to really hate tourists?

[SheikYerbouti]

They are the bane of my life.

Yes, yes, yes, I KNOW they plough millions of pounds into our local economy and that they have the right to invade my home town EVERY DAY OF THE FARKING YEAR.

But WHY do they have to stand in the middle of the pavement in their shorts and backpacks holing maps and getting in the way. I saw one today in pissing hiking gear - in the centre of Bath fgs. I know it's hilly here, but one does not need crampons and a walking pole for scaling the dizzy heights of BHS. (he wasn't really wearing crampons, btw. I am exaggerating)

They get off the park and ride that I use to get to and from work and they just STAND THERE. Never do they step aside.

Yes, I know IABVU, but I just had to get it off my chest because they all stand in groups squinting up at things and getting in the way

I used to live in Cheltenham too - definitely stayed away from town during Gold cup week, mental traffic and busses lined up to ferry the pissheads up to the racecourse!

Yes, don't come to Cambridge in July and August - full of coach parties of tourists and language school students (those who stay a while particularly enjoy cycling on the wrong side of the road, in the dark, in packs). However, most are gone by the beginning of September!

Tourists on the Underground hack me off something chronic. Especially when you get a group of 40-odd exhange students with huge suitcases convening right in front of the ticket barriers in the middle of rush hour, oblivious to the fact that people would quite like to get past to get to work on time. Or that their journey would be much more pleasant for themselves and everyone else if they'd only set out an hour and a half later. Grr!

Oh gagamama - couldn't have said it better myself.

What I hate is how they go round the streets looking for parking and take all the local parking outside people's houses because they don't want to pay to park in the proper car parks (there is always room, btw)!!

I am fucking SICK of coming home and finding strange cars outside my house and then seeing them come back from their lovely walk and pootle off.

THE CAR PARK IS DOWN THE ROAD!! PAY FOR IT INSTEAD OF BLOCKING UP MY ROAD, Y'STINGY FUCKERS!!!!!!!!

lilymaid Oxford is the same... and all the poor langugage students get mugged, coz they wear their rucksacks all the time

oh, and why is it always tourists that walk right behind my car when I am reversing.
Reverse lights on - check
Car moving slowly out - check

Erm..don't walk inches behind my car when it is already moving out, you stupid twat.

One day, I will 'accidentally' step on the accelerator instead of the brake...

sorry hectate - that was me

outside my house or walking behind my car?

YABU - unless you reside for 365 days a year in your home town, never take a holiday or weekend away ....

I'm certainly not being unreasonable! I never walk behind moving cars OR drive round streets looking to park outside some random house because I don't want to pay to use a proper car park....

so ner!

tourists are generally just there and unavoidable and to be fair well meaning and don't understand they're being irritating half the time - but I do hate it when they stand right in front of the tube doors and push themselves on without letting others off first - surely that's just common sense??? even commuters packed during rush hour will stand aside as much as they can before boarding

YANBU - when I'm a tourist and have to get a map out, I stand to the side of the pavement so I'm not in other people's way

YABU. They are spending their hard-earned cash trying to enjoy themselves. They can't help it if they're bumbling around a bit.

The hordes of young school-age Italians on group tri[ps are the only ones I find annoying as they shout so loudly, so constantly and walk right onto people as if they were invisible.

Tourists - a small downside of living somewhere pretty.

Oh I think you have a point about parking outside your house Hecate.....

Lilymaid - Cambridge is worst in June, because you have stressed (until end of exams) or drunk (after) students, AND the tourists, making it a lot more crowded. At least by July 10,000 students have pushed off to make some more space.

I work in Westminster - but in summer you have to get off at a different Tube stop and walk through the back streets, because trying to get through Westminster Tube and the masses standing in front of the Houses of Parliament can easily take 30 minutes to get 100 yards up the road.

Most tourists are OK but it's the groups of dim ones who stand in the way, on the wrong side of escalators, block gates, and walk in front of cyclists while saying "Gee, how quaint! Hand signals!" who really get on my wick. I feel very proud that I only ever directed one group of Cambridge tourists to Ely when they asked where the cathedral was...

Oh, you live in BATH, this used to annoy me like mad too when I lived there (New King St, 1990s). Living in Dartmouth was same.

DP and I often discuss how we must be in loads of random holidays snaps.

The tourists that annoy me most are the ones that take a photo of one of thier group outside somewhwre

"herte's me ouytside the Abbey!!"

Then they get in a piss if you walk through thier photo

I AM LATE FOR WORK, I CANNOIT WAIT FOR MYOU TO GET THE RIGHT ANGLE FGS

All of you who said IABU, you are right of course,

Oooh, Btw, WWW, I li=ved in NKS for a few months in 1999 - were you there then? Tis a very odd sort of place really, New King Street, IMHO

No, I lived there from 1990-93 ish and worked in Chapel Row, about 3 minutes away!

They ask such silly questions too.

Imagine walking along Charing Cross Road and being accosted by a big American who wanted to know where "Theatreland" was.

Theatreland I ask you.

I live in Cambridge too and I love them! Ok, maybe not when I can't get the buggy past 300 French exchange students, or when they won't let me past when dd has made a dash for it somewhere, but I think they look sweet with their matching backpacks and Cambridge '08 hideously embarrassing t-shirts. Who else but tourists would wear something so awful? We're in hundreds of photos because dd has a trailer bike and tourists always take pictures of us at traffic lights. And leave the students alone, we're not all drunkards! !!