IMO it's not rudeness at all just a good example of how egocentric they can be sometimes.

I'm sure their will be someone along to flame for that but please remember it's just an OPINION based on my personal observations over 20 years.

Spending very limited time in very busy areas, I can't say I've ever found it much of a problem and certainly not in the smaller villages around me.

However what does occasionally aggravate me are aisle hoggers in supermarkets, especially those with limited space.
Usually ladies, the moment they recognise someone to chat with, then nobody else and nothing else in the World seems to exist.
Doesn't matter that their trolleys are standing broadside across the aisle ot they are standing two or three abreast completely blocking the aisle themselves, they are totally oblivious to anything else in the World outside their conversation.

The fact that Spaniards are rated the Worlds number one chatter boxes probably doesn't help any.
Once again I wouldn't call it deliberate rudeness, but more a case of thoughtlessness or possibly lack of consideration, IMHO anyway.

Women with baby bugggies the size of cars is a far bigger problem in the UK!

I've noticed in the villages around us which mostly have narrow roads, enough room to pass with care, the Spanish will not give an inch when driving. They leave it up to you to drive into the road edge, be that grass, gravel or a concrete gutter. The crown of the road may be marked with a white line, but they insist on driving with their wheels over it and into your side, its your problem not theirs!

There is one village near here with a single track road through the middle with priority signs. You may have priority and go through, but that doesn't stop the Spanish entering the other end! Then even though you have priority they will not budge, you have to reverse back and give way to them! I've even been there when two Spaniards have gotten out of their respective cars and begun a pushing/ screaming match. After 10 minutes I reversed out, the only way that was going to be resolved was with guardia assistance!

Think about it.
The main problem stems from the fact that Brits drive on the left and the rest of Europe drives on the right. Even though it may not be a conscious decision most Brits will also take up the left side of the pavement when walking & most other Europeans the right.
Although you will still get the Spaniards who insist on walking diagonally across your path whichever side you are on.

From a Highway Code, Pedestrian section.

Where possible avoid being next to the kerb with your back to the traffic.

Also common sense.

Just an observation, and perhaps someone from Italy can confirm or deny, but I have noticed that Italians seem to like to drive ON the white line. Literally, right down the middle of the road. OK, yes, they pull into their lane for oncoming traffic, but when there's no oncoming traffic, they seem to drive right down the middle.

Another one I haven't quite figured out is drivers in Egypt. They drive without lights at night. What can be the possible motivation for that?

Could depend on which part of Italy and if the road is a "normal" road but yes, on narrower roads I've seen lots of Italians drive down the middle. They are generally very selfish drivers and like an earlier poster said, they'll make you drive onto gravel or grass or reverse even if they have more space. They're also bleeding hopeless with indicators, roundabouts and parking and nobody stops at zebra crossings.

That reminds me of an incident in Zafra many years ago.

We had gotten used to the fact that in Andalucia drivers would rather run you down than stop at a pedestrian crossing.

Then in Zafra we were walking around a road junction with no intention of crossing the road but as we progressed there was a pedestrian crossing about 10 meters in front of us when all the traffic stopped.

We looked at each other and decided as the drivers were so polite we would cross over to save any embarrassment

Good point. When I walk around busy parts of Madrid I find that by veering to the right you avoid the vast amount of collisions. Unless of course you're up against someone glued to their smart phones. I find it far harder walking down busy streets in London eg Oxford Street or Edgware road, possibly because people are from all over so there is no preference to veer left or right.

On stairways I use whichever side is most convenient, especially if there is a handrail available on one side only.
During one of my early stays in a hotel in Yugoslavia I was going downstairs and came face to face with a somewhat enraged German guy who wanted to know what I was doing on what he considered the wrong side.
Suffice to say, I just shrugged by shoulders and let him walk around me.

Well, I'm not a "lefty" anymore. Moving on "right" feels perfectly natural to me now. But awkward encounters and collisions still persist.

I actually stopped at a zebra crossing in Yecla, to allow a woman with a childs pushchair to cross. She got level with the edge of my bonnet at the centre of the road, when the car behind decided she didn't want to wait. She pulled out to overtake me and hit the pushchair turning it over. She reversed around it and drove off!

I waited for the police, fortunately the womans child wasn't injured, but the cop waved me off with a shoulder shrug as though it happens all the time.

Its the same in Wales, the Welsh love to chat and block off pavements and supermarket isles lol...its no big deal.

Hey Barclay_80, I am so relieved this is not me going off my trolley! I just went to throw out my cats litter(shall we say!lol) and a couple were walking towards me who could quite clearly see A.I was there and B.I had a bag of offending cat poo plus another elderly guy decides to cross the road to where I'm walking(so all three of them heading straight towards me and all I want to do is get to that bin a few metres in front of me and chuck the bag away) but of course the woman didn't budge and walked into me and there was no where for me to go unless I want to walk into the road,onto the other pavement and back again or evolve and learn to fly.

She walked into me and asked away rubbing her arm.This happened a lot to me yesterday with a shedload of space to move around and so definitely no excuses there.Just plain ignorance and an attitude of 'I want to go over here and I don't care if you're in my way.'

This use to happen in Terrassa as well and it definitely wasn't a case of cultural differences as one of my Spanish workmates said that she found the people there incredibly rude and had experienced the very same thing.

By the way i'm living in Almeria,Andalusia and the funny thing is I don't remember this happening in Bailen,Jaen and that was a teeny town.I've lived in Spain since 2010 and this is the one thing that really,really winds me up.

My boyfriend,who's Spanish just goes with the flow unless it's outright rude and i'm sure he would have said something if he'd been with me earlier but it makes my blood boil and I know it shouldn't but if the person's not frail or severely impaired in some way why the frig can they not use common sense even, let alone manners, and move just a teeny bit! And i've got Spanish heritage as well but I don't remember my Grandad being this rude. Even when living in London I never came across blatant rudeness like this and lack of spacial awareness.Looks like i've got to do what you do and stand there and hope they don't trample me underfoot or make my trips longer and zig zag around people! lol

I'd be interested to know how you're getting on these days and if you've found a way of getting your head around it?