American married couple "deceived" by Midnight Sun (article)
 

American married couple "deceived" by Midnight Sun

As you can see it's in Danish - I tried to find it in English but I had no such luck. Allow me to translate:

An American married couple demand the travelling expenses to Norway refunded. They traveled all the way to Norway to experience the Norwegian midnight sun but feel deceived.

"We got the impression that Norway had another sun than we do in USA. This is sheer swindle", rages the couple.

The guide on the ride tried to explain to the american couple that the special thing about the midnight sun is that it shines during the night. But the disappointed couple wouldn't accept that explanation.

"We've been had. We didn't travel to Norway to look at our own sun", they critically stated.

One must hope that the well-informed couple had a nice trip to Norway dispite eveything. Even though the sun was the same as the one that shines in USA - and the rest of the globe.

-original source www.boarding.no

erhh... they do teach you such basic things like there's only one sun in grammar school right?

God Bless America...

I think that has to be a dubious law suit, and it isnt a very well thought out one either. I dont know why someone would invite ridicule of themselves by making such a bogus claim... the only doubt I can think of is that the paper is making up, there is a lot of anti-American feeling in Europe, so they could have just invented it as a joke about American's.

*sigh*
They should also demand their money back from the school they attended...

I $u$pect I $ee why $omeone would do $omething $o $tupid....

I agee with you here too, for a lot of people it's great to laugh about "Stupid American Tourists"... so I could see this just being a made up story.

Have you ever visited Stupid Lawsuits??

some Americans just aren't too bright and that has nothing to do with us Europeans having "anti-American" feelings.

Shit, NOW you break it to me that it's the same sun! My tickets are already booked goddamnit!

maybe they don't teach you there's only one sun cos it's so fucking obvious ... i don't honestly remember ever being told that there's only one sun in so many words ...

this could be a great victory for ignorance over common sense

But you learn about the solar system...

well most of us do; apparently not everyone retains the information

(aside: hey, i'm gonna be in Auckland in 2 weeks)

Just remember folks, there are Europeans that are equally stupid, Canadians that are equally stupid and so on. Becarefull with your words of Americans can be so stupid, for it does offend some of us.

ROFL, thats just hillarious!

Well, just to flip this around, my wife's family is mostly Norwegian. Some of her relatives came to visit New York, and her dad asked "So, is there anything in particular you want to see here?"

"Well, certainly the Statue of Liberty, and perhaps this afternoon we could see the Grand Canyon?"

Not quite as dumb as "more than one sun" (and how could you tell the difference anyway?), but a sense of scale can be a big help.

aaah... good thing I knew this going to see the icelandic midnight sun...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...dnight_sun.jpg

Regardless of whether these people are (A.) really that stupid, or (B.) see visions of lots of kroner, they need to have their heads forcibly removed from their asses.

Err....this sounds like a very bad joke. I have a really hard time believing anybody could be that dumb. I'll be keeping an eye on Snopes to see if this pops up...

Wow, just wow. I really hope this is a joke, because that's just plain sad. :p

Agreed. Although, I can't say I'd be *too* surprised if it were real. Enough people can't even remember the order of the planets (there are 9, it's not that hard for God's sake) that not remembering that there is only one sun is not too different in my eyes.

Yes. But is just so much more funny when it's Americans that do this...

sadly, this could be it.

How this couple made it through life is a miracle isn't it?

yep they sound like the kind of people who go looking for a gas leak in a dark attic with a lighted match

Common sense isn't very common, I've come to realize...

Ok, two things to note (Unless the article denotes otherwise, as I can't read it):
1) This isn't a lawsuit. They want their money refunded, but they haven't filed suit over it, and if they do, a judge would verbally pound them in the ass.
2) They *can* file suit without the help of a lawyer, but the fact is, no lawyer would ever take this case (unless they can find Lionel Hutz).

I agree, they're fucking retarded, but so far they have not spread their nuttery to the American civil courts.

hmmmm... I wonder if their grandparents thought the world was flat.

reminds me of the story about the english lady who bought a television to take with her on a vacation to spain. when she got back, she tried to return the television, claiming that there must be something wrong with it because it only picked up spanish broadcasts while she was in spain.

dunno if this is apocryphal or not, but i like it anyway.

if I recall correctly one of the Nordic countries moved the Arctic Circle sign a few hundred KM south because the tourists thought it was too far and remote to get to the real place.

Reminds of another couple who don't know how to consumate, perhaps they're related? Someone posted an article about them a while back, but I can't find it...

Maybe they knew THIS solar system only has on star but thought that Norway was in a totally different solar system?

I used to work in the tourism industry in Victoria British Columbia, Canada which is near Seattle. The majority of tourists were from America. Every single day we would be asked:

Where are all the igloos?
Why isn't everybody speaking French?
Is this Monopoly money? (re: canadian money is colorful)
Where does the Queen live? ("British" Columbia)

People tend to leave their brains at home when they go on vacation. You only have to look at how some tourists dress when they are away.

I was thinking the same thing, wasn't that a german couple?

The article is funny but don't try to say it is an american thing. Realize that many of the worlds modern inventions were created in the USA (many from the NASA space program). Also realize that if the US education system was so bad then our colleges wouldn't be filled with exchange students.

Not just at home. My dad was in the Navy and was transfered to Canada to help them train to fly the F-18. I swear EVERYTIME one of those Canadians found out I was from Texas they'd ask one or all of the following:

1) So whats it like in the destert? (Hill country is very green and lots of trees.. no desert)
2) So did you ride a horse to school? (Yeah and we had shootouts at high-noon instead of fist fights)
3) Do you know any Injuns? (yeah I knew quite a few, my trucks injun would break down all the time so had to replace it)
4) Where's your sidearm? (left it on your mothers bed)


Yeah... it's not just tourists.

yea.... there are dumbasses everywhere

sigh... sad thing is i'm not that suprised. ever heard of the flat earth society or people who still believe in an egocentric universe?

