September 5, 2021 • 31 mins
This is a fun monologue about some of the differences that I find interesting, especially eating in America vs eating in Europe!
From driving to eating to a culture of abundance, here I explore some of the differences between USA and Europe.
I hope you enjoy :)
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello.
Hello and welcome back to nofairy tale travels this week.
I'm going to talk to you aboutsome of the interesting
differences between Europe andAmerica.
And of course, it's, from myperspective, I'm born and raised
in America and I've spent thelarge part, well, most of the
last nine years living inEurope.
And it's kind of interesting ifI spend enough time in one
(00:23):
region and then go back to theother region, the things that I
notice and what overwhelms me ordisappoints me.
And I think it's our differencesas you, if you watch the
previous episodes, you'll know,I think our differences make us
interesting.
You don't just want to be plainvanilla German house.
(00:44):
If everyone was just a beige andall experiences were the same
life would be rather boring.
So here, I'm going to touch onsome of those differences and
I'm going to focus on, I thinkI'm going to start with
shopping, driving, and drinkingand a couple other things, and
we'll see where we go fromthere.
And if you have any questions orcomments, go to no fairytale,
(01:08):
travels dot sub stack.com andleave a comment there this week.
Let's see I'm going to have somewine for this one, actually wine
or rum Mm rum tomorrow, BecauseI'm in a really good mood before
we get to the topic of thisepisode.
I just want to say I got thefirst dose of the Pfizer vaccine
(01:30):
and I'm very, very happy.
Cheers to me.
And we are drinking Ripa, Rosso.
I don't know Illuminati.
I don't know my Italian friend.
She swears by this wine.
So I got one and even put it ina nice glass so that she doesn't
yell at me.
(01:51):
And, uh, that's what I'm goingto be drinking today.
Now it's the reason I'mcelebrating, getting the
vaccine, by the way, if you'renot a long-term traveler, you
may not know that they aren'tgiving vaccines to people who
aren't citizens in pretty muchany country.
I'm very happy that I got thePfizer one.
So I will be free in about amonth.
(02:14):
Now let's get onto theinteresting differences between
America and Europe.
The first thing, when anyoneasks me, what's it like in
America?
Well, I bring up the houseexample, which I'll get to a
little bit later.
And I've mentioned that before,but one of the first things I
always say is It's very simple.
America Is what you want whenyou want it, how you want it,
(02:35):
except for women, drugs andalcohol.
So pretty much how it is.
If you want to go buy something,you've always got a 24 hour
Walmart, somewhere in thedistance where you can go into
this massive, massive complexand get whatever you want and
(02:57):
throw bouncy balls at yourfriends.
Uh, until security kicks youout, we've got 24 hour gas
stations where you can go andbuy alcohol and snacks and food.
And we've got online shopping.
Even before Amazon.
You could always find whateverlittle tiny thing you wanted and
have it shipped to you withinthe same week.
Now at Amazon, you can get itthe next day or even same day.
(03:20):
So that's one of the biggestshocks when I come from Europe
and go back to America, I getWhatever I want.
And as much of it as I want somuch big servings, big portions,
big quantities.
I mean the stores, It really isgoing from Europe, especially
Eastern Europe, where you have alots of tiny little shops,
(03:43):
especially for grocery shops,very, very small and locally
owned ones.
And then you go to a Costco inthe us.
It really is physicallyoverwhelming.
It's like a tribesmen that justsees an alien spaceship land in
front of them.
I mean, it's crazy.
And then the portion sizes andall of the fast food places,
(04:06):
just so much, if you everwondered why there's so many fat
people in America, just go therefor a bit.
It's what you want, how you wantit when you want it.
And of course your body hasn'tupdated in the last 200 years
biologically to say, Hey, youhave access to all of these
additional nutrients.
So I'm going to stop rewardingyou when you have too many of
(04:27):
them.
No, it's like, Hey, you know,maybe there's not going to be a
winter harvest this year or asummer harvest.
So I better store this in caseyou need to use this fat to burn
it off.
No, you know, we haven't reallyadapted at all physiologically
compared to the abundance thatwe have.
So America is abundance and itis big, big space.
(04:51):
So one of the things that I'vepreviously said is that in
America, in large part, most ofAmerica, not all of it, right?
