what did you not "get " until you got there?
Dec 28th, 2003, 06:57 PM
#81
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The Eifel Tower! I just never really saw it till I stood there looking up!! I even wish I had brought home one of those silly little souvenier ones...and will when I return!! Also I agree w/ Maureen GP..the size of Paris..the streets and blds etc. Also..hearing Bon Giorno Senora shouted down from windows all over Italy.....ahhh!!!
Dec 28th, 2003, 07:40 PM
#82
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The stereotype of Dutch people eating cheese. When I arrived at my friends' apartment in Zoetermeer(Netherlands), & opened the fridge to hunt for a snack, there was a HUGE, I mean of EPIC proportions, CHEESE sitting right in the middle of the fridge. They use it in ALL their dishes.
Dec 29th, 2003, 08:34 AM
#85
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To answer the original question: I didn't "get" what was the attraction to staying near the Spanish Steps with all of it's illicit activity after dark, and ever since I got there for the first time in 1970 and have returned many times henxce I STILL don't "get" it, especially when it comes from all the posters here who love to criticze things as being "too touristy" and yet they seem to want to stay in the very midst of them.
Dec 31st, 2003, 10:41 AM
#87
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When I "resurrected" this thread I promised to come back with my own thoughts.
I think the thing that really threw me on travelling was the realisation that foreign languages were real living organisms & not just some words found in a dusty text-book. Like most Brits my first tastes of travelling "abroad" were package holidays to Spain when, frankly, you were lucky to hear any Spanish words spoken at all. My first "independent" journey, however, was as a foot-passenger on a cross channel ferry to Dieppe with my girlfriend - now my wife. I was quite relaxed about dealing with the language as I had been pretty good at French at school & was looking forward to impressing her with my suave manner & gallic savoir-faire. Maybe things have changed now, but in those days the ferry docked at a harbour which seemed to be right in the heart of town & as we disembarked we were hit with a cacophony of sounds coming not only from the ship's loudspeaker system but also from what seemed like a million Frenchmen waiting on the quay. The star student couldnt even recognise a single word let alone understand any of it & we ended up lost. In fact it took us 45 minutes to find our hotel, which needless to say was only a few minutes walk from the harbour!
On the other hand I have been put to shame by the many people in Belgium & Holland who spoke excellent English.
One more thing I didn't "get" - in fact, I still don't get it - is the downright hostility of US Customs officials compared to the friendliness I have received from "ordinary" Americans on my travels to the U.S. I know we live in difficult times, especially these days, but I don't see why they have to be so unpleasant.
Anyway, from here in Scotland I'd like to wish Fodorites everywhere a very happy Hogmanay & a great New Year.
Jim
I think the thing that really threw me on travelling was the realisation that foreign languages were real living organisms & not just some words found in a dusty text-book. Like most Brits my first tastes of travelling "abroad" were package holidays to Spain when, frankly, you were lucky to hear any Spanish words spoken at all. My first "independent" journey, however, was as a foot-passenger on a cross channel ferry to Dieppe with my girlfriend - now my wife. I was quite relaxed about dealing with the language as I had been pretty good at French at school & was looking forward to impressing her with my suave manner & gallic savoir-faire. Maybe things have changed now, but in those days the ferry docked at a harbour which seemed to be right in the heart of town & as we disembarked we were hit with a cacophony of sounds coming not only from the ship's loudspeaker system but also from what seemed like a million Frenchmen waiting on the quay. The star student couldnt even recognise a single word let alone understand any of it & we ended up lost. In fact it took us 45 minutes to find our hotel, which needless to say was only a few minutes walk from the harbour!
On the other hand I have been put to shame by the many people in Belgium & Holland who spoke excellent English.
One more thing I didn't "get" - in fact, I still don't get it - is the downright hostility of US Customs officials compared to the friendliness I have received from "ordinary" Americans on my travels to the U.S. I know we live in difficult times, especially these days, but I don't see why they have to be so unpleasant.
