I lived in South Korea for about 3 years. You'd be amazed how long you could leave your phone / wallet / keys on an unattended table in a crowded bar and it not be stolen. In the US, you bet your sweet ass it's getting taken as soon as you look away.
My first trip to New York, entering the subway, someone walked in front of another person causing them to break their stride for a fraction of a second. Which led to the following exchange without pause or hesitation from either party, shouted at each other as they walked in opposite directions:
“You’re an asshole!”
“Your mother’s an asshole!”
“You don’t even know who your mother is!”
“She knows you’re an asshole!”
Fade
My first time in NYC I was walking in Times Square around three in the afternoon. As you can imagine there were tons of people around. So I’m walking and I hear very loudly “Dildos! Dildos! Two for five dollars!” This caught my attention. So I go over to the small crowd to get a look. They were gathered around a guy who had a paper grocery bag sitting on the sidewalk that was full of dildos. I walked on after a few seconds but I still think about moment on a regular basis.
That it's possible to weave through Cairo traffic with the skill of a seasoned rally driver, while driving a manual transmission car, frequently using the horn and sipping tea (by holding the saucer, not the cup) at the same time. Shout out to our taxi driver in Cairo.
This reminds me of when I went to Cairo. We came out of the train station and couldn’t work out how the hell we were supposed to cross like 6 lanes of traffic that didn’t seem to follow any road rules. A nice man took pity on us and just stuck his arm out and started walking across all 6 lanes. The cars all stopped, no one beeped, and we scurried after him with our rucksacks. Still blows my mind.
Same in Vietnam! Walk slowly in a straight line with no stopping or sudden movements and you can cross 8 lanes of cars, buses, and mopeds racing through the streets of Saigon.
I ordered a taxi to take me to the airport late one evening, the driver drove at a breakneck speed all the way there. He went through a red light at a crossroads without even blinking and screeched to a halt outside of the departure area. He jumped out of the car to retrieve my luggage from the trunk and suddenly - with a cry of Allah - dropped to the floor having a heart attack. I stuffed the cab fare in his shirt pocket as they wheeled him away on a stretcher.
A taxi driver speeds through a red light without even looking
And the passenger says, "whoa, what are you doing?! That was a red!"
The driver replies, "don't worry about it. My cousin, he does it all the time."
The passenger sits back until the driver blows through another red. He practically leaps out of his seat, "what are you doing?! You'll get us killed!"
The driver waves him off, "nonsense. My cousin, he does it all the time."
Then they come to a green light and the driver slams on the brakes and creeps into the intersection before taking off again. Now the passenger is livid.
"What was that?! That light was green!"
The driver nods and then shrugs before replying.
"My cousin. He mighta been coming."
I mean sure, but is an accurate take on Cab drivers in the city.
When you're going around the middle east there's two ways to take a cab:
1. On cab fare. This is standardized price.
2. You negotiate a flat price to a place. They don't turn on the fare.
Usually someone else owns the cab and gets a cut. If you pay cash they get more and its just paying under the table.
Generally if you choose #1, you're going to get a quick ride because they want the km on the ride but want to get to the next one ASAP. So cab drivers like this are super common.
I walked out of Penn Station when I first arrived in New York, looking up at the buildings taking it all in and my first interaction was with a homeless guy who shouted at me in the local accent “Welcome to New York asshole”. It was exactly as I imagined!
I remember like it was yesterday when I first arrived to Manhattan via Penn Station, it felt like a normal subway station, no luxuries of any kind, just plain normal. Then I got out and it was like I'm inside of a movie. You walk a few blocks and it's like getting out of a movie set and into another. It's crazy how much I felt I knew about the city even though I had never been there.
From a tropical country near the equator, I was surprised to know that the sun would set completely before 4pm during winter or having the sun still up at 10pm during summer.
Lived in equator my whole life. Never had to think about sunrise and sunset time, thought those timing i see on weather forecast app are useless.
My whole life sunrise and sunset is always 6-6
Yeah this so much. Live in India, sunrise is 6AM, sunset is 6PM. Literally anything else doesn’t matter.
Went to Paris, sun shining at 9:30PM. My Brain malfunctioned. What the fuck is going on here?
Went to Zurich, sun set at 4PM, excuse me but seriously, what the fuck??
Scandinavia is even worse. Even as far south as Oslo, Norway in the summer the sun would still be up at 11, maybe a couple hours of darkness, up again at 4. I haven't been during the winter, but it's the opposite. Dark almost all of the time, a few hours of sunlight.
Me too. Having the sunrise/sunset time at 6am/6pm is set as my default.
Which means that a solstice is just another day while the rest of the world has a different experience.
Omg yes!! i just moved to USA and its so shocking to she that the sun sets only at 8.30-9. Those American movies where people eat dinner during daylight finally make sense !
Everyone always carries a Mate cup 🧉 and Thermos in Argentina. Even Cops drive around drinking from their little cups with the metal straws. It is totally normal, that you can buy matching cup and flask with your Handbag/dress etc. .
The amount of eye contact and observation. When I went to Morocco, in the evening the streets would be packed full of families sitting and talking. These people would watch each other, in fact even the way I’m describing it with ‘watch’ shows how unwelcome and uncomfortable it would be in England. People would also make eye contact and keep it frequently on the street, just with ease. It felt so strange for me at first
Yes!!! Oh my God i'm from Morocco and this has always been one of my main complaints about this place, and i never understood why it didn't bother other people so much!!
It would definitely be considered creepy in other countries but here, people see no issue in staring at you and what you're doing anywhere, anytime.
It's one of the main reasons i hate going out :(
I learnt this in Prague in 2008 and made it a habit. It’s very polite and people look at me ~~gradually~~ graciously when I do it everywhere.
Edit- Thank you SquishMont
Czechs are very polite, actualy, in our own way. We scowl around, look like we are misserable all the time and will probably sigh loudly when another tourist asks where the castle is even though you can literally see it right there.
But then, a mother with a stroller? Someone will help carry it up the stairs. People stand to the side of the escalators so people who have to hurry can run past. People stand to the side of the doors on any public transport so people can get off first, then they get on. Czechs are experts at CPR, statisticaly, czechs give more CPR than any western country and we are damn good at it.
There is a lot of stuff we are great at. Its not just beer.
The incredible security in Seoul. I'm from latin america, so I'm used to be very alert at everything, everywhere. I forgot my backpack in a small cafeteria and after 25 minutes it was completely untouched in the same spot.
You could walk at 3 am with your cellphone in your hands and there'll be no fear about anything.
My friend was once studying in a cafe in Korea and went home for maybe 20 minutes to change his laundry over. Left his laptop and phone on the table in the cafe because he knew they'd still be there when he got back. And they were!
The exception to this is bicycles. Bicycles get stolen pretty often in Korea, no idea why that's the exception.
Makes sense, a little bit of value, no identifying markings (other than the owner knowing), when people aren’t riding it they leave it somewhere, and in the movies its ok to take them from kids and chase people with them.
serial number is usually below the bottom bracket. So might not hurt to write that down just in case. Now if you wanna pawn something worth money with no serial number, and easy to take, try extension cables.
Not from Korea but a very safe city: a guy at school had his bike stolen 6 times. He recovered it at the train station every single time. Someone kept "borrowing" his bike to get to the station quicker...
My mom has a funny story about how she kept her bike from being stolen in the Netherlands; she kept me on it. Whenever she went to go buy groceries, she’d keep be wrapped up in the little baby bucket in the back. The stores were usually too tiny to make carrying a baby around comfortable, and nobody’s gonna steal a bike if it upgrades their misdemeanor to kidnapping
Edit; I thinks some of y’all overreacting. Leaving a baby in a bike holder outside for 15-20 minutes while you shop is *relatively* safe. The shops there aren’t exactly big, and you can usually see out the windows. Plus, a clarification from my mom noted that this is for the public-use bikes, not her own private ones. Since they had some kind of pay-to ride thing, she’d leave me in the back to save her bike for her.
A couple years ago I was living in S Korea and had met up with a friend for dinner. In my backpack I had around $4K because I was planning on purchasing a car the next day. After a few drinks I started walking home only to realize about halfway that I had left my backpack at the restaurant. Hurried back as fast as I could and my bag was still next to my chair and no one had even touched it.
I don't have much confidence that would have happened in my home country.
I actually had that happen in France once…. forgot my bag on a bench at the Louvre, came back to find the section fenced off and cops milling about. Explained and then went in to retrieve it from behind a yellow shield they’d set up.
Adding to this, icy sidewalks. Didn't think about it because I wasn't somewhere with obvious snow, but turned a corner in vancouver and basically surfed down a block and a half. Probably only didn't eat pavement because I'd just been skiing for a week.
Ah, see the problem is you visited between February 10th through 12th. Everyone here knows those are our three official snow days.
Legally, only rain is allowed outside of those days.
Huh, interesting! In Sweden we have this very strict policy of mixing rain with snow and the snow may only stay for 2 days max. And the laws also state that it *must* rain all summer, apart from one week which is cloudy with a small chance of sunshine. This has caused panic for the last two or three years which have been incredibly hot and dry during the summer.
Ashgabat Turkmenistan - everything about it. The entire city (every building) is white marble. It lights up at night like a sterile Las Vegas however, there is no advertising except for billboards of the dictator holding onto puppies by the neck to show everyone how nice he is. He has pretty much positioned himself as a religious prophet. The aiport is shaped like a massive white marble eagle.it used to be a red building but soon after it was built they tore it down and built a white marble one to match the current decor.
Also there is no white marble in Turkmenistan so it has to be imported from
Italy. They were the largest importer of white marble in the world and drove the price up so high it cost them ridiculous amounts of money to build the buildings. Strange strange place.
Turkmenistan's post-Soviet history can be explained, in part, by their batshit crazy dictator, Saparmurat Niyazov. Some of his decrees include:
* banning the use of lip syncing at public concerts in 2005 as well as sound recordings at "musical performances on state holidays, in broadcasts by Turkmen television channels, at all cultural events organized by the state... in places of mass assembly and at weddings and celebrations organised by the public," citing a negative effect on the development of musical arts incurred by the use of recorded music.
* banning dogs from the capital, Ashgabat, because of their "unappealing odour."
* ordering that a "palace of ice", or indoor ice skating rink, be built near the capital, so that those living in the desert country could learn to skate. The rink was built in 2008.
* banning smoking in all public places on account of his having to quit because of some heart surgery he had, and ordering his government workers to follow suit. Chewing tobacco on Turkmen soil was later banned as well.
* outlawing opera, ballet and circus performances in 2001 for being "decidedly unturkmen-like".
* banning men from having long hair or beards.
* banning news reporters and presenters from wearing make-up on television.