Not in New York or Los Angelesor a Miami maybe, but you've
probably got a house with grassin front behind it.
And on both sides, we have a lotof space for all those big
servings and big portions fromCostco to store in our house.
(05:15):
When you know, a family sizepack is now just for one giant
fat Sob.
And since we have so much spaceand we are spread out so much,
we have an amazing car culture,just amazing.
It is completely unrivaled inEurope.
Nordic countries have aninteresting car culture as well,
(05:37):
where they import a lot ofmuscle cars from the states.
It's really kind of fun to seethose, but it's nothing like we
have in the states where almosteverybody has a car or needs a
car.
Our public transit systems justnever developed the way that
they did in Europe.
And you may drive 45 minutes toget to work or someone that I
knew used to drive three hoursevery day from home to work and
(05:59):
then three hours back in theevening because they wanted to
live in a certain area and hadto work in a big city.
But we also, since we're sospread out, we have to drive,
but we have more space for thecars.
So the cars are also bigger.
So you get into one of those bigcars and you have so much space
and so much room and more roomfor your Costco food.
(06:21):
It sounds like I'm bashingCostco, but I'm not, I don't
mean to.
And then you come to Europewhere you have tiny little
streets and tiny littleapartments and tiny little cars,
super, super tiny little carswhere you just feel like you
can't fit in them.
How, how do you fit in thesecars?
How do you drive around them?
How are you going to survive?
(06:41):
Where are you going to put allyour groceries?
What are you going to do?
So it's this big versus smallabundance versus, well, there is
an abundance of food andeverything it's just presented
in a different way.
So you have smaller portions,smaller stores in Europe and
smaller cars and smaller placeswhere you live.
And you're more jammed into atighter area.
(07:04):
And I'm not saying that one isbetter than the other, but there
is just a big difference.
And you know, most Europeancities can trace their roots
back to, or a city of any size,trace their roots back, you
know, a thousand years, 2000years or a lot more.
And so that has influenced howit has grown up and how has
(07:25):
become what it is.
And then people come from thesmaller cities to the bigger
cities for work.
And, you know, they kind ofcontinue the trend of how that
city was built before.
And so you just end up withplaces where they don't have a
lot of space compared toAmerica.
That's the big difference, butthat leads to something which I
(07:46):
find really kind of nice inEurope.
You have a lot of pedestrianzones, a lot of places where
there are no cars and you justonly walking and you have a lots
and lots of outdoor cafes andoutdoor restaurants.
So you can just sit down, have abeer, have a meal, then have a
few more beers and just spend awhole day with your friends.
(08:07):
Watching people walk by having agreat time.
No cars, no smoke, no Smaug.
Okay.
You have a lot of smog, somecities, but just not as much
noise pollution.
You're closer to other people.
You're not separated with allthe space.
It's not just going home afterwork and being by yourself and
(08:31):
on your own.
You're in the mix.
You're You?
You're with the energy of thepeople In the city and that's as
a result, I believe, I don'tknow for sure, but of these
cities being so much morecompacted and closer together,
but still having a culture thatI guess, values slowing down a
(08:57):
bit and enjoying food and drinkswith one another here in
Albania, they're really big onenjoying a coffee with someone
else.
Oh my gosh, everything happensaround coffee.
Just everything, everything,everything.
And they'll be drinking coffeein the morning, in the middle of
the day, in the evening.
I don't know how anyone gets tosleep here because they're
(09:19):
always drinking coffee.
And so they're always hangingout together and socializing.
So maybe, I don't know, do welack social connection in the
states or do we just go about itin a different way?
And I, you can probably imaginebased on how I've talked about
it slightly prefer the, youknow, pedestrian zone, drinking
(09:41):
and eating and being amongst thepeople way of doing it.
But in the states, it's not bad.
Cause you, you really do like, Ithink about raising a family,
you have grass that you can playon with your children and they
can go out in the backyard andplay with their dog and have a,
a time like that.
(10:01):
Whereas here where I am now, andin so many other cities, whole
families are just raised insideof apartments and they're
relying to pond parks for theiroutdoor freedom to play with
their children and raise theirchildren.
I don't know which one's better.
You can't really compare.
You can't really say what isbetter or isn't better.
(10:22):
You can just say that one leadsto a different way of living
than the other one.
