The British Abroad

[MissKittyBeaudelais]

Now, before I get flamed, I KNOW this behaviour isn’t indicative of all Brits and travellers from other countries also make merry when travelling for fun, however....

I was on an early flight to Lisbon this morning. There were some men travelling for the football on Thursday and as were were boarding, they were behind us in the queue. They were ranging in ages.... mid 20’s to 50’s. The beer fumes were stifling. Singling and swearing. They were allowed on but were spoken to sternly by the cabin crew even before takeoff. It was a very long 2hr 55min flight 🙄

WHY are we like this? Last time we had a short break it was a load of pissed up girls on a weekend to Spain. We really are the embarrassment of Europe. Just my opinion.

Fully agree

Well “we” aren’t like this, some people are.

Every country has its arseholes 🤷🏻‍♀️

Also agree. It's not all of course, but definitely a significant number.

Yeah. Brits can't drink in general ime, not just on holidays. I've never seen scenes like here where I am from. Don't take me wrong, we drink like hell, but we can "hold our liqueur" and not end up pissing in the middle of the road with one breast out and swearing at honking cars (Scene from a last weekend. Have many more stories)...

I’m not going to argue with you over that. Most British go on holiday to simply have a nice break, but there’s something about groups goading each other on to get as drunk as possible. It’s embarrassing.

@P1nkHeartLovesCake. Isn’t that what I said? However, of the many nationalities I see when travelling (travel a lot for work) it’s always the Brits who’re loud, drunk, bad mannered, belligerent. It’s an observation.

YANBU.

I live abroad and most cultures don't need alcohol to the same extent that Brits do.

I used to live in Brussels; I was on a train once with a couple of friends and a large group of men in England football shirts got on. They weren't (that) inebriated and were speaking in Flemish, so we asked them why they were in England shirts when there wasn't a football match - "No, there isn't a match, but if we dress in England kit, we can behave as badly as we like because it's what people expect'.....that was about 20 years ago, but I don't think our reputations have improved much.....!

Agree. It's as if the group mentality emboldens them to behave more outrageously than ever. They feel safer and less likely to be challenged.

And, imagined or not, there’s an air of aggression which allows them to get away with it. I just looked at these half cut, bleary eyed “lads” and thought “you really do need to grow the fuck up”. It was 9.10am. One of the cabin crew did her best to quiet them down but I felt very sorry for her. What a job that must be!

They were Rangers fans (they play Porto). Many of whom sing nasty sectarian songs about 'Fenians' and make the DUP seem nice people.

Sorry you were subjected to this.

I do my best when abroad to be as unEnglish as possible, not just because of the economic self-harm of Brexit.

In Albania over a summer a hot topic was increasing tourism.
Those against used programmes showing the drunk Brits saying do you really want this? Plus the stereotypes don’t stop with drunks, we are seen as loud, rude, fat and entitled who complain about a lack of bacon and tea strangely! I was rather embarrassed listening tbh The end of debate was decided with advertise to the Germans and other Northern Europeans but ignore the UK.

@MrsPear. I can absolutely believe that.

“ They were Rangers fans”

Indeed. Say no more.

Every country has its arseholes

This. I'm in Spain. Deliberately booked a hotel that had a lot of Spanish guests to avoid what you're describing. The Spanish guests I've encountered have been, almost without exception, rude and belligerent. Barking at the bar staff. Barging into the kids at mealtimes. Sitting with a face like a slapped arse throughout the music acts. Pushing in at the queue for the lift.

I don't however base my opinion of all Spanish people on this.

A couple of weeks ago, I was walking through Kings Cross’ underground station in London when I heard loud bangs and there was suddenly smoke everywhere. Then a warning came over the loudspeaker telling us that there was an emergency and we needed to evacuate.

I thought it was a terrorist attack. I was terrified out of my mind.

It turned out to be Belgian football fans running through the station and setting off fireworks, resulting in a shutdown of the entire station.

So no, Brits abroad are not uniquely awful. Every nation has its own utter dicks who continue to be utter dicks when they travel.

I don't know - I've been on some pretty rank flights with Czech Airlines where the inebriated tossers weren't British, and also had the pleasure of similar from Russian and Polish holidaymakers on charter flights: so it's definitely not just the British who are obnoxious tossers on the way to their sunshine breaks. I would think that your sample is skewed if you largely take budget/charter flights (more likely to be pissheads on tour than commuter flights or other scheduled routes) and primarily to/from the UK also.

There's no doubt that there are plenty of shocking adverts for Britain around, but unfortunately, it's not unique to the UK.

Not sure following my experience in france. Stoppping in a petrol station ina minibus of British students, a group of drunk french stole our bread and when we closed the fan doors they rocked the van with us all it. Another time I was in a youth choir visiting Europe where a group of drunk locals chased us. So inappropriate behaviour everywhere just brits get the worst press.

I think that the single sex group travel is way more of a British "thing" than elsewhere - and this is part of the reason this happens.

A Lithuanian friend was telling me about how terribly the English (mostly stag parties) behave in Vilnius: pissing in the street, starting fights, shouting lewd things at women etc. She ended with "... They don't behave like that at home, so why behave like that in my country?", so I had to break it to her that actually, yes, towns all over the UK are filled with behaviour like that every single weekend.

SafetyAdvice- where are you?

I don’t think it’s British people abroad. I think it’s a cohort that behave similarly when at home. Football attracts significant numbers of yobs, sadly. Stag and Hen parties abroad are notoriously poorly behaved, drunken, excuses for excess.
Most people are not like that at all. We are in France at the moment and have over the week, enjoyed the company of fellow Europeans, a few Brits without need to behave offensively. We’re not going to a football match though.

YABU.
I’ve seen plenty of bad behaviour from other nationalities too. Serbians hated by Greeks for fighting, Thai people stealing, Romanians pickpocketing around Europe, Italians constantly harassing women, French people have been incredibly rude.... and the list goes on and on ...

There were some men travelling for the football on Thursday and as were were boarding, they were behind us in the queue. They were ranging in ages.... mid 20’s to 50’s. The beer fumes were stifling. Singling and swearing.

I was out in Paris once, when France were in a cup final, so lots of Football fans about. They were all whispering quietly while sipping tea. There was singing, but only gentle choral music in perfect harmony.

No other nations football fans are ever like you describe so I think YANBU, it must be that all British people behave this way. Except you, OP, obviously.

@donquixote are you one of those people who just likes a row? Someone who, if a person says “it’s raining” you see the rain and deny it? The men were drunk. Like it was closing time in a pub. The cabin crewe had to rein them in several times.

And no, I’m not like that. I enjoy a drink but I don’t get blotto before boarding a plane and I'm not rude, sweaty and make people feel anxious, seeing how we were 33 thousand feet in the air and it could easily have kicked off.

Go away and pick a row with someone else ‘Don.