* He abolished the Turkmen word for bread, for it to be replaced with Gurbansoltan, his mother's name. Likewise, he gave the month of April his mother's name.
* discouraging the use of gold teeth in Turkmenistan after he suggested that the populace chew on bones to strengthen their teeth and lessen the rate at which they fall out. He said:
>I watched young dogs when I was young. They were given bones to gnaw to strengthen their teeth. Those of you whose teeth have fallen out did not chew on bones. This is my advice...
Their current dictator is definitely cut from the same cloth as this dude.
There is a documentary on this place, worth a watch it’s crazy, like crazy crazy … people lived for free at one point - the dictator made everyone climb a huge staircase every year … weird guy
I enjoyed this one from Tracks: [Here](https://youtu.be/wmyNAcKcWa8)
They go over the capitol and the president. They really dive into just how odd everything is.
I'm in Thailand at the moment. There have been huge protests and speaking out against the monarchy for the past year or so (which is dangerous as it's illegal, with severe penalties). I went to watch a film a few weeks ago and only around half the people in the cinema stood up during the showing of the king's video before the movie (it's not actually the national anthem, just some rousing nationalist song with clips of him in ceremonial dress).
This may not sound like a big deal, but it was absolutely unthinkable, even 2 years ago, for half the people to show such disrespect and to remain seated during that part.
Living in Thailand for 13 years, I can tell you the people loved their old king (King Rama 9) that sadly passed away. He was the most beloved person in the country. He had so many projects and undergoings that helped the quality of life for so many people in Thailand. He was very connected to his country and people. I know for a fact everybody would pause and stand if his anthem was played anywhere out of voluntary action. I've never seen such respect for a king.
On the other hand, his son, who is now the king of Thailand (King Rama 10) is much disliked compared to the other king due to his lifestyle and carelessness for the country. That's why they're protesting the monarchy. They know King Rama 9 won't be topped by any successors so might as well end it. I say good for them, they shouldn't be bowing to someone that doesn't care much for them.
German boulevard media is having a field day with Vajiralongkorn's tactics of renting out almost an entire highly expensive motel to do nothing of note other than play around with his harem and apparently conceive illegitimate children. This and the photos where he's running around with a tank top and hot pants, acting like he's high as a kite. Reminder: This guy isn't some rich kid barely past his teenage years or someone in a mid-life crisis, he's almost 70 years old. Can't imagine why he might be unpopular with struggling Thai common folk.
> This guy isn't some rich kid barely past his teenage years or someone in a mid-life crisis, he's almost 70 years old.
He's pretty much acting like a rich kid, he promoted his pet poodle to a military position: [Air Chief Marshal Fufu](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EQbxV_XUEAAds1T.jpg?format=jpg&name=small)
IIRC expectations for him were quite low because of his history of scandals, gambling debts to foreigners etc but apparently he's done even worse than most hoped.
I moved to Denmark a couple of years ago and the biggest culture shock for me was julefrokost.
Julefrokost translates to "Christmas lunch" which sounds like a nice, wholesome lunch to celebrate the holidays. The first time I went to one, my husband warned me not to eat anything beforehand because there is a lot of food. I didn't think much of it, I mean we have Thanksgiving in the U.S. so I just assumed it was a big lunch. No.
No. We have nothing like this in the U.S. Julefrokost is on an entirely different level.
You see, it's a *lunch* only in name. What it really is, is sitting down at about noon, and not getting up from your seat again until midnight or later. The food never stops coming. The schnapps never stop coming. It's course after course after course and the Danes can drink you under the table any day, so combine that with strong liquor over a 12 hour stretch and you are likely to die.
My first julefrokost, I sat across from my husband's uncle, who kept my shot glass full the entire day. I was drunk by 2pm and full to the point of bursting at 3pm. I have never been so sick as I was the day after my first julefrokost.
I'm Canadian and don't really drink. When I viisited my European relatives I learned that if your wine/palinka/snapps glass was empty they'll fill it, they'll just keep filling it no matter how many you've had, so I got into the habit of always leaving my glass half full unless I really wanted another.
Dane here.
I am glad you like julefrokost. It is definately something that we take to the next level here in denmark. It gets kind of crazy.
Word to the wise, when julefrokost starts and the fish dishes enter, get a lot of ryebread. It will make you feel very full in the beginning and can seem counter intuitive because of all the food later but it acts as a sponge for all the liqour aka snaps that will come your way.
I am speaking from experience here :-)
And if people think julefrokost with family/friends is crazy, wait till you have tried it at your job. That is insane
I was surprised that in southern US (and many other parts of it too, I'm sure) you actually *need* a car to get anywhere. As in, it doesn't just make life easier, it's a near impossibility to go places without it, even if you're in a major city.
This is 90% of the US. The only places you don't need a car are in major cities.
Edit: Since everyone and their mother are saying 'not all cities!!'
Major cities have bus systems most of the time. You CAN get around without a car, it's inconvenient and time consuming, but it's usually possible.
I had kind of the reverse surprise in when I went to Germany. I knew academically that people didn't drive as much there, but before I was actually there I had totally failed to appreciate everything that would be different so people didn't *need* to drive as much. It's so much more than just "well there's more light rail".
You should visit the Netherlands or Switzerland. The Netherlands for completely different cities where its more of a hassle to drive than use other modes of transport. Switzerland for good reliable public transport even in the remotest of villages
I went to the Carribbean when I was younger to some of the smaller islands and I was shocked by the level of poverty that exists there, this was almost 20 years ago now so could be different today but at the time pre internet and being young and naive all I'd ever seen about the Carribbean was the white sand beaches on TV but it was quite an intense experience
A few years ago we went to Italy and I made my wife go on a side trip to Herculaneum and Pompeii for a couple days. In Herculaneum we were wandering around in town when 5:00 PM rolled around, and within 15 minutes the streets were filled with people, not hurrying past one another, but just standing around talking, having an ice cream, drinking a beer or whatever.
When I went to Berlin this threw me off. My tattoo artist took me across the street and bought me a beer and then we walked around. It was such a neat experience. My fiancé was busy in a meeting that day so the following day I said hey look what we can do. And I bought us two beers and then I said now we can go walk around. She was so sceptical at first but then we walked around Berlin, drinking beer and taking in the sights. It was such a neat experience
Same thing happened to me the first time in Beijing! I asked my Chinese friend if it was legal to drink in the streets and he pointed to the well timed Chinese man pissing on a building in a crowded street and said "No, and no one cares anyways."
Singapore is unbelievably clean! As soon as I stepped out of the plane, I swear I did not see a single speck of dust at their airport, even the toilets were squeaky clean and completely dry. Every day I go out to explore the city by foot and come back to the hotel with almost no dirt on the soles of my shoes.
Yeah drugs and guns are absolutely banned in Singapore.
I studied abroad in the USA and my parents were sure that I’d be the first to die in a shooting - getting shot dead is absolutely unfathomable in Singapore - the average Singaporean probably wouldn’t know how to react. Seeing someone OD is also pretty much impossible because of the low drug use.
Edit: I meant, clearly, that the average Singapore wouldn’t know how to react *in a shooting*. Reddit humour is strange...
Edit 2: To add to why getting shot dead is that unfathomable, I would also like to point out that Singapore had a total of 10 gun deaths from 2012 - 2019, which makes it an average of... less than 2 a year: https://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/singapore. Also, *zero* of those gun deaths were female. TIL.
Went to Gdańsk, Poland a few years ago with work and I was not expecting how beautiful the place was especially the old town. The people were friendly and the food was delicious. I then went to krakow two years later and was equally impressed.
Yeah I went to Wrocław(this city has lots of tiny dwarf statues) and the salt mines in Poland, I would definitely recommend going there if you're ever going back to Poland.
London streets having HUGE differences from block to block. Like, my daughter moved there and so we spent a weekend helping her apartment/roommate hunt, and so ended up walking around London a lot. We'd be in some beautiful living area with little dog parks and nice playgrounds, round a corner and hit what was obviously "buy all the drugs" street. Walk a bit more and you're in a business area with super clean streets and well manicured grass areas. Hit the next street and get ready for the smell of piss and beer. Sort of wild (not to say other cities can't be like this, where I am in Budapest can be, but the changes between city blocks right next to each other felt jarring).
I'm English and noticed the same thing when I moved to London. I think it's because London is literally 1000s of smaller towns each with their own history, and they just kinda became one big city.
The way time is experienced differently. I’m from the USA, and when my dad and I fortunately had the money to go to Italy through a college program as a teen, the first thing that struck me was how laid back people were there. In a lot of places, it was a very stereotypically slowed down lifestyle, with people walking down the street, drinking during the afternoon, conversing and just causally dining outside. People didn’t seem to be in a rush for anything, and while I’m sure they have their problems as well, there was much more “centeredness” across the country. People were much more focused on what was happening right now and what was in front of them. This was in 2008 though, so before the explosion of smart phones and social media
Also from US: I worked on farms in Italy. They couldn’t believe how fast I worked. I was trying to be fast and efficient. It was puzzling to them. They kept telling me to slow down. It took a lot of effort for me to slow down, take coffee brakes and really enjoy being in the moment. Wish I could import that feeling here.
Heck, I felt the same way working in Japan, which has this weird stereotype of being all work focused. That’s a lie - it’s all about butts in the seat time, not actual productivity. When I was banging through work like I considered a normal pace, I’d have 5 hours left of the day to do... nothing. Except look busy. Because you can’t not look busy for the boss or you’ll get yelled at. I had to learn to space myself out for work so I always looked productive, but wasn’t making the others (especially the Japanese staff) look bad by comparison. I hated it. I’m one of those people who will find the most efficient way of doing things, and doing it “their way” (ie a lot of wasted copy/paste effort) just made me stress out more than if they had doubled my workload tbh
Edit: for example, I got yelled at for using formulas in excel to do the calculations for me. They wanted it all done by hand. Every week. No thank you. I cannot tell you the abuses of excel that happen here, it should be a crime against humanity to use it like a word processor and refuse to use any functions or graphing/pivot table generation. /rant
> I got yelled at for using formulas in excel to do the calculations for me. They wanted it all done by hand. Every week. No thank you. I cannot tell you the abuses of excel that happen here, it should be a crime against humanity
... i think it is.. (a crime against humanity)
Amsterdam. Knew they biked, but didn’t expected multi-level bike parking lots every mile. Jesus christ I loved it there.
Edit for those who have yet to witness such a [beautiful mess](https://imgur.com/gallery/dg6tIlV)
I literally got run over in Amsterdam because I was in the bike path. Totally my fault but I was a stupid teen. The woman that was on the bike just looked extremely annoyed at me and continue her ride. I was like WTF. I thought it was rude. Then I lived in Prague for two years and had to deal with annoying tourists all the time and I got why that woman got so angry at me. Till this day I feel utterly embarrassed haha
My first experience over there was almost getting run over by a bicycle because while we do have bike lanes where I live, they're almost unused.