Because in order to say, whichone is better, you have to
define what better means.
And that's very, very difficultor it's impossible.
But one thing I want to talkabout before I, uh, I'm on so
many tangents now I want to getback to one thing about what you
(10:43):
want when you want, how you wantit.
I remember one time I was inVienna and I was there with my
father and we are travelingaround and we have clothes that
we need to wash.
And it is a Sunday afternoon.
We could not find a single openlaundromat.
We could find almost no openstores or shops.
(11:03):
I'm pretty sure the only thingthat was open were maybe a kebab
shop here and there.
And that's about it.
So not local Vietnamese culture,I suppose you could say, we
could not find soap with whichto wash our clothes.
Two hours of walking around thecapital of a European country,
not being able to find some soapto wash your clothes.
(11:26):
My gosh, that was so annoying.
I mean, in a sense, once you getused to that lifestyle, you know
that, so you plan ahead of timeand then Sunday becomes a very
relaxing day because thingsaren't open, but that's not how
it works in America.
(11:47):
Sundays.
When you go out and you buy allyour groceries, go to mass and
then buy all your groceries andthen you, your groceries for the
week.
So you really need to, if you'recoming over here, just know,
Sunday is not a good day for youto do anything.
And also this is one of thereasons why as a traveler, your
(12:07):
clothes are never actuallydirty.
They are just different levelsof clean.
And yes, that does reset.
Once you have gone through allof your clean clothes, those
which were first dirty have nowbecome slightly cleaner and then
are on the top of the stack.
So you can just sort of turnthat stack of clothes upside
(12:29):
down, and then start again,going from top to bottom.
So it can be very difficultwhile traveling to get clean
clothes occasionally or actuallymore than occasionally.
So clothes are never actuallydirty.
They are just different levelsof clean.
So many memories of so manysmelly backpackers.
(12:54):
Oh, that's another thing that'sreally big in Europe.
The spray deodorant.
That's not really big inAmerica.
I don't know why.
Yeah.
We have Axe deodorant, so youcan smell like, I don't know a
transformer or something, but wedon't, we just don't do the
spray deodorant as much.
And, uh, as a backpacker, get afew of those bottles just so you
can spray yourself and your,your bag before your next 12
(13:18):
hour bus ride.
Um, there were a couple morethings I wanted to touch on
about cars, which isinteresting.
So I've said that we have areally big car culture in
America.
Europe doesn't really have a bigcar, Colt car culture at all.
And I think it ties back in withthe cities, how everything is
done.
I mean, here in almost everycity I go to in Europe, I can
(13:38):
walk everywhere in 45 minutesand that's basically my limit.
If it's 45 minutes to an hourwalk, then I'll walk it.
Otherwise I'm going to take somepublic transportation, never a
taxi, by the way, the numberone, most evil, little cheater,
scammer, horrible people in theworld.
It taxi drivers, taxi drivers,taxi drivers, taxi drivers.
(14:00):
So screw them all.
Uh, that's why Uber so popularinitially, I think.
Um, but anyway, so they don'thave a big car culture in Europe
and gas prices are insanelyexpensive, so expensive.
It's not even funny.
It's just crazy.
And I think the last time Ichecked in Germany to get a
(14:22):
license was 1200 euros or 1500euros.
And in America it's like$45 or$50.
It's very different there.
You have to pay for drivinglessons.
There's a lot to be said aboutthat if it's good or bad, but
the point is it creates a verybig hurdle for you to get a
(14:42):
vehicle and a vehicle at itscore level is freedom.
The freedom to wake up when youwant to get into your vehicle,
the key and go where you want,where you want, when you want,
how you want not to be relianton bus schedules or any other
public transportation.
It's your car.
And in America, we put a lot ofcrap in our car.
(15:05):
You can put some clothes inthere so you can change.
When you get to yourdestination, you can put all
your, just whatever you want.
And you have one section whereyou put all your gym stuff.
I mean, the car is, is more thanjust a transportation vehicle.
It's a way of life is what itreally is.
So Europe has high fuel prices.
(15:27):
They make it.
So it's very, very expensive toget a license, which really ties
in to the notion, by the way ofsort of bifurcating society.
There are those who can, andthose who can't.
And in order to become one ofthose who can, you need a lot
more money than those who can't.
