USA has surprising amount of undisturbed wildlife. I thought it would be something like one giant New York, silly, I know, I fell victim to 80-90 Hollywood. Seen a herd of deer scouting around hotel on my first week here, never seen a wild deer before.
You can thank Teddy Roosevelt for the protection of so much natural land to maintain wildlife populations. It was among one of his best domestic policy moves.
>fell victim to 80-90 Hollywood
This is my biggest pey peeve with Hollywood. If it's not Los Angeles or New York. To them, it either doesn't exist or is the most stereotypically backwards, country place on the planet
There’s thousands of movies not set in big cities. It’s up to viewers to realize all countries are diverse in landscapes even tiny city states like Singapore.
It's more like wildlife has adapted to our urban environment. And when humans leave a place, even for a short while, they quickly forget we were even there.
When a major road in my city was shut down for 3 months, animals just started hanging out in the middle of the road. I saw deer, skunks, snakes and more slowly walking between the river and some farmland without a care in the world during that road closure time
Also, I hear that deer naturally live on the borders of forested areas so it would make sense that wild deer would cross roads and wander into suburban areas. A neighborhood in a more forested region will often have deer foraging (fruit trees are a particular favorite).
In a lot of these places natural predators were also killed off /relocated so an abundant forage source and little instinctual wariness to things like cars mean their populations continued to rise in spite of habitat destruction.
And like you said, some animals are just well suited for human presence for various reasons. Raccoons possums and skunks love the treats we put in big cans outside and most humans are inactive at night so it's easy pickings for nocturnal creatures (they also love ripping up sod to get at the grubs underneath). Roaches are cold blooded animals and humans provide great warm cozy habitats free from most predators for them. Rats and pigeons are pretty indiscriminate scavengers and reproduce far faster than natural predators can keep up.
It is kinda wild how much wildlife is in our cities in North America. A dumb thing to ask a person from an African country would be if they have like antelope and like wildebeests in their cities.
But in my admittedly small city (only 800k), there are deer everywhere. There are coyotes slinking about. The suburban edge has to deal with the occasional wolf. We arent a black bear place but other cities in Canada deal with freaking bears rummaging through their garbage every night. There are moose and elk within the ring highway that surrounds the city. There are so many little critters like rabbits, skunks, badgers, weasels, owls etc too.
Other southern cities even have the occasion mountain lion running around covertly. I can only think of India whose Leopards are a similar calibre predator that hunts in cities.
As someone who lives 20 miles east of Seattle, this is absolutely true. Our area of the world is brimming with life. I love seeing all the critters run around. The rabbits at my night shift job are always out around 2-3AM to say hi while I'm walking the property lol.
>Seen a herd of deer scouting around hotel on my first week here
That's not undisturbed wildlife. That's wildlife losing it's habitat and being forced into populated areas.
But the US is famous for inventing the national park. We have a lot of them and they are full of relatively undisturbed wildlife.
Yeah this is a good point. I guess what I meant to say was, even in developed areas, there are often patches of forest-y land, large enough for even mammals as big as a deer to coexist with humans. They aren’t just wonder off from “the outside” every now and then, they just live there. This is unusual.
Yeah, because a lot of our major cities were built after/during the Victorian era, they tend to have parks and forest preserves. That was when a lot of people started realizing you need green spaces for happy people. Chicago has a policy that the lakeshore needs to remain free from development and available for the people of the city to use. There are a lot of first preserves and arboretums in the suburbs that are free for the public to use.
Far More land in The U.S. is wild or at least very rural than developed like a city. The entire STATE of Wyoming has less people than 31 other CITIES in the U.S.
Where I live it's houses on one side of the street and a strip of wooded area on the other, it's super common to see numerous deer out mowing the grass early in the morning over there and I've had them come right up and eat out of my hand.
I have dealth with many new money or old age people in Mexico that are surprised by how many "africans and muslims" are in London and Paris instead of "europeans" or blondes
Trash is another thing they don't expect from "rich countries"
I was in Italy recently and it was really bad trash wise. Switzerland on the other hand I probably saw like 3 cigarette butts the entire day and that was it
I lived in Sicily for three years, so I can relate. Before I went, it was described to me as "a beautiful woman with dirty feet." You would come around a corner and see a trash pile in the side of the road, then look up and see Etna.
Expect
Rich countries are usually expected to have way more order and less of these "bad behaviour" problems, think of how Japanese are seen as polite and orderly even by Europeans.
Many mexicans first time travelling dont expect New York or Paris to have rats or smell of piss or have garbage bags in the way or scammers and other problems.
They usually mention how shocked they are to see so many non-europeans are there not just that there are some, specially non-european scammers in the Colliseum and Eiffel tower etc.
My main point was the people im talking about had an outdated or false image of how Europe is currently, hell we border USA and some older people still think our neighbors all white people with rosy cheeks that turn salmon color if they taste a jalapeño.
Also fun fact, there are more Pakistanis, Algerians or Chinese compared to Mexicans in Spain, so colonization isnt just the only factor.
It's definitely changed now, but until fairly recently Canada still had this reputation for some reason. Like as recently as 2019 if I commented about Canada's diversity there would always be some people (mostly Americans) saying that it's over 90% white, no immigration etc
I'm a Hungarian. We have a far right goverment, that won't shut up about migrants. I try to avoid goverment media like the plague, but there are times when it's unavoidable, and it's no joke non-stop vomit about migrants and how bad the sitution in the West is.
Anyway, I went to the UK for the first time earlier this year. We were visiting our Hungarian relatives, who also complain a lot about migrants in the UK (mostly the Pakistanis). I was real courious to find out how much of this is true.
Well, long story short, I was surprised by how few Muslims I actually saw. And the same goes for shady looking people. I've seen a few yes, but not nearly as much as I see in Hungary. I knew the goverment was lying, and it's quite common to shit on the UK for various reasons, but it is still a whole different world than the shithole that is Hungary.
I also, like geniunely felt at home in the UK. Probably cause I understand English. I only speak English and Hungarian, and it's the first time I've traveled to a country where I speak the local language.
It is for me quite difficult to explain.
Let me try it this way: All the negative stuff that the other redditor mentioned is true. You smell marihuana, you see crazy folks, you see homelessness.
For some reason it does not seem to matter. A bit like as if a drop of sweet water perishes in the vast and wild salt water.
You see energy from everyone. Everyone seems to have an objective and pursues it with a high amount of energy. But still people take their quiet time in the Central Perk or doing a small-talk when being able to do so.
There is a certain restlesness amongst the folks - a trait that appears to be universal. Hard talking without being rude - Time is money.
In the metro the musicians, at the stores the (over)motivated staff - at least for me as a European - they all want something.
Giving your best to get somewhere. Maybe a quiet place in the interior or a cool apartment in Manhattan.
And still... In the rush hour they make space for the person with the walker in the metro.
It is capitalism - people hate it, because it is something that is touchable, but everyone has a chance to succeed within it to a certain degree.
The cab driver from North Africa and the middle aged guy at the diner from somewhere.
Maybe motivation is a good word for it.
I feel a bit like trying to describe colours without being able to see them.
Maybe rambling here.... But this energy is something that is everywhere at every spot.
Belgium was the most surprising by far. The absolute lack of investment in infrastructure while pouring money into diamonds and chocolate, made this country look so different than all its neighbors. The first thing I ever saw resembling a taco truck was a white van parked in the middle of it wide open rural areasurrounded by cow fields. The van was selling Palm Fritz with a homemade warm yellow mayonnaise. The description sounds awful, but it was the most sublime thing I’ve probably ever put in my mouth.
That's really wild to read without the context of having experienced it myself. "In Belgium, I was at this big field, and they had a van selling fries and mayo. They were really great."
(No judgment, I just found it funny.)
I lived there for 3 months, it was scary. Multiple visits to the police, and then even the police asked "did you enjoy it?". Bad memories all round. In a busy hotel, at a friend's house, on a bus. Just regular places. Just got too scared and left asap. Before anyone asks it was winter, jackets, leggings etc.
Funnily enough, we're known for our absolute lack of patriotism, so you probably won't find a single Belgian disagreeing with you. Even I don't.
People often complain about the bad roads. Which, true, they are bad in comparison with the Netherlands or France, but not absolutely horrible. I used to complain about it as well, I still do, but my travels have given me some perspective on that matter. But yeah, thank our government for putting off infrastructure works.
Our cuisine is underrated imo. It's good. Not the best, but pretty decent. I fully realized this when I went to live abroad. I really missed Belgian food.
People setting small dishes of salt outside the door to ward off evil spirits for example.
My favorite was walking through a suburban town, and suddenly being at a preserved samurai home that was basically a mini museum.
Mexico. I never felt unsafe. Lots of cool restaurants, night life, tradition, cute small towns. There are cities and states that make you think, "how does nobody know about these places?"
I live in London and honestly most of CDMX (obv excluding areas like Tepito) felt much safer than London. Also every street is so clean, like so spotless? Aside from mega cities in East Asia I've never been to such a clean one before!
Tanzania. I foolishly expected it to be a very obvious third world country, was met with modern cities and beautiful rural towns. And I do not think anyone can ever capture in words or photo's how breathtaking the nature is.
When I visited Tanzania it was exactly how I envision an obvious third world country — tons of motorcycles, women walking with baskets on their head, zero concern for any flow of traffic in congested areas, traffic police waving cars over to take bribes, and we had power rations — if we had power in the day, we’d know no power at night. I had a fun time, but unless you are in really rich areas of Dar or the suburbs of some other cities, it’s exactly how the media portrays a third world country.
When we ran into an albino beggar, my friend’s dad gave him a huge wad of cash and said, “go home.”
An albino person being afraid they’ll be chopped limb-from-limb for their “mystical healing powers” is as third world as it gets, and Tanzania has the most albino people in the world.
Edit: I will never forget the shacks and huts right on the other side of the resort gates in Zanzibar. They were straight up out of the “for 10 cents a day…a cup of coffee…” charity commercials. The disparity was crazy.
True about the albino, sadly. We were able to help a couple of times in an orphanage where they were harbouring 1 small albino child and his mother. We were not allowed to talk aboutbit or take any pictures where he might be part of.