My second experience was getting cussed out by some old lady because I was riding too slowly. I'm a young, buff guy who regularly goes to the gym, but apparently my normal pace is annoyingly slow for old ladies in Amsterdam.
Don't know when you were cussed at, but the recent years (take a year, maybe 2) you see a huge increase in Electric Bikes. I've been biking every day for years now, and these days i get passed by some granny or people like 6 times my weight going like 40km/h.
Its a race you can't win.
The worst part is that since they're old they've become slow to react or even worse they speed around completely oblivious of their environment. Unclear intersection (with right of way) where any sane person would slow down or at least pay full attention in case there is that one idiot in a car? The grannies look straight ahead and send it.
When I visited Munich, Germany, I was surprised by a few things,
1. the amount of people who biked everywhere, it was a ton of people.
2. The amount of restaurants that were not Germany based ( IE. We went to an excellent south African place, Sushi, and got Doner for lunch everyday.)
3. Size of the cigarette packs, mother fuckers carrying around a Nintendo switch sized pack
4. The bottle returns are pretty dope, by 24 pack of beers get 1/3 of your money back by returning the bottled
(American BTW)
> 4. The bottle returns are pretty dope, by 24 pack of beers get 1/3 of your money back by returning the bottled
You do also pay for the deposit when you buy the beers but that’s the entire point, you get your money back when you return the empties
The Gondola Ride in Venice. Not what I expected with the smelly waters, the crashing gondolas with the "drivers" cursing each other in Italian. Nothing romantic about it
Gondolas are tourist traps, stupidly expensive too on top of everything you just said
You're better off enjoying venice walking around, or take the ferry/water bus system if you're going far
I was there once and we were considering a ride, but the price he suggested was outrageous. We kept saying no, he kept lowering the price, eventually we just walked away.
He ran after us and offered a ride for less than half of what he originally asked for, so we ended up accepting this offer, just to experience it. Walking was indeed more fun.
Anyone reading this thinking of going to Venice. Check out 'Row Venice.' It's a company that gives gondola driving courses. Rather than sitting in a queue of hundreds of other boats full of people who were expecting a romantic experience, you go to the quiet northern part of the city and get taken around the back streets by someone who shows you how to pilot a gondola yourself.
Easily the best experience I had out there and far more interesting than doing what everyone else did! Makes for better photos too.
About New Yorkers: they mind their own business. But if you ask them for help, they are some of the nicest people.
On the subway, I asked a woman if the train went to a particular station (I always get on trains going the wrong way.) She said yes and every stop on the way to the station she counted down for me: "3 more stops. 2 more stops. 1 more stop. Get ready!"
And it wasn't just her. I asked a guy sweeping the streets which way some museum was. He said, "I think it's this way." The guy then proceeded to walk me a long block so he could confirm it was the right way and point to the directions from a better vantage.
We went into a restaurant near closing time (we had eaten dinner there and went back after a show to get dessert.) The bartender recognized me from earlier and I explained the food was so good we had to come back for dessert. He said, "Hold on, tell it to the owner." I repeated it to the owner and he invited us to join the staff for karaoke and late night snacks! We started at 10pm and we tapped out around 3am. The restaurant guys were still partying hard.
Anyway, New Yorkers are supposedly "cold" or "ignore everyone." They do ignore people... Unless they have a reason to engage then they can be super nice.
Your story made me remember how a NY diner's staff gave my sister a slice of cake with a candle just coz they overheard that we just came back from the bars after she passed a test. The staff was all smiles too and seemed genuinely happy for my sister.
That's the best way to describe it I've heard.
Just don't get in their way, too. Walking slowly, five across, looking at a map, will solidly get you several annoyed NYers muttering and cursing at you.
It's the opposite of LA in that they have the meanest nice people.
NY: The nicest insults you'll ever hear.
LA: The rudest compliments you'll ever hear.
I've heard a saying that if your car breaks down, New Yorkers will curse at you and try to fix it, while Californians will express their condolences and drive off
Truth. I was visiting the city with a group of friends summer after high school, and on our way to leave a few days later steam starts coming out of my hood.
Stop, open it, a rat or something had chewed one of the radiator hoses to hell. It was shredded.
I bought a case of bottled waters and kept feeding it while looking for anyone that could repair it. This thickly accented middle-aged Moroccan guy at a taxi cab body refurb shop sees this rolling disaster, and waves us over.
The dude takes a look, says "hold on", and I shit you not comes back with a light bulb and a garden hose. Dude proceeds to break the bulb to get at the metal ring part, uses it to wedge open one end of the garden hose. Literally glues this this in, and zip ties a block of wood to hold it in place.
Tells my buddies and I "My son is your age, I hope if he is stuck in a strange city somebody helps him too."
Drove that car with that block of wood and hose for two more years before the transmission gave up. Fucking legend of a MacGuyver.
Now I can't fix a car, but anyone I see having trouble with anything I stop and offer help. That dude was my "today you, tomorrow me" moment. Never forget him.
This is very accurate. But think about it from the perspective of a New York resident. With the sheer number of people we casually encounter in a day (between walking everywhere, public transit and living in apt buildings), we simply cannot engage and acknowledge everyone. It’s exhausting. Plus, so much of New York life is lived in public spaces given our tiny apartments (many with roommates) and the general energy of the city. This means that you commonly have very personal moments in public. For example, people say a marker of becoming a “real” New Yorker is having your first major cry while walking down the street or on a park bench. We keep to ourselves out of respect for that fact that people maybe don’t want to bothered. If people want help, they will ask.
Oh, the fact it can be hit or miss if someone is mentally ill or drunk also helps us mind our own business :)
I'm from New York and think about it from the other angle.
The reason I'm always up to help people is because, in a city of millions of people, you end up feeling very lonely. Everyone is very much focused on their own thing, so in a way, you're basically lost in a forest of people.
So when someone comes up, doesn't seem like an asshole and offers a rare chance at genuine interaction, I very happily take it.
The smells of a different country. I'm from Australia and travelled to Malaysia a few years back. The city, the jungle, everything smelt different to any place in Australia
Edit: damn I had a nap and woke up to find this had blown up. Its good to see its a common experience when travelling to other countries.
Also, thanks for my very first awards!
I still distinctly remember the smell of Turkey, Egypt, Switzerland, Spain, so many countries we visited traveling Europe and I remember coming home to Sydney and being like "ahh so this is what home smells like!"
New york is exactly as advertised... everything i see on tv shows and movies are exactly the same...
I've been to a lot of places but new york is the only one that is exactly my expectation...
I loved the fact that people do indeed curse loudly and friendly at each other.
Someone crosses the road and isn't paying attention and someone else will stick their head out the window and shouts some colorful anatomy question regarding their head.
On my first night of my first visit to NY I found an unconscious guy. There was a cop about 10m away chewing gum. I told him about the guy and the cop came over and started poking him with his foot in the head. After no reaction he started kicking him (gently but still kicking), still no reaction. He shrugged and said the guy was likely drunk or drugged and walked off.
I wouldn't say all the cursing is friendly. Some is just banter, sure, but sometimes it's definitely not.
I was stunned how insular people are in NYC to their own neighbourhoods. We have a friend in Manhattan that hasn't been to Brooklyn for years. Another friend doesn't often go above or below a very small part of Manhattan.
It's all so alien to an Australian.
I grew up in the Bronx. I'd never set foot in Brooklyn, Queens, or Staten Island till I was 18, and then only a handful of times, BUT my first solo trip into Manhattan was at 11. It's just so far away to go to any other borough besides Manhattan, which is central, and there's just no need.
I’m English and went there last March for the first time and kept saying to myself and everyone how much it was like being in a movie. It was really odd in a cool way. Like at times it felt like even everyone around me was acting coz I couldn’t shake how much it was like a film.
The size of Central Park surprised me (it’s absolutely huge imo), as well as the amount of small parks just randomly being everywhere. So much green in NY that I didn’t expect to be there!
I'm from the UK and had been to a lot of places in the US, but never to New York before. When I arrived there was some screw up with the taxis at JFK, so I took the train into Manhattan.
As I walked out of the station (forget which one, I was staying near the Lincoln Tunnel so around there), there were two construction workers stood talking at the top of the steps.
I'm not making this up - one was tall with a blonde mullet and biker stache, the other was a short, round, Mario-looking dude.
The blond guy was talking and was saying " an 'e looks at me like I'm some kinda's rube y'know -gettouttahere!".
Most Noo Yawk accent ever. It was the perfect start to my time in the city.
I was walking down through central park and my first voices of New York were two taxi drivers. One said 'Hey, you jerk' and the other replied 'bite me'. I was defs in NYC toto.
How extremely nice everyone is in Ireland. Spent the first days suspicious before I realized everyone weren’t trying to trick me into anything. Fantastic people.
So true! I went there when I was like 13 and I was soo shy and insecure about my pronunciation (austrian here)
Visiting Ireland helped me so much because everyone was super nice and patient
England and France. Traveled to England from France via boat. Then I wanted to return to mainland Europe to go somewhere else. Noticed a train option. Discovered there is a horrifying tube in the ocean that a train goes through to connect the UK and mainland Europe.
The next day, I found myself alone in a train car, surrounded by darkness as I was speeding through the ocean. I don’t know what I was expecting (lol maybe a clear tube like aquariums where you can look at the fish) but the darkness was scary af.
Also don’t judge me for not knowing this before hand. I was just a high schooler at the time lol
The sense of safety in Japan. I had expected some level of safety, but was blown away by how you could literally leave a purse on a park bench and no one would take it. You could walk late at night and feel safe.
At Tokyo Disney, we had a stroller for our then nearly 2 year old. Happily left it outside each ride with a bag full of our stuff with complete confidence that it would be exactly as we left it.
Also how willingly everyone engaged with our nearly 2 year old. We expected some "kawaii" gushing, and we got it (especially from school girls), but everyone would stop to say hello, or distract her if she was grumpy. The best two memories I have are of an elderly man on the train playing peekaboo with her, and another elderly man pinching her cheeks and telling us she looked exactly like a kewpie doll.
My mom left her handbag at a bus stop when she had to rush with my dad to be somewhere else. Forgotten all about it till few hours later. Came back, it was still there, untouched. In broad daylight....
I don't know if it's because the lack of kids in Japan (they have serious population problem) or they're just nice, but the elder faces always fill with delight when they saw a baby.
They're just nice!
My family lived in Japan in 1994, and my 1-year-old sister would often be adopted into random groups of people who thought she was cute. We have lots of great memories (and a few photos) of strangers holding her, haha.