(15:48):
And that ties in with my nextthing, which is tolls, toll
roads, toll roads, toll roads.
Now this isn't everywhere inEurope, probably in most places.
They're not going to have this,but in Greece where I just spent
two weeks about a month and ahalf ago.
Oh my goodness.
(16:09):
So you hear about toll roads andyou think, yeah, well there are
toll roads here and there, likein the U S we have them around
certain big cities on the eastcoast and maybe a few other
places.
And in some European cities,they'll have some tolls as well.
And you may have heard of payingto enter London and things like
that.
So you think, oh, Greece, okay.
They just want to pay for somenice roads.
(16:30):
And then you get there and yourealize that all of their
highways, basically anythingbuilt within, I don't know,
since the Germans kept loaningthem money or these new, very
Nice, expensive toll roadhighways And all the things on
the side of them, by the way,are pretty much under
construction.
(16:50):
When I say all, I tried to takenon toll roads, five times three
of the five times, the roads onthe side were under construction
and bumped me back onto the tollroad.
Now what's the big deal with thetoll road?
Well, nothing, if you don't mindspending up to 30 years or more
in four hours of deriving, Ithink the average that I spent
(17:13):
was driving a couple hours aday.
And in those couple of hoursspending maybe nine euros to 15
euros, but God forbid you wentacross that nice, new,
Beautiful, sexy bridge, andPetross That everyone talks
about.
And then you're paying another13 euros just on that.
(17:34):
It starts to feel like drivingin Europe is just for rich
people.
I mean, what if you have to makea commute every day to work over
that bridge, we can take a ferryand spend six euros.
That's what I did.
Great ferry.
It, the bridge I don't think wasnecessary at all because, and
(17:54):
Petross you just drive onto theferry.
There's no booth or anythingstopping you.
You just drive onto a ferry thathas its gate down.
You park your car and you pay adude, six euros, and then you
chill on the ferry for 15minutes and that's it.
And five of those minutes arewaiting for other cars to get
on.
(18:15):
So I don't know a waste of aGermans taxpayer money, I
suppose, that is now beingrepaid with an insane toll.
That is, I don't know, onlymakes life easier for rich
people, I suppose.
So I don't know where I'm goingwith this, but it car culture in
(18:35):
Europe.
How are you supposed to have acar culture when it's just for
the wealthy people?
I mean, when I was in highschool, you know, a little bit
long ago, but not that long ago,you didn't have to be rich to
have a car.
You could buy a used car for notvery much money.
(18:56):
And the most expensive thingyou're going to pay for was
insurance.
And kids drove it to high schoolwhen they turned 16.
Yeah, but I do want to say, soI'm talking a lot about car
culture and positive things.
There are some negative thingsto it as well.
And the one that I want to talkabout here, which I find is kind
(19:18):
of interesting.
It also ties in with pedestrianzones and eating and drinking
when the smaller, um, or themore compacted European cities
when your whole life issupported through driving.
Well, one part which is alsogoing to be supported through
driving is drinking because togo to where you're going to
(19:40):
drink, unless you're drinking athome, which I've already
explained is not going to bethat close to the other people
in the area, not compared toEurope.
So if you're going to go out andbe social outside your home and
drink, you got to drive to getthere.
Now, some cities have very goodtaxi services and very good Uber
services a lot, do not.
(20:03):
I would say probably most don'ttend America.
And so we have an issue withdrinking and driving.
I don't know the numbers onthis, but I'm going to tell you
one story that, uh, it struck meand it stuck with me ever since
high school.
I went on a police ride along.
So you can go, I think on tworide alongs a year with your
(20:27):
local police force.
So you can see how they're doingthings.
It's actually amazing.
Everyone in America should goand do it.
Don't say anything about thecops, unless you've gone on a
police ride along, it gives youa completely different
perspective about what theyexperience.
One of the things that happenedthat night besides just general
insanity, Um, like a lady boy atThe hor motel in the ghetto, uh,
(20:55):
smashing a client over the headwith a toilet seat and slicing
the guy clean across the face,basically turning them into
Scarface, Sitting there like, Ohmy God, where am I?
This is an alternate universe.
I didn't know, existed here.
But that was, that was very,very, You had to see what the
(21:19):
cops have to come through.
It's really, it can betraumatizing.