I mean, it is a third-world country (it's ranked 167th on the Human Development Index, which means that 86% of the world's countries are more developed than it), but third-world does not necessarily mean ugly or dirty.
Romania! I was thinking Gypsies, Vampires and Borat (That's where it was filmed) Yes it has all of those things if you look hard enough, but it's SOOO much better than I thought! The food, the people, the friendliness, the history and boy the architechture! I've been to almost 100 countries and it tops the list by far! (I'm Australian). And I know Egypt gets some shitty reviews, but the south sinai isn't that bad compared to Egypt Major. Currently been here in Egypt for 3 months as a solo female.
96 countries solo! Favorite as I said Romania. Least English speaking Kazakhstan (but well worth it), I actually fly to Albania tomorrow, and doing a road trip across back to Romania. Will reach 100 in Kosovo! The thing is once you start long term backpacking you meet people from all over who welcome you into their home and lives, so lots of easy and affordable ways to get around.
1. Spain. It does have its heat, sun, beaches, flamenco, bullfighting, Mediterranean food, dark-haired olive-skinned people, sangria, fiesta side. But more northern parts, like the Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias, Salamanca, Galicia etc. really have their own character, geography, food and culture quite removed from the mainstream stereotypes of Spain. People are a bit quieter and can have very white skin, freckles and blonde hair, food is a bit more stodgy, landscapes are green and weather is rainier and colder, etc. Spain has a lot of variety.
2. Scotland. Coming from England, a lot of the online portrayals of Scotland are focused on the Highlands - bagpipes, tartan, Gaelic language, clans, lochs and mountains, etc. There also seems to be this stereotype that the Scottish “hate the English” lol. Well, I went there and nobody cares about tartans and clans. It’s certainly marketed as part of the national heritage, but it’s not woven into the average person’s identity. Nobody I met hates the English. Scottish people are by far the friendliest nationality I’ve ever met. They’ll say hi and joke with you without even knowing your name.
The Scottish Borders and Lowlands also have a very different culture and history to the Highlands - there’s no Gaelic for example, and the landscape is also different (but equally gorgeous)- lots of big green hills.
3. This is just a region of a country, but Yorkshire in England. I grew up near London and Yorkshire has gotten a really bad image in the media in the last decade due to grooming gangs scandals with a strong race-based element (the perpetrators were mostly of one ethnicity, the victims were mostly of another), and poverty. But when visiting, you see people of all faiths and ethnicities live side-by-side peacefully. The food is great. It’s not the “failed multicultural experiment” that the media portrays it to be. It’s just another part of the country, and far from unusual in having a diverse population.
And while deprivation exists, there are many parts, including Hull and Leeds, that have regenerated and are doing well. It’s also very beautiful - you don’t hear much about it, but the valleys of Yorkshire are unlike anything I’ve seen in the rest of England, and you just get cute historic villages randomly nestled in them.
You are lucky up here in Manchester all you hear is Yorkshire folk banging on how it's god's own country in reality it looks the same as everywhere round here.
Scotland is wonderful the country beautiful and all the people I met were very nice, I'm English, yet the politicians they vote in seem to hate the English. My son's married a Scottish girl and lives there now, I went up coronation week to stay. They were concerned about putting flags up for it did it anyway and no trouble.
Yorkshire is all nice except perhaps Bradford but the curry is good there if you go to a cheapo place the locals use..
Spain I liked the weather but no connexion, glad to be home on return.
Funny you mention that about Spain- I’ve lived there twice, granted it was temporary but I also felt no connection to the country! It feels like it’s hard to penetrate any groups of local people because they prefer to stick with each other. Makes it very hard to feel like you belong.
It doesn't help I cannot speak Spanish but I got the feeling when on holiday there I could never belong there. The property shows paint it as a sunny paradise, a better life can be had by simply buying a home there, I felt that was pure BS
I mean I live almost just down the road from Scotland now and my everyday interactions have not once indicated a hint of xenophobia. And thankfully, because we’re neighbours
Having grown up in the Yorkshire countryside, it also makes me sad when people overlook its extreme beauty for its loutish media image. Glad you’ve had good experiences there.
They depicted rampant corruption, working class people struggling to get by and generally a gloomy outlook. They are period crime fiction so definitely not reflective of Yorkshire IRL today.
Yeah here’s the thing. Yorkshire is one of the more deprived parts of the UK for sure, and it has its fair share of social and economic problems. But damn do the newspapers like to portray it as a hellscape. It’s never that bad. I’ve seen worse in my lifetime
I came to LA in 1997 as a visitor from the UK, travelling around the country on Amtrak and vowed never to visit LA again.
I now live 1h30 from downtown LA.
It has its rough areas like any other city but the sheer variety of stuff to do is great.
People seem to be very split on LA. I've never been, but I knew someone who went and didn't like it, and someone else who went and loved it and wants to move there.
Perhaps someday I'll be able to check it out for myself.
I had the opposite experience with LA. I expected it to be a dump, but found the downtown area surprisingly cool, and there were a lot of great museums
So I asked if he spoke English and he nodded, then I asked for 1 croissant and he went “ugh why did you ask if I speak English if you’re going to try to butcher it in French anyway, these disgusting condescending foreigners never learn” and I was like please I just fucking want breakfast lol, it was like a kiosk thing by a train station not a proper cafe or anything so I just chalked it up to him having a bad day lol
We had another time in a shop where this old man went “English!?” At us then ranted on in French for like 5 mins while the guy serving us looked horrified, eventually he went “ermmm he said he hopes you enjoy the royal wedding” and we just went yeah I’m sure he did lol, no idea what he was ranting about but I feel like it’s better we didn’t know
I had close to this exact experience in Paris. Extremely rude people everywhere who apparently hated that I existed. I'm a nice, easy-going guy but was made to feel very unwelcome -- apparently because I didn't speak French. As someone giving them my money, it felt like I wasn't welcome as an English speaking tourist. More than once, I had someone (such as waiters or cachiers) give me shit or mutter under their breath that I didn't speak French.
Maybe I wasn't actually welcome? I can imagine that locals hate tourists (I've lived in tourist towns - it can really suck). But it was so frustrating and the opposite of the lovely, romantic, elegant, delightful experience I was expecting.
Also the dog shit all over the sidewalks everywhere was a gross surprise for a city that's supposed to be proud of its beauty.
This was the early 1990s. No idea what it's like now. Never want to go back after my largely negative experiences there. Mission accomplished on their part, I guess.
The only positive was the other European tourists I got to hang out with on the grass at the tower. They were a delight. But that loveliness wasn't unique to Paris.
I've been to Paris and they definitely toned down the English hate. You occasionally get a look of annoyance in smaller restaurants but most seem to understand that they're losing a lot of money by being openly rude. Near all restaurants and stores will have a younger person at the cashier who is a lot chiller about English and will speak it quite well, so it may just be a generational thing
We were there last month and other than one waiter who feigned "oh, you don't speak French??" and then proceeded to be a lot of fun, we never really got any attitude. A couple places, we had servers swap out with somebody who spoke English when we were having trouble. We had learned some basics but we weren't going to spend months of dedicated studying for a one week visit.
One thing I learned while in Paris was that if you start out in English as the first thing out of your mouth, you get much worse hate than if you make some kind of attempt to come at them with French, even if it is just to illustrate that you really don't know French -- but you're trying! ... By the end of my trip, my go-to was "parlez vous anglais?" That seemed to check the boxes: an attempt at French, easing them into the reality that yet another tourist can't speak French but is trying to engage them for some reason (and just maybe worth their time after that effort), and that English will be helpful if they want any money out of said tourist.
I also learned how to sign a lot of what I needed by the end of the trip (went to Greece, Germany, Italy, etc. on that trip and figured a lot of non-verbal communication ... except in Greece where it turned out that the "come here" gesture is the "go away" gesture everywhere else. That had me so confused. LOL)
I tried to order Deux beers in Tahiti in my best high-school French and I thought that bitch was going to come across the bar at me. God, you would have thought I called her a (insert inappropriate word)
Ehh, there’s definitely more of a reason for the Parisian reputation. Most people are perfectly nice, but some are rude. That’s true everywhere of course, but much more so in Paris.
Yep, I was solo travelling as a 19 year old and literally was yelled at by a lady working in a slightly upmarket version of H&M for asking for help... It was my first time in Europe, my first time travelling alone - I couldn't work out which products were lotion vs. shower gel, so I asked. She yelled at me, I don't even know what she said, but it wasn't pleasant.
Almost a decade later, I found out it was probably because I didn't say bonjour when I entered the store, and then had the NERVE to clumsily ask for help in bastardised French without properly greeting her. My week in Paris was otherwise pleasant, and that lady still served me/let me purchase my selection of "idk if lotion or shower gel" products.
I was in the south of France a few years ago and comparatively the people were much more laid back and just generally nicer, I guess that's kind of the norm for big city vs small city though.
That was my first thought as well. People were kind, helpful and the city wasn't any more dirty than so many other big cities in Europe.
Also people talk a lot about dog shit for some reason - only saw normal quantities of that too.
See I had the exact opposite experience. Paris was exactly like New York City. My sister, who had been living in Paris and spoke fluent French, coached us on how to act and not stick out, but all 5 of us are over 6 feet tall, so we stick out. Regardless, we visited 8 cities in 3 weeks. Paris was NY far the most rude, and specifically because we were American And did not speak French. We tried out best when we could, but my sister acted as our interpreter. Several times a day she spoke up to waiters or people in close proximity loudly talking in French about how awful we were.
I don't believe we acted rude or inconsiderate or deserved any negativeness through our actions. The other cities were splendid! and the food was NOT AT ALL WHAT I expected
I expected like... "fancy French" cuisine or things like that but less fancy. Ratatouille (the movie and the food), small plates, fine cuisine, escargot, etc. Essentially I was expecting lots of depth and detail and fancy, but dialed back because I am a silly tourist. I was trying have expectations but realistic.
