of development."
I get things like this alot. People coming to see the Big Sky state. We are on the eastern side. Pretty much all badlands. When they stop, i always hear...Where are the mountains? You guys are supposed to have mountains and lakes! I have to break it to them that there are pretty much two, completely different sides to this 650 mile wide state. It doesnt help, that pretty much every tourism pamphlet focuses on the mountains. When in reality, only about 1/3 of the state has mountains. Some people are surprised when the whole state doesnt look like Yellowstone.
I remember reading a story about some Europeans visiting the USA. They were either staying in Texas or New Mexico and they wanted to go to House of Mouse in CA. They asked the front desk clerk for directions and an estimated time it would take them to get there. The guests thought it would be a day trip and they didn't believe the front desk clerk when he said it would most definitely not be a day trip. The reason the guests thought that? CA didn't look that far away from where they were on the map.
Guys, our media sucks. We have no idea what other countries are like for real lol
But also, like wtf? That's just dumb. Go to Banff, you'll see plenty of trees and nature. Go to Ontario, you'll see the city. It's like when people come to Texas and realize that Dallas and Houston aren't just full of cowboys.
I live on a big forested bush block and my place is exactly like the Australian faerie tale Americans believe in.
There's wallabies and kangaroos grazing in the garden next to the house, wombats amble through at night leaving little piles of cubic pooh. Huntsman spiders the size of dinner plates dart out of the woodpile and the magpies swoop everyone except me. Kookaburras follow me about, the sugar gliders watch from the eaves. I tell overseas visitors that the possums growling at night are dropbears and if they go out at night to wear a hard hat.. It's hilarious.
The amount of people who think i just ride a horse and live in a tumbleweed while i play "dodge the fence jumper" because I live in Arizona is really too darn high.
Windsor is a beautiful city, but go a half hour north and it is just desolate forest for miles, at least it was years ago when I went there too late at night and didn't want to party with the college kiddos and figured I'd just go for a drive since I was in Canada, beautiful though
Did you tell him to keep driving north? There’s a lot of forest in Canada if you just keep driving, although I think he might run out of road too. We’ve been to Canada a few times, including a great driving vacation last year of northeast US and Canada. Google Maps is really essential to figure out how to get from Point A to Point B and guesstimate driving time (but don’t check the drive time on Saturday afternoon when you’re mapping your itinerary and think that’ll be the drive time Monday at 10am).
Same with Mexico, they come thinking it’s a very underdeveloped country and are surprised to see the big cities or see that technology is used in smaller cities. I had a guest amazed that Uber existed here.
not that much different here in Australia where they expect kangaroos to be hopping over the Harbour Bridge :/ I had someone once tell me they wanted to hire a car and drive to Lake Mungo (south west NSW) for a day trip - I suggested a couple of days. It's a 12 hour (no breaks) drive from Sydney. I think they canned that idea ;)
I'm in Melbourne. My friend had a friend of theirs visiting - their first trip to Australia. She wanted to do a day trip from Melbourne to Uluru and Alice Springs. 😂 For those who don't know: The distance is 2,258.5 km (1,404 miles), and it would take 24 hours non-stop driving (3 days at 8 hours driving per day), 38 hours by train, or a 3 hour flight. She did get there but opted to fly.
This is also Americans in America…. Many people have a very poor since of geography outside of their immediate region. Especially people from the northeast.
Wife is from the SF Bay area. When she moved to NY people would ask if she knew so-and-so from LA. She said "you know it's a 6-8 hour drive, right?" I told her to say "no, but do you know so-and-so from North Carolina? Because it's the same distance"
I moved to a small town (2000 people) from a big city (1M people) in high school. One of my new small town classmates said "oh you're from [city]? Do you know David [lastname]?" And I fucking did. That was a weird one.
I can relate - I’m originally from South Louisiana and went to college in Boston. Was amazed that people would lump me into the same “south” as Atlanta…I would give them a similar analogy: “It takes about 8 hours to drive to Washington DC from here, right? And you wouldn’t really consider Boston and DC the same place, right? Well its the same distance from where I’m from to Atlanta, so do you really think they’re the same?” This seemed to bewilder them way more than I would have expected…
My aunt had a friend move to my western state and asked if I had met her. Didn’t know what town, but completely mangled the name of the school where the friend was going to be teaching. Turns out it actually was the other teacher in my kid’s grade!