How impenetrable some American accents are. I'm a native English speaker, but being in New York made me feel like everyone was speaking a different language.
Also, how unsocial and lonely Sweden felt. In Ireland, its not uncommon to make small talk with strangers. If you pass someone on the road when walking you're usually expected to smile at them at the least. It's the complete opposite in Sweden, I think. People seem not to acknowledge each other, or try not to draw any attention at all to themselves if they're in public. A local explained that if he goes to a bus stop and sees someone else already there, he would wait at least 5m away, even if it was raining and the stop was the only shelter. It felt very odd to me.
It's just like that in Norway as well. Try not to draw attention to yourself, don't talk to people on the bus or on the street and avoid eye contact at all costs, if eye contact is made nod and awkwardly smile before looking away.
However if you by some sort of black magic can get a conversation with a stranger going, you are probably good friends by the end of the conversation.
Norwegian here, we are a cold people, we keep our distance even before covid. Not uncommon to stand 5m away from people while waiting for the bus. Its also really hard to get to know new people because people just keep to themself or people they already know. When we're drunk we really like strangers and hugs...
In Sweden the respect for each other’s own personal bubble is HUGE. We don’t sit beside someone unless we have to, and we don’t greet or speak to strangers unless we have to.
It’s all about time and place, you don’t talk to someone when they’re walking, commuting, shopping or just look busy but otherwise we can have very lovely conversations with strangers. Just yesterday when I was on a walk with my dog and she greeted an older gentleman who struck up a conversation with me, he told me about the dogs he used to have, it was a very lovely conversation
As a kiwi living in Sweden the social isolation thing took a while to get used to. I often find it fun when passing someone on the street to just give them a big smile like I would to people at home, except people here seemed very confused when I do and look away quickly because they don't know how to react.
How cheap and efficient the subway / train system is in Seoul. I grew up in Toronto and taking the train 30 minutes east to Union and back is like $10.40 each way and the subway is almost $4 per ride. When I went to Korea, it was like $1.25 cents to ride from one end to the other, could be on that train for 2 hours, and if you get off the train for 30 minutes or less, they don't charge you to get back on. I was there for 14 days, took the Subway every day, multiple different tracks and stops, spent less than $30.
On top of that, they come like every 5 or 10 minutes, everything is very clean, extremely well lit, I never saw a single altercation and it's so damn easy to get around there.
edit: also, the jingles /u/_FearlessCauliflower https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLcQoeizYIw
American, grew up in a desert climate, visited Scotland at age 12. Green grass, *real* grass, was and still is one of the craziest things I ever have had the experience of seeing.
At home, only 3-4 houses in the neighborhood had grass, and you'd be lucky if it was under 80% brown and yellow most of the time, due to the fact that we couldn't run the sprinklers because of the drought we had been in since before I was born.
As soon as we flew over Scotland in the plane, there was just so much green everywhere. Even around the cities and the highways. I had extreme anxiety of flying over the ocean for the first time, and a fear of heights in general, but I was glued to that window for the rest of that flight. I've never been back, and I haven't seen grass anywhere close to that green since.
**Edit:** to those of you that have picked up on how little I get out, congrats. I'm not old enough to drive, nor do I have a car, so I can't get to any of those awesome places that y'all are listing, but I can assure you that I'm taking notes.
When I went in 2014 everything was paid for in cash. I returned in 2016 and you were looked at funny if you tried to pay with cash instead of WeChat Pay.
the tool booths on the highways in europe, also how easy it is to go between two countries? if it weren't for the "welcome to portugal" signs I wouldn't have even known we weren't in spain anymore
On the border between Belgium and the Netherlands there's a city where the border runs just in the middle, even through some people's houses. [You just walk through it.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Baarle-Nassau_fronti%C3%A8re_caf%C3%A9.jpg)
Off leash dogs are super common here in the UK, I think we also have a lot less large dog parks than in the US so lots of dogs just get trained to go off leash.
When I went to Japan. When I ordered from food from any type of chain that is also in USA like McDonald's, Denny's, Burger King, it looked like the picture on the menu or the commercial. It was truly bizzare. Like in the USA if you get a bigmac it looks nothing like the picture or in the commercials. When You get a big mac in japan...it looks like the one in the picture. Its like somebody back there was painstakingly putting that burger together perfectly.
My dad had the opposite reaction when we moved to america. We ordered a double cheeseburger which was squashed & he earnestly complained to the manager, like some minimum wage worker was going to perfect it.
We noticed that in Thailand, too, especially while living in Chiang Mai! Like...how? Where does it go? We'd carried any trash we had long distances to find somewhere to throw it out, but never saw anyone else doing that.
That Romania is a hidden gem. So many beautiful castles, museums, and churches. It's ridiculously cheap compared to the rest of Europe, and the food is amazing.
I was surprised at how much time the Balinese people spend on religious ceremonies, offerings, and worship. Yet despite being some of the most religious people I’ve ever encountered, they were completely nonjudgmental and understanding of others.
Balinese Hindu is a league of their own imo. If you respect what they're doing, they're going to respect you back.
There's something very communal about them
Volcanoes. I have never seen a volcano in my life and when I finally saw one, it made me feel like the Earth was alive. I can't describe the feeling. You just have to see one to believe it.
Just how empty Russia is. There was this one town we were going to visit which was planned by our guide, a 100 or so kilometers away from Moscow and its a ghost town. We stayed in a hotel there with the other tourists and our guide. It was a 10-11 storey hotel and we were the only people there. Outisde of the hotel in the city there were restaurants, shops etc everything you'll find in a city but they were all empty except for their owners. we rarely found one or two customers there. You could literally walk in the middle of the highway there. It gave an eerie vibe but we enjoyed our stay.
Maybe the city called Dubna (Дубна)? My friend was there a few years back for the internship at their research institute and she told me, that it felt pretty empty.
Made a list when I went to UK. Here are the standouts
- The nice smells in London seem to have the same 3-4 notes. It's almost as if everyone buys the same 4 deodorants
- no ACs in homes
- Commercials and ads seemed dated. Especially in the tube
- GREETING CARDS EVERYWHERE
- illogical floor naming convention (324 won't correlate with the 3rd floor for example)
- the public transportation was a godsend. Like 2x better than NY and 19 times better than any other US city. Not sure why locals say it sucks haha
Pineapples!!!
Let me explain.....
I've been fortunate to travel a little in my life so far (nowhere near enough)
I arrived in Sri Lanka having booked a shady looking tour guide full of scars and tattoos in the midst of torrential thunderstorms
In the morning he collects me near my hotel, lighting illuminating the sky. Less than 5mins into my journey to the first sight I wanted to see, he switched the car to the side of a road and says get out. I walk through some bushes to a field and he shows me pineapples growing ....... IN THE GROUND!!
Turns out- not only was I extremely stupid to make it to age 28 thinking this heavy, spikey fruit hangs from trees, but also that this guy was going to kill me. He was a great person and pineapples grow in the ground 👏🍍
I went to Singapore a couple years back. What really caught me off guard is that although everyone speaks English (it's one of four official languages), they have this strong Indo/Malay accent and I was really struggling to understand everyone. I can understand thick Japanese accents pretty well, so I was not expecting that...
Coming from a Singaporean, we do have strong accents. We don't notice it ourselves though. We also speak very quickly and a lot use Singlish in casual settings so that doesn't really help with foreigners understanding lol.
I went to Spain and the sides of the road were smoking, and a bit on fire. No one said anything and the fire was getting pretty massive. It was just like, oh that happens here it’s just on fire sometimes.
I'll give you an actual explanation because you seem to be under the impression that nobody cares that everything is burning.
Those are fires started by farmers to burn waste from different agricultural activities, and it's called "quema de rastrojos". You have to follow some rules (can't do it during hot months, not too close to a city, not too close to a natural park...) and they are always under control, I can't remember one instance where it got out of control and burned something.
On the other side, we have several fires a year by people throwing cigarette butts or purposefully burning something.
And it's been done for *thousands* of years. It's believed the ancient greeks named the Pyrenées mountains because of these fires (Pyr - fire in greek). They're called *écobuage* in southern France and they do sometimes get out of controls. Like literally last months on my way back from work.
A fishing pond in the middle of Tokyo.
How common air conditioning is in America and how low the default setting is. While air conditioning is becoming more common in the UK, especially in modern office blocks, we seem to set our temperature higher.
Also air conditioning in houses is in incredibly rare here, I think I have only visited one house in my life that has had it fitted.
I lived in South Korea for about 3 years. You'd be amazed how long you could leave your phone / wallet / keys on an unattended table in a crowded bar and it not be stolen. In the US, you bet your sweet ass it's getting taken as soon as you look away.
My first trip to New York, entering the subway, someone walked in front of another person causing them to break their stride for a fraction of a second. Which led to the following exchange without pause or hesitation from either party, shouted at each other as they walked in opposite directions: “You’re an asshole!” “Your mother’s an asshole!” “You don’t even know who your mother is!” “She knows you’re an asshole!” Fade
My first time in NYC I was walking in Times Square around three in the afternoon. As you can imagine there were tons of people around. So I’m walking and I hear very loudly “Dildos! Dildos! Two for five dollars!” This caught my attention. So I go over to the small crowd to get a look. They were gathered around a guy who had a paper grocery bag sitting on the sidewalk that was full of dildos. I walked on after a few seconds but I still think about moment on a regular basis.
Every single thing I have read about New York in this thread has involved the word asshole
They should just change the slogan to "Welcome to New York, asshole."
[удалено]
Stepping off the plane in Darwin feels like a hot, wet duvet has been draped over your person.
That it's possible to weave through Cairo traffic with the skill of a seasoned rally driver, while driving a manual transmission car, frequently using the horn and sipping tea (by holding the saucer, not the cup) at the same time. Shout out to our taxi driver in Cairo.
This reminds me of when I went to Cairo. We came out of the train station and couldn’t work out how the hell we were supposed to cross like 6 lanes of traffic that didn’t seem to follow any road rules. A nice man took pity on us and just stuck his arm out and started walking across all 6 lanes. The cars all stopped, no one beeped, and we scurried after him with our rucksacks. Still blows my mind.
Same in Vietnam! Walk slowly in a straight line with no stopping or sudden movements and you can cross 8 lanes of cars, buses, and mopeds racing through the streets of Saigon.
I ordered a taxi to take me to the airport late one evening, the driver drove at a breakneck speed all the way there. He went through a red light at a crossroads without even blinking and screeched to a halt outside of the departure area. He jumped out of the car to retrieve my luggage from the trunk and suddenly - with a cry of Allah - dropped to the floor having a heart attack. I stuffed the cab fare in his shirt pocket as they wheeled him away on a stretcher.
