What colour was your highlight? 
all of them i hope
YMMV, I guess, but in my personal experience most people that I’m interacting with when traveling in Europe speak better English than most Americans and have no problem whatsoever identifying an American accent, so if I’m nonspecific in the answer to “where are you from” the follow-up will be something like “yeah, obviously you’re American. But what part?” So my go-to answer is “Southern California” because the vast majority of people have some idea of where (or at least what) that is no matter where they’re from.
But that’s not as true outside of Europe. When I was working in rural Korea I was frequently mistaken for a Russian.
I’m an American that hates ice in my drinks. I get ice at home, I fight ice abroad because “I’m American”
This did make me chuckle.
It’s so damn hot in Europe and the UK that it’s near impossible to make ice, which is why, at the last meeting of the ECHR, we’ve decided to move the whole continent nearer the pole.
(This is tongue-in-cheek, Robert, no offence).
I do like ice in my drinks, but at least it’s gotta be cold water. Also from reading online Europeans seem to have a vendetta against regular water, god forbid you ask for it at a restaurant and not sparkling or mineral water. I find that to be needlessly pretentious, if that pegs me as an American then so be it. Give me the water tho.
Shoot, we practically invented the War on Ice with these giant SUVs and whatnot! We’ve had those glaciers and ice caps on the run for decades now!
That’s one thing that always irked me when I’d travel in Europe. Aside from the additional cost of having to order bottled water (whether sparkling or flat) at every meal, it always just seemed so dang wasteful to crack open a disposable bottle every time I got thirsty even though most European cities have perfectly safe municipal water supplies.
At least most of these aren’t particularly abrasive.
I don’t know about other countries but we used to visit Florida a lot to be with some very good friends that were about 20 years older than us.
They never went to the beach with us because that was for tourists.
What we learned early on is Florida people can tell Michigan people easily.
We’re at the beach when the temperature hits 60 and in the water anything over 70.
Florida residents have on coats and hats.
I went out for an early morning run once when it was 50 degrees, t-shirt and shorts, I passed a couple other runners swearing a ski cap and gloves.
@MrShiv, I’m a 60 year old guy, it’s October 7th in Michigan, I’m still wearing shorts. I see people of all ages wearing shorts.
Wear what you want.
Sounds like when i lived in Reno. You could tell who the locals were because even if it was winter there was a pretty good chance you’d see someone walking around casually in flipflops, shorts and t-shirt.
The lighter bits were silver, the rest black.
A dear friend called me Skunk Lady until my next coiffure, which amused TF outta me 
I once shot a man in Reno, just for wearing flip-flops.
It might depend on the area. Where I live, we get lovely soft water from the Welsh valleys; though that doesn’t spot people trying to sell us bottled water.
I did all of my school, except kindergarten and 1 year of middle school, in the Carolinas, but I did live in Italy for 12 years before moving to the UK. I think learning Italian by ear changed the way I speak, so most people think I’m Canadian, or Swedish and so on, even though most Americans can identify me as a southerner.
People everywhere have had the same reaction when I (a woman of smol stature) tell them I’m a Detroiter. They look varying degrees of shocked, then involuntarily take a step or two backward - like they’re dodging a big fist I’ve just swung at them - then they recover and retake their former position with a little confusion along with the shock. A "How did I get here?" sort of thing.
Well, not quite invariably: one Jamaican chap about as small as I am actually jumped and hid behind his 6.5ft+ friend, who just stood there and grinnnnned.
He did it again when I admitted, after he’d asked me, “No, I don’t have a gun…I have three.” His buddy laughed like a drain XD I told the short guy, “No, mon, yu na haffi small yuself up behin’ him. Mi a-leave dem gun dem a home. Mi na bring 'em wid mi - mi na need no gun here, pon yu beautiful island!”
The tall guy smiiiled, and Shorty came back out from behind him, making a big show of his relief b/c my reassurances. The tall fellow made further enquiries, and thought it was really cool that I have my grandpa’s hunting rifle.
“Respect.” and a knuckles bump.
Well, at home in the summer I’m partial to mid-length wrap skirts for comfort, but I don’t wear them out unless it’s a very special occasion.
The question was about what (not) to wear in public, as a tourist / foreigner, considering both custom and comfort. I’ll probably end up with both shorts and long pants in the old kit bag.
A former fake friend of mine of mine visited Turkey, and made the mistake of wearing slightly-above-the-knee shorts in public. Men were yelling at her, making lascivious gestures; some acted like they were going to throw things at her, some feigned grabbing her.
She never cared much for learning things, and it evidently never occurred to her to do any research re: the country she would visit.
There are, of course, few visual clues/cues offered to female tourists by the Turks who are out and about: they’re all men. There might be a grandma or two who’s gone marketing, but they’re hurrying home in their floor-length black gowns and scarves, and may not even be seen.
She did not enjoy her week and a half-long Turkish trip, and told me and mom that Turkish condoms are unreliable.
I did say she didn’t like learning things, right? She certainly hadn’t learned that it’s a bad idea to fuck a stranger, least of all with a condom whose label one can’t read. She was much relieved when her period arrived, and even called to tell us.
She was married at the time, too.
Another dead giveaway for German tourist, is NOT carrying a water bottle, particularly when hiking the Grand Canyon wearing sandals.