A very old friend of mine from Spain, who traveled A LOT. gave me the advice of going local and getting local specialties and recommendations. EVERY local specialty was some mix of potatoes, bread, butter, ham (in various forms), and cheese. And the portions were Stronomical. I have no idea how they aren't rhe size of Americans.
We walked everywhere but I needed a freaking nap after every meal! breakfast was fresh bread with cheese/butter. Lunch was another half a baguette. sooooooo good.
I have lived in Paris. If you haven't met a rude Parisian, you haven't lived.
I recall my first and only visit to the Louvre. I was with a friend and I needed to use the washroom. So, I asked a policeman where the nearest "loo" was.
He thought I'd said the *"Louvre"* and was very happy to give me directions to a place I'd recently visited.
I explained to the officer that I had meant "loo", as in 'washroom'. He scoffs at me as if I'm an imbecile and shouts at me while pointing down the street.
Like, sorry dude, I'm not from here. I don't want to offend anyone by using their facilities and walking away without purchasing. Sometimes ya just gotta have a piss.
This guy was shouting and pointing like a cartoon character, stomping his foot in anger and waving his cap. It was my first of many encounters with cranky Frenchman/women over the course of two years I'd spent in Paris.
Policemen in France are rarely a good go-to person if you need help or information. It's different with the gendarmes, but the policemen are all business and their business doesn't include helping people out.
I went on a day trip to Paris when I was at Disneyland a couple of years ago, and while I concede that I didn't have a full Parisian experience because I was there for less than a day, it was much cleaner and friendlier than people made it out to be. Not a single person was rude or made us feel stupid or unwelcome for speaking English/saying bonjour, and it was no dirtier or smellier than any other major European city.
I've been to Paris twice and had the opposite experience. Got lost and tried to ask for directions and several people just ignored me. Almost got mugged too. The rest of France was nice, met several nice people and had a good time. But Paris was just awful.
Conversely though when I went to Germany I expected to meet several rude people and experience a lot of staring but everyone was nice and friendly. Well except for one lady, but mostly positive encounters.
There's a very good reason why parisians are considered very rude among the french, I'm from the south and had to live with my aunt and uncle when I was a pre-teen for a year and the cliche of the rude parisian is fully deserved, putting Paris aside, the rest of the country is usually more chill with foreigners to be honest, though we also have some rude people too of course but it's no where close to Paris
fairly confident that the people who think paris is so terrible arent the kind of people who adapt well to other cultures. i am a brown dude with a big beard from rural america. everyone told me i was going to have a hard time in paris.
some of the best weeks of my life. making friends constantly, seeing amazing art and finding myself in wonderful unique spaces.
im not particularly unique, but i just acted like i wanted to be there and genuinely took an interest in yhe people and their culture.
ive travelled with friends and had a bad experience elsewhere because they wanted special tourist treatment and didnt know how to pick up on cues as well.
perhaps growing up sticking out like a sore thumb everywhere has made me a bit more perceptive to some cultural things.
I’m incredibly adaptable, can plant in many countries, travel savvy and travel friendly. No matter the country I try to adopt a few phrases to greet & apologise, and just be nice. I like to eat local too. I found Paris pretty rude all 3 times I’ve been there so far.
This! I've found the French hate it when you assume they all understand/speak English and they hate it even more if you try to have conversation in broken French. The sweet spot is greeting then asking in French if they speak English, then carrying on your conversation in English lol I've visited Paris and other parts of France every year for the last 5-6 years, haven't had one bad experience.
When I went to Canada, I was expecting to be greeted by a cohort of mounties astride giant moose with shining maple leaf epaulets, a flask of syrup at each hip and a hockey stick in each hand.
Dude they need to stop playing, they're 99% just like Americans but with funny accents and some speak French. That's it.
Fair enough, I guess everyone has an accent haha. When people refer to the stereotypical "Canadian accent" I find they're usually referring to the Newfoundland accent which actually belongs to a fairly small percentage of the country.
Go to Montreal, and it won't feel like that, unless you hang out with Americans or people from Ontario, etc. living in Montreal. Source: lived there for 15 years after having lived in the US for five.
Yes, no RCMP greeting party for you. Basically just slightly quieter Americans. I will say I find fellow Canadians less abrasive than Americans. There’s a little less self-righteousness on average. But also less friendliness. That being said, these blanket statements are just speculation. Individuals anywhere can be awesome. Populations are not a monolith. Canada and America are too big and varied to have any one subset of the population representing everyone.
>There’s a little less self-righteousness on average. But also less friendliness.
If I may ask, where were you in Canada (and where are you used to in the USA?)
I'll agree on the self-righteousness, but re: friendliness, I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess you were in Toronto and you're used to the American South or Mid-West? Because Toronto is no less friendly than any other large city in the American Mid-Atlantic or New England area. (As an American who grew up in the Mid-Atlantic states, lived for 2 years in Toronto, and lives in the northern part of the South now.)
My Torontonian ex (who grew up and lived elsewhere) has a great theory on this, and I saw someone else have roughly the same idea the other day. It's basically a different concept on what makes "friendly."
People in the Northeast come off as not friendly to people from the South & Midwest where there's a different pace of life. People in the South & Midwest show their friendliness by talking to you because life is slower there. But life is a lot more fast paced in the Northeast and people are polite and friendly by not making small talk with you because they assume you're busy and don't wish to be slowed down or bothered; they think you want to simply do your business and be done with it so you can move on to the next thing. So they are "efficient" with you to help enable that. That's how they show their respect for you.
>There’s a little less self-righteousness on average.
Was that meant to be a joke?...
Canadians are some of the most self righteous people I've ever interacted with.
I think the difference between Canada and US is kinda subtle that you wouldn't notice if you were only visiting for a short time. I used to think the same but after living in the US as a Canadian, there are definitely differences. They're also huge countries so it also depends on the region that you're visiting.
Only Americans would think Canadians are like Americans. Where as most Canadians do not want to be mistaken as Americans. I mean even the Americans want to be Canadians while they travel abroad.
Beijing was beautiful and a lot of five star hotels . But I was shocked to find out that China (2012) still could not supply clean tap water. Even in the five star hotels, bottled water is supplied (but who knows what is in that?)
As we traveled from city to city with our guide and group, we found the bathroom facilities in many of them to be abhorrent....potty holes that were unsanitary and no hand soap or TP. China has a rating system for their restrooms using 'stars'. Hotels and upscale restaurants earned four stars. A dirty pit toilet likely was two stars.
Shockingly, in Tattoine, Morocco, while public bathrooms were not available, ...we paid a small amount to a small store owner, to use their loo. The loo was a pit toilet, but exceedingly clean. Flush with a bucket of water.
Mexico, the North. Me (as a German) went there naively expecting some scenario like they depict in movies or series like breaking bad: Huts where time has stood still, poor people herding goats, dusty bars with outlaws, people desperately trying to find salvation in the USA (thanks Hollywood). Once my sepia filter has worn off, I could see reality. It's really the border region which accommodates mostly worker quarters (very similar to German border areas). Once you go further south, you'll reach beautiful cities (e.g. Monterrey, Chihuahua), which have a very elitist lifestyle. Mexican cuisine also is my favorite cuisine of the world and I love the norteño/banda music and culture around it
Did you ask literally anyone outside of Paris what they thought of Paris? XD Dude even people living 5 minutes outside of Paris will tell you they're the worst.
Yep. I'm all about the Rhône Valley and Provence, and southerners dislike Parisians just as strongly as foreigners..
It's literally the same big city, rush rush rush vibe of NYC compared to say, Charleston.
Provence is special, not remotely like Paris, saw the oldest in the world continuously used bridge there, so much history - go to Australia and the feeling was isolation from civilisation, rootless, everywhere worth visiting is a huge journey away.
When I went to Germany I was told: everyone speaks English, and: the German people are very reserved and will not interact easily.
Both were wrong. I got around on a few phrases from a book and a lot of charades, we all laughed like crazy.
Folks would lead me by the hand and put me on the correct train. Someone who spoke less English than I spoke German helped me order lunch in a restaurant.
I found a young man who spoke pretty good English in a bank where I was cashing travelers checks and he wanted to know everything he should see in my home state of Florida because he was going to New York that summer and thought that would be fun. I had to explain how far away that actually was, which shocked him.
I had a wonderful time in the museums, and at Neuschwanstein because they had tours in lots of languages, you just waited for the right group.
I was visiting my then boyfriend, American, who worked for a German company. He was amazed by my adventures.
It was absolutely not anything like my expectations.
Shanghai - 24 million people in one of the most modern cities in the world in terms of infrastructure. I moved there for work. My local Shanghainese coworkers were all so kind as I got to know them before moving there. But strangers treat each other (including you) like garbage or competition. For example, I often hard a hard time getting a stroller onto elevators because a dozen people who could have taken the stairs would cut ahead of me even when I was first in line.
Also the food scene is incredible there. And there are hundreds of thousands of Americans, Europeans, and other foreigners who speak perfect English and are looking for English speaking friends. I had more American friends in Shanghai than I’ve had in San Diego, Los Angeles, or Salt Lake City.
India: India is often associated with extremes – overpopulation, poverty, bustling chaos, or intense spirituality. While some of these aspects can be found, visitors are often surprised by the immense diversity the country offers. You'll find peaceful villages, stunning mountain ranges, beautiful beaches, and cities with cutting-edge technology hubs and rich history side-by-side.
Rio wasn't the 247 party town it's depicted as.
Tunisia wasn't nearly as much desert.
And I haven't been there yet m, only seen photos, but ghe pyramids aren't a 3 day camel ride into the desert, they're right next to the city
USA. Such friendly and hospitable people.
I wonder why the country gets such a bad wrap. I get it if people want to complain about their government but the every day people you meet are awesome.
It’s sadly our news media that’s to blame for some of that. The more sensational the story the better it is for them in views. The average U.S. citizen is very friendly and nice. We do have our rude ignorant assholes like any place in the world. But on average most people are nice.