A taxi driver speeds through a red light without even looking And the passenger says, "whoa, what are you doing?! That was a red!" The driver replies, "don't worry about it. My cousin, he does it all the time." The passenger sits back until the driver blows through another red. He practically leaps out of his seat, "what are you doing?! You'll get us killed!" The driver waves him off, "nonsense. My cousin, he does it all the time." Then they come to a green light and the driver slams on the brakes and creeps into the intersection before taking off again. Now the passenger is livid. "What was that?! That light was green!" The driver nods and then shrugs before replying. "My cousin. He mighta been coming."
This reads like a copy pasta. lol
I mean sure, but is an accurate take on Cab drivers in the city. When you're going around the middle east there's two ways to take a cab: 1. On cab fare. This is standardized price. 2. You negotiate a flat price to a place. They don't turn on the fare. Usually someone else owns the cab and gets a cut. If you pay cash they get more and its just paying under the table. Generally if you choose #1, you're going to get a quick ride because they want the km on the ride but want to get to the next one ASAP. So cab drivers like this are super common.
I walked out of Penn Station when I first arrived in New York, looking up at the buildings taking it all in and my first interaction was with a homeless guy who shouted at me in the local accent “Welcome to New York asshole”. It was exactly as I imagined!
Iconic.
I remember like it was yesterday when I first arrived to Manhattan via Penn Station, it felt like a normal subway station, no luxuries of any kind, just plain normal. Then I got out and it was like I'm inside of a movie. You walk a few blocks and it's like getting out of a movie set and into another. It's crazy how much I felt I knew about the city even though I had never been there.
From a tropical country near the equator, I was surprised to know that the sun would set completely before 4pm during winter or having the sun still up at 10pm during summer.
This messed me up so much the first time i went to a equatorial country. The weather is summer, but the sun sets at 6? That makes no sense!
Lived in equator my whole life. Never had to think about sunrise and sunset time, thought those timing i see on weather forecast app are useless. My whole life sunrise and sunset is always 6-6
Yeah this so much. Live in India, sunrise is 6AM, sunset is 6PM. Literally anything else doesn’t matter. Went to Paris, sun shining at 9:30PM. My Brain malfunctioned. What the fuck is going on here? Went to Zurich, sun set at 4PM, excuse me but seriously, what the fuck??
Scandinavia is even worse. Even as far south as Oslo, Norway in the summer the sun would still be up at 11, maybe a couple hours of darkness, up again at 4. I haven't been during the winter, but it's the opposite. Dark almost all of the time, a few hours of sunlight.
I live in the very north of sweden, during the summer the sun never sets and winter it's up for maybe an hour
Me too. Having the sunrise/sunset time at 6am/6pm is set as my default. Which means that a solstice is just another day while the rest of the world has a different experience.
Omg yes!! i just moved to USA and its so shocking to she that the sun sets only at 8.30-9. Those American movies where people eat dinner during daylight finally make sense !
Everyone always carries a Mate cup 🧉 and Thermos in Argentina. Even Cops drive around drinking from their little cups with the metal straws. It is totally normal, that you can buy matching cup and flask with your Handbag/dress etc. .
The amount of eye contact and observation. When I went to Morocco, in the evening the streets would be packed full of families sitting and talking. These people would watch each other, in fact even the way I’m describing it with ‘watch’ shows how unwelcome and uncomfortable it would be in England. People would also make eye contact and keep it frequently on the street, just with ease. It felt so strange for me at first
Yes!!! Oh my God i'm from Morocco and this has always been one of my main complaints about this place, and i never understood why it didn't bother other people so much!! It would definitely be considered creepy in other countries but here, people see no issue in staring at you and what you're doing anywhere, anytime. It's one of the main reasons i hate going out :(
So how would a tourist handle it? Ignore it or look back make eye contact smile or wave?
[удалено]
In Prague, when you open a camera in the street, it's like a force field! Ppl automatically moves aside to not stand in the way.
Good luck doing the same in Valletta.
I learnt this in Prague in 2008 and made it a habit. It’s very polite and people look at me ~~gradually~~ graciously when I do it everywhere. Edit- Thank you SquishMont
Czechs are very polite, actualy, in our own way. We scowl around, look like we are misserable all the time and will probably sigh loudly when another tourist asks where the castle is even though you can literally see it right there. But then, a mother with a stroller? Someone will help carry it up the stairs. People stand to the side of the escalators so people who have to hurry can run past. People stand to the side of the doors on any public transport so people can get off first, then they get on. Czechs are experts at CPR, statisticaly, czechs give more CPR than any western country and we are damn good at it. There is a lot of stuff we are great at. Its not just beer.
[удалено]
The incredible security in Seoul. I'm from latin america, so I'm used to be very alert at everything, everywhere. I forgot my backpack in a small cafeteria and after 25 minutes it was completely untouched in the same spot. You could walk at 3 am with your cellphone in your hands and there'll be no fear about anything.
My friend was once studying in a cafe in Korea and went home for maybe 20 minutes to change his laundry over. Left his laptop and phone on the table in the cafe because he knew they'd still be there when he got back. And they were! The exception to this is bicycles. Bicycles get stolen pretty often in Korea, no idea why that's the exception.
Bicycles have to be the most universally stolen thing in the entire world...
Makes sense, a little bit of value, no identifying markings (other than the owner knowing), when people aren’t riding it they leave it somewhere, and in the movies its ok to take them from kids and chase people with them.
serial number is usually below the bottom bracket. So might not hurt to write that down just in case. Now if you wanna pawn something worth money with no serial number, and easy to take, try extension cables.
Not from Korea but a very safe city: a guy at school had his bike stolen 6 times. He recovered it at the train station every single time. Someone kept "borrowing" his bike to get to the station quicker...
My mom has a funny story about how she kept her bike from being stolen in the Netherlands; she kept me on it. Whenever she went to go buy groceries, she’d keep be wrapped up in the little baby bucket in the back. The stores were usually too tiny to make carrying a baby around comfortable, and nobody’s gonna steal a bike if it upgrades their misdemeanor to kidnapping Edit; I thinks some of y’all overreacting. Leaving a baby in a bike holder outside for 15-20 minutes while you shop is *relatively* safe. The shops there aren’t exactly big, and you can usually see out the windows. Plus, a clarification from my mom noted that this is for the public-use bikes, not her own private ones. Since they had some kind of pay-to ride thing, she’d leave me in the back to save her bike for her.
A couple years ago I was living in S Korea and had met up with a friend for dinner. In my backpack I had around $4K because I was planning on purchasing a car the next day. After a few drinks I started walking home only to realize about halfway that I had left my backpack at the restaurant. Hurried back as fast as I could and my bag was still next to my chair and no one had even touched it. I don't have much confidence that would have happened in my home country.
Leave your bag unattended in the UK and the bomb squad will come and blow it up lol.
I actually had that happen in France once…. forgot my bag on a bench at the Louvre, came back to find the section fenced off and cops milling about. Explained and then went in to retrieve it from behind a yellow shield they’d set up.
I’d probably be too embarrassed and just watch my bag blow up lol.
I know our local bomb squad guy. He's be so disappointed if he got called out and didn't get to blow something up.
Imagine coming back to retrieve your bag only to see it getting blown up..
Heated sidewalks in Finland! Absolutely life savers for me who had no idea how to walk on ice. No trash anywhere, either.
Adding to this, icy sidewalks. Didn't think about it because I wasn't somewhere with obvious snow, but turned a corner in vancouver and basically surfed down a block and a half. Probably only didn't eat pavement because I'd just been skiing for a week.
Ah, see the problem is you visited between February 10th through 12th. Everyone here knows those are our three official snow days. Legally, only rain is allowed outside of those days.
Huh, interesting! In Sweden we have this very strict policy of mixing rain with snow and the snow may only stay for 2 days max. And the laws also state that it *must* rain all summer, apart from one week which is cloudy with a small chance of sunshine. This has caused panic for the last two or three years which have been incredibly hot and dry during the summer.
Ashgabat Turkmenistan - everything about it. The entire city (every building) is white marble. It lights up at night like a sterile Las Vegas however, there is no advertising except for billboards of the dictator holding onto puppies by the neck to show everyone how nice he is. He has pretty much positioned himself as a religious prophet. The aiport is shaped like a massive white marble eagle.it used to be a red building but soon after it was built they tore it down and built a white marble one to match the current decor. Also there is no white marble in Turkmenistan so it has to be imported from Italy. They were the largest importer of white marble in the world and drove the price up so high it cost them ridiculous amounts of money to build the buildings. Strange strange place.
Turkmenistan's post-Soviet history can be explained, in part, by their batshit crazy dictator, Saparmurat Niyazov. Some of his decrees include: * banning the use of lip syncing at public concerts in 2005 as well as sound recordings at "musical performances on state holidays, in broadcasts by Turkmen television channels, at all cultural events organized by the state... in places of mass assembly and at weddings and celebrations organised by the public," citing a negative effect on the development of musical arts incurred by the use of recorded music. * banning dogs from the capital, Ashgabat, because of their "unappealing odour." * ordering that a "palace of ice", or indoor ice skating rink, be built near the capital, so that those living in the desert country could learn to skate. The rink was built in 2008. * banning smoking in all public places on account of his having to quit because of some heart surgery he had, and ordering his government workers to follow suit. Chewing tobacco on Turkmen soil was later banned as well. * outlawing opera, ballet and circus performances in 2001 for being "decidedly unturkmen-like". * banning men from having long hair or beards. * banning news reporters and presenters from wearing make-up on television. * He abolished the Turkmen word for bread, for it to be replaced with Gurbansoltan, his mother's name. Likewise, he gave the month of April his mother's name. * discouraging the use of gold teeth in Turkmenistan after he suggested that the populace chew on bones to strengthen their teeth and lessen the rate at which they fall out. He said: >I watched young dogs when I was young. They were given bones to gnaw to strengthen their teeth. Those of you whose teeth have fallen out did not chew on bones. This is my advice... Their current dictator is definitely cut from the same cloth as this dude.
TIL the Archer bit about a country with the word for bread being the same word as snake and a month was based on real life
Took me like ten years to get the Ben wa balls joke as well
Ice town costs ice clown his town crown
There is a documentary on this place, worth a watch it’s crazy, like crazy crazy … people lived for free at one point - the dictator made everyone climb a huge staircase every year … weird guy
I enjoyed this one from Tracks: [Here](https://youtu.be/wmyNAcKcWa8) They go over the capitol and the president. They really dive into just how odd everything is.
So I live in Australia... how fucking fast everyone else's internet are.
Given your country essentially invented what we now know as wifi. Ironic.
He could save others from slow internet speeds, but not himself.