I saw some things, uh, at thatmotel.
I did not want to see.
Um, so, uh, okay.
Okay.
So they had a lot of papersafter that incident.
And, uh, the cop takes me, um,or takes us to the front of a
bar.
(21:40):
And it's about closing time andhe's got to fill out a bunch of
paperwork.
And so we parked there and hesays, you know, we'll just sit
here.
It's across the street from theexit.
It was a bar.
And you can just watch all thepretty girls as they walk out.
So it'd be something nice foryou to look at while I do all
this work.
So I'm sitting in the car, thebar closes and maybe a hundred,
(22:01):
150 people or so started leavingthe bar and I'm looking at
everyone drunk off their.
And I say to the guy, I say,these people are all drunk and
they're all walking to theircars right now to drive.
Um, why don't you like arrestthem or something, or I dunno,
(22:24):
do something.
They're all about to be drunkdriver.
And he said, I'll never forgetthis.
It would be like shooting fishin a barrel, a common saying in
the U S which means it's a veryeasy, it would be like shooting
fish in a barrel.
Now on one hand, you can say,well, that's nice that the cop
(22:46):
is being lenient, right?
You don't necessarily want acop.
That's going to give you aticket for going one little mile
per hour, over the speed limitor one kilometer per hour over
the speed limit.
But there are some rules then Idon't know, you decide.
So he finishes up the paperwork.
(23:08):
And a few minutes later, we geta call.
This was after the bar hademptied out, uh, about a man who
had crashed his car intothankfully a parked car, a drunk
man who was only a three minutedrive from where we were parked.
And there weren't any other barsaround that were just being led
(23:30):
out at that time.
So This, the guy was probablyone of the people that I saw
come out of the bar and hecrashes drunk into a parked car.
Thankfully he only hurtshimself, messes up his head and
probably his neck really badlygiven the way the windshield
(23:51):
looked.
And, uh, yeah.
So not enforcing that probablydirectly led to that guy
crashing.
And, uh, when you hear some ofthe other stories about what
happens with drunk drivers, it'sjust crazy.
So, you know, culture hasconsequences or results.
(24:14):
You leads to things, some good,some not good, but that's a bit
of a dreary note to end this on.
So I want to go back to eatingin Europe.
They take more time to eat.
Just simple.
It's plain and simple.
The number one complaint thatyou'll hear from an American
when they come to Europe.
And now that I've lived inEurope for a long time, it's
kind of fun to see this.
(24:37):
When, when, uh, people that arefresh off the boat arrive, the
number one complaint is it takesso long to get service.
I have to wait for ever.
But then when you live in Europefor awhile and you go back to
America, you sit down and you'relike, oh my gosh, they won't
(24:58):
leave me alone.
This lady is coming back to mytable every two minutes to
refill my drink, to ask me ifshe can get me anything else.
And what the hell is this checkdoing on my table before I even
finished eating it is it is the,you know, two funny things about
(25:20):
this.
So you get a lot, you get freerefills in America unless you're
in New York.
Cause they're, I don't knowwhat's wrong with new Yorkers,
but then I got yelled at fortrying to get a free refill
there.
I remember that.
So you order, um, a Coca-Cola asoda, uh, or you order a coffee
and you're going to be able toget as much of it as you want a
free refill.
And what they do is when youfinished half your beverage,
(25:43):
it's a soda.
They'll put another one on thetable next to it.
I mean, you never have to gowithout it.
Okay.
So when you get used to that andyou come over to Europe and you
order an incredibly overpricedbaby Coke, like you order a
Coke.
That's four times what you'd payfor in America.
(26:03):
And you get a baby littlebottle, like a tiny little
bottle, 0.2, five liters, or0.18, seven liters.
What is this wine?
Like?
Why is it so tiny like that?
I don't know.
So you get that.
And at first it seems like,okay, it's just an American in
(26:23):
once more Coca-Cola but thinkabout it this way, your whole
life, you have been raisedgetting unlimited amounts of
liquids while you eat and wateras well.
And it's from the tap and it'sice water.
It's very nice, very clean.
Unless you're in, I don't know,Michigan or Detroit or Flint,
wherever that happened, thething happened with a water
(26:46):
there.
So you get as much as you want.
And what happens is you get usedto having a drink of something
after every bite of food.