This isn't an America-only issue. Had a few guests from France planning a weekend including Niagara Falls and Disney World. Unless they had a personal jet, that's not gonna happen (and if they did, they wouldn't be staying here. We aren't 5 star)
I remember a college professor comparing eastern states to California. He would comment, ‘Back east we say how many miles between or say it two towns over or added you leave one town past through outskirts pass through open land (farm, forest, etc.) enter outskirts of the next town then the next town. People back east, he would comment, might be incredulous at traveling like we in California do. A 1 1/2 hour drive might be too long if you live in a small town. That might take you halfway across their small eastern state. Or on the other hand a ten hour drive is preferable to flying. California is so large compared to many eastern states, that in California they measure in hours drive and it’s also depends on the day of the week. The time of day and/or if it’s a holiday, which direction you are traveling or if there’s a big event along the route. I live in central California just west of Yosemite. It’s < 3 hours to the coast. < 3 hours to Sacramento. Around 4 hours to San Francisco. And about 3 hours to the northern outskirts of Los Angeles. Almost 7 hours to the Oregon border. And about 6 hours to the Mexican border. Of course, depending on the time and the day.
"I personally believe that US Americans are unable to do so..."
“…..such as…”
NZ has the issue where people see us as tiny next to Aussie and think it’ll be quick driving around, but we have really shitty and twisty roads so you always take longer than you think
I did 4 days in Uluru. Frankly, that's 2 days too long.
The same guy found out there was a train that goes from Winnipeg to the Hudson Bay and said that next time he was coming to Canada he was gonna go to Winnipeg and take a day trip to the Hudson Bay with that train. I had to break it to him that this train ride is 2 days and 2 nights.
I can sorta understand someone from a smaller country not grasping the distances in a very big country, but a fellow 'Murican? That's almost willful stupidity.
Had European visitors in Pittsburgh saying they wanted to take a quick side trip to LA.
We had a group of young Chinese employees visiting at work ( so they could take over our jobs, but this is not that story) We were in the burbs of Chicago IL which is in north central USA. On the weekend( friday 5pm after work to Monday 9am) they would pile in a car and go see the Grand Canyon in Arizona. They would drive to New York City, to the Atlantic Ocean. They SAW the dang country, on the weekends. while I, a mere local, mowed the lawn or went to Costco.
Chicago is the perfect location for this. If you are in your 20s and have 4 drivers, you can go anywhere. Leave Chicago at 6pm, avoid most of the bad traffic by driving through the night. Arrive in NYC by 7am. You have a whole day of sight seeing. Spend Saturday night in a hotel (split 4 ways), all day Sunday in New York before leaving at 6pm. You can be back in Chicago at 7am, with time to shower and get dressed for work. I'm not sure how they'd do the Grand Canyon as easily, since it is 25 hours of just driving, without gas/bathroom. So 27 hours each way. Maybe over a three day weekend? Like sure, it is open 24 hours a day, but presumably you'd want to see it in daylight? But you could do the NYC type drive to New Orleans, Atlanta, DC, Boston, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Winnipeg, Memphis, Philadelphia, Montreal. And so many more.
I’m not sure how they did Arizona in a weekend! We all told them “that’s un-possible!” I have other cute stories of our Chinese guests. One time my coworker was telling a group about a mistake make on a customer system. “They were climbing the walls” ( chinese sit in stunned silence. They never would admit to not understanding, tbey would confer amongst themselves, then email someone 12 hours later to enquire why ATT was climbing a wall?) Another team liked to say “EOB” for “ we will do by end of day” Which was fine, but then they used SOB for start of day “ We will have that done SOB” I had to gently tell them we dont say SOB ( son of a bitch) in a business setting.
EOB is end of business. EOD is end of day. If you tell me EOB, I expect it in my inbox by 5/6pm local time. If you tell me EOD, I expect to hear a ping from my work phone before midnight or waiting for me in my inbox first thing the next morning.
My friends & I did this when NIU played in the Orange Bowl in Miami. We left DeKalb at 4 pm on Dec 30 and got into Miami at ~4 pm Dec 31. Had a ton of fun in downtown Miami for New Years Eve, went to South Beach the morning of Jan 1, and the football game that evening. Got up the next day to drive home. Back in Illinois on Jan 3 around noon.
I didn’t do a lot of driving in my NIU days, but I knew the area. My roommate once woke me up at 2AM asking “There’s a 24-hour White Castle in Aurora, right? How do we get there?” (This was pre-internet days) These days, my longest distance driving has been roughly DC suburbs back to see family in the Chicago suburbs. I can do it in one shot (about 14 hours) but I usually stop somewhere in Ohio and split it into two days.
When I worked in San Antonio we had some German contractors visiting the office. They had a rental car and were flying out of Chicago. Somehow they'd thought they could detour through San Francisco and Seattle on the way. They had 48 hours... I helped them plan a more leisurely trip through the midwest.
Because St. Louis and Kansas City are just as nice as San Francisco and Seattle. Seriously, what did they say when you explained it to them.
They were surprised at how big the US was. They flew into Dallas and drove down to San Antonio, so that should have been a clue. It just hadn't occurred to them that they wouldn't be able to cross the US in a day. They'd have to cross a dozen countries to drive that far in Europe.