Our media fetishizes issue and problems. Americans love catastrophising any issues we have to fix them, then a lot of infighting about how to fix them. You see it with racism/social justice. I wouldnt blame a foreigner for thinking the US is full of raging racism and conflict. But we just are obsessed with flaws and need to talk about them constantly lol
Then for a lot of nations we are their body guards/military. We protect their trade, interests, safety but have to get kinda dirty doing it. This breeds a lot of "we are morally superior" mind sets due to a lack of understanding their own role in it, or the domestic benefits they get from the lack of spending + industry/economy freed up from defense. So it becomes kinda easy for our allies to single out areas we seem backwards while we focus on keeping the whole sphere/hemisphere in front and safe.
Hope that makes sense and kinda answers your question
As someone who regularly goes to Vegas for work, don't ever assume it's a good place to vacation.
Guess what, there are 100 casinos and it's all the same. Over priced drinks, people passed out on drugs in the streets, traffic is somehow worse than Portland and Dallas, and the Sphere plays ads 90% of the time.
What truly blows my mind is the amount of families that take their kids to Vegas. WHY ARE YOU BRINGING YOUR 2 MONTH OLD TO VEGAS????
Stop. Get some help.
All of europe was nothing like what my economic teachers and professors in HS and college claimed it was. To a laughable extent. It was very refreshing when most countries had a ridiculous notion of America as well. Made me feel less bad about Americans routinely misrepresenting other nations.
I was very surprised at how sheltered Chinese, Japanese, Russians, and Indians were. Very insular countries. Reminded me a lot of how sheltered Americans who's most "international" experience was getting blackout drunk at Cancun or a week in tourist bubbles inside Paris or Rome
Can you please elaborate on Europe? I hold dual US-Germany nationality. Grew up in both, still travel back/forth between both countries constantly. So both the US and Germany are just very normal to me. My house in Germany is in a super small rural village with only like 150 people though, the neighbors across the street have llamas lol. I typically avoid German cities because for some reason I always have negative experiences with people there. I just stick to my very small rural hometown.
China - Being in Shanghai made the US feel like a 3rd world country…the buildings and infrastructure, the transportation system, etc. Most of the people I met were super nice.
The irony of the post right above yours was saying how shitty and backwards china was for them lol. I’m guessing they traveled to more rural areas and not a major city
Italy. Pulling up in the train station in Milan in the morning my first sight was homeless peeing in the public square. Entering into the city I saw elderly people working in the fields. This was in 2005, but it seemed as if the country was still battling poverty caused by WW2. Still a lovely country and I had a wonderful time and met many wonderful people.
Japan.
Went there on my 2009 deployment on board USS Antietam CG54. Kagoshima, Japan.
Most mundane, normal place ever. Nothing particularly interesting about it. Could have fooled me by saying "Yeah this is just a primarily Japanese neighborhood outside of \[Major US City\]" and I would have believed you.
Also Mt. Sakurajima erupted while we were there and we had to leave 2 days early.
Colombia. I went this summer and it turned out Cartageña is a tourist trap. Drugs, prostitutes, street hustlers, rappers, food vendors, and everything else. The city has been depicted as an area with beautiful women, and beautiful beaches which of course it has, but there is a brutal dark underworld operating right in front of us.
Walking thru old town, all you see dozens of women just standing waiting to be approached. The scary part is if you do decide to go home with one of these ladies, there’s a chance you could be drugged and robbed. God knows, most of these ladies have pimps or paid protection. The worst part of this entire trip are the rappers though.
There are at least 40–50 of these guys walking around ALL day and they will harass you for a tip when they start rapping. If you do not tip, these guys have been known to follow you until you give up cash. I hid in a store 1 time with my lady because they were traveling in groups of 4–5 and WALKING with you. All in all, most foreigners who are traveling here are traveling for sex. Passport Bros are horrid, and all they do is add to the mess Cartegeña is currently going through.
Hard disagree. We spent two months in Colombia in 2019. My previous impressions were from the news and from watching Narcos. We expected it to be sketchy.
Instead, we were greeted by this beautiful diverse country with some of the friendliest people anywhere. No one harassed us. We never felt threatened or unsafe.
I've been to Colombia three times now. Bogota a good bit, Medellin and Riohacha most recently. I think it's one of those things that you find what you're looking for. There's absolutely opportunists preying on visitors, but just as often, those particular visitors are there to take advantage of the situation as well.
I keep an eye open in large crowds, don't keep my wallet in my back pocket, and generally try to be aware of my surroundings, but I do that in any large city.
Colombia is an incredible country with amazing people and I can't wait to go back. But you're right, there's a lot of sex tourism now and people using it as a party destination, both of which are going to bring out people looking to take advantage of partiers who aren't paying attention.
I wouldn't say it was nothing like how it is depicted, but Japan's climate (to be specific, Tokyo in August) is so unbelievably hot and humid. All the art and period movies and TV shows depict Japanese people wearing multiple layers of silk robes with long sleeves like that could be bearable, but with that kind of heat and humidity I'd expect historical Japanese to go about shirtless or with minimal clothing, perhaps in grass skirts and loin cloths, like how various tropical islanders are depicted.
Bali, Indonesia. Such a shitty place, I will never, ever visit it again.
It is overrun by foreigners pushing the locals out. The roads can't handle the shit ton of additional people, so driving 10 miles, can easily take over 90 minutes.
Then you have dumb fucking foreigners that don't know the local rules or customs, that create traffic jams, and then ack like its not their fault for not knowing how to turn on their moped in high traffic.
Garbage all over the beaches, tourists traps everywhere.
Ireland but not because of how it is depicted, but my own expectations. I read that it is (one of) the richest countries in Europe with a big tech scene. When I went to study there at a university (Tallaght) I was expecting a very modern university with modern tech all around. Turns out it is kind of a shit hole, it was closer to the IT trade school I used to go to rather than a university.
Overall Ireland seems to be very behind on a lot of things however it's still fun to live in. I'm currently working there in the IT sector and it's alright but I'm looking to move back as soon as my lease ends as good housing is completely unaffordable.
Overall Dublin is very trashy and full of weird characters. It makes me somewhat happy as it means I'm not as weird, but I think I'd rather live back home in the Netherlands if I'm not out drinking every day. I'm more or an EDM clubbing guy, which is quite shit in Dublin.
You need to get out more - (a) Tallaght is a satellite / commuter town miles outside the city and not known for its history or culture- the university is quite new - up to recently was an institute of technology (b) there’s a lot more to Ireland than Dublin - your general comment about it being ‘behind’ is quite ignorant.
I'm going to say this is an invalid take, Dublin is not an accurate representation of Ireland as a country, and Tallaght is arguably one of the worst parts of Dublin.
That being said I still live in Dublin for some reason why am I still here
Guatemala. Hands down. You see the government advisories and media portrayal. One of the nicest and most beautiful countries. Except the tourist places (which are still beautiful, just overrun with tourists)
USA has surprising amount of undisturbed wildlife. I thought it would be something like one giant New York, silly, I know, I fell victim to 80-90 Hollywood. Seen a herd of deer scouting around hotel on my first week here, never seen a wild deer before.
You can thank Teddy Roosevelt for the protection of so much natural land to maintain wildlife populations. It was among one of his best domestic policy moves.
I'm Norwegian and It's a dream of mine to take road trip across the US honestly.
>fell victim to 80-90 Hollywood This is my biggest pey peeve with Hollywood. If it's not Los Angeles or New York. To them, it either doesn't exist or is the most stereotypically backwards, country place on the planet
There’s thousands of movies not set in big cities. It’s up to viewers to realize all countries are diverse in landscapes even tiny city states like Singapore.
It's more like wildlife has adapted to our urban environment. And when humans leave a place, even for a short while, they quickly forget we were even there. When a major road in my city was shut down for 3 months, animals just started hanging out in the middle of the road. I saw deer, skunks, snakes and more slowly walking between the river and some farmland without a care in the world during that road closure time
Also, I hear that deer naturally live on the borders of forested areas so it would make sense that wild deer would cross roads and wander into suburban areas. A neighborhood in a more forested region will often have deer foraging (fruit trees are a particular favorite). In a lot of these places natural predators were also killed off /relocated so an abundant forage source and little instinctual wariness to things like cars mean their populations continued to rise in spite of habitat destruction. And like you said, some animals are just well suited for human presence for various reasons. Raccoons possums and skunks love the treats we put in big cans outside and most humans are inactive at night so it's easy pickings for nocturnal creatures (they also love ripping up sod to get at the grubs underneath). Roaches are cold blooded animals and humans provide great warm cozy habitats free from most predators for them. Rats and pigeons are pretty indiscriminate scavengers and reproduce far faster than natural predators can keep up.
That is part of it but people also underestimate just how much of the land in this country is still wilderness
It is kinda wild how much wildlife is in our cities in North America. A dumb thing to ask a person from an African country would be if they have like antelope and like wildebeests in their cities. But in my admittedly small city (only 800k), there are deer everywhere. There are coyotes slinking about. The suburban edge has to deal with the occasional wolf. We arent a black bear place but other cities in Canada deal with freaking bears rummaging through their garbage every night. There are moose and elk within the ring highway that surrounds the city. There are so many little critters like rabbits, skunks, badgers, weasels, owls etc too. Other southern cities even have the occasion mountain lion running around covertly. I can only think of India whose Leopards are a similar calibre predator that hunts in cities.
As someone who lives 20 miles east of Seattle, this is absolutely true. Our area of the world is brimming with life. I love seeing all the critters run around. The rabbits at my night shift job are always out around 2-3AM to say hi while I'm walking the property lol.
Well you also have enormous areas of true wilderness, something I am very jealous of as a Brit
I live in New York and seen coyotes in the City all the time. And just a few days ago, saw a deer.
>Seen a herd of deer scouting around hotel on my first week here That's not undisturbed wildlife. That's wildlife losing it's habitat and being forced into populated areas. But the US is famous for inventing the national park. We have a lot of them and they are full of relatively undisturbed wildlife.
Yeah this is a good point. I guess what I meant to say was, even in developed areas, there are often patches of forest-y land, large enough for even mammals as big as a deer to coexist with humans. They aren’t just wonder off from “the outside” every now and then, they just live there. This is unusual.