Another reason why we'reprobably quite fat.
Uh, so you have food, then youhave some Coke, food, Coke,
food, Coke, food, Coke, food,Coke, or food, water, food,
water, but usually it's Coke.
(27:07):
And then you come to Europe andyou get a baby bottle of soda,
baby bottle of Coke.
You can basically just notfinish your meal, your tongue.
Isn't used to not having liquidsplashed on it after every bite.
And so you actually end up witha dry tongue.
(27:29):
It's really kind of funny tothink.
What about your body's been usedto all this liquid now?
You don't have it.
And not only that, you can't getthe waiter to come to your table
so you can get another babyCoke.
You can see why, why?
Yeah.
Americans can seem, I don'tknow.
(27:51):
So rude or so blessedness andcomplain a lot about the service
in Europe.
It's slow.
I don't get enough of what Iwant.
My body isn't even used to it,but there, I do believe, I don't
know if there's any evidencebehind this.
I really do believe it's aphysiological thing.
You're just not used to eatinglike this.
And also you're used toeverything very quick.
(28:11):
And so you don't space out yourday long enough because you
think I'm going to sit down, I'mgoing to eat and I'm going to be
done in 20 minutes.
Okay.
Maybe you'll get your firstdrink in 20 minutes.
And now let's, let's turn thisaround.
Okay.
So you spend a lot of time inEurope or you're born and raised
here depending where you go.
(28:33):
Things obviously are going to bedifferent for really big cities
where you have to go quickly.
Um, but in most places you'regoing to sit down, you're going
to relax, relax.
Did you hear that word re Laxand take your time?
And then you get to America andeverything is thrown at you so
(28:55):
quickly, so quickly, so quickly,so quickly, the water is Ice
cold.
The Cola is ice cold.
I can't serve you alcoholbecause they didn't get the
alcohol license, the liquorlicense, because we don't drink
alcohol at every foodestablishment in America.
Yeah.
And then you physically can'teat that quickly.
(29:17):
And then the check comes andyou're like, wait a second.
Uh, I'm kind of wanting to ordersome more food or maybe a
dessert or something.
And there's a check on my table.
What am I doing?
What's going on here?
And then you are so rushed thatyou don't understand what just
happened.
You didn't have a nice relaxing,enjoyable meal.
It's like your cat that'll forcefed and then get the hell out
(29:41):
and there's pressure to go out.
And they do come to your tableevery two minutes.
It's very, very annoying.
And yeah, the body's not used toit.
The mind isn't used to it.
The soul is not used to it onceagain, I don't know which one's
better, but they're verydifferent.
And going between the twosocieties will not to there's
(30:04):
many differences in Europe, butyou know, generalizing going
between the two areas is, uh,yeah.
It's, I don't know.
It's interesting, interesting tothink about.
And I think I'd kind of like toend it on that, that part, you
know, a kind of funny, moresuperficial note about food and
the different ways that we eat.
(30:26):
And, um, actually I'll leave youwith one thing.
This is one that I really,Really, I really want To do.
Hopefully very soon when I'mfully vaccinated, I can fly into
Italy and have this Sunday withmy friend.
So I met her in Dublin years agoand she said that in her region
of Italy on Sundays, not everySunday or maybe every Sunday, I
(30:49):
don't know, they will have a lotof people get together and they
will start cooking at 10 in themorning or so, and just cook and
eat and a drink for hours Andhours and hours and hours and
hours Cooking, eating, drinking,slow roasted meats and wine.
(31:14):
Oh, four hours.
How beautiful is that?
Anyway, It just went to another,another plane of existence right
there.
Very happy one.
Let's end this talk on that.
I have so much more that I couldsay forever and ever, and ever
(31:38):
all of the differences betweenall of these cultures are so
interesting and there are somany of them.
So I think I'm going to touch onthis topic many, many more times
and, uh, Yeah, cheers to ourbeautiful differences.
Hello.
Hello and welcome back to nofairy tale travels this week.
I'm going to talk to you aboutsome of the interesting
differences between Europe andAmerica.
And of course, it's, from myperspective, I'm born and raised
in America and I've spent thelarge part, well, most of the
last nine years living inEurope.
And it's kind of interesting ifI spend enough time in one
(00:23):
region and then go back to theother region, the things that I
notice and what overwhelms me ordisappoints me.
