Eurotrash

Time was when Americans were presented as the world's worst travellers. Loud, boastful, culturally unprepared, they brandished cash in fist throughout the capitals of Europe, shocking and revolting the citizens of a dozen different nations. Now the tables are turned to some extent, and European travellers are visiting the US in ever greater numbers. And, strange to say, much the same stories are being heard again, only this time about Europeans. They too in their turn are being described as rude, unsophisticated, culturally inept, even as oafs, bumpkins, and parvenus. In fact Americans have even invented a word to describe these travellers—"Eurotrash," they call them.