Weird people you meet on holiday.

[Diddumz]

1988 - went to Majorca with my family. There was a woman who kept pretending she was drowning in the pool.

Have you met any oddballs on holiday?

@MayorGundersonsDogRufus

This thread is amazing. Trying to think of some good stories, nothing too mad...

On holiday in California and we went to the bar featured in the film Sideways. Two local women sitting at the bar heard our English accents and said they'd love to buy us a drink, so we accepted. They were clearly quite drunk and kept saying they loved our accents and asking us to say swear words which they found hysterically funny. They kept buying us drinks and we kept swearing loudly in our best posh English accents. They didn't seem to want to get to know us, just listen to us swearing. It was a hilarious, weird afternoon!

An exaggerated English accent can work wonders in the US, we got a parking ticket once and OH went to the office to very apologetically pay it, using his very finest English accent. The ticket was torn up, 'that machine's sooooo unreliable honey'! He was a Yorkshireman, sounded like Geoff Boycott. I once order a ham and cheese croissant in a TGF, the waitress called over a couple of others and asked me to repeat the order because it sounded 'so French'. Not bad for a Lancastrian. Checking into a motel in the South West the receptionist asked me to repeat what I was saying a couple of times. The manager came over to ask if there was a problem and she said 'She doesn't speak English' pointing to me. I explained to him that the problem seemed to be that I did speak English.

Trying to explain the differences between the UK, Great Britain and the British Isles can be entertaining too

It is indeed - especially when an American child, on hearing you're from England, has just asked his mum "Which state is that?"

It must be so much easier to come from France and be French, from Germany and be German or whatever (and we wouldn't risk putting the wrong thing on an immigration form!!)

Mamanyt

That was so funny I burst out laughing.
The funniest comment on this thread IMO.

Holidays & weird happenings: fusion MumsNet. I expect there was a CF parking badly nearby, too.

We were on our honeymoon driving around Tasmania, and stayed in a bed and breakfast at the same time as a German couple. She had very bravely decided to try vegemite, and put a microscopic amount on a tiny piece of bread. She slowly, slowly brought it to her mouth, then her hand bounced back as she smelt it.
She did eventually taste it, I think.

Not so much odd as fabulous. On holiday in New Zealand and we went to some thermal springs and me and my daughter got chatting to a great American guy called Daniel who was travelling around the country on his Harley. He had his long hair tied back in a ponytail, a lovely bikini on and had both finger and toenails perfectly manicured and a full face of makeup. We chatted for ages.

'He was a Yorkshireman, sounded like Geoff Boycott.'

He was lucky they didn't double it . . .

Went to the Canaries with a best mate a few years ago. We meet a lovely, recently young married couple (only 21 and 22) in a bar. While the wife and my friend were on the dancefloor I got chatting to the husband. Suddenly the wife appears at our table, whispers something in his ear, smiles shyly at me and dashes away. He then randomly explains they are in an 'open relationship', goes on to tell me all the wonderful benifits. "Glad it works for you" I say and change the subject. "So how about it? Wanna sleep with my wife?! I think it's a bad joke, laugh and change subject. No he was serious. He went on for the most alkward half hour on trying to pitch me the idea. "I promise you won't see me watching, if you don't want me there that's cool too, oh go on, please!". Getting more offended (and pissed off) every time I find new ways say NO. Thankfully his wife and my friend came back to the table. While my friend was joking around with his wife he leans in to me and starts going on all dreamily about how handsome my friend is and what lovely eyes he has.... Suddenly he snaps "You need to sort your mate out - he's trying it on with my wife!!" When it was their round we got out of the Twilight Zone as fast as we could!!

An exaggerated English accent can work wonders in the US

It's true. I'm a New Yorker and we see a lot of tourists. Brits are our hands-down favorites. The French and Germans, not so much.

We get a lot of British TV shows here. I think that helps too.

Went on holiday to Majorca early 90s there was another family staying at the hotel , on the first day the father dived into the water but it was the shallow end about 3 foot deep how didn't break his neck. One day they came back and announced they had had a "right good tuck in" we asked where they had eaten and what had been so nice turned out it was pie & chips , each to their own I suppose. We have used the phrase ever since

Camping in the middle of nowhere, no one around for miles. A woman drives up and in the most annoying American accent asks if we mind her camping in the same field as us as she was worried about camping alone. We of course said it was fine and left her to it, she didn't say a word to us after that and when we went to bed she still hadn't left her tent, despite having an awning and camping stove outside.

We woke up at 4am to her sat in between us, leaning over us with 3 mugs of water. She told us she'd treat us to an early morning hike as we'd been so kind to let her stay near us. We very politely declined and before we could tell her to fuck off out of our tent she stormed out (difficult to do in a 5 foot tall tent) and went back to hers which she had moved to face ours. We watched her pack up grumpily, leave a bag of food and the camping stove behind and tell us "This is not what Britain is supposed to be like". We were in Ireland, not Britain, and told her so. In reply she stomped her foot, shrieked and drove off. Highly entertaining.

I've loved this thread 😂

Around 30 years ago when my DH and I had only been married a couple of years we went to Barbados. It was our last holiday before we got our first mortgage and became poverty stricken.

Amongst the people we met on that holiday were two young women of a similar age to us and we spent a lot of time socialising with them. One in particular took a real shine to my DH which made me a little uncomfortable and I always felt she was trying to muscle me out. She drank like a fish and smoked quite heavily.

When it came to the end of their holiday the girl who had taken a shine to my DH told us she had something to show us. She showed us her passport and her photo was of her in her full nun's habit. She had apparently taken time out to "find herself". Didn't even realise they could do that!

