First Enounter Stereotypes That Actually Happened When You Visited.

[Razor]

When you visited a region or city..Did you encounter a stereotype indicative to the city or country? Again, this is supposed to be tongue in cheek and harmless.

For me the first thing I encountered when I first entered the U.S back in the 80's was a High School marching band in full regalia. It was just across in Niagara Falls New York on our way to a restaurant. I thought at that time "go figure..The first thing I experience when I enter the U.S"

Next, my wife got pulled over for speeding near Mont Tremblay Quebec.
The QPP had a very thin curly ended mustache, and the hat with the pull down ear muffs.

Finally, and again in upstate New York, we got pulled over for speeding and the county mounty/State trooper of course was donning mirror glasses and a thick mustache. he was matter of fact, yet friendly though.

Both the QPP and the State Trooper could of played roles in a movie looking for that part.

Anymore?

[Steely Dan]

The first time I visited San Francisco was back in 2004 for a friend's wedding. I was travelling solo and after flying into SFO, I took bart into town to get to my hotel in the tenderloin.

Immediately upon walking up the stairs from the civic center subway station, I was greeted by a group of skeezed-out SF street-people that the city is infamous for. As I took my very first ever steps onto the sidewalks of SF, one of the street-persons leaned over and promptly vomitted upon a lamp post a couple of feet away from me, with some of the vomit splatter splashing back and landing upon the toes of my shoes.

I had been in the city for mere seconds and I already had homeless person vomit splatter on me.

WELCOME TO SAN FRANCISCO!


I imagine that it will likely forever remain my most memorable introduction ever to a new city.

[jbermingham123]

Didn't happen to me, but when my mom first moved to LA, she was driving on I5 behind some maniac and she said "who is this clown??" and when she was finally able to pass him, it turns out HE WAS AN ACTUAL CLOWN

[benp]

After getting off the plane at Miami International Airport I had to make a quick run to the rest room, and a glance over at the floor in the next stall showed a packet with several rows of shrink-wrapped stacks of $100 bills on the floor. I wasn't sure if there was anyone in the stall but by the time my brain comprehended what I was seeing the money was quickly scooped up and the person in the stall exited. All I could think of was Miami Vice or Scarface. Next encounter was with my Uber driver who did not speak a single word of English, and I had to struggle some with my little Spanish to get to my destination. Not totally unexpected, but I thought the driver would at least know some English.

[mhays]

The Port Authority Bus Terminal in 1987 was certainly a stereotypical version of New York, which was less glamorous than today's version by far.

[pj3000]

First time I visited New York (Manhattan) - 1983 or 84 maybe

Was with my dad and my uncle and cousin (they lived on the UWS). It was Thanksgiving weekend. We were in the Park and going to go a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden that evening. It was a really nice, warm for late November day, so my uncle wanted to walk from Central Park to MSG. It was getting dark and he took us down 7th Ave right thru the heart Times Square... in the early '80s... titty bars, peep shows, video game arcades, street vendors everywhere, hookers, homeless, pimp-looking dudes, guys selling watches from inside their jackets, the whole stereotypical scene you see in movies from that era. As a 9-10 year old kid, it was totally awesome.

As we're walking on the sidewalk, we hear all this commotion just up ahead of us and within seconds this tall transvestite dude comes barreling through and crashes into my cousin and me and all three of us go down on the ground. I remember being totally stunned and looking up and seeing this classic looking NYC cabbie (who we came to realize was chasing him for stiffing him on the fare) all of a sudden and he's yelling you mother-f-er this and you f-ing fag*** that at the tranny and grabbing him. They're scuffling and my dad and uncle are pulling us out of the way, and next thing there's a cop there and he's grabbing the cabbie and the tranny (who's wearing a little black miniskirt). It's all chaotic with all the yelling and struggling, and of course, the skirt comes up and we get the full view of the tranny's cock & balls as he's screaming and laughing, likely really high and drunk.