And I think it's our differencesas you, if you watch the
previous episodes, you'll know,I think our differences make us
interesting.
You don't just want to be plainvanilla German house.
(00:44):
If everyone was just a beige andall experiences were the same
life would be rather boring.
So here, I'm going to touch onsome of those differences and
I'm going to focus on, I thinkI'm going to start with
shopping, driving, and drinkingand a couple other things, and
we'll see where we go fromthere.
And if you have any questions orcomments, go to no fairytale,
(01:08):
travels dot sub stack.com andleave a comment there this week.
Let's see I'm going to have somewine for this one, actually wine
or rum Mm rum tomorrow, BecauseI'm in a really good mood before
we get to the topic of thisepisode.
I just want to say I got thefirst dose of the Pfizer vaccine
(01:30):
and I'm very, very happy.
Cheers to me.
And we are drinking Ripa, Rosso.
I don't know Illuminati.
I don't know my Italian friend.
She swears by this wine.
So I got one and even put it ina nice glass so that she doesn't
yell at me.
(01:51):
And, uh, that's what I'm goingto be drinking today.
Now it's the reason I'mcelebrating, getting the
vaccine, by the way, if you'renot a long-term traveler, you
may not know that they aren'tgiving vaccines to people who
aren't citizens in pretty muchany country.
I'm very happy that I got thePfizer one.
So I will be free in about amonth.
(02:14):
Now let's get onto theinteresting differences between
America and Europe.
The first thing, when anyoneasks me, what's it like in
America?
Well, I bring up the houseexample, which I'll get to a
little bit later.
And I've mentioned that before,but one of the first things I
always say is It's very simple.
America Is what you want whenyou want it, how you want it,
(02:35):
except for women, drugs andalcohol.
So pretty much how it is.
If you want to go buy something,you've always got a 24 hour
Walmart, somewhere in thedistance where you can go into
this massive, massive complexand get whatever you want and
(02:57):
throw bouncy balls at yourfriends.
Uh, until security kicks youout, we've got 24 hour gas
stations where you can go andbuy alcohol and snacks and food.
And we've got online shopping.
Even before Amazon.
You could always find whateverlittle tiny thing you wanted and
have it shipped to you withinthe same week.
Now at Amazon, you can get itthe next day or even same day.
(03:20):
So that's one of the biggestshocks when I come from Europe
and go back to America, I getWhatever I want.
And as much of it as I want somuch big servings, big portions,
big quantities.
I mean the stores, It really isgoing from Europe, especially
Eastern Europe, where you have alots of tiny little shops,
(03:43):
especially for grocery shops,very, very small and locally
owned ones.
And then you go to a Costco inthe us.
It really is physicallyoverwhelming.
It's like a tribesmen that justsees an alien spaceship land in
front of them.
I mean, it's crazy.
And then the portion sizes andall of the fast food places,
(04:06):
just so much, if you everwondered why there's so many fat
people in America, just go therefor a bit.
It's what you want, how you wantit when you want it.
And of course your body hasn'tupdated in the last 200 years
biologically to say, Hey, youhave access to all of these
additional nutrients.
So I'm going to stop rewardingyou when you have too many of
(04:27):
them.
No, it's like, Hey, you know,maybe there's not going to be a
winter harvest this year or asummer harvest.
So I better store this in caseyou need to use this fat to burn
it off.
No, you know, we haven't reallyadapted at all physiologically
compared to the abundance thatwe have.
So America is abundance and itis big, big space.
(04:51):
So one of the things that I'vepreviously said is that in
America, in large part, most ofAmerica, not all of it, right?
Not in New York or Los Angelesor a Miami maybe, but you've
probably got a house with grassin front behind it.
And on both sides, we have a lotof space for all those big
servings and big portions fromCostco to store in our house.
(05:15):
When you know, a family sizepack is now just for one giant
fat Sob.
And since we have so much spaceand we are spread out so much,
we have an amazing car culture,just amazing.
It is completely unrivaled inEurope.
Nordic countries have aninteresting car culture as well,
(05:37):
where they import a lot ofmuscle cars from the states.
It's really kind of fun to seethose, but it's nothing like we
have in the states where almosteverybody has a car or needs a
car.
Our public transit systems justnever developed the way that
they did in Europe.
