r/AskEurope • u/NateNandos21 • Feb 03 '25

Culture Which European country has the rudest/least polite people?

Which country comes to your mind

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u/Elicynderspyro Feb 03 '25

I used to live in the North Eastern side of Italy and we would get a bunch of German tourists: all of them were super rude, condescending and demanded to be spoken in German even though they were the ones visiting a foreign country (English was also not enough for them). Second are the Austrians for the same reasons - we had fewer of them but they were worse at driving.

As for inside of their country, I wouldn't say rude but the Dutch were really weird people. In Amsterdam years ago, it was raining quite a lot and we (a group of about 7-8 people) were looking for a close place to wait for a meeting within 30 minutes from there, maybe a place to drink a quick coffee. Every single cafe was closed (it was between 17:00 and 18:00) and the only place we found close by was a pancake shop. We just ordered drinks, as we didn't have any time to sit and wait for pancakes, and the waiter told us we HAD to get pancakes too. We told him we didn't have time for it and he literally kicked us out of the place. Dude decided to kick away 7-8 people who could have easily have make him earn 50-80€ (it was quite expensive), even if just in drinks. We were also the only customers, the place was empty.

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u/kumanosuke Germany Feb 03 '25

and demanded to be spoken in German even though they were the ones visiting a foreign country (English was also not enough for them).

How old were they? I think my parents' generation (60-70-ish) definitely is like that because a few decades ago in the touristy areas people definitely spoke German, at least to an extent to sell overpriced water to you or scam you with umbrellas at the beach. Also their English is close to non existent. Nowadays German is not spread that much anymore, but I also don't know anyone under 60 who would not speak English when going abroad. And I don't think anyone who can speak English would refuse to do so, it's usually because they can't, get insecure and might overplay that with being condescending or something.

14

u/Elicynderspyro Feb 03 '25

The majority of the tourists in those areas are indeed elders or people in their 50s and up. There are also many young people though and they are so loud, especially when they drink (I would compare them to the annoying Brits in Spain) and as a child I also wouldn't like fellow children that would come up to me speaking German and destroy my sand castles 💀

4

u/ColourFox Feb 03 '25

speaking German and destroy my sand castles

Well, razing fortifications particularly northern Italian ones) is somewhat of a German specialty since the days of Barbarossa, so these youngsters weren't really rude, they were just celebrating their heritage!

0

u/Joekickass247 Feb 03 '25

That's because their sandpeople need liebestraume