The images are indelibly etched into my mind. We got to the Italian restaurant that we were going to pre-game, and I remember my dad being mad at my uncle for taking us that way, but that's just how my uncle is (always does what most people wouldn't do), and I'm forever grateful he did take us that way. Times Square in that era for a 10 year old was pretty amazing.

[Stay Stoked Brah]

on our first family vacation to Mexico my dad got a bad case of food poisoning, lots of diarrhea and barf for 2 or 3 days on a 7 day trip.

[jtown,man]

I was in 8th grade visiting NYC for the first time, my family had stopped on the sidewalk for some reason so I began to look around taking in the city. For some reason, I became fixated on some dudes and a truck. I was looking at them for probably 20 seconds when finally one of them yelled at me "what you lookin' at?!"

I am like, dude im in 8th grade, NOTHING lol

Side note, I started looking into license plate ratings(nerdy, I know) and one dude pointed this out when it came to NY's plate:

"Ok, not going to lie, I get mildly intimidated when I see these"

LOL I do too.

[badrunner]

First time in Texas, I was stopped at a light, and in all three lanes in front of me were pickup trucks with trucknutz, all lined up in a row. I had to pull over from laughing so hard.

[iheartthed]

On my first trip to Brazil years ago, I was a little nervous about the safety aspect because I'd heard so many stories about violent robberies. I did get robbed, but it was by a friendly hooker who struck up a conversation with me in a train station. She pickpocketed me while telling me her life story, but she was nice enough to only take my cash, and left my credit card behind.

[Razor]

Originally Posted by pj3000

First time I visited New York (Manhattan) - 1983 or 84 maybe

Was with my dad and my uncle and cousin (they lived on the UWS). It was Thanksgiving weekend. We were in the Park and going to go a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden that evening. It was a really nice, warm for late November day, so my uncle wanted to walk from Central Park to MSG. It was getting dark and he took us down 7th Ave right thru the heart Times Square... in the early '80s... titty bars, peep shows, video game arcades, street vendors everywhere, hookers, homeless, pimp-looking dudes, guys selling watches from inside their jackets, the whole stereotypical scene you see in movies from that era. As a 9-10 year old kid, it was totally awesome.

As we're walking on the sidewalk, we hear all this commotion just up ahead of us and within seconds this tall transvestite dude comes barreling through and crashes into my cousin and me and all three of us go down on the ground. I remember being totally stunned and looking up and seeing this classic looking NYC cabbie (who we came to realize was chasing him for stiffing him on the fare) all of a sudden and he's yelling you mother-f-er this and you f-ing fag*** that at the tranny and grabbing him. They're scuffling and my dad and uncle are pulling us out of the way, and next thing there's a cop there and he's grabbing the cabbie and the tranny (who's wearing a little black miniskirt). It's all chaotic with all the yelling and struggling, and of course, the skirt comes up and we get the full view of the tranny's cock & balls as he's screaming and laughing, likely really high and drunk.

The images are indelibly etched into my mind. We got to the Italian restaurant that we were going to pre-game, and I remember my dad being mad at my uncle for taking us that way, but that's just how my uncle is (always does what most people wouldn't do), and I'm forever grateful he did take us that way. Times Square in that era for a 10 year old was pretty amazing.

Love this one and totally captures what I imagine 80's NYC to be like!

[MolsonExport]

30 seconds after parking my car in the parkade downtown, after driving to Seattle from Vancouver (for my first visit to the city...summer 1995), I rounded the corner, and right there in front of me were two black guys face down lying on the sidewalk, each with a cop kneeling on their back, with guns drawn and pointed right at the back of their skulls.

Three years ago, walking through the Tenderloin in San Francisco (my hotel was on Geary right next to this infamous district), I saw two people squatting naked in the street, simultaneously pinching a loaf. I think I was the only person in the vicinity that thought this was out of the ordinary.

My first exposure to NYC in 1985 was...interesting. We parked the car somewhere near the Manhattan outlet of the Lincoln tunnel (we were staying over in Jersey). Walked towards Times Square. Hundreds of people were sleeping on the sidewalk. Every theater in Times Square was showing pornographic films. Transvestites and other hookers were openly plying their trade without any precautions. It was just like "Taxi Driver" (Scorsese 1976 film).