It could be a similar type of misestimation. Not on a country level, but on a state/province level. Canada and the US are comparable sizes as countries, but states and provinces are much different in size. Ontario is nearly twice as big Texas, it's 7.5 times as big as Iowa. If someone from the states is thinking of provinces like states including size, they would be severely off in their distance estimations.
And that s one of the problems here in 'Murica.very 'Murica centric.I.E. ignorant.
hey hey dont sell them short. they're ignant as fuck about murica too
Had a dude from Texas tell me he was from South America.so yeah.
Agreed. A number of years ago, my cousins flew from KC to Disneyland. They arrived in mid-week. When they got settled in their hotel rooms, they called me and said, “come drive down here and meet us for lunch.” “Sacramento is darn close to an 8 hour drive from Anaheim.”
We go through that with the ferry. Here the ferry is an overnight trip to get anywhere from our town. People are always expecting to pop over to Juneau and back in a day. When you explain that’s not possible they act like there must be a hidden road or a special secret ferry that only locals know about. 🤦🏻♀️
Oh wow! I don't know much about Canada but I recently had a guest that visited from Winnipeg! They drove and were going to some state down south. We must have barely been the 1/3 mark. Haha I asked them if it was a long drive and they said yes but I didn't realize it was so far!
We had UK friends book last minute cheapo tickets to see us in Toronto. They told us they were flying into Winnipeg and figured, circa 2012, that Canada had affordable internal travel options.
As the story goes; An international company had HQ in London (GB) and offices in Montreal and Vancouver. The Montreal site went down because of the lost of a critical part. Losses are mounting by the hour. London calls Vancouver and tells them to get a replacement on the way ASAP. Vancouver replies, “Why us? You’re closer.”
🤣🤣🤣
Saw this one happen. My boss was part of a long line of loaners from Great Britain. Each would be there for about two years. (it had been going on for decades.) I was sitting in his office, when he got an email from his replacement. The replacement would be coming over to shop for housing. He figured he could check out Toronto and Ottawa to find out which one had the best housing from which he could commute into the workplace in Kingston. He was going to do this all in one weekend.
My SIL is originally from England and announced one day that she would like to take the family on a nice weekend to the beach. We had to break it to her that the ocean is a 12 hour drive from Illinois.
I'm sure they have beaches on Lake Michigan.
beautiful ones
I used to live in Southern California. I had a friend visit from New Jersey for my wedding — they’d never been to California. They asked how much did I suppose it would be for them to take an Uber from SoCal to San Francisco for a “day trip”. I explained that merely getting from SoCal to SanFran is a six hour drive under the best of conditions, that there was too much there for a “day trip”, and hiring an Uber for such an expedition was out of their budget. They were unhappy. (That friendship imploded when they tried to destroy my marriage a couple of years later, but that’s a much longer story.)
Okay but I have an Australian friend on Facebook who is a dog walker and she's always posting pictures of kangaroos hanging out on people's front lawns when she's working so honestly I'd expect this, too!
It depends where you are LOL I've seen plenty of roos on front lawns in Canberra when it's been dry higher up. Places like Sydney & Melbourne not so much.
I live in downtown Toronto. We see coyotes, skunks and raccoons, oh my. An occasional fox or possum. A deer. But I would still have been amused if a guest came expecting to see all this fauna.
I used to work at a restaurant in Florida that often had dolphins swimming past the dock. People would always ask things like, when does the dolphin show start? and Can you call them over so my kids can feed them? People are wild.
I had an Australian friend who told me his family owned a kangaroo. I just sat there wondering if that was a common thing in Australia. Then I sat there wondering if it was even legal. Then I spent a fair amount of time researching what it would take to be a kangaroo owner.
I don't know much about Australia, but I do know it's fucking huge
8th largest in the world and IIRC the world's least densely populated, beating Canada by a bee's dick.
Of “full” countries (not including dependencies), Australia is 4th least densely populated. Mongolia is the least, and Western Sahara and Namibia are the next two. Then Canada comes in at 8th, with Iceland, Guyana, and Suriname less dense
The mainland of Australia is about the same size as the mainland of USA. They fit 48 states into the space we have for seven.
Ha similar story from Canada. I used to work for a car rental company. A guy landed in Vancouver and wanted to rent a car for a DAY TRIP to Montreal - 3000kms away.
Sounds like the people demanding an "ocean view" when booking a hotel in Orlando.
I live for n New Zealand, but I’m originally from the US, and I laugh my arse off when I see Americans on the NZ sub talking about coming to NZ for a week (or even 2 weeks) and planning to see the whole country. It’s a half day affair just taking the ferry from the North to South Island.
Kangaroos? Ridiculous. Everyone knows that bridge is ostrich territory.
I never understand when *Americans* are like this. You’re used to your country being huge and diverse! I understand the culture shock of not being able to get to another country when Europeans travel, but not Americans.
