I just heard some spoken prejudice on "how Assyrians are". Then, I went on a walk and read the following from Sarah Bakewell's book on Michel de Montaigne, which refers to a European trip that he was on from 1580 to 1581:

He blushed to see other Frenchmen overcome with joy whenever they met a compatriot abroad. The would fall on each other, cluster in a raucous group, and pass whole evenings complaining about the barbarity of the locals. These were the few who actually noticed that locals did things differently. Others managed to travel so 'covered and wrapped in a taciturn and incommunicative prudence, defending themselves from the contagion of an unknown atmosphere' that they noticed nothing at all.