[Razor]

^ NYC certainly has changed..I was there only one weekend maybe 12 years ago, and hardly a homeless person, Trannie or hooker in sight in and around Times Square..It was busy for sure, but none of that stuff that NYC used to be known for..I kind of wish that we would of seen at least a little bit of the "crazy". An angry cab driver kicking out a fare even. Throw us a bone!

NYC with Trannies, hookers,CBGB's, Studio 54, The Ramones, New York Dolls, Deborah Harry are past local cultural references that I romanticize NYC to be. We did however get to experience Canal street and all the brand name knock offs being pedaled..That's a wee bit of NYC I suppose. The people taking a dump is San Fran is hilarious and soo in keeping with San Fran in my mind's eye.

[bossabreezes]

First time in San Francisco while walking down Market Street, I saw a homeless guy slumped over himself with a needle dangling out of his arm.

That same day I was walking from Nob Hill down Hyde and saw a backpack in the middle of the sidewalk, open, with dozens of needles falling out of the opening -accompanied by half eaten sandwich.

A couple minutes after, I saw a bunch of people nodding off in a van parked on the street.

Definitely eye-opening and what I'd heard about in regards to SF.

[dc_denizen]

Originally Posted by mhays

The Port Authority Bus Terminal in 1987 was certainly a stereotypical version of New York, which was less glamorous than today's version by far.

Same for jfk airport in 1988 for me

[Maldive]

Shortly after arriving for my first visit to India with my Delhi-born/Toronto-raised wife, we took an Indian Airlines flight from Mumbai to Calcutta. We were seated across the aisle from Ravi Shankar... well of course I thought (it's in the travel guide right?).

Bonus round was we had just seen him a week earlier in concert at Roy Thomson Hall. He was charming and gracious to chat with.

[dubu]

i showed up in sf in the middle of the night and i was walking passed a lot of homeless people sleeping in sleeping bags on the sidewalk. also there was a few people hanging out sitting on the sidewalk outside a club. everyone was using the sidewalk as there home, i was the only one walking around. it makes sense because its warm there so why not make the sidwalk a sidelay.

[muppet]

As a Brit I'm embarassed to say sometimes yes, I have met the Queen. I used to sell tickets to her properties, even went to tea with her in the palace (with 500 other people), and lavish Xmas parties in the thousand room castle, slapped in my home town. She opened my new school wing, our church extension, the local hospice, the local Xmas lights every year, involving tinsel around lamp posts, would see her driving her car down the street on Sundays (if you knew when and where to look), shook her hand about 5x. If you paved your back yard she'd be standing there bleary eyed with a pair of gold scissors. The princes would be in the local nightclubs and ex-strip joints like a rash.

As a polite reminder, there are near 70 million people in the UK, hardly anyone's ever even seen the Queen or her family. It's a bit like the chances of the population of the American West having met say Tom Hanks, since he lives in LA.




She is btw tiny, and has quite a sharp, modern sense of humour. The tabloids once caught a pic of her using the gold scissors as a slow, psycho style reenactment during a boring ceremony. She was at the time staring at the Pope. Can't find the pic, but somewhere, it's out there.

[Proof Sheet]

Originally Posted by Razor

Finally, and again in upstate New York, we got pulled over for speeding and the county mounty/State trooper of course was donning mirror glasses and a thick mustache. he was matter of fact, yet friendly though.

Both the QPP and the State Trooper could of played roles in a movie looking for that part.

Was the state trooper wearing a police shirt with a tie and they were the same colour so that the tie was basically indistinguishable from the shirt. That seems to be a common trait with US police forces.

[MattBerryOfficial]

First time in the US I was amazed at the portion sizes, and the number of overweight people. Canada has a decent number as well but nothing compared to the US.

First time in Paris I met alot of assholes. But I would also get tired of tourists if millions visited my city every year.