Anyway, from here in Scotland I'd like to wish Fodorites everywhere a very happy Hogmanay & a great New Year.
Jim
Dec 31st, 2003, 11:29 AM
#88
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What I didn't get and still sort of don't get is how:
1)the same chianti I can drink at home tastes ten times better when I'm drinking it at a piazza in Tuscany.
2)how a simple plate of spaghetti can taste like a miracle when sitting at a Trattoria on the Amalfi coast.
3)how good a croissant or pain au chocolate can be when picking it up at the local bakery in Paris.
4)how I can avoid and hate fast food at home, but nearly die over a crepe at a street stand in St. Germain.
5)why the same Jameson's or Bushmills I can easily drink at home tastes 10 times better in a real Irish pub.
1)the same chianti I can drink at home tastes ten times better when I'm drinking it at a piazza in Tuscany.
2)how a simple plate of spaghetti can taste like a miracle when sitting at a Trattoria on the Amalfi coast.
3)how good a croissant or pain au chocolate can be when picking it up at the local bakery in Paris.
4)how I can avoid and hate fast food at home, but nearly die over a crepe at a street stand in St. Germain.
5)why the same Jameson's or Bushmills I can easily drink at home tastes 10 times better in a real Irish pub.
Jan 2nd, 2004, 04:31 PM
#89
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OK, please don't laugh. When I was at a pousada in Portugal I poured some of the fresh whole milk that was meant for the coffee in to my cup. The taste of that sweet rich milk made me realize all the good things we have given up here in the USA because we worry about everything we put in our mouths. I had not tasted such wonderful milk since I was a child and the milkman delivered our milk to our door early in the morning. Everyone was a lot skinnier back then too.
Jan 2nd, 2004, 07:41 PM
#90
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When I first came to the USA, I was surprised to see:
1) how much wasteland I saw..in Europe land is precious
2) American homes had built in closets
3) How beautiful and breathtaking the Grand Canyon was
5) how huge the hamburgers were in Texas
6) that Americans women could actually cook, sews and bake..
7) How immense Texas was
8)How big the USA was,etc...,
1) how much wasteland I saw..in Europe land is precious
2) American homes had built in closets
3) How beautiful and breathtaking the Grand Canyon was
5) how huge the hamburgers were in Texas
6) that Americans women could actually cook, sews and bake..
7) How immense Texas was
8)How big the USA was,etc...,
Jan 2nd, 2004, 08:56 PM
#91
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As an American college student in Europe, I was really struck by how much of a lasting impact World War II had on places in Germany and England. Some places in Germany looked modern because they had been rebuilt so much after the war, and so many places in London were affected by the war. It just struck me how different World War II had been for civilians in Europe rather than Americans for whom it had been "over there."
It seems obvious now that I am describing it, but it really was a revelation at the time.
It seems obvious now that I am describing it, but it really was a revelation at the time.
Jan 2nd, 2004, 11:17 PM
#92
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1) How parts of Italy actually looked like California.
2)How Italy felt so comfortable even though I don't speak Italian.
3) There is more than the tower in Pisa and the duomo, baptistry and Tower all together are very impressive....of course, it is still...been there, done that.
4) The Vatican is HUGE!
5) The Sistine Chapel is small.
6) It truly is hot and humid in July in Italy.
2)How Italy felt so comfortable even though I don't speak Italian.
3) There is more than the tower in Pisa and the duomo, baptistry and Tower all together are very impressive....of course, it is still...been there, done that.
4) The Vatican is HUGE!
5) The Sistine Chapel is small.
6) It truly is hot and humid in July in Italy.
Jan 3rd, 2004, 12:51 AM
#93
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I'd echo the US customs thing. It was just the same in the sixties. Ordinary Americans are extremely friendly but the customs even then suspected that every visitor was an international criminal.
What really got me was the dependence on the car. Many US cities don't actually have centres so that you can't walk around them in the way you can in a European city.
