I'm American and I used to love traveling to Europe. But now I dread it.

So I took a trip through Spain and Italy with my wife recently. I've done several trips like this one before and have enjoyed them a great deal. But this trip felt different, mostly in part due to the amount of Americans I encountered. We were in larger cities for most of the trip, so of course I was expecting to see other Americans. But there was just something about this trip that felt different. I guess it felt like I wasn't in Europe, but was at some place that catered specifically to Americans. <br><br>Every restaurant had English menus. Every person in customer service spoke English. I spoke to one lady who worked at a store and she had lived in New York for ~20 years but moved back to Italy. Every restaurant near a popular spot had an American menu - burgers, French fries, milkshakes, chicken tenders, etc. You see a lot of Americans and hear English being spoken a lot when out and about. A lot of the cities just felt totally commercialized. We went to the Gucci and Louis Vuitton stores in Florence, and they were super busy with Americans. It felt like we were at an outlet mall back in the U.S. <br><br>I had a realization when we were eating at a McDonald's in Barcelona (I know, not very exotic). We were sitting in there, and azzhole Americans were walking in and out. There was this one guy who came in, and you could tell he was American by the way he was dressed. He walked in, and he was obviously an American who had lived in Barcelona for a long time because he spoke perfect Catalan. He ordered his food in Catalan and they gave him his food. He walked up to the elevator and rode it up one floor. Then, when the doors opened, he yelled "FUCK!" at the top of his lungs. I thought he had just hurt himself or something, but no. Then he walked out. Why do Americans have to be seen as dumbass, impolite fucks?<br><br>I saw another post in this sub of some dumb Americans yelling at condo owners for speaking to them in French when they paid a visit to see the building. There was another story about some Americans who got into a physical confrontation with someone for speaking to them in French. When I was walking around Spain/Italy, you'd see a sign or a pamphlet in a local language (like Catalan/Italian/Spanish), followed by a t and then an English translation. Every sign in airports, bus stations, museums, historical sites, etc. was translated into English, along with other languages. I honestly cannot understand going to a foreign country and expecting everyone to speak English. The people at the airport spoke English. The people at the bus station spoke English. It angers me to see stories of ignorant Americans who go to a country and expect everyone to speak English. I think this is why so many people around the world despise Americans. We are seen as rude, imperialistic, self-absorbed, and uneducated. <br><br>Americans have this attitude that we can go wherever we want in the world and expect everyone to cater to us. That's why everywhere in the world now caters specifically to Americans. All of our recent vacations abroad have felt more like home than they've felt like a different country. I don't really want to travel anymore because of this.