Obligatory warning: this is yet another mini hypocritical rant of a tourist complaining of mass tourism.

So, yeah, going to Western Europe during the Summer some years ago pretty much made me rethink my destination choices. It was all annoyingly cramped with people doing souless photo snapping and lines and general rudeness from tourists. The main European tourist destinations seemed more like Disneyland than a place where you go to get to know culture/people/etc.

Locals even ratified my perception with the ammount of graffiti complaining about gentrification and touristing prices (Berlin), to that tired sigh when spotting yet another clueless tourist (Paris) to downright explicit tourist bashing, with huge "TOURISTS GO HOME" signs (Barcelona).

It is funny because lots of non-Europeans were scared immigrants would destroy Europe, however if there's people indeed destroying Europe, undoubtedly tourists are the ones destroying it faster. I am part of the problem and kinda learned my lesson? I ended up opting going to less touristy places. But then again, would that mean that I will be part of another problem, that is moving part of the mindless tourist wave from Paris to Lyon?