We lived just across the road from a supermarket but used to drive to it. There was no pedestrian crossing and the road was extremely busy so you would have risked your life walking to do your shopping.
What really got me was the dependence on the car. Many US cities don't actually have centres so that you can't walk around them in the way you can in a European city.
We lived just across the road from a supermarket but used to drive to it. There was no pedestrian crossing and the road was extremely busy so you would have risked your life walking to do your shopping.
Jan 12th, 2004, 06:17 AM
#94
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1. When I first moved to a small town near Valencia, Spain I thought Spanish people spoke Spanish. What a surprise to find many, many people speaking Valenciano!
2. Families in Spain are much closer than in the U.S. It is typical for three or four generations of one family to sit down for the midday meal together.
3. Liquid soap instead of bar soap for the shower.
4. Scottish people are funny! I have never laughed so hard.
5. The political awareness that young people in Europe have.
6. A giant redwood tree in inexplicably large. You have to stand next to one to truly appreciate their size.
7. How emotional it is standing in the American War Graves Cemetery in Normandie. I do not personally know anyone buried there yet I found myself choked up.
8. There's no place like home at the end of a long journey.
2. Families in Spain are much closer than in the U.S. It is typical for three or four generations of one family to sit down for the midday meal together.
3. Liquid soap instead of bar soap for the shower.
4. Scottish people are funny! I have never laughed so hard.
5. The political awareness that young people in Europe have.
6. A giant redwood tree in inexplicably large. You have to stand next to one to truly appreciate their size.
7. How emotional it is standing in the American War Graves Cemetery in Normandie. I do not personally know anyone buried there yet I found myself choked up.
8. There's no place like home at the end of a long journey.
Jan 12th, 2004, 09:35 AM
#95
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I now realize why I no longer enjoy cooking at home in the US.
The produce in the US grocery stores only looks magnificent! Everything just tastes the same.
By contrast, the varieties available even in the smallest grocery stores in the Dordogne or Tuscany were wonderful, flavorful.
I finaly "get" why I am so bored with American food.
The produce in the US grocery stores only looks magnificent! Everything just tastes the same.
By contrast, the varieties available even in the smallest grocery stores in the Dordogne or Tuscany were wonderful, flavorful.
I finaly "get" why I am so bored with American food.
Jan 12th, 2004, 09:46 AM
#96
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I appologize if this has already appeared, but I did not know that Italian really do smack their foreheads and say "Mama Mia". I almost fell out of my chair when our waiter in Amalfi did.
Jan 12th, 2004, 09:57 AM
#98
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I don't get this;
Why do US supermarkets have so many low fat low sugar low everything products and still I have never seen so many hugely fat people as I have in the US
And why are French women so thin when the supermarkets stock so much butter, cream, cheese and wine.
And I definitely second the remarks about US air conditioning! I always come back from the US with a cold, even in the middle of summer.
Why do US supermarkets have so many low fat low sugar low everything products and still I have never seen so many hugely fat people as I have in the US
And why are French women so thin when the supermarkets stock so much butter, cream, cheese and wine.
And I definitely second the remarks about US air conditioning! I always come back from the US with a cold, even in the middle of summer.
Nov 15th, 2004, 08:59 AM
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Regarding the "how are you" thing. That's the greeting that has been discussed, but the parting words just make me want to scream!!!! The "have a good day" has been done to death but the one that really gets to me is "have a good one". I think this all comes from "computer speak" where all is abreviated but it just drives me crazy!!! Have a good WHAT? I know they mean have a good day but it's just such a stupid saying..have a good day? have a good night? have a good lunch? Have any of you from other countries heard that one while being in the U.S? Wondered if it made you as nuts as it does me. As for culture in Europe..I'm a big coffee drinker and to not have that endless cup of coffee..the refills that we are used to here in the states just took me a little time to get used to. I was totally in awe of people going about their daily lives amongst all that history..everything here in the states is so new by comparison.