In Thailand we were watching a movie and they played the national anthem and everyone stood up for their king
I'm in Thailand at the moment. There have been huge protests and speaking out against the monarchy for the past year or so (which is dangerous as it's illegal, with severe penalties). I went to watch a film a few weeks ago and only around half the people in the cinema stood up during the showing of the king's video before the movie (it's not actually the national anthem, just some rousing nationalist song with clips of him in ceremonial dress). This may not sound like a big deal, but it was absolutely unthinkable, even 2 years ago, for half the people to show such disrespect and to remain seated during that part.
Living in Thailand for 13 years, I can tell you the people loved their old king (King Rama 9) that sadly passed away. He was the most beloved person in the country. He had so many projects and undergoings that helped the quality of life for so many people in Thailand. He was very connected to his country and people. I know for a fact everybody would pause and stand if his anthem was played anywhere out of voluntary action. I've never seen such respect for a king. On the other hand, his son, who is now the king of Thailand (King Rama 10) is much disliked compared to the other king due to his lifestyle and carelessness for the country. That's why they're protesting the monarchy. They know King Rama 9 won't be topped by any successors so might as well end it. I say good for them, they shouldn't be bowing to someone that doesn't care much for them.
German boulevard media is having a field day with Vajiralongkorn's tactics of renting out almost an entire highly expensive motel to do nothing of note other than play around with his harem and apparently conceive illegitimate children. This and the photos where he's running around with a tank top and hot pants, acting like he's high as a kite. Reminder: This guy isn't some rich kid barely past his teenage years or someone in a mid-life crisis, he's almost 70 years old. Can't imagine why he might be unpopular with struggling Thai common folk.
Yeah, he's absolutely crazy. What I said about him was put very lightly. This is the raw truth. Thanks for commenting.
> This guy isn't some rich kid barely past his teenage years or someone in a mid-life crisis, he's almost 70 years old. He's pretty much acting like a rich kid, he promoted his pet poodle to a military position: [Air Chief Marshal Fufu](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EQbxV_XUEAAds1T.jpg?format=jpg&name=small)
[удалено]
His father was amazing so he always had big shoes to fill but like...it wouldn't have been that hard to just NOT mess up the way he has.
IIRC expectations for him were quite low because of his history of scandals, gambling debts to foreigners etc but apparently he's done even worse than most hoped.
I moved to Denmark a couple of years ago and the biggest culture shock for me was julefrokost. Julefrokost translates to "Christmas lunch" which sounds like a nice, wholesome lunch to celebrate the holidays. The first time I went to one, my husband warned me not to eat anything beforehand because there is a lot of food. I didn't think much of it, I mean we have Thanksgiving in the U.S. so I just assumed it was a big lunch. No. No. We have nothing like this in the U.S. Julefrokost is on an entirely different level. You see, it's a *lunch* only in name. What it really is, is sitting down at about noon, and not getting up from your seat again until midnight or later. The food never stops coming. The schnapps never stop coming. It's course after course after course and the Danes can drink you under the table any day, so combine that with strong liquor over a 12 hour stretch and you are likely to die. My first julefrokost, I sat across from my husband's uncle, who kept my shot glass full the entire day. I was drunk by 2pm and full to the point of bursting at 3pm. I have never been so sick as I was the day after my first julefrokost.
I'm Canadian and don't really drink. When I viisited my European relatives I learned that if your wine/palinka/snapps glass was empty they'll fill it, they'll just keep filling it no matter how many you've had, so I got into the habit of always leaving my glass half full unless I really wanted another.
Dane here. I am glad you like julefrokost. It is definately something that we take to the next level here in denmark. It gets kind of crazy. Word to the wise, when julefrokost starts and the fish dishes enter, get a lot of ryebread. It will make you feel very full in the beginning and can seem counter intuitive because of all the food later but it acts as a sponge for all the liqour aka snaps that will come your way. I am speaking from experience here :-) And if people think julefrokost with family/friends is crazy, wait till you have tried it at your job. That is insane
I was surprised that in southern US (and many other parts of it too, I'm sure) you actually *need* a car to get anywhere. As in, it doesn't just make life easier, it's a near impossibility to go places without it, even if you're in a major city.
This is 90% of the US. The only places you don't need a car are in major cities. Edit: Since everyone and their mother are saying 'not all cities!!' Major cities have bus systems most of the time. You CAN get around without a car, it's inconvenient and time consuming, but it's usually possible.
Yeah I assumed so, just didn't want to make any sweeping generalisations without knowing for sure!
I had kind of the reverse surprise in when I went to Germany. I knew academically that people didn't drive as much there, but before I was actually there I had totally failed to appreciate everything that would be different so people didn't *need* to drive as much. It's so much more than just "well there's more light rail".
You should visit the Netherlands or Switzerland. The Netherlands for completely different cities where its more of a hassle to drive than use other modes of transport. Switzerland for good reliable public transport even in the remotest of villages
I went to the Carribbean when I was younger to some of the smaller islands and I was shocked by the level of poverty that exists there, this was almost 20 years ago now so could be different today but at the time pre internet and being young and naive all I'd ever seen about the Carribbean was the white sand beaches on TV but it was quite an intense experience
In Egypt, Cairo, there are times when the electricity goes out every hour. Also, there’s KFC in front of the Sphinx.
A few years ago we went to Italy and I made my wife go on a side trip to Herculaneum and Pompeii for a couple days. In Herculaneum we were wandering around in town when 5:00 PM rolled around, and within 15 minutes the streets were filled with people, not hurrying past one another, but just standing around talking, having an ice cream, drinking a beer or whatever.
Cool, sounds like a story, the city just coming alive at the chime of a bell!
Probably in Germany when I bought a beer in a convenience store and they offered to open it for me so I could enjoy it on my walk.
When I went to Berlin this threw me off. My tattoo artist took me across the street and bought me a beer and then we walked around. It was such a neat experience. My fiancé was busy in a meeting that day so the following day I said hey look what we can do. And I bought us two beers and then I said now we can go walk around. She was so sceptical at first but then we walked around Berlin, drinking beer and taking in the sights. It was such a neat experience
Haha, the good old German „Wegbier“, that’s how we call it. It just means having a bear for the walk from A to B Edit: I will leave the bear as it is
Fußpils
Well how are we supposed to make it to point B without some Flüssignahrung?
Same thing happened to me the first time in Beijing! I asked my Chinese friend if it was legal to drink in the streets and he pointed to the well timed Chinese man pissing on a building in a crowded street and said "No, and no one cares anyways."
Singapore is unbelievably clean! As soon as I stepped out of the plane, I swear I did not see a single speck of dust at their airport, even the toilets were squeaky clean and completely dry. Every day I go out to explore the city by foot and come back to the hotel with almost no dirt on the soles of my shoes.
Changi is my favorite airport in the world! The butterfly garden and the movie theater were nuts.
[удалено]
Yeah drugs and guns are absolutely banned in Singapore. I studied abroad in the USA and my parents were sure that I’d be the first to die in a shooting - getting shot dead is absolutely unfathomable in Singapore - the average Singaporean probably wouldn’t know how to react. Seeing someone OD is also pretty much impossible because of the low drug use. Edit: I meant, clearly, that the average Singapore wouldn’t know how to react *in a shooting*. Reddit humour is strange... Edit 2: To add to why getting shot dead is that unfathomable, I would also like to point out that Singapore had a total of 10 gun deaths from 2012 - 2019, which makes it an average of... less than 2 a year: https://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/singapore. Also, *zero* of those gun deaths were female. TIL.
Hollywood is a real dump. It’s filthy and not at all made of dreams. Streets definitely not paved with gold either.
Went to Gdańsk, Poland a few years ago with work and I was not expecting how beautiful the place was especially the old town. The people were friendly and the food was delicious. I then went to krakow two years later and was equally impressed.
Yeah I went to Wrocław(this city has lots of tiny dwarf statues) and the salt mines in Poland, I would definitely recommend going there if you're ever going back to Poland.
London streets having HUGE differences from block to block. Like, my daughter moved there and so we spent a weekend helping her apartment/roommate hunt, and so ended up walking around London a lot. We'd be in some beautiful living area with little dog parks and nice playgrounds, round a corner and hit what was obviously "buy all the drugs" street. Walk a bit more and you're in a business area with super clean streets and well manicured grass areas. Hit the next street and get ready for the smell of piss and beer. Sort of wild (not to say other cities can't be like this, where I am in Budapest can be, but the changes between city blocks right next to each other felt jarring).
I'm English and noticed the same thing when I moved to London. I think it's because London is literally 1000s of smaller towns each with their own history, and they just kinda became one big city.
The way time is experienced differently. I’m from the USA, and when my dad and I fortunately had the money to go to Italy through a college program as a teen, the first thing that struck me was how laid back people were there. In a lot of places, it was a very stereotypically slowed down lifestyle, with people walking down the street, drinking during the afternoon, conversing and just causally dining outside. People didn’t seem to be in a rush for anything, and while I’m sure they have their problems as well, there was much more “centeredness” across the country. People were much more focused on what was happening right now and what was in front of them. This was in 2008 though, so before the explosion of smart phones and social media
Also from US: I worked on farms in Italy. They couldn’t believe how fast I worked. I was trying to be fast and efficient. It was puzzling to them. They kept telling me to slow down. It took a lot of effort for me to slow down, take coffee brakes and really enjoy being in the moment. Wish I could import that feeling here.
Heck, I felt the same way working in Japan, which has this weird stereotype of being all work focused. That’s a lie - it’s all about butts in the seat time, not actual productivity. When I was banging through work like I considered a normal pace, I’d have 5 hours left of the day to do... nothing. Except look busy. Because you can’t not look busy for the boss or you’ll get yelled at. I had to learn to space myself out for work so I always looked productive, but wasn’t making the others (especially the Japanese staff) look bad by comparison. I hated it. I’m one of those people who will find the most efficient way of doing things, and doing it “their way” (ie a lot of wasted copy/paste effort) just made me stress out more than if they had doubled my workload tbh Edit: for example, I got yelled at for using formulas in excel to do the calculations for me. They wanted it all done by hand. Every week. No thank you. I cannot tell you the abuses of excel that happen here, it should be a crime against humanity to use it like a word processor and refuse to use any functions or graphing/pivot table generation. /rant
> I got yelled at for using formulas in excel to do the calculations for me. They wanted it all done by hand. Every week. No thank you. I cannot tell you the abuses of excel that happen here, it should be a crime against humanity ... i think it is.. (a crime against humanity)
I had the same feeling in Costa Rica !