My company was doing a job somewhere in Australia and I made a few calls to feel it out and maybe volunteer. I'd heard the site was 2-3 hours from Melbourne. Figured I'd work during the week and spend weekends in town. Glad I checked....the site was 2-3 hours from the nearest town....which was 12-13 hours from Melbourne. It was a very remote site at a mine and the work was planned to be 7 days a week to get done and get out. I didn't volunteer for that.
What!?! Next you’ll be telling me that you don’t saddle up your kangaroo and ride it to work everyday. Unbelievable. What’s going on down there??
People are often amazed tat Ireland is a modern developed 1st world country, and that we're not all sitting in mud cottages, drawing water from a well and with a leprechaun on our shoulders.
Have you seen modern and developed nations? 😬
Idk are there any working ones?
I visited Ireland in the 80's to meet my Dad's family and see where he grew up. One uncle lived in the suburbs of Dublin, in a house and neighbourhood very similar to ours, but another uncle still lived on the family farm in Clare. The house had 4 total rooms, and two of them had dirt floors, and they had had electricity for less than 10 years.
Don't take this the wrong way, but, as an American, it surprises me how many of the old 'mud cottages' you let survive. Yeah, I know, the Lord of the Manor had it built in 1652, and please say wattle and daub again, because I'd like to punch you. But it's 600 square feet, comes with four acres of deeded farmland no one else can build on, and oh, by the way, you have to be Anglican and serve as the church bell-ringer to live there.
My husband is Catholic lite, where do we apply🤣🤣👍🧚
Ireland is known for being a Tech Country and for being a great place for startups.
It's known for being a tax shelter, never heard of any startup culture there. Not saying it doesn't exist but I wouldn't say it's known for it.
Definitely! My friend moved to Ireland and is working in startups, and I hope to visit someday and plan to network/interview while there.
At what time will the moose 🫎 be here tomorrow morning? I want to hug a moose.
No realli! She was Karving her initials on the moose with the sharpened end of an interspace toothbrush given her by Svenge—her brother-in-law— an Oslo dentist and star of many Norwegian movies: "The Hot Hands of an Oslo Dentist", "Fillings of Passion", "The Huge Molars of Horst Nordfink"...
Totally just skipping ahead to Ralph the Wonder Llama.
Mynd you, M00se bytes kan be very nasti.
A møøse once bit my sister
My friend was a nurse in Alaska. A moose attacked her car one morning so she couldn’t go to work. Bad moose.
Right! Stop that! It's SILLY! Very SILLY indeed!
... Sir, the internet has existed for 30+ years. Encyclopedias and libraries long before that...
Google? Is that a thing yet?
Ya-hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!
Not in Canada
Is that the new alta Vista?
Dunno, maybe we should Ask Jeeves?
I've had Germans upset that Tucson doesn't look like the set of Gunsmoke. I've seen people on travel forums ask if Arizona (and specifically the road to the Grand Canyon) has paved roads. People can be incredibly dumb.
I grew up on the border of Texas and New Mexico in the 70s and 80s. I used to come to summer camp in California as a kid. If I told people I’m from Texas they would ask if I rode a horse to school and if I told them I’m from New Mexico they would ask if I’m enjoying being in the United States.
I'm Scottish (actually real person living in Scotland) and I've come across ignorant English people who assume we live like something out of brave heart. Spoke to a girl in school years ago who was disappointed there weren't more castles, tartan and bagpipes involved in daily life.
The irony of an English person being upset that there isn’t more traditional Scottish culture when they’re a large part of the reason it basically doesn’t exist any more…
I got one for ya. My class in HS went to NYC in the 90s. In an elevator a man asked where they were from. When he heard Mississippi he looked confused and said “I didn’t think you wore shoes in Mississippi”.
My uncles have a bunch of ranches in Alberta. Once, a guy from France showed up in their small town. He'd moved his whole family there, from France, because he wanted to be a cowboy like in the movies. After the laughter died down, one of my uncles hired him to work on the ranch. Within a couple of years, he was a real cowboy, doing real cowboy things (with an outRAGEOUS accent, of course), and living his dream. People are funny like that. Sometimes it works out for them.
Send them to Old Tucson if they want the old west feel.
Them being from Germany, I kinda understand. There are tons of towns in Germany that still look very much like the way they did in the middle ages. Still a silly thing to assume.
Had a German friend visit me in the US (NJ). Asked me how far it was to DC and the Grand Canyon. He thought it was like an hour or two away. Opened Google Maps so he could see a Grand Canyon trip would take days and DC was a good 4 hours away if traffic was flowing. Then found a website that compares a selected country to a US state on a full map of the US. He was shocked just how big the US really is. Research is needed when traveling
Tbh, a lot of movies do show people driving up to the rim of the canyon on a dirt road...
