The self importance and entitlement I see around me is upsetting. No good will come of this kind of thinking.

I am so sorry you were trampled by such nasty people. I hope your feet are not terribly bruised.

So rude! I would have said something. "Excuse me, but I'd like to see as well." I'm not tall so sometimes people take pity. We've noticed this type of behaviour in school shows. People would take out their iPads to film their kids and start moving it around above their head to get the best angle. ETA: In those instances, I did not speak up because these were parents whose paths we might cross again, etc. I think I'd have the courage to speak up if surrounded by total strangers.

Thank you for the responses.i was not really concerned about missing the event as I was about how people act and how they likely teach their kids the same things. It was appalling!

Thank you, Zalco....my feet are fine. :) My disposition was beginning to suffer!

DH and I were amused by the guy trying to step up beside me until he had the gall to actually do it.

Ida, I fully understand what you are saying! There have been incidents of people falling or of people being mauled by animals while trying to get the " coolest picture". Ridiculous!

I won't even comment on the selfie sticks. DH and I commented that you have to watch out for all of the buses, the bikes, and the selfie sticks.

It’s the Instagram effect...everybody has to be able to post the most amazing photos. It’s annoying when people are so self-important but it’s insane when they take chances with their lives to get those pics. I’ve got no problem being politely assertive if I’m being pushed out of my spot...but polite is the operative term, even though they’re being extremely rude.

I remember though when my friend and I were in Paris in 2001 people do not say excuse me (or excusez-moi if you want to be correct) if they bump into you anywhere. They just don't. It's a different norm there.

Fortunately, when I was in China recently it was December, and it wasn't packed with tourists like it is in the summer months.

When I was in Yellowstone we absolutely could not shake a bus load of foreign tourists. No matter where we went, there they were. They wanted the perfect insta picture and did not care if they put your eye out with their selfie stick. All the young women had to do something cute, like put their finger on their chin while bending one leg at the knee. I do believe their personal space is smaller than the average Americans and they had no problem with squishing up against you. They’d swarm in, snap their pics and swarm out. I swear they never looked at the beauty of anything.

Sorry you got swarmed, too.

We were is the Canadian Rockies two summers ago, and stopped along the road to watch a black bear happily stripping a berry bush only 25 feet away. We remained in our vehicle...and watched in awe, along with 3 other cars. The 5th car to arrive quickly emptied - folks with their cameras...and then encouraged their 3-year old daughter to get closer so they could get a picture of her and the bear. (Yes, they really did.) Fortunately a young man from another vehicle jumped out and grabbed her before she slipped down the short embankment that separated her from the bear.

Most of us who travel see this behavior more often than we'd like.

Sigh...

We also had a classic Grapefruit1 moment at the Louvre. Why, in the name of "taking turns" do you have to elbow my 10-year-old in the head, and then proceed to take 104 of the very same pictures of the Mona Lisa with your phone...and then your i-pad? What on Earth do you plan to do with those photos?! Ugh!

Oh, Lord!! Who would encourage their child to get near a bear?? What has happened to us?

DH and I entertained ourselves with speculation about how the pictures are dealt with. Voting to see which ones should be posted? Cropping parties? Flashing them on a big screen for the entire neighborhood to enjoy?

@gsciencechick -- I have to disagree with you, unless you are talking about tourists failing to say excuse me. I lived in Paris for several years, during the time you were there, and French people absolutely say "pardon" when they bump into you. Of course, like anyone they get impatient with hordes of tourists, so if you stood out as one, they may not have been quite so polite!

JM, thanks for jogging my memory, but now that you mention it, some people did say "Pardon" after all. I did have a few people come up to me speaking French, so some people thought I passed! Definitely didn't want to stand out as an American as this was after 9/11 and the shoe bomb guy.

I still think it's more of an American thing that people get hung up on.

J M - I would have to respectfully disagree with you. While I didn't live in France, we were in Lyon and Clermont-Ferrand for nearly a month. I can count on 1 finger the number of times someone said, "excusez-moi." I said it several times, and when someone said it to me first, I nearly fell over. (I'm not really sure if it was a tourist or native that said it, either.)

Although, I've heard that Paris is different from the rest of the country. I always heard that the French were rude, and I didn't believe it. After being there for a month, I was convinced otherwise. It's their culture.

Completely agree with boernegal that this is the "Instagram effect". Instead of people going to destinations to enjoy the destination, they spend all of their energy trying to capture the perfect image. There is little or no consideration for anyone around them because they don't care how others' experience might be impacted.

pudgeder -- In my 3.5 years of living there, I had exactly one encounter with someone I considered rude by any standards, French or US. Some were very direct, some were exasperating, but I did not find them rude. Your impression after a month clearly differs.

Back to the topic of the thread, I too have found that people are more interested in getting their perfect photos than in enjoying the moment or caring what others are doing. I used to be the official photographer for a high school program and nearly every parent would step right in front of my camera while taking posed and group shots -- so frustrating.

I breezed by the comments to suggest you eat at Dishoom for fantastic Indian food. We went twice the week we were there. Multiple locations...yummy food!

http://www.dishoom.com

Oh, I so agree with the ‘Instagram effect’ and rude tourist behavior. It is most definitely not confined to American tourists either. About 6 weeks ago we drove up to New York and Canada to spend a few days at Niagara Falls. I can’t tell you how many photos I had to retake because someone stuck a selfie stick into the frame of one of my photos.

I truly tried to be patient and wait my turn. Once there apparently was a bus load or two of Asian tourists that overtook one photo spot. They were the worst ever. Sorry if this offends but we ran into this a couple of times, not just at Niagara but on a trip out west a couple of years ago on a National Park trail which was fairly dangerous at its peak. I now understand why there are deaths from people falling off cliffs for photos. At Niagara Falls, we just waited until they left and then returned to take some photos.

I can say, with some certainty,,
If you visit a popular tourist location anywhere in the developed world,
Or in a prime site in a less developed world,
You will run into rude tourists with blinders on:
Focusing solely on their experience,
Their picture
Their Instagram

Etc. Country of origin might not be able to be generalized, but devolved human behavior can. Sorry that disrupted your experience; hope your trip was good otherwise.

Did you all see this on the news last year? Shameful. Thankfully these tourists were outed in such a magnificent way!

Artist shames disrespectful Holocaust tourists

This made me LOL, at the bottom of the article it says if you want to be removed from the site, to contact the artist at undouche.me@yolocuast. Loveit!

The only time I think a tourist selfie is good is when you're on the Great Wall of China, or something similar.

1929 Spanish, thank you for that recommendation! Unfortunately it is wasted on me because I am not a foodie, at all. It never occurs to me to try new foods. I eat bland foods, mostly fruits and veggies.

I am hopeful that others can enjoy your suggestion. It looks like an interesting place.

Oakley - thanks for sharing. I had not seen that. What a great idea, those people are so gross!!!

Well, I've come to the conclusion that I'm invisible. ;)

It's the only way that I can rationalize people taller than me, (when we're all clearly wanting to see the same thing) moving up and standing 2 inches in front of me. Because, yes. the highlight of my holiday consists of evaluating the per-square-inch thread count of the back of your shirt.

Also standing in line to be waited on....having the salesperson call on the person behind me and not me.