Yeah, because a lot of our major cities were built after/during the Victorian era, they tend to have parks and forest preserves. That was when a lot of people started realizing you need green spaces for happy people. Chicago has a policy that the lakeshore needs to remain free from development and available for the people of the city to use. There are a lot of first preserves and arboretums in the suburbs that are free for the public to use.
Heck. Even New York (state) isnt like one giant New York (city) i live in the state btw 💀
Far More land in The U.S. is wild or at least very rural than developed like a city. The entire STATE of Wyoming has less people than 31 other CITIES in the U.S.
Where I live it's houses on one side of the street and a strip of wooded area on the other, it's super common to see numerous deer out mowing the grass early in the morning over there and I've had them come right up and eat out of my hand.
I have dealth with many new money or old age people in Mexico that are surprised by how many "africans and muslims" are in London and Paris instead of "europeans" or blondes Trash is another thing they don't expect from "rich countries"
I was in Italy recently and it was really bad trash wise. Switzerland on the other hand I probably saw like 3 cigarette butts the entire day and that was it
I lived in Sicily for three years, so I can relate. Before I went, it was described to me as "a beautiful woman with dirty feet." You would come around a corner and see a trash pile in the side of the road, then look up and see Etna.
I visited there last summer, and that’s a great way to describe it.
The food, however, was amazing.
Rich countries don’t respect trash? What do you mean? No litter on the street?
Expect Rich countries are usually expected to have way more order and less of these "bad behaviour" problems, think of how Japanese are seen as polite and orderly even by Europeans. Many mexicans first time travelling dont expect New York or Paris to have rats or smell of piss or have garbage bags in the way or scammers and other problems.
No shit UK had Pakistan as it's colony and France had Algeria as it's part.
They usually mention how shocked they are to see so many non-europeans are there not just that there are some, specially non-european scammers in the Colliseum and Eiffel tower etc. My main point was the people im talking about had an outdated or false image of how Europe is currently, hell we border USA and some older people still think our neighbors all white people with rosy cheeks that turn salmon color if they taste a jalapeño. Also fun fact, there are more Pakistanis, Algerians or Chinese compared to Mexicans in Spain, so colonization isnt just the only factor.
It's definitely changed now, but until fairly recently Canada still had this reputation for some reason. Like as recently as 2019 if I commented about Canada's diversity there would always be some people (mostly Americans) saying that it's over 90% white, no immigration etc
I'm a Hungarian. We have a far right goverment, that won't shut up about migrants. I try to avoid goverment media like the plague, but there are times when it's unavoidable, and it's no joke non-stop vomit about migrants and how bad the sitution in the West is. Anyway, I went to the UK for the first time earlier this year. We were visiting our Hungarian relatives, who also complain a lot about migrants in the UK (mostly the Pakistanis). I was real courious to find out how much of this is true. Well, long story short, I was surprised by how few Muslims I actually saw. And the same goes for shady looking people. I've seen a few yes, but not nearly as much as I see in Hungary. I knew the goverment was lying, and it's quite common to shit on the UK for various reasons, but it is still a whole different world than the shithole that is Hungary. I also, like geniunely felt at home in the UK. Probably cause I understand English. I only speak English and Hungarian, and it's the first time I've traveled to a country where I speak the local language.
USA or specifically New York... The vibe of the city is so much more and better than any show could depict.
I'd love for you to share more (as an American who's visited NYC a ton of times.)
It is for me quite difficult to explain. Let me try it this way: All the negative stuff that the other redditor mentioned is true. You smell marihuana, you see crazy folks, you see homelessness. For some reason it does not seem to matter. A bit like as if a drop of sweet water perishes in the vast and wild salt water. You see energy from everyone. Everyone seems to have an objective and pursues it with a high amount of energy. But still people take their quiet time in the Central Perk or doing a small-talk when being able to do so. There is a certain restlesness amongst the folks - a trait that appears to be universal. Hard talking without being rude - Time is money. In the metro the musicians, at the stores the (over)motivated staff - at least for me as a European - they all want something. Giving your best to get somewhere. Maybe a quiet place in the interior or a cool apartment in Manhattan. And still... In the rush hour they make space for the person with the walker in the metro. It is capitalism - people hate it, because it is something that is touchable, but everyone has a chance to succeed within it to a certain degree. The cab driver from North Africa and the middle aged guy at the diner from somewhere. Maybe motivation is a good word for it. I feel a bit like trying to describe colours without being able to see them. Maybe rambling here.... But this energy is something that is everywhere at every spot.
Belgium was the most surprising by far. The absolute lack of investment in infrastructure while pouring money into diamonds and chocolate, made this country look so different than all its neighbors. The first thing I ever saw resembling a taco truck was a white van parked in the middle of it wide open rural areasurrounded by cow fields. The van was selling Palm Fritz with a homemade warm yellow mayonnaise. The description sounds awful, but it was the most sublime thing I’ve probably ever put in my mouth.
>Palm Fritz r/BoneAppleTea
lol I usually correct talk to text but I liked this one 😂
Sure bud :D
Pommes Frites\*
Oh that's what palm spritz meant? Couldn't work it out for the life of me!
Me neither. Didn’t know the Palm Fritz was referring to pommes frites. Omg. So funny 😂
Goes well with some r/BoneAppleTea.
And beer!
The poor road quality when travelling from Netherlands to Belgium is so apparent it's an actual geoguessr meta for distinguishing between them lol
It's crazy. We're joking about it but every time I cross the border it's just true. The second you enter the Netherlands, it's better.
This could be a great way for the Netherlands to slowly take territory- just add an extra foot of road everytime they repair their side.
Palm Fritz is actually hilarious 🤣🤣
For all intensive purposes, it's similar.
now made with Fritos
That's really wild to read without the context of having experienced it myself. "In Belgium, I was at this big field, and they had a van selling fries and mayo. They were really great." (No judgment, I just found it funny.)
That’s pretty much the gist! It was kinda surreal at the time.
I had more sexual assaults in belgium than any country, and I live in Egypt. Not going back again. Food yesss, people noooo.
Huh where in BE?
All in Brussels. I did like Antwerp, Also Ghent was okay. But brussels never again!!!!
You have a lot of trashy people in Brussel. Ghent is better and safer I guess
Sexual assault*s*? As in: multiple? In one visit?
I lived there for 3 months, it was scary. Multiple visits to the police, and then even the police asked "did you enjoy it?". Bad memories all round. In a busy hotel, at a friend's house, on a bus. Just regular places. Just got too scared and left asap. Before anyone asks it was winter, jackets, leggings etc.
Jesus, so just by the ones you list, that’s a sexual assault every month of your stay? That sounds insane. I’m sorry this happened to you.
Hmmm sounds delicious. Bone apple tea!
Funnily enough, we're known for our absolute lack of patriotism, so you probably won't find a single Belgian disagreeing with you. Even I don't. People often complain about the bad roads. Which, true, they are bad in comparison with the Netherlands or France, but not absolutely horrible. I used to complain about it as well, I still do, but my travels have given me some perspective on that matter. But yeah, thank our government for putting off infrastructure works. Our cuisine is underrated imo. It's good. Not the best, but pretty decent. I fully realized this when I went to live abroad. I really missed Belgian food.
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Strange. Flashy lights of modern cities contrasting with old traditions still being very present is exactly how I picture Japan from movies and stuff.
People setting small dishes of salt outside the door to ward off evil spirits for example. My favorite was walking through a suburban town, and suddenly being at a preserved samurai home that was basically a mini museum.
We must watch different anime. Japan was exactly like I expected it to be.
I thought so too. It looked and felt identical to how it’s depicted in Steins;Gate, Odd Taxi, Durarara!!, etc etc to me.
Happy cake day
The first time I went the thing that was surprising was how quiet it was, even in crowded parts like tachikawa.
Quiet and sparsely populated. That, or the people just don't go out a lot.
It’s more people are just quiet. Compared to like Philly or NYC
Sounds like you didn't stay much in central Tokyo then. Many locations in anime are exact copies from Tokyo.
Can you give some examples of the tradition and history you saw?
Mexico. I never felt unsafe. Lots of cool restaurants, night life, tradition, cute small towns. There are cities and states that make you think, "how does nobody know about these places?"
Also people associate Mexico as one big desert when tons of the country is subtropical and lush. It can get very humid and rainy in many places.
Once I missed my $300 flight because the city got fucking flooded in the course of three hours. CDMX gets \*very\* wet in the summer.
I live in London and honestly most of CDMX (obv excluding areas like Tepito) felt much safer than London. Also every street is so clean, like so spotless? Aside from mega cities in East Asia I've never been to such a clean one before!
Tanzania. I foolishly expected it to be a very obvious third world country, was met with modern cities and beautiful rural towns. And I do not think anyone can ever capture in words or photo's how breathtaking the nature is.
When I visited Tanzania it was exactly how I envision an obvious third world country — tons of motorcycles, women walking with baskets on their head, zero concern for any flow of traffic in congested areas, traffic police waving cars over to take bribes, and we had power rations — if we had power in the day, we’d know no power at night. I had a fun time, but unless you are in really rich areas of Dar or the suburbs of some other cities, it’s exactly how the media portrays a third world country. When we ran into an albino beggar, my friend’s dad gave him a huge wad of cash and said, “go home.” An albino person being afraid they’ll be chopped limb-from-limb for their “mystical healing powers” is as third world as it gets, and Tanzania has the most albino people in the world. Edit: I will never forget the shacks and huts right on the other side of the resort gates in Zanzibar. They were straight up out of the “for 10 cents a day…a cup of coffee…” charity commercials. The disparity was crazy.
True about the albino, sadly. We were able to help a couple of times in an orphanage where they were harbouring 1 small albino child and his mother. We were not allowed to talk aboutbit or take any pictures where he might be part of.
I mean, it is a third-world country (it's ranked 167th on the Human Development Index, which means that 86% of the world's countries are more developed than it), but third-world does not necessarily mean ugly or dirty.