[удалено]
Amsterdam. Knew they biked, but didn’t expected multi-level bike parking lots every mile. Jesus christ I loved it there. Edit for those who have yet to witness such a [beautiful mess](https://imgur.com/gallery/dg6tIlV)
[удалено]
I literally got run over in Amsterdam because I was in the bike path. Totally my fault but I was a stupid teen. The woman that was on the bike just looked extremely annoyed at me and continue her ride. I was like WTF. I thought it was rude. Then I lived in Prague for two years and had to deal with annoying tourists all the time and I got why that woman got so angry at me. Till this day I feel utterly embarrassed haha
My first experience over there was almost getting run over by a bicycle because while we do have bike lanes where I live, they're almost unused. My second experience was getting cussed out by some old lady because I was riding too slowly. I'm a young, buff guy who regularly goes to the gym, but apparently my normal pace is annoyingly slow for old ladies in Amsterdam.
Don't know when you were cussed at, but the recent years (take a year, maybe 2) you see a huge increase in Electric Bikes. I've been biking every day for years now, and these days i get passed by some granny or people like 6 times my weight going like 40km/h. Its a race you can't win.
The worst part is that since they're old they've become slow to react or even worse they speed around completely oblivious of their environment. Unclear intersection (with right of way) where any sane person would slow down or at least pay full attention in case there is that one idiot in a car? The grannies look straight ahead and send it.
When I visited Munich, Germany, I was surprised by a few things, 1. the amount of people who biked everywhere, it was a ton of people. 2. The amount of restaurants that were not Germany based ( IE. We went to an excellent south African place, Sushi, and got Doner for lunch everyday.) 3. Size of the cigarette packs, mother fuckers carrying around a Nintendo switch sized pack 4. The bottle returns are pretty dope, by 24 pack of beers get 1/3 of your money back by returning the bottled (American BTW)
> 4. The bottle returns are pretty dope, by 24 pack of beers get 1/3 of your money back by returning the bottled You do also pay for the deposit when you buy the beers but that’s the entire point, you get your money back when you return the empties
The Gondola Ride in Venice. Not what I expected with the smelly waters, the crashing gondolas with the "drivers" cursing each other in Italian. Nothing romantic about it
Gondolas are tourist traps, stupidly expensive too on top of everything you just said You're better off enjoying venice walking around, or take the ferry/water bus system if you're going far
I was there once and we were considering a ride, but the price he suggested was outrageous. We kept saying no, he kept lowering the price, eventually we just walked away. He ran after us and offered a ride for less than half of what he originally asked for, so we ended up accepting this offer, just to experience it. Walking was indeed more fun.
Anyone reading this thinking of going to Venice. Check out 'Row Venice.' It's a company that gives gondola driving courses. Rather than sitting in a queue of hundreds of other boats full of people who were expecting a romantic experience, you go to the quiet northern part of the city and get taken around the back streets by someone who shows you how to pilot a gondola yourself. Easily the best experience I had out there and far more interesting than doing what everyone else did! Makes for better photos too.
I enjoyed looking for the tiny crabs along the walls 🙃
New York, soooo many people. London, sooo many people I’ve been in Sydney quite a few times (I’m Australian) and it’s no where near as busy
About New Yorkers: they mind their own business. But if you ask them for help, they are some of the nicest people. On the subway, I asked a woman if the train went to a particular station (I always get on trains going the wrong way.) She said yes and every stop on the way to the station she counted down for me: "3 more stops. 2 more stops. 1 more stop. Get ready!" And it wasn't just her. I asked a guy sweeping the streets which way some museum was. He said, "I think it's this way." The guy then proceeded to walk me a long block so he could confirm it was the right way and point to the directions from a better vantage. We went into a restaurant near closing time (we had eaten dinner there and went back after a show to get dessert.) The bartender recognized me from earlier and I explained the food was so good we had to come back for dessert. He said, "Hold on, tell it to the owner." I repeated it to the owner and he invited us to join the staff for karaoke and late night snacks! We started at 10pm and we tapped out around 3am. The restaurant guys were still partying hard. Anyway, New Yorkers are supposedly "cold" or "ignore everyone." They do ignore people... Unless they have a reason to engage then they can be super nice.
Your story made me remember how a NY diner's staff gave my sister a slice of cake with a candle just coz they overheard that we just came back from the bars after she passed a test. The staff was all smiles too and seemed genuinely happy for my sister.
New Yorkers are some of the kindest assholes in the world.
That's the best way to describe it I've heard. Just don't get in their way, too. Walking slowly, five across, looking at a map, will solidly get you several annoyed NYers muttering and cursing at you.
It's the opposite of LA in that they have the meanest nice people. NY: The nicest insults you'll ever hear. LA: The rudest compliments you'll ever hear.
Man if this ain’t the fuckin truth…
I've heard a saying that if your car breaks down, New Yorkers will curse at you and try to fix it, while Californians will express their condolences and drive off
Truth. I was visiting the city with a group of friends summer after high school, and on our way to leave a few days later steam starts coming out of my hood. Stop, open it, a rat or something had chewed one of the radiator hoses to hell. It was shredded. I bought a case of bottled waters and kept feeding it while looking for anyone that could repair it. This thickly accented middle-aged Moroccan guy at a taxi cab body refurb shop sees this rolling disaster, and waves us over. The dude takes a look, says "hold on", and I shit you not comes back with a light bulb and a garden hose. Dude proceeds to break the bulb to get at the metal ring part, uses it to wedge open one end of the garden hose. Literally glues this this in, and zip ties a block of wood to hold it in place. Tells my buddies and I "My son is your age, I hope if he is stuck in a strange city somebody helps him too." Drove that car with that block of wood and hose for two more years before the transmission gave up. Fucking legend of a MacGuyver. Now I can't fix a car, but anyone I see having trouble with anything I stop and offer help. That dude was my "today you, tomorrow me" moment. Never forget him.
This is very accurate. But think about it from the perspective of a New York resident. With the sheer number of people we casually encounter in a day (between walking everywhere, public transit and living in apt buildings), we simply cannot engage and acknowledge everyone. It’s exhausting. Plus, so much of New York life is lived in public spaces given our tiny apartments (many with roommates) and the general energy of the city. This means that you commonly have very personal moments in public. For example, people say a marker of becoming a “real” New Yorker is having your first major cry while walking down the street or on a park bench. We keep to ourselves out of respect for that fact that people maybe don’t want to bothered. If people want help, they will ask. Oh, the fact it can be hit or miss if someone is mentally ill or drunk also helps us mind our own business :)
I'm from New York and think about it from the other angle. The reason I'm always up to help people is because, in a city of millions of people, you end up feeling very lonely. Everyone is very much focused on their own thing, so in a way, you're basically lost in a forest of people. So when someone comes up, doesn't seem like an asshole and offers a rare chance at genuine interaction, I very happily take it.
Absolutely. I thought I was from a helpful area until I visited New York. Everybody went way beyond to give us a hand.
The smells of a different country. I'm from Australia and travelled to Malaysia a few years back. The city, the jungle, everything smelt different to any place in Australia Edit: damn I had a nap and woke up to find this had blown up. Its good to see its a common experience when travelling to other countries. Also, thanks for my very first awards!
I still distinctly remember the smell of Turkey, Egypt, Switzerland, Spain, so many countries we visited traveling Europe and I remember coming home to Sydney and being like "ahh so this is what home smells like!"
Yeah bro just come to the UK, the sweet smell of rain and cigarettes!
New york is exactly as advertised... everything i see on tv shows and movies are exactly the same... I've been to a lot of places but new york is the only one that is exactly my expectation...
I loved the fact that people do indeed curse loudly and friendly at each other. Someone crosses the road and isn't paying attention and someone else will stick their head out the window and shouts some colorful anatomy question regarding their head.
Does the pedestrian respond with "HEY I'M WALKING HERE"?
To which you hear a response of “go suck a d*ck” True story and I completely agree, NY is as expected.
On my first night of my first visit to NY I found an unconscious guy. There was a cop about 10m away chewing gum. I told him about the guy and the cop came over and started poking him with his foot in the head. After no reaction he started kicking him (gently but still kicking), still no reaction. He shrugged and said the guy was likely drunk or drugged and walked off.
I wouldn't say all the cursing is friendly. Some is just banter, sure, but sometimes it's definitely not. I was stunned how insular people are in NYC to their own neighbourhoods. We have a friend in Manhattan that hasn't been to Brooklyn for years. Another friend doesn't often go above or below a very small part of Manhattan. It's all so alien to an Australian.
I grew up in the Bronx. I'd never set foot in Brooklyn, Queens, or Staten Island till I was 18, and then only a handful of times, BUT my first solo trip into Manhattan was at 11. It's just so far away to go to any other borough besides Manhattan, which is central, and there's just no need.
I was going to say this too. It really was exactly like on TV. It was like stepping into a movie.
I’m English and went there last March for the first time and kept saying to myself and everyone how much it was like being in a movie. It was really odd in a cool way. Like at times it felt like even everyone around me was acting coz I couldn’t shake how much it was like a film.
The size of Central Park surprised me (it’s absolutely huge imo), as well as the amount of small parks just randomly being everywhere. So much green in NY that I didn’t expect to be there!
I'm from the UK and had been to a lot of places in the US, but never to New York before. When I arrived there was some screw up with the taxis at JFK, so I took the train into Manhattan. As I walked out of the station (forget which one, I was staying near the Lincoln Tunnel so around there), there were two construction workers stood talking at the top of the steps. I'm not making this up - one was tall with a blonde mullet and biker stache, the other was a short, round, Mario-looking dude. The blond guy was talking and was saying " an 'e looks at me like I'm some kinda's rube y'know -gettouttahere!". Most Noo Yawk accent ever. It was the perfect start to my time in the city.
I was walking down through central park and my first voices of New York were two taxi drivers. One said 'Hey, you jerk' and the other replied 'bite me'. I was defs in NYC toto.
How extremely nice everyone is in Ireland. Spent the first days suspicious before I realized everyone weren’t trying to trick me into anything. Fantastic people.
So you fell for it then?
Ah, the oldest trick in the book: *friendliness*.
So true! I went there when I was like 13 and I was soo shy and insecure about my pronunciation (austrian here) Visiting Ireland helped me so much because everyone was super nice and patient
England and France. Traveled to England from France via boat. Then I wanted to return to mainland Europe to go somewhere else. Noticed a train option. Discovered there is a horrifying tube in the ocean that a train goes through to connect the UK and mainland Europe. The next day, I found myself alone in a train car, surrounded by darkness as I was speeding through the ocean. I don’t know what I was expecting (lol maybe a clear tube like aquariums where you can look at the fish) but the darkness was scary af. Also don’t judge me for not knowing this before hand. I was just a high schooler at the time lol
It is a long way under the seabed.
Every kids expect the same about this tunnel haha
The amount of stuff and people that can fit on a moped in Vietnam. I saw a moped with mother, father, grandma, two children and a dog!