This has to be a joke, but if not, these two should be tied to a large boulder and dropped into the Atlantic.

ooh its an american thing,

when other cultures say stupid stuff they normally did it on purpose, ie the usa fighter pilot just above, or they admit they were wrong and move on,

when americans do it, they completely think they are right and nothing will change their mind. i used to think the majority of americans were ok, but in the last few years i have come to realise that too high a portion are just plain uneducated.

sure the high caliber american universities are right up there. but the public school system seems to be pretty rotten. some states have even banned teaching evolution. i can accept they they might not believe it, but at least tell the kids and let them make up their own mind.

that sort of attitude is what is causing these stories, and as long as GWB has a chance of being re-elected, im going to have to say americans "as a mean", are most stupid people on earth

and another thing,

all those inventions that you thought were american:

powered human flight, wrong - It was a dude from Canterbury NZ
The light bulb - wrong - Edison just patented someone elses invention.
actually don't get me started on edison, ill have to save that for another thread

It's so great that hating the United States is the rest of the world's favorite pastime.

It's not just americans. Back when the internet was getting more and more normal for everyday people to use, a support center got a call from a guy, who wanted to complain. They had sold him a new computer with internet access, but had forgotten to include the Danish version of the internet!

oh oh oh! It's prejudice time! :)
Every country has it's own. Personally I'm dutch, so I must be cheap and annoying. And soon I will meet my American sweetheart, but she must be stupid and stubborn, right?

I think the problem lies in that too many people go somewhere and treat everything as if they own it... if you're a tourist, then you're a GUEST in the country and should treat everything with respect, in return you should be treated with kindness and generosity.

And guess what, if you act like you're a guest, 9 times out of 10, you actually WILL be treated with kindness and generosity. If you at least TRY to speak the countries language, most natives will look kind on you and help you. If you flat out refuse and try to talk to the natives like you talk to your fellows back home.... then I don't blame him for giving you directions to Timboktoe instead of the local tourists office.
Americans just have this more often because the majority have never been outside their own country.

The only exception to this is if you are a tourist in your own country, and even then it's always to good idea to respect and be humble.

My $0.02 anyway.

One thing is the Internet but the sun is quite another matter :)

Didn't take too long for this thread to go South. If this isn't just flamebait, you should realise you seem to be taking the attitude that most of the world resents America for (the "I'm better than you, you're stupid" view).

i think sargeman must be right, they must have thought Norway is in a different solar system ... maybe they did ok on astronomy but really badly on geography

i'm afraid that americans aren't any stupider than any other developed nation; i think we just get to hear about it more ... i wonder if they export the particularly stupid ones to get em out of the country for a while? ;)

i hear that what they do, but america isnt the only country to export the not so nice ones.

china seems to be doing the same. most of the chinese i meet are horrible rude prats, but according to my chinese g/f, the ones that stayed behind to study in chinese varsities are actually quite good. I wonder why they do that.

and i feel i must apologise for my last posts,
im just getting a little frustrated by the american exchange students living in my apartment building keeping me up all night, getting in my way and basically annoy me.

Ahhh.. American Exchange students.. I feel your pain... if all you do is judge off them, then no wonder you have a bad view of America in general. There are good Americans out there hehe.

The internet, The surest way to learn there are idiots everywhere in the world. Isn't modern technology wonderful? :D

That's some stupid shit. In Nova Scotia, my friends and I just asked where we could find the beer store (which, as I have been led to believe, is separate from the wine and liquor store.)

:lol:

I wonder if they morgaged their trailer for that trip......

Dude, they're jetlagged. Give them a couple weeks to get on track :)

I think the problem with stereo types is that people who travel abroad to study of visit forgets or disregards that there are different customs and traditions to the places that one visits. Hence they acts as if they would in their home country, which pisses off the locals, and then the resentment starts.

Growing up in Thailand, and going to an international school, I met tonnes of kids with whom I went to school with, what simply didn't know any better. That really pissed me off, and it still does. But I learnt very quickly when I went to the states for college, that everyone is at risk at making those mistakes when you first arrive. The difference is that I leant my lesson very quickly, and adapted to the way of life in the US , and people didn't see me as any different to themselves.

I ended up having a ball in college, and the friends I made there are true friends that you can't find anywhere else.

:thumbsup:

I'm pretty sure that it's either a fake news story to echo the sentiments toward Americans by most Europeans or a not-so-clever ploy by Americans to get money. Maybe I'm naive, but I know Americans are not <i>that</i> stupid. However, we are quite lawsuit-happy and always want to make a quick buck.

I thought the midnight sun was the moon.

Dont base an entire country on one person. My best friend in HS had a French foreign exchange student, he never said anything positive, only "it's hot". Mind you he ELECTED to go to Texas, and the dumbass only brought long pants and sweaters... in the summer. Then complained because everything here had too much meat (mind you he ordered a 24 oz. steak). Then complained that it's not fair that the driving age here is only 16. Then complained that gas here is too cheap and we should be paying the $5/gallon they are. Then complained that we dont play football here (tried to teach him American Football), and refused to play soccer cause it was too hot (who would have thought... texas... summer... in jeans/sweater). So we took him to Schliterbaughn (ranked #1 waterpark in the US) and he refused to go on the rides because they weren't on tracks and were dangerous. Seriously, it took me meeting dozens of Frenchies before I started not liking them.