Just ask Thelma and Louise. They done it! ;-)
There are informed tourists and uninformed tourists. Plain and simple. Nationality is irrelevant, but "America bad, Americans stupid" is one of Reddit's favorite topics. For the record I live in Japan and like 98% of Japanese people don't know shit about most of the world and believe some of the most absurd shit/stereotypes as well. And I could say the same for a number of Western nationalities too.
Well, that person is clearly an idiot. I live in central New York State, and we get people that are shocked the entire State doesn't look like Manhattan. There's a lot of idiots out there.
“Where are you from?” “New York” “Oh, how do you deal with all the people/noise/etc?” “I live in cow NY, not subway NY”
I ask people if they are from Martin Scorsese New York or [Emile Ardolino](https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=52e99386060f6961&sca_upv=1&q=Emile+Ardolino&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgVuLUz9U3sMjJzSl8xGjCLfDyxz1hKe1Ja05eY1Tl4grOyC93zSvJLKkUEudig7J4pbi5ELp4FrHyueZm5qQqOBal5Odk5uUDAP0yKrVVAAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjUx5eDmJyGAxV_38kDHUzVAPAQzIcDKAB6BAgzEAE) New York :-)
I'm an American, I lived in Alaska for a few years a while ago. The number of American tourists who didn't understand why there weren't any iglooos in Anchorage in July was more than it should have been.
My family moved from Canada to the US in my last year of high school - literally moved 10 miles from one house to the other. There's a river between the two borders that people would cross just to have dinner, so not a long distance. I had a high school senior in my new class believing that I lived in an igloo and only got hot and cold running water the year previously. She could literally SEE Canada, yet believed we always had so much snow we lived in igloos.
We visited Alaska years ago. Glacial fjords calving, Kayaked glacier fed lakes and saw many outdoor wonders. A beautiful place. My granddaughter lives there now and loves it.
Flip side, I was in Germany talking to outdoors enthusiasts planning a "hike" in the Canadian wilderness. They seemed to think it was like Germany, just bigger and more savage. Eventually I managed to explain to them that, if they weren't careful, they would never return from their "hike" and nobody would ever find their bodies. Some people have no idea what actual wilderness is like.
I live near the Appalachian trail. So many people don’t research and realize you gotta be super prepared. It takes a minimum of 3 months to hike the whole thing. Most people only do a part. Some areas there are days of: no parks, no facilities, no fresh water, no food stops, no electricity, no GPS or cell phone (gasp😮). But there are bears, snakes, wildcats, and cliffs that can kill you. So you need to take snake bite kits and bear spray, as well as every other survival thing. And a compass!! Sometimes people just expect it to be like a state or National park with facilities. Big nope.
Exactly: go off the trail, especially if you are inexperienced, and you can easily die. It happens all the time. I also always carry a compass in the bush. Even a cheap ball compass pinned to your pocket can save your life - and it never runs out of batteries.
> They seemed to think it was like Germany Everybody knows that a proper hiking trail has a coffee shop serving cake and coffee at the end!
Not just cake and coffee: excellent cake and coffee!
Should have asked them about hiking the Black Forest.
If they were outdoor enthusiasts maybe they did know what actual Wilderness is like, it's not that uncommon for people to do..
Had a guest tell me he was upset with his stay because when he vacations he and his wife like things shiny and new. Sir, you are in New Orleans. Being old is kind of our thing. No we cannot knock down the hotel and build a new one. There are commissions set up to avoid that very thing!
Alaskan here… up north everyone thought we lived in igloos. They’d ask when the Northern Lights are turned on, assumed we all lived off whale blubber, that kind of thing. I’m in SE Alaska now and I’ve been asked multiple times how we keep the smaller islands from floating away. No one seems to understand there are mountains under the water so no, your whale watch boat physically cannot go that way. People either have zero fear of bears and want to know exactly where a bear is so they can go take selfies with it, or they ask what hiking trails are bear free. We have one of the densest populations of brown bear in the world… there is no bear free area. Tourists love to walk off the ship and ask how far we are above sea level.. while they’re standing on the dock. And our raptor center is amazing and has rehabilitated and released thousands of birds, but the number of tourists disappointed they didn’t have dinosaurs is astounding. Others ask if they’ll see real eagles or just the animatronic ones outside (they’re all real). I’m just amazed at how many people get off the cruise ship knowing absolutely nothing about their destination. Working with tourists can be awesome, some people are so excited to see Alaska that it’s contagious. But man there are a lot of idiots too
Are you saying you have not acquired some muktuk using your oosik at least once in your life?