@OhGiveUp

In Gran Canaria, there was a family of 4. The 15yr old daughter was in a perma sulk and the 17yr old son was very introverted. He took a shine to my then 16yr old daughter and followed her literally everywhere with sad puppy eyes. I asked him if he had any nice plans for his 18th birthday and he said he was going to a large airport to watch the aircrafts take off and land. Then he kindly invited my daughter to join him. Needless to say that she declined his offer. On their last day, his mum burst into tears and wailed how much she would miss the hotel staff 😂

In Turkey, there was a lone man who was the Ukrainian equivalent to Mr Bean.
He wore the same suit and shirt morning, noon and night for the entire week he was there.
Apart from one afternoon when he appeared beside the pool, stripped down to his Y-fronts and dived in.
Then he thrust a camera in the hands of a sunbather and asked her to take a snap of him coming down the water slide, before putting his suit and shirt back on and sauntering away. No towel, no drying himself, just straight back into the suit and shirt.
We saw him waiting for and boarding his transfer coach still wearing the same shirt and suit, completely empty handed, obviously still in the same suit and shirt.

OMG at the Ukrainian Mr Bean In one of the Nothing To Declare episodes there was a man who was interviewed by the Austarlian border control. He didn't seem to have anywhere to go yet appeared as cool as a cucumber. He didn't have any luggage with him either, they said he smelt really bad and I'm pretty sure he was Ukrainian. They refused his entry and made him shower before sending him back on the next plane. Just thought of him because his attire was a suit yet no luggage at all.

@LoisLane66

Referring to Diddumz post about the stuffed cat. Watched a series about Jane MacDonald cruising and one of the regular cruisers took a teddy bear EVERYWHERE. It had its own chair at the table and a cushion to bring it up to height to eat the full adult sized meal ordered by her (according to teddy's wishes after it perused the menu) and presented to it by a very courteous waiter who 'broke' the napkin before tucking it around the bear's neck. Dessert followed. None eaten but 'Teddy says it was delicious, thank you'. Her husband let her get on with it and was ignored. It had its own full sized bed too which was turned down every evening. Some people....

What the **?!! This thread keeps delivering the laughs.

This is the best bit:

according to teddy's wishes after it perused the menu

This thread made me think of the lady on the Cruise with the teddy bear. I binged watched the series the other week (it's on iPlayer if anyone else wants to see the teddy bear) and was . The staff were also straight faced about going along with it, I did wonder what they said off shift. Or her fellow travellers. She was a fairly regular cruiser too iirc and always took the teddy bear.

@iamthewombat and @loislane66 surely HE perused the menu, not IT

NO, BrimFullOfAsher.
IT is a teddy bear, an inanimate object.
The BEAR was given the menu to peruse.
Yes, we know it can't read nor could it eat the meal bought by it's owner but that is how she, the owner, treats her stuffed teddy bear.
It did/does have a name and I rather think it was a name normally ascribed to females The teddy's name was used by cruise staff when talking about it, to pander to the ridiculous whims of the bear's owner.

Did they pay for the bear? Surely they must have if it was having dinners

Ukrainian Mr Bean has sparked another memory; I was on a coach from LA to Las Vegas and one of my fellow passengers was wearing a suit and a pair of sliders displaying his dirty feet. Not a scrap of luggage.

He kept taking phone calls on the journey except he didn't have a phone, it was his hand held to his ear, thumb in the ear, pinkie to talk into. About every 20 minutes he'd stick his head through the gap between the seats (imagine Jack Nicholson coming through the door in The Shining) and ask me the time.

We broke down at one point and while waiting for a replacement coach he wandered off and came back with a McDonalds. We were literally in the middle of the Nevada desert, could see nothing on all sides right to the horizon, but somehow he conjured up a McDonalds

I think of him often.

Trying to explain the differences between the UK, Great Britain and the British Isles can be entertaining too.

I see this and I raise you trying to explain to other nationalities and a worrying amount of Brits if I'm honest what and where the Channel Islands are

Cocolapew
I really don't know as to whether they paid for the bear or not. They were regulars on the cruises operated by that company. Took 5 or 6 every year, Caribbean, and world cruises mostly. They/were are a British couple in their late 50s.
Because of their high value spend, the company might have 'comp'd' the bear like when high rollers play the casinos, the casino often comp them...pay their hotel and food expenses.

@LoisLane66

Cocolapew I really don't know as to whether they paid for the bear or not. They were regulars on the cruises operated by that company. Took 5 or 6 every year, Caribbean, and world cruises mostly. They/were are a British couple in their late 50s. Because of their high value spend, the company might have 'comp'd' the bear like when high rollers play the casinos, the casino often comp them...pay their hotel and food expenses.

Thanks Lois, 5 or 6 cruises a year it's probably worth giving a teddy a plate of scampi and chips then

[quote BrimFullOfAsher]**@iamthewombat* and @loislane66 surely HE perused the menu, not IT*[/quote]
HAHAHAHAHA

I have travelled a lot and do seem to have that ;weirdo attractant" about me..
I always seem to get asked directions, Norway, Spain, China, USA , Canada people have made a beeline for me in the street to ask if I know where such and such is and how to get there.
And I have met some crackers on planes over the last 30 years- A girl who had been left by her mates on Greece had broken her leg and was being repatriated home screamed the plane down when water started coming through the overhead compartments that we were all going to die ( turned out someone had put a bottle of water in the overhead and it was leaking)

A very drunk guy on a plane from New York threw up all over himself and fell asleep on being woken by cabin crew demanded to know who had thrown vomit on him.

London - Melbourne- Guy next to me super friendly we chatted about all sorts of things for a couple of hours and then he turned his back on me and got very upset if I dared ask him to let me out to go to the toilet for the next 11 hours, he was chewing gum the whole time, when I landed in Australia it turned out he had stuck gum all over the back of my trousers.

Are you sure that wasnt Fidel Castro, unefois?