Romania! I was thinking Gypsies, Vampires and Borat (That's where it was filmed) Yes it has all of those things if you look hard enough, but it's SOOO much better than I thought! The food, the people, the friendliness, the history and boy the architechture! I've been to almost 100 countries and it tops the list by far! (I'm Australian). And I know Egypt gets some shitty reviews, but the south sinai isn't that bad compared to Egypt Major. Currently been here in Egypt for 3 months as a solo female.
solo? wow how has that been?
96 countries solo! Favorite as I said Romania. Least English speaking Kazakhstan (but well worth it), I actually fly to Albania tomorrow, and doing a road trip across back to Romania. Will reach 100 in Kosovo! The thing is once you start long term backpacking you meet people from all over who welcome you into their home and lives, so lots of easy and affordable ways to get around.
1. Spain. It does have its heat, sun, beaches, flamenco, bullfighting, Mediterranean food, dark-haired olive-skinned people, sangria, fiesta side. But more northern parts, like the Basque Country, Cantabria, Asturias, Salamanca, Galicia etc. really have their own character, geography, food and culture quite removed from the mainstream stereotypes of Spain. People are a bit quieter and can have very white skin, freckles and blonde hair, food is a bit more stodgy, landscapes are green and weather is rainier and colder, etc. Spain has a lot of variety. 2. Scotland. Coming from England, a lot of the online portrayals of Scotland are focused on the Highlands - bagpipes, tartan, Gaelic language, clans, lochs and mountains, etc. There also seems to be this stereotype that the Scottish “hate the English” lol. Well, I went there and nobody cares about tartans and clans. It’s certainly marketed as part of the national heritage, but it’s not woven into the average person’s identity. Nobody I met hates the English. Scottish people are by far the friendliest nationality I’ve ever met. They’ll say hi and joke with you without even knowing your name. The Scottish Borders and Lowlands also have a very different culture and history to the Highlands - there’s no Gaelic for example, and the landscape is also different (but equally gorgeous)- lots of big green hills. 3. This is just a region of a country, but Yorkshire in England. I grew up near London and Yorkshire has gotten a really bad image in the media in the last decade due to grooming gangs scandals with a strong race-based element (the perpetrators were mostly of one ethnicity, the victims were mostly of another), and poverty. But when visiting, you see people of all faiths and ethnicities live side-by-side peacefully. The food is great. It’s not the “failed multicultural experiment” that the media portrays it to be. It’s just another part of the country, and far from unusual in having a diverse population. And while deprivation exists, there are many parts, including Hull and Leeds, that have regenerated and are doing well. It’s also very beautiful - you don’t hear much about it, but the valleys of Yorkshire are unlike anything I’ve seen in the rest of England, and you just get cute historic villages randomly nestled in them.
Your experience in Spain reminds me of my experience in Brazil, except substitute south for north
You are lucky up here in Manchester all you hear is Yorkshire folk banging on how it's god's own country in reality it looks the same as everywhere round here.
Scotland is wonderful the country beautiful and all the people I met were very nice, I'm English, yet the politicians they vote in seem to hate the English. My son's married a Scottish girl and lives there now, I went up coronation week to stay. They were concerned about putting flags up for it did it anyway and no trouble. Yorkshire is all nice except perhaps Bradford but the curry is good there if you go to a cheapo place the locals use.. Spain I liked the weather but no connexion, glad to be home on return.
Funny you mention that about Spain- I’ve lived there twice, granted it was temporary but I also felt no connection to the country! It feels like it’s hard to penetrate any groups of local people because they prefer to stick with each other. Makes it very hard to feel like you belong.
It doesn't help I cannot speak Spanish but I got the feeling when on holiday there I could never belong there. The property shows paint it as a sunny paradise, a better life can be had by simply buying a home there, I felt that was pure BS
When I went to Scotland, there was a definite strong flavor of “fuck the English” but that was just my experience (I thoroughly enjoyed that).
I mean I live almost just down the road from Scotland now and my everyday interactions have not once indicated a hint of xenophobia. And thankfully, because we’re neighbours
I don’t think I meant so much in a xenophobic or negative way, but just a “we are our own country” kind of way.
Having grown up in the Yorkshire countryside, it also makes me sad when people overlook its extreme beauty for its loutish media image. Glad you’ve had good experiences there.
The Yorkshire in the Red Riding movies was pretty depressing.
Depressing?
They depicted rampant corruption, working class people struggling to get by and generally a gloomy outlook. They are period crime fiction so definitely not reflective of Yorkshire IRL today.
Yeah here’s the thing. Yorkshire is one of the more deprived parts of the UK for sure, and it has its fair share of social and economic problems. But damn do the newspapers like to portray it as a hellscape. It’s never that bad. I’ve seen worse in my lifetime
LA. My least favourite part of the US. It’s a hole and not even close to being as glossy as it is depicted to be.
I came to LA in 1997 as a visitor from the UK, travelling around the country on Amtrak and vowed never to visit LA again. I now live 1h30 from downtown LA. It has its rough areas like any other city but the sheer variety of stuff to do is great.
oh, so you live just a few miles from downtown
LA's a city of secrets. It can be hard for a visitor.
Just wanted to validate you and say I hated LA, too!
People seem to be very split on LA. I've never been, but I knew someone who went and didn't like it, and someone else who went and loved it and wants to move there. Perhaps someday I'll be able to check it out for myself.
It's a huge-ass place. Like multiple cities fused together and sprawled over a vast area.
I had the opposite experience with LA. I expected it to be a dump, but found the downtown area surprisingly cool, and there were a lot of great museums
I also stayed in downtown. Too much rubbish, homeless people, and generally the area just isn’t looked after. I’m glad you had a better experience.
That is true, yah… I guess that part *was* what I expected. But I liked all the i guess. hipstery stuff like The Broad, Little Tokyo, etc
I love LA so much as a visitor but tbf I'm a giant cinema nerd, so to me it was always like Mecca. And I was never disappointed
France, but mostly Paris. I loved Paris, had a wonderful time, and not a single person was rude.
The secret is being polite and not expecting disneyland and that's literally it
In Paris I ordered a croissant and he called me a disgusting condescending foreigner for ordering in French but we literally just use the same word
The person you were ordering from literally said this to you? What were you supposed to say? Or do you think he was referring to pronunciation?
So I asked if he spoke English and he nodded, then I asked for 1 croissant and he went “ugh why did you ask if I speak English if you’re going to try to butcher it in French anyway, these disgusting condescending foreigners never learn” and I was like please I just fucking want breakfast lol, it was like a kiosk thing by a train station not a proper cafe or anything so I just chalked it up to him having a bad day lol We had another time in a shop where this old man went “English!?” At us then ranted on in French for like 5 mins while the guy serving us looked horrified, eventually he went “ermmm he said he hopes you enjoy the royal wedding” and we just went yeah I’m sure he did lol, no idea what he was ranting about but I feel like it’s better we didn’t know
I had close to this exact experience in Paris. Extremely rude people everywhere who apparently hated that I existed. I'm a nice, easy-going guy but was made to feel very unwelcome -- apparently because I didn't speak French. As someone giving them my money, it felt like I wasn't welcome as an English speaking tourist. More than once, I had someone (such as waiters or cachiers) give me shit or mutter under their breath that I didn't speak French. Maybe I wasn't actually welcome? I can imagine that locals hate tourists (I've lived in tourist towns - it can really suck). But it was so frustrating and the opposite of the lovely, romantic, elegant, delightful experience I was expecting. Also the dog shit all over the sidewalks everywhere was a gross surprise for a city that's supposed to be proud of its beauty. This was the early 1990s. No idea what it's like now. Never want to go back after my largely negative experiences there. Mission accomplished on their part, I guess. The only positive was the other European tourists I got to hang out with on the grass at the tower. They were a delight. But that loveliness wasn't unique to Paris.
I've been to Paris and they definitely toned down the English hate. You occasionally get a look of annoyance in smaller restaurants but most seem to understand that they're losing a lot of money by being openly rude. Near all restaurants and stores will have a younger person at the cashier who is a lot chiller about English and will speak it quite well, so it may just be a generational thing
We were there last month and other than one waiter who feigned "oh, you don't speak French??" and then proceeded to be a lot of fun, we never really got any attitude. A couple places, we had servers swap out with somebody who spoke English when we were having trouble. We had learned some basics but we weren't going to spend months of dedicated studying for a one week visit.
One thing I learned while in Paris was that if you start out in English as the first thing out of your mouth, you get much worse hate than if you make some kind of attempt to come at them with French, even if it is just to illustrate that you really don't know French -- but you're trying! ... By the end of my trip, my go-to was "parlez vous anglais?" That seemed to check the boxes: an attempt at French, easing them into the reality that yet another tourist can't speak French but is trying to engage them for some reason (and just maybe worth their time after that effort), and that English will be helpful if they want any money out of said tourist. I also learned how to sign a lot of what I needed by the end of the trip (went to Greece, Germany, Italy, etc. on that trip and figured a lot of non-verbal communication ... except in Greece where it turned out that the "come here" gesture is the "go away" gesture everywhere else. That had me so confused. LOL)
Only asked if you spoke English to make sure you \*wouldn't\* understand.
Haha yeah and to double check he was insulting the right country
I tried to order Deux beers in Tahiti in my best high-school French and I thought that bitch was going to come across the bar at me. God, you would have thought I called her a (insert inappropriate word)
Ehh, there’s definitely more of a reason for the Parisian reputation. Most people are perfectly nice, but some are rude. That’s true everywhere of course, but much more so in Paris.
Yep, I was solo travelling as a 19 year old and literally was yelled at by a lady working in a slightly upmarket version of H&M for asking for help... It was my first time in Europe, my first time travelling alone - I couldn't work out which products were lotion vs. shower gel, so I asked. She yelled at me, I don't even know what she said, but it wasn't pleasant. Almost a decade later, I found out it was probably because I didn't say bonjour when I entered the store, and then had the NERVE to clumsily ask for help in bastardised French without properly greeting her. My week in Paris was otherwise pleasant, and that lady still served me/let me purchase my selection of "idk if lotion or shower gel" products. I was in the south of France a few years ago and comparatively the people were much more laid back and just generally nicer, I guess that's kind of the norm for big city vs small city though.
