Realia :Complaints made by holidaymakers
- The beach was too sandy."
- "There were too many Spanish people. The receptionist spoke Spanish. The food was Spanish. Too many foreigners."
- "We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to bring our swimming costumes and towels."
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- "We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as yellow but it was white."
- "It's lazy of the local shopkeepers to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during 'siesta' time - this should be banned. "
"I was bitten by a mosquito - no-one said they could bite." -
- "I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local store does not sell proper* biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts."
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- "It is your duty as a tour operator to advise us of noisy or unruly* guests before we travel.
- "We had to queue outside with no air conditioning."
- "The brochure stated: 'No hairdressers at the accommodation'. We're trainee hairdressers."
"We booked a twin-bedded* room but we were placed in a double-bedded room. We now hold you responsible for the fact that I find myself pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked."
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- "I compared the size of our one-bedroom apartment to our friends' three-bedroom apartment and ours was significantly smaller."
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"No-one told us there would be fish in the sea. The children were startled*."
- "We bought 'Ray-Ban' sunglasses for five euros (£3.50) from a street trader, only to find out they were fake*."
- "Topless sunbathing on the beach should be banned. The holiday was utterly ruined as my husband spent all day looking at other women."
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Lastly,( for some reason the source only quoted part of the original words):A tourist at a top African game lodge* overlooking a waterhole, who spotted a visibly aroused* elephant, complained that the sight of this rampant beast ruined his honeymoon by making him feel "inadequate".-
- Vocabulary points.
Fake = false.
Notice that only "false" may be used for prosthetic, ie "false teeth",( that is dentures in formal English).
lodge is a sort of small hotel, here for "big Game", that is animals that can be hunted.
Historically, To (a)rouse ,(a) roused and raise raised were to to (a)rise (a)rose (a)risen
as to fell was to to fall,
and to lay was to to lie.
To have a sexual connotation, as here, "a" is necessary: "aroused".
Note the noun "arousal" (no "a"-less variant) derived from arouse/rouse
To startle = to surprise, almost to frighten, at least momentarily.
Unruly is very useful word that can also be employed in fairly formal contexts: it covers noisy, disobedient, riotous, badly behaved etc from quite mild transgressions right up to fullscale mob violence, from (subjectively)illdisciplined to utterly indisciplined . Perhaps the reason Spanish students seem to avoid using it is because it's the sort of word the British often used to use to describe Spanish queues at busstops - or foreigners in general. 
Proper. This word is often used in this way, so is very useful for complaints. Be careful though: improper is often used to indicate immorality.
- As black as pitch ->"pitch black" Don't confuse Pitch= tar with To pitch = to throw (esp in baseball)-> "sales pitch" ,the psychologicaltrick used to sell or convince/ or to pitch=put up a tent/ musical pitch -> a high-pitched voice, etc etc.Polysemy rules OK.