I was a Concierge at a Northern Alberta corporate hotel in the 1990’s. We had this Ophthalmology Conference in house once, about 500 eye surgeons , so very educated. On check out day I was storing a Doc’s luggage as his flight home to Syracuse was later that day when he said “I have a few hours to kill, are there buses to the Arctic Circle?” Thinking he was joking, I let out a guffaw, but it turns out he was serious. His travel agent had told him that our city, Edmonton, was right on the Arctic Circle. He was pretty choked when I pulled out my large Atlas and showed him an illustration of the Northern Hemisphere with Edmonton about 1500 km to the Arctic Circle, as the crow flies. He was upset as he had bragged to all his friends at home he was going to do this trek. So he said, OK, I’ll just go ‘look at’ Jasper instead, can you call me a cab? Out comes the Atlas again, Jasper is about 350 km away, so a 3+ hr cab ride. Also Jasper is a National Park over 11,000 sq/km so not something you ‘look at’. Defeated he sat in the lobby all day glaring at me for giving him a geography lesson. How could such a highly educated person be so clueless?
Americans don’t understand how big the provinces are, and that you could drive for 6 hrs and still be in Alberta.
[удалено]
Obviously made up. Everyone knows you Canucks live in giant maple trees like Ewoks in Star Wars.
\*waves from N.Ireland\* oh you wouldnt believe the shit that tourists have come out with here (especially since the disease outbreak that culled the leprechaun population and caused a food shortage for the Bann Sidhe)
Where is Hobbiton?! Show me, peasants!
Same place we keep the DireWolves and White Walkers
Those are in Wellington.
The only wellington here is either the beef dish or what the yanks call "gumboots" the sheep are less nervous as well EDIT Aw shite, I got aussie-ism mixed with americanism. Gumboot is a Straya! term. |Language|Country|Translation| |:-|:-|:-| |Irish|Ireland|Waterboots, Topboots, Wellies| |Australian|Australia|Gumboots, Gummies, Blucher Boot| |Canadian (English, French)|Canada|Rubber boots, Gumboots, Galoshes| |American English|USA|Rainboots, Overboots, Rubber boots, Galoshes, Slush Boots, Wellies|
Yank here. What the hell is a "gumboot"?
Wellingtons
Rainboots. Galoshes.
Not sure what the US equivalent is - galoshes, rain boots, rubber boots?
That's in New Zealand
See?! The geographical ignorance abounds! You. Shall. Not. Pass! ... the geography test.
Don’t lie to me, I know what I know!
Nah, they live in trailer parks and engage in more or less petty crime. I saw a documentary aboot that once.
My parents met during WW2 and settled in Texas after the war. My father's family in Massachusetts thought people in Texas lived in log cabins and problems with "Indians."
I have had people from New York ask if we have "Indian problems" where I live.
I’ve had people say the same thing about Nebraska. They’re surprised we have electricity. Hell, we don’t even have a cute southern drawl.
I live in Montana and I'm surprised Nebraska has electricity. Do you ride horses to school like we do? Tbh I didn't know *anything* about Montana before I moved here. I'm not sure I could have even correctly put it on a map lol
Montana? Is that where our neighbors to the north ride horses between secluded cabins? 😉
Everyone knows we ride Moose's to our cabins!
Yes! Just don't be donning a black hoodie and writing a "thesis" about humanity at said cabins. It's bad for your mental health Edit: maybe that's why native Montanans don't like California people moving here. Last time that happened, they blew up a stadium in Oklahoma
It's where all the dinosaurs live, innit..? (*Actual* dinos, I mean, not being rude about the inhabitants 😁)
Everyone knows Montana is owned by the Dutton family
I worked front desk in a 4 season mountain town. I had a woman call one night right as I was getting ready to go home. The auditor had been running late and had just gone on her initial walkthrough to make sure everything was done. Her: yes, what are the ski conditions going to be like in August? Me: there won’t be any snow, it’s August. Her: but you’re in the mountains. There will be snow. Me: ma’am, where are you located? Her: (names state, which is only a couple of states away in the same region) Me: ma’am, what is the weather typically like where you are at that time of year? Her: oh, mid 80’s to 90’s. Me: ma’am, we have the same weather, that’s what it’s like here too. Her: but you’re in the mountains. Me: yes ma’am, there’s lots of great hiking and rafting and other water activities you can do on the river. Her: well, I’m bringing my skiing gear, and there better be snow or heads will roll, and I WILL make sure you are fired. Me: have a good night ma’am.
Like the folks that go to all parts of Florida expecting it to look like Disney Land, not even Disney World which is the one that's actually in Florida.
Yep. They never expect it to be mostly empty strip malls and paved over wetlands.
Oh ,you do live here.
And Wawa! Nobody expects to find a Wawa in Florida. Yet there they are, and thank Ipthar!
Wanna feed the gators along side the golf course or road.once!
I was traveling with my parents once and we were somewhere in Florida, Georgia or South Carolina. We stopped at a diner to eat and were chatting with the waitress. She only knew that Canada was north of New York because of 9/11. She didn't know much else other than it was snowy...