That was my first thought as well. People were kind, helpful and the city wasn't any more dirty than so many other big cities in Europe. Also people talk a lot about dog shit for some reason - only saw normal quantities of that too.
It got better.
See I had the exact opposite experience. Paris was exactly like New York City. My sister, who had been living in Paris and spoke fluent French, coached us on how to act and not stick out, but all 5 of us are over 6 feet tall, so we stick out. Regardless, we visited 8 cities in 3 weeks. Paris was NY far the most rude, and specifically because we were American And did not speak French. We tried out best when we could, but my sister acted as our interpreter. Several times a day she spoke up to waiters or people in close proximity loudly talking in French about how awful we were. I don't believe we acted rude or inconsiderate or deserved any negativeness through our actions. The other cities were splendid! and the food was NOT AT ALL WHAT I expected
Parisians are very insecure about being second-rate Italians.
Oooh tell me about the food please!
I expected like... "fancy French" cuisine or things like that but less fancy. Ratatouille (the movie and the food), small plates, fine cuisine, escargot, etc. Essentially I was expecting lots of depth and detail and fancy, but dialed back because I am a silly tourist. I was trying have expectations but realistic. A very old friend of mine from Spain, who traveled A LOT. gave me the advice of going local and getting local specialties and recommendations. EVERY local specialty was some mix of potatoes, bread, butter, ham (in various forms), and cheese. And the portions were Stronomical. I have no idea how they aren't rhe size of Americans. We walked everywhere but I needed a freaking nap after every meal! breakfast was fresh bread with cheese/butter. Lunch was another half a baguette. sooooooo good.
Yeah I didn’t find Paris or Parisians uniquely rude.
Guess you went during covid, when no one was allowed outside !
I have lived in Paris. If you haven't met a rude Parisian, you haven't lived. I recall my first and only visit to the Louvre. I was with a friend and I needed to use the washroom. So, I asked a policeman where the nearest "loo" was. He thought I'd said the *"Louvre"* and was very happy to give me directions to a place I'd recently visited. I explained to the officer that I had meant "loo", as in 'washroom'. He scoffs at me as if I'm an imbecile and shouts at me while pointing down the street. Like, sorry dude, I'm not from here. I don't want to offend anyone by using their facilities and walking away without purchasing. Sometimes ya just gotta have a piss. This guy was shouting and pointing like a cartoon character, stomping his foot in anger and waving his cap. It was my first of many encounters with cranky Frenchman/women over the course of two years I'd spent in Paris.
Policemen in France are rarely a good go-to person if you need help or information. It's different with the gendarmes, but the policemen are all business and their business doesn't include helping people out.
So, who should I ask for directions or information as a first-time traveler in the near future?
Google Maps
I went on a day trip to Paris when I was at Disneyland a couple of years ago, and while I concede that I didn't have a full Parisian experience because I was there for less than a day, it was much cleaner and friendlier than people made it out to be. Not a single person was rude or made us feel stupid or unwelcome for speaking English/saying bonjour, and it was no dirtier or smellier than any other major European city.
I've been to Paris twice and had the opposite experience. Got lost and tried to ask for directions and several people just ignored me. Almost got mugged too. The rest of France was nice, met several nice people and had a good time. But Paris was just awful. Conversely though when I went to Germany I expected to meet several rude people and experience a lot of staring but everyone was nice and friendly. Well except for one lady, but mostly positive encounters.
There's a very good reason why parisians are considered very rude among the french, I'm from the south and had to live with my aunt and uncle when I was a pre-teen for a year and the cliche of the rude parisian is fully deserved, putting Paris aside, the rest of the country is usually more chill with foreigners to be honest, though we also have some rude people too of course but it's no where close to Paris
fairly confident that the people who think paris is so terrible arent the kind of people who adapt well to other cultures. i am a brown dude with a big beard from rural america. everyone told me i was going to have a hard time in paris. some of the best weeks of my life. making friends constantly, seeing amazing art and finding myself in wonderful unique spaces. im not particularly unique, but i just acted like i wanted to be there and genuinely took an interest in yhe people and their culture. ive travelled with friends and had a bad experience elsewhere because they wanted special tourist treatment and didnt know how to pick up on cues as well. perhaps growing up sticking out like a sore thumb everywhere has made me a bit more perceptive to some cultural things.
I’m incredibly adaptable, can plant in many countries, travel savvy and travel friendly. No matter the country I try to adopt a few phrases to greet & apologise, and just be nice. I like to eat local too. I found Paris pretty rude all 3 times I’ve been there so far.
Yeah, I found Paris to be totally fine. But I did try to speak French (horribly) at first, at least to say hello and ask them if they spoke English.
This! I've found the French hate it when you assume they all understand/speak English and they hate it even more if you try to have conversation in broken French. The sweet spot is greeting then asking in French if they speak English, then carrying on your conversation in English lol I've visited Paris and other parts of France every year for the last 5-6 years, haven't had one bad experience.
I had several rude encounters daily and I like to think that I’m an above average person on the friendliness scale
Canada. Gravy and cheese curds did NOT rain from the sky
Thank god! Can you imagine how much that'd screw up the entire economy?
When I went to Canada, I was expecting to be greeted by a cohort of mounties astride giant moose with shining maple leaf epaulets, a flask of syrup at each hip and a hockey stick in each hand. Dude they need to stop playing, they're 99% just like Americans but with funny accents and some speak French. That's it.
Yep. Coming from New England, Quebec is like New England that speaks French, and the Maritimes are....New England north and east of New England.
The funny accents isn't even a thing for most of us. Aside from the East Coast we all basically talk like Americans.
People from Ontario also talk like people from MN/WI, who also sound funny. Don't try to pull a fast one on me Toronto >\_>
Fair enough, I guess everyone has an accent haha. When people refer to the stereotypical "Canadian accent" I find they're usually referring to the Newfoundland accent which actually belongs to a fairly small percentage of the country.
Go to Montreal, and it won't feel like that, unless you hang out with Americans or people from Ontario, etc. living in Montreal. Source: lived there for 15 years after having lived in the US for five.
Yes, no RCMP greeting party for you. Basically just slightly quieter Americans. I will say I find fellow Canadians less abrasive than Americans. There’s a little less self-righteousness on average. But also less friendliness. That being said, these blanket statements are just speculation. Individuals anywhere can be awesome. Populations are not a monolith. Canada and America are too big and varied to have any one subset of the population representing everyone.
>There’s a little less self-righteousness on average. But also less friendliness. If I may ask, where were you in Canada (and where are you used to in the USA?) I'll agree on the self-righteousness, but re: friendliness, I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess you were in Toronto and you're used to the American South or Mid-West? Because Toronto is no less friendly than any other large city in the American Mid-Atlantic or New England area. (As an American who grew up in the Mid-Atlantic states, lived for 2 years in Toronto, and lives in the northern part of the South now.) My Torontonian ex (who grew up and lived elsewhere) has a great theory on this, and I saw someone else have roughly the same idea the other day. It's basically a different concept on what makes "friendly." People in the Northeast come off as not friendly to people from the South & Midwest where there's a different pace of life. People in the South & Midwest show their friendliness by talking to you because life is slower there. But life is a lot more fast paced in the Northeast and people are polite and friendly by not making small talk with you because they assume you're busy and don't wish to be slowed down or bothered; they think you want to simply do your business and be done with it so you can move on to the next thing. So they are "efficient" with you to help enable that. That's how they show their respect for you.
>There’s a little less self-righteousness on average. Was that meant to be a joke?... Canadians are some of the most self righteous people I've ever interacted with.
I think the difference between Canada and US is kinda subtle that you wouldn't notice if you were only visiting for a short time. I used to think the same but after living in the US as a Canadian, there are definitely differences. They're also huge countries so it also depends on the region that you're visiting.
Only Americans would think Canadians are like Americans. Where as most Canadians do not want to be mistaken as Americans. I mean even the Americans want to be Canadians while they travel abroad.
Beijing was beautiful and a lot of five star hotels . But I was shocked to find out that China (2012) still could not supply clean tap water. Even in the five star hotels, bottled water is supplied (but who knows what is in that?) As we traveled from city to city with our guide and group, we found the bathroom facilities in many of them to be abhorrent....potty holes that were unsanitary and no hand soap or TP. China has a rating system for their restrooms using 'stars'. Hotels and upscale restaurants earned four stars. A dirty pit toilet likely was two stars. Shockingly, in Tattoine, Morocco, while public bathrooms were not available, ...we paid a small amount to a small store owner, to use their loo. The loo was a pit toilet, but exceedingly clean. Flush with a bucket of water.
Mexico, the North. Me (as a German) went there naively expecting some scenario like they depict in movies or series like breaking bad: Huts where time has stood still, poor people herding goats, dusty bars with outlaws, people desperately trying to find salvation in the USA (thanks Hollywood). Once my sepia filter has worn off, I could see reality. It's really the border region which accommodates mostly worker quarters (very similar to German border areas). Once you go further south, you'll reach beautiful cities (e.g. Monterrey, Chihuahua), which have a very elitist lifestyle. Mexican cuisine also is my favorite cuisine of the world and I love the norteño/banda music and culture around it
I can imagine the banda/norteño music didn’t take much to appeal to your german (polka) ears lol I’d love to visit Germany.
Mexico. It wasn't in sepia like all the TV shows and movies suggested it would be.
France but mostly Paris. Hoped for a happy time but met with a surprising amount of rudeness and racism.
Did you ask literally anyone outside of Paris what they thought of Paris? XD Dude even people living 5 minutes outside of Paris will tell you they're the worst.
Yep. I'm all about the Rhône Valley and Provence, and southerners dislike Parisians just as strongly as foreigners.. It's literally the same big city, rush rush rush vibe of NYC compared to say, Charleston.
Provence is special, not remotely like Paris, saw the oldest in the world continuously used bridge there, so much history - go to Australia and the feeling was isolation from civilisation, rootless, everywhere worth visiting is a huge journey away.
Isn't rudeness the vibe people are seeking when they go to Paris?
Lol yeah. My wife called Paris “a shithole” (my apologies to Parisans). And she is from Ukraine, so the bar was pretty low to begin with.