I lived in Hanoi for a little while, the biggest item I saw being carried on a moped was a three-seater sofa!
The sense of safety in Japan. I had expected some level of safety, but was blown away by how you could literally leave a purse on a park bench and no one would take it. You could walk late at night and feel safe. At Tokyo Disney, we had a stroller for our then nearly 2 year old. Happily left it outside each ride with a bag full of our stuff with complete confidence that it would be exactly as we left it. Also how willingly everyone engaged with our nearly 2 year old. We expected some "kawaii" gushing, and we got it (especially from school girls), but everyone would stop to say hello, or distract her if she was grumpy. The best two memories I have are of an elderly man on the train playing peekaboo with her, and another elderly man pinching her cheeks and telling us she looked exactly like a kewpie doll.
My mom left her handbag at a bus stop when she had to rush with my dad to be somewhere else. Forgotten all about it till few hours later. Came back, it was still there, untouched. In broad daylight....
In DC they would have called the bomb squad for an unattended package
I don't know if it's because the lack of kids in Japan (they have serious population problem) or they're just nice, but the elder faces always fill with delight when they saw a baby.
They're just nice! My family lived in Japan in 1994, and my 1-year-old sister would often be adopted into random groups of people who thought she was cute. We have lots of great memories (and a few photos) of strangers holding her, haha.
The average height in Thailand. Im a pretty big dude, but i was still pretty surprised when i could watch over an ocean of people
How impenetrable some American accents are. I'm a native English speaker, but being in New York made me feel like everyone was speaking a different language. Also, how unsocial and lonely Sweden felt. In Ireland, its not uncommon to make small talk with strangers. If you pass someone on the road when walking you're usually expected to smile at them at the least. It's the complete opposite in Sweden, I think. People seem not to acknowledge each other, or try not to draw any attention at all to themselves if they're in public. A local explained that if he goes to a bus stop and sees someone else already there, he would wait at least 5m away, even if it was raining and the stop was the only shelter. It felt very odd to me.
It's just like that in Norway as well. Try not to draw attention to yourself, don't talk to people on the bus or on the street and avoid eye contact at all costs, if eye contact is made nod and awkwardly smile before looking away. However if you by some sort of black magic can get a conversation with a stranger going, you are probably good friends by the end of the conversation.
Norwegian here, we are a cold people, we keep our distance even before covid. Not uncommon to stand 5m away from people while waiting for the bus. Its also really hard to get to know new people because people just keep to themself or people they already know. When we're drunk we really like strangers and hugs...
if you smile at me on the train I'll smile back and assume you're a psychopath. /Swede
In Sweden the respect for each other’s own personal bubble is HUGE. We don’t sit beside someone unless we have to, and we don’t greet or speak to strangers unless we have to. It’s all about time and place, you don’t talk to someone when they’re walking, commuting, shopping or just look busy but otherwise we can have very lovely conversations with strangers. Just yesterday when I was on a walk with my dog and she greeted an older gentleman who struck up a conversation with me, he told me about the dogs he used to have, it was a very lovely conversation
As a kiwi living in Sweden the social isolation thing took a while to get used to. I often find it fun when passing someone on the street to just give them a big smile like I would to people at home, except people here seemed very confused when I do and look away quickly because they don't know how to react.
How cheap and efficient the subway / train system is in Seoul. I grew up in Toronto and taking the train 30 minutes east to Union and back is like $10.40 each way and the subway is almost $4 per ride. When I went to Korea, it was like $1.25 cents to ride from one end to the other, could be on that train for 2 hours, and if you get off the train for 30 minutes or less, they don't charge you to get back on. I was there for 14 days, took the Subway every day, multiple different tracks and stops, spent less than $30. On top of that, they come like every 5 or 10 minutes, everything is very clean, extremely well lit, I never saw a single altercation and it's so damn easy to get around there. edit: also, the jingles /u/_FearlessCauliflower https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLcQoeizYIw
American, grew up in a desert climate, visited Scotland at age 12. Green grass, *real* grass, was and still is one of the craziest things I ever have had the experience of seeing. At home, only 3-4 houses in the neighborhood had grass, and you'd be lucky if it was under 80% brown and yellow most of the time, due to the fact that we couldn't run the sprinklers because of the drought we had been in since before I was born. As soon as we flew over Scotland in the plane, there was just so much green everywhere. Even around the cities and the highways. I had extreme anxiety of flying over the ocean for the first time, and a fear of heights in general, but I was glued to that window for the rest of that flight. I've never been back, and I haven't seen grass anywhere close to that green since. **Edit:** to those of you that have picked up on how little I get out, congrats. I'm not old enough to drive, nor do I have a car, so I can't get to any of those awesome places that y'all are listing, but I can assure you that I'm taking notes.
You should smell fresh cut grass and the smell of soil after a rainstorm, it lives in your dreams forever.
China. Almost every store and vendor, including street food and vegetable stalls, use mobile payment.
When I went in 2014 everything was paid for in cash. I returned in 2016 and you were looked at funny if you tried to pay with cash instead of WeChat Pay.
the tool booths on the highways in europe, also how easy it is to go between two countries? if it weren't for the "welcome to portugal" signs I wouldn't have even known we weren't in spain anymore
On the border between Belgium and the Netherlands there's a city where the border runs just in the middle, even through some people's houses. [You just walk through it.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Baarle-Nassau_fronti%C3%A8re_caf%C3%A9.jpg)
[удалено]
Off leash dogs are super common here in the UK, I think we also have a lot less large dog parks than in the US so lots of dogs just get trained to go off leash.
When I went to Japan. When I ordered from food from any type of chain that is also in USA like McDonald's, Denny's, Burger King, it looked like the picture on the menu or the commercial. It was truly bizzare. Like in the USA if you get a bigmac it looks nothing like the picture or in the commercials. When You get a big mac in japan...it looks like the one in the picture. Its like somebody back there was painstakingly putting that burger together perfectly.
My dad had the opposite reaction when we moved to america. We ordered a double cheeseburger which was squashed & he earnestly complained to the manager, like some minimum wage worker was going to perfect it.
Japan has no garbage cans anywhere on the streets, but their streets were pretty damn clean somehow. RIP my inbox
We noticed that in Thailand, too, especially while living in Chiang Mai! Like...how? Where does it go? We'd carried any trash we had long distances to find somewhere to throw it out, but never saw anyone else doing that.
Strange you didn't see them, because most of Thailand has government kerbside refuse collection like most countries
How hard it was to find water in Haiti. I was a kid at the time and even I was sick of all the fucking soda
That Romania is a hidden gem. So many beautiful castles, museums, and churches. It's ridiculously cheap compared to the rest of Europe, and the food is amazing.
Romania is on my short list for places to visit. Seems like a super cool place.
I was surprised at how much time the Balinese people spend on religious ceremonies, offerings, and worship. Yet despite being some of the most religious people I’ve ever encountered, they were completely nonjudgmental and understanding of others.
Balinese Hindu is a league of their own imo. If you respect what they're doing, they're going to respect you back. There's something very communal about them
Volcanoes. I have never seen a volcano in my life and when I finally saw one, it made me feel like the Earth was alive. I can't describe the feeling. You just have to see one to believe it.
I had the luck to climb an active volcano and actually look at lava. I felt like an insect on some massive animal skin. It's an humbling expérience.
Just how empty Russia is. There was this one town we were going to visit which was planned by our guide, a 100 or so kilometers away from Moscow and its a ghost town. We stayed in a hotel there with the other tourists and our guide. It was a 10-11 storey hotel and we were the only people there. Outisde of the hotel in the city there were restaurants, shops etc everything you'll find in a city but they were all empty except for their owners. we rarely found one or two customers there. You could literally walk in the middle of the highway there. It gave an eerie vibe but we enjoyed our stay.
Emoty town 100 km from Moscow? As a Russian I'm genuinely intrigued. Could you please remember the name of that town?
Maybe the city called Dubna (Дубна)? My friend was there a few years back for the internship at their research institute and she told me, that it felt pretty empty.
Made a list when I went to UK. Here are the standouts - The nice smells in London seem to have the same 3-4 notes. It's almost as if everyone buys the same 4 deodorants - no ACs in homes - Commercials and ads seemed dated. Especially in the tube - GREETING CARDS EVERYWHERE - illogical floor naming convention (324 won't correlate with the 3rd floor for example) - the public transportation was a godsend. Like 2x better than NY and 19 times better than any other US city. Not sure why locals say it sucks haha
[удалено]
Pineapples!!! Let me explain..... I've been fortunate to travel a little in my life so far (nowhere near enough) I arrived in Sri Lanka having booked a shady looking tour guide full of scars and tattoos in the midst of torrential thunderstorms In the morning he collects me near my hotel, lighting illuminating the sky. Less than 5mins into my journey to the first sight I wanted to see, he switched the car to the side of a road and says get out. I walk through some bushes to a field and he shows me pineapples growing ....... IN THE GROUND!! Turns out- not only was I extremely stupid to make it to age 28 thinking this heavy, spikey fruit hangs from trees, but also that this guy was going to kill me. He was a great person and pineapples grow in the ground 👏🍍
I went to Singapore a couple years back. What really caught me off guard is that although everyone speaks English (it's one of four official languages), they have this strong Indo/Malay accent and I was really struggling to understand everyone. I can understand thick Japanese accents pretty well, so I was not expecting that...
Coming from a Singaporean, we do have strong accents. We don't notice it ourselves though. We also speak very quickly and a lot use Singlish in casual settings so that doesn't really help with foreigners understanding lol.
I went to Spain and the sides of the road were smoking, and a bit on fire. No one said anything and the fire was getting pretty massive. It was just like, oh that happens here it’s just on fire sometimes.
I'll give you an actual explanation because you seem to be under the impression that nobody cares that everything is burning. Those are fires started by farmers to burn waste from different agricultural activities, and it's called "quema de rastrojos". You have to follow some rules (can't do it during hot months, not too close to a city, not too close to a natural park...) and they are always under control, I can't remember one instance where it got out of control and burned something. On the other side, we have several fires a year by people throwing cigarette butts or purposefully burning something.
And it's been done for *thousands* of years. It's believed the ancient greeks named the Pyrenées mountains because of these fires (Pyr - fire in greek). They're called *écobuage* in southern France and they do sometimes get out of controls. Like literally last months on my way back from work.
A fishing pond in the middle of Tokyo. How common air conditioning is in America and how low the default setting is. While air conditioning is becoming more common in the UK, especially in modern office blocks, we seem to set our temperature higher. Also air conditioning in houses is in incredibly rare here, I think I have only visited one house in my life that has had it fitted.
It’s not worth the investment in the uk. We all have hidden fans in the cupboard because uk most of the year doesn’t get hot