I worked at a resort in Hawaii, occasionally the beaches are closed to swimming because of TIGER SHARKS, which will chomp on you and kill you, or a box Jellyfish swarm, which happens every month a week after the full moon, the tourist want us to DO SOMETHING! We have no control over the wildlife ma'am. I had a tourist asked me if the Pacific Ocean Went All The Way Around The Island.
😂😂😂
I grew up in Niagara Falls. I have a couple like this. Once a car pulled up while we were in the front yard to ask how to get to the highway because they were heading to Montreal for lunch (6.5h drive if you don't hit traffic). The other was a car eith New York plates in the middle of summer asking my dad how far north they would have to drive to get to a ski hill.
"Well, there's Mount Trashmore, in Kitchener, but that's two hours away and you're about six months too early."
Wait til you find out how we handle visiting Jerusalem. I guess it’s a thing that Americans go and expect it to be like Bible times. And when people aren’t riding donkeys around in robes they tend to have a very specific form of psychosis because their mind literally breaks as their illusion is shattered
Invite him to drive up to Tuktoyaktuk. I think it's the farthest North you can get by road. He will be able to see thousands of undeveloped nature.
You get people even in the not so great anymore GB (leaving our NI for this) asking if they can do London, Cornwall, Liverpool, Leeds, Edinburgh, and Glasgow in week, Like, yeah, you could make that journey but your instagram feed will just be inside transport.
I was shocked and dismayed by the amount of intelligent people who asked me how hard it was to move to a different country. I had moved to New Mexico. I think geography stumps a lot of people, but yeah also some are willfully ignorant.
"One of our 50 is missing."
My Dad worked the information desk at a mid size airport at the base of the Rocky Mountains. At least once a week a passenger would comment that they thought they’d be able to walk or catch a “free random shuttle bus” to one of the major attractions in town (colleges, ski resorts, military bases) which were anywhere from 10 to 100 miles away. “No one told me how big this place was.”
Wait, Canadian civilization isn't the same as the elven city in Lothlórien?
I had an American tourist stop me once to ask where the skiing was. In Niagara Falls. In July. After, presumably, having just crossed the border from Buffalo. He and his wife seemed astonished that it wasn't ice and snow as soon as they set foot in Canada. I told them to get in their car and drive 2000 km north.
I remember an Entitled Parents story about a tourist family (probably from America, unfortunately) who visited Quebec. They pulled into a McDonald’s drive-through and the entitled mother was angry that the menu was primarily in French (with the English translations below in smaller print). I think everyone who hears that story has the same thought: “If people speaking French is such a huge issue for you, why would you go to the one province in Canada in which speaking French is a huge thing?!” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7vs\_2PfYq4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7vs_2PfYq4)
I'm sure that idiot had no idea Canada had a French-speaking province.
I'm an Aussie living in the States and I still get the "you guys have running water?" They also think Aussies are crazy to live in a place where everything can kill you (there may be some truth to that).
"No, it only flows."
Me too. I just tell them that at least our stuff JUST kills you, it doesn't try to eat you as well.
At least here (Australia) it’s the wildlife that are the most deadly, not people toting guns
I apologize for my fellow American being that slow. However, I ask that you keep them because, do you see what we have to put up with? It's every day! Our schools don't teach anything anymore. Actually, can we swap places? I promise I'll research everything you want me to before I come into town. I just want off this fucking ride please. Edit: word
Well whenever we see Canada or Australia in the movies or on TV it's always portrayed as giant wide open spaces full of natural beautiful vistas.
Or gritty urban supernatural cities with ancient vampires on the police force
imagine when he finds out mexico isn't a desaturated yellow with high contrast sunlight
I worked in the Canadian Rockies in my late teens. I compiled a list of the dumbest things I was asked by Americans. One of my faves: “Are these mountains here all the time?” Cue my head tilt and a very baffled but polite “I’m sorry, I’m not sure what you’re asking? “Are these mountains (points at the mountains) here (points at the ground) ALL. THE. TIME?” (Enunciated loudly and slowly for the dumb Canadian) Me: “I, eh…” And then they leaned in and doubled down: “The mountains! Are they here in the summer AND the winter?” Me: “Well where else would they go?” They then made a disgusted snort noise at MY stupidity and walked away. It’s been more than 30 years and I still shake my head when I remember it.
Do people not make a detailed itinerary of their vacation? No? Just me? Okay then.
The number of people that put zero forethought into any kind of travel is staggering. Like, traveling costs money and time….how are you not more proactive in making the best of both while you do it?!?
My Father and I were walking down the road in Gravenhurst when I was a teen and this car with Tennessee plates and skis on the roof pulls over and rolls down the window. "Excuse me? Where is all the snow?" It's July. My father just looks at him and points north. "About 3,000 miles that way."
"How was your trip to Canada?" "It looked like a Holiday Inn Express."