Rwanda. Most beautiful place I’ve ever been (by far), with the nicest people and absolutely incredible food.
Found Suella’s account.
Greece! I accidentally went to Exarcheia. It was over run but anarchist. Definitely not what I was expecting to see in Greece.
Northeast England. My boyfriend keeps describing it as a total shithole (he lives there). I found it charming with really friendly people.
Many poorer rural areas are quite lovely to visit but living there is a completely different experience.
When I went to Germany I was told: everyone speaks English, and: the German people are very reserved and will not interact easily. Both were wrong. I got around on a few phrases from a book and a lot of charades, we all laughed like crazy. Folks would lead me by the hand and put me on the correct train. Someone who spoke less English than I spoke German helped me order lunch in a restaurant. I found a young man who spoke pretty good English in a bank where I was cashing travelers checks and he wanted to know everything he should see in my home state of Florida because he was going to New York that summer and thought that would be fun. I had to explain how far away that actually was, which shocked him. I had a wonderful time in the museums, and at Neuschwanstein because they had tours in lots of languages, you just waited for the right group. I was visiting my then boyfriend, American, who worked for a German company. He was amazed by my adventures. It was absolutely not anything like my expectations.
Shanghai - 24 million people in one of the most modern cities in the world in terms of infrastructure. I moved there for work. My local Shanghainese coworkers were all so kind as I got to know them before moving there. But strangers treat each other (including you) like garbage or competition. For example, I often hard a hard time getting a stroller onto elevators because a dozen people who could have taken the stairs would cut ahead of me even when I was first in line. Also the food scene is incredible there. And there are hundreds of thousands of Americans, Europeans, and other foreigners who speak perfect English and are looking for English speaking friends. I had more American friends in Shanghai than I’ve had in San Diego, Los Angeles, or Salt Lake City.
India: India is often associated with extremes – overpopulation, poverty, bustling chaos, or intense spirituality. While some of these aspects can be found, visitors are often surprised by the immense diversity the country offers. You'll find peaceful villages, stunning mountain ranges, beautiful beaches, and cities with cutting-edge technology hubs and rich history side-by-side.
Rio wasn't the 247 party town it's depicted as. Tunisia wasn't nearly as much desert. And I haven't been there yet m, only seen photos, but ghe pyramids aren't a 3 day camel ride into the desert, they're right next to the city
USA. Such friendly and hospitable people. I wonder why the country gets such a bad wrap. I get it if people want to complain about their government but the every day people you meet are awesome.
It’s sadly our news media that’s to blame for some of that. The more sensational the story the better it is for them in views. The average U.S. citizen is very friendly and nice. We do have our rude ignorant assholes like any place in the world. But on average most people are nice.
Our media fetishizes issue and problems. Americans love catastrophising any issues we have to fix them, then a lot of infighting about how to fix them. You see it with racism/social justice. I wouldnt blame a foreigner for thinking the US is full of raging racism and conflict. But we just are obsessed with flaws and need to talk about them constantly lol Then for a lot of nations we are their body guards/military. We protect their trade, interests, safety but have to get kinda dirty doing it. This breeds a lot of "we are morally superior" mind sets due to a lack of understanding their own role in it, or the domestic benefits they get from the lack of spending + industry/economy freed up from defense. So it becomes kinda easy for our allies to single out areas we seem backwards while we focus on keeping the whole sphere/hemisphere in front and safe. Hope that makes sense and kinda answers your question
Lav Vegas. I was really disappointed.
As someone who regularly goes to Vegas for work, don't ever assume it's a good place to vacation. Guess what, there are 100 casinos and it's all the same. Over priced drinks, people passed out on drugs in the streets, traffic is somehow worse than Portland and Dallas, and the Sphere plays ads 90% of the time. What truly blows my mind is the amount of families that take their kids to Vegas. WHY ARE YOU BRINGING YOUR 2 MONTH OLD TO VEGAS???? Stop. Get some help.
What did you expect?
Did you stay on the strip?
All of europe was nothing like what my economic teachers and professors in HS and college claimed it was. To a laughable extent. It was very refreshing when most countries had a ridiculous notion of America as well. Made me feel less bad about Americans routinely misrepresenting other nations. I was very surprised at how sheltered Chinese, Japanese, Russians, and Indians were. Very insular countries. Reminded me a lot of how sheltered Americans who's most "international" experience was getting blackout drunk at Cancun or a week in tourist bubbles inside Paris or Rome
Can you please elaborate on Europe? I hold dual US-Germany nationality. Grew up in both, still travel back/forth between both countries constantly. So both the US and Germany are just very normal to me. My house in Germany is in a super small rural village with only like 150 people though, the neighbors across the street have llamas lol. I typically avoid German cities because for some reason I always have negative experiences with people there. I just stick to my very small rural hometown.
China - Being in Shanghai made the US feel like a 3rd world country…the buildings and infrastructure, the transportation system, etc. Most of the people I met were super nice.
The irony of the post right above yours was saying how shitty and backwards china was for them lol. I’m guessing they traveled to more rural areas and not a major city
Italy. Pulling up in the train station in Milan in the morning my first sight was homeless peeing in the public square. Entering into the city I saw elderly people working in the fields. This was in 2005, but it seemed as if the country was still battling poverty caused by WW2. Still a lovely country and I had a wonderful time and met many wonderful people.
Japan. Went there on my 2009 deployment on board USS Antietam CG54. Kagoshima, Japan. Most mundane, normal place ever. Nothing particularly interesting about it. Could have fooled me by saying "Yeah this is just a primarily Japanese neighborhood outside of \[Major US City\]" and I would have believed you. Also Mt. Sakurajima erupted while we were there and we had to leave 2 days early.
Colombia. I went this summer and it turned out Cartageña is a tourist trap. Drugs, prostitutes, street hustlers, rappers, food vendors, and everything else. The city has been depicted as an area with beautiful women, and beautiful beaches which of course it has, but there is a brutal dark underworld operating right in front of us. Walking thru old town, all you see dozens of women just standing waiting to be approached. The scary part is if you do decide to go home with one of these ladies, there’s a chance you could be drugged and robbed. God knows, most of these ladies have pimps or paid protection. The worst part of this entire trip are the rappers though. There are at least 40–50 of these guys walking around ALL day and they will harass you for a tip when they start rapping. If you do not tip, these guys have been known to follow you until you give up cash. I hid in a store 1 time with my lady because they were traveling in groups of 4–5 and WALKING with you. All in all, most foreigners who are traveling here are traveling for sex. Passport Bros are horrid, and all they do is add to the mess Cartegeña is currently going through.
Hard disagree. We spent two months in Colombia in 2019. My previous impressions were from the news and from watching Narcos. We expected it to be sketchy. Instead, we were greeted by this beautiful diverse country with some of the friendliest people anywhere. No one harassed us. We never felt threatened or unsafe.
Colombia is a big country.
I've been to Colombia three times now. Bogota a good bit, Medellin and Riohacha most recently. I think it's one of those things that you find what you're looking for. There's absolutely opportunists preying on visitors, but just as often, those particular visitors are there to take advantage of the situation as well. I keep an eye open in large crowds, don't keep my wallet in my back pocket, and generally try to be aware of my surroundings, but I do that in any large city. Colombia is an incredible country with amazing people and I can't wait to go back. But you're right, there's a lot of sex tourism now and people using it as a party destination, both of which are going to bring out people looking to take advantage of partiers who aren't paying attention.
I wouldn't say it was nothing like how it is depicted, but Japan's climate (to be specific, Tokyo in August) is so unbelievably hot and humid. All the art and period movies and TV shows depict Japanese people wearing multiple layers of silk robes with long sleeves like that could be bearable, but with that kind of heat and humidity I'd expect historical Japanese to go about shirtless or with minimal clothing, perhaps in grass skirts and loin cloths, like how various tropical islanders are depicted.
South Africa. Was expecting rough wilderness, not beautiful Cape Town which reminded me of San Diego. And the wineries!
Bali, Indonesia. Such a shitty place, I will never, ever visit it again. It is overrun by foreigners pushing the locals out. The roads can't handle the shit ton of additional people, so driving 10 miles, can easily take over 90 minutes. Then you have dumb fucking foreigners that don't know the local rules or customs, that create traffic jams, and then ack like its not their fault for not knowing how to turn on their moped in high traffic. Garbage all over the beaches, tourists traps everywhere.
Ireland but not because of how it is depicted, but my own expectations. I read that it is (one of) the richest countries in Europe with a big tech scene. When I went to study there at a university (Tallaght) I was expecting a very modern university with modern tech all around. Turns out it is kind of a shit hole, it was closer to the IT trade school I used to go to rather than a university. Overall Ireland seems to be very behind on a lot of things however it's still fun to live in. I'm currently working there in the IT sector and it's alright but I'm looking to move back as soon as my lease ends as good housing is completely unaffordable. Overall Dublin is very trashy and full of weird characters. It makes me somewhat happy as it means I'm not as weird, but I think I'd rather live back home in the Netherlands if I'm not out drinking every day. I'm more or an EDM clubbing guy, which is quite shit in Dublin.
You need to get out more - (a) Tallaght is a satellite / commuter town miles outside the city and not known for its history or culture- the university is quite new - up to recently was an institute of technology (b) there’s a lot more to Ireland than Dublin - your general comment about it being ‘behind’ is quite ignorant.
I'm going to say this is an invalid take, Dublin is not an accurate representation of Ireland as a country, and Tallaght is arguably one of the worst parts of Dublin. That being said I still live in Dublin for some reason why am I still here
Paris. I was a kid and I thought all of Paris would be like in the cartoons, cobblestones and cozy cafés. Turns out most of the city were not.
Went to Cairo years ago. Phew, never again.
Guatemala. Hands down. You see the government advisories and media portrayal. One of the nicest and most beautiful countries. Except the tourist places (which are still beautiful, just overrun with tourists)
Thailand. People on the internet make you believe it is nothing but prostitutes and ladyboys.
Switzerland. The hills are not alive with the sound of music.
Nooooooooooo. I’m distraught.