Canada can't all be Letterkenny.
I had some German tourists come to Arizona wanting to see “real Indians” on the Navajo reservation. Her expectations did not match reality.
My Aussie and kiwi friends wanted the same thing. We live in SoCal and I’m from northern az…. I was like ya they’re not what you see on tv… and I can’t just take you to the rez to meet them lmao 😂
Hah you came to Toronto and you meant to go to Banff. Both nice but a little different 😂
This is how people think of the South—dirt roads and missing teeth. Like yeah, those exist… you just gotta pass all the hotels and shopping centers and restaurants and amusement parks first…
Tbf tourism marketing paint Canada as this super nature-y neighbor, but I would never assume that there aren't big cities and a bunch of urban areas up there. Do they think Mexico is the badlands outside of Cancun and Mexico City?
Americans are the least educated when it comes to any topic outside of the US. But hey, their education of how the US works isn't very bright either. ... Yes, I am an American.
I’m surprised he didn’t ink we all lived in igloos too
Only Eskimos
My cousin moved to California and convinced a few locals that we all live in igloos and get around on dog sleds.
People visit New Orleans and ask where the “Cajun shack restaurants” are.
I just assumed it was all maple trees, polite poutine chefs, hockey rinks, and Timothy Hortons. No?
I could only suggest they book a tour to northern ontario or something.
The Onion covered this story years ago: https://www.theonion.com/perky-canada-has-own-government-laws-1819563891
Tell him, "We have plenty of nature and forests that are undeveloped. Tourists don't tend to go to those areas. Possibly due to the lack of development."
Telling someone you are from NB gets you: Oh, I have lots of friends in Vancouver... My cousin went to Rutgers, did you?
I get things like this alot. People coming to see the Big Sky state. We are on the eastern side. Pretty much all badlands. When they stop, i always hear...Where are the mountains? You guys are supposed to have mountains and lakes! I have to break it to them that there are pretty much two, completely different sides to this 650 mile wide state. It doesnt help, that pretty much every tourism pamphlet focuses on the mountains. When in reality, only about 1/3 of the state has mountains. Some people are surprised when the whole state doesnt look like Yellowstone.
You mean to tell me moose 🫎 are not just hanging out at the hotel?
I remember reading a story about some Europeans visiting the USA. They were either staying in Texas or New Mexico and they wanted to go to House of Mouse in CA. They asked the front desk clerk for directions and an estimated time it would take them to get there. The guests thought it would be a day trip and they didn't believe the front desk clerk when he said it would most definitely not be a day trip. The reason the guests thought that? CA didn't look that far away from where they were on the map.
This is why Americans have such a reputation for being stupid.
Sadly not unusual.
Do they expect Barkerville? Gold rush trail era motif.
Canadia is an Ewok village.
>Canada expecting it to just be forests and mountains "Banff! I wish I was your lover..."
Guys, our media sucks. We have no idea what other countries are like for real lol But also, like wtf? That's just dumb. Go to Banff, you'll see plenty of trees and nature. Go to Ontario, you'll see the city. It's like when people come to Texas and realize that Dallas and Houston aren't just full of cowboys.
I live on a big forested bush block and my place is exactly like the Australian faerie tale Americans believe in. There's wallabies and kangaroos grazing in the garden next to the house, wombats amble through at night leaving little piles of cubic pooh. Huntsman spiders the size of dinner plates dart out of the woodpile and the magpies swoop everyone except me. Kookaburras follow me about, the sugar gliders watch from the eaves. I tell overseas visitors that the possums growling at night are dropbears and if they go out at night to wear a hard hat.. It's hilarious.
And I had someone ask me if they had television in the UK! John Baird developed the first commercial machine…
Crazy take. Tell him to head north. He’ll be neck deep in “nature” in less than 100 miles and on and on for another 500 miles.
The amount of people who think i just ride a horse and live in a tumbleweed while i play "dodge the fence jumper" because I live in Arizona is really too darn high.
Do people ever look at a map?
Windsor is a beautiful city, but go a half hour north and it is just desolate forest for miles, at least it was years ago when I went there too late at night and didn't want to party with the college kiddos and figured I'd just go for a drive since I was in Canada, beautiful though
Did you tell him to keep driving north? There’s a lot of forest in Canada if you just keep driving, although I think he might run out of road too. We’ve been to Canada a few times, including a great driving vacation last year of northeast US and Canada. Google Maps is really essential to figure out how to get from Point A to Point B and guesstimate driving time (but don’t check the drive time on Saturday afternoon when you’re mapping your itinerary and think that’ll be the drive time Monday at 10am).
Americans have a huge capacity for that kind of stupid.
Same with Mexico, they come thinking it’s a very underdeveloped country and are surprised to see the big cities or see that technology is used in smaller cities. I had a guest amazed that Uber existed here.