And you may drive 45 minutes toget to work or someone that I
knew used to drive three hoursevery day from home to work and
(05:59):
then three hours back in theevening because they wanted to
live in a certain area and hadto work in a big city.
But we also, since we're sospread out, we have to drive,
but we have more space for thecars.
So the cars are also bigger.
So you get into one of those bigcars and you have so much space
and so much room and more roomfor your Costco food.
(06:21):
It sounds like I'm bashingCostco, but I'm not, I don't
mean to.
And then you come to Europewhere you have tiny little
streets and tiny littleapartments and tiny little cars,
super, super tiny little carswhere you just feel like you
can't fit in them.
How, how do you fit in thesecars?
How do you drive around them?
How are you going to survive?
(06:41):
Where are you going to put allyour groceries?
What are you going to do?
So it's this big versus smallabundance versus, well, there is
an abundance of food andeverything it's just presented
in a different way.
So you have smaller portions,smaller stores in Europe and
smaller cars and smaller placeswhere you live.
And you're more jammed into atighter area.
(07:04):
And I'm not saying that one isbetter than the other, but there
is just a big difference.
And you know, most Europeancities can trace their roots
back to, or a city of any size,trace their roots back, you
know, a thousand years, 2000years or a lot more.
And so that has influenced howit has grown up and how has
(07:25):
become what it is.
And then people come from thesmaller cities to the bigger
cities for work.
And, you know, they kind ofcontinue the trend of how that
city was built before.
And so you just end up withplaces where they don't have a
lot of space compared toAmerica.
That's the big difference, butthat leads to something which I
(07:46):
find really kind of nice inEurope.
You have a lot of pedestrianzones, a lot of places where
there are no cars and you justonly walking and you have a lots
and lots of outdoor cafes andoutdoor restaurants.
So you can just sit down, have abeer, have a meal, then have a
few more beers and just spend awhole day with your friends.
(08:07):
Watching people walk by having agreat time.
No cars, no smoke, no Smaug.
Okay.
You have a lot of smog, somecities, but just not as much
noise pollution.
You're closer to other people.
You're not separated with allthe space.
It's not just going home afterwork and being by yourself and
(08:31):
on your own.
You're in the mix.
You're You?
You're with the energy of thepeople In the city and that's as
a result, I believe, I don'tknow for sure, but of these
cities being so much morecompacted and closer together,
but still having a culture thatI guess, values slowing down a
(08:57):
bit and enjoying food and drinkswith one another here in
Albania, they're really big onenjoying a coffee with someone
else.
Oh my gosh, everything happensaround coffee.
Just everything, everything,everything.
And they'll be drinking coffeein the morning, in the middle of
the day, in the evening.
I don't know how anyone gets tosleep here because they're
(09:19):
always drinking coffee.
And so they're always hangingout together and socializing.
So maybe, I don't know, do welack social connection in the
states or do we just go about itin a different way?
And I, you can probably imaginebased on how I've talked about
it slightly prefer the, youknow, pedestrian zone, drinking
(09:41):
and eating and being amongst thepeople way of doing it.
But in the states, it's not bad.
Cause you, you really do like, Ithink about raising a family,
you have grass that you can playon with your children and they
can go out in the backyard andplay with their dog and have a,
a time like that.
(10:01):
Whereas here where I am now, andin so many other cities, whole
families are just raised insideof apartments and they're
relying to pond parks for theiroutdoor freedom to play with
their children and raise theirchildren.
I don't know which one's better.
You can't really compare.
You can't really say what isbetter or isn't better.
(10:22):
You can just say that one leadsto a different way of living
than the other one.
Because in order to say, whichone is better, you have to
define what better means.
And that's very, very difficultor it's impossible.
But one thing I want to talkabout before I, uh, I'm on so
many tangents now I want to getback to one thing about what you
(10:43):
want when you want, how you wantit.
I remember one time I was inVienna and I was there with my
father and we are travelingaround and we have clothes that
we need to wash.
And it is a Sunday afternoon.
We could not find a single openlaundromat.
We could find almost no openstores or shops.
(11:03):
I'm pretty sure the only thingthat was open were maybe a kebab
shop here and there.
And that's about it.
So not local Vietnamese culture,I suppose you could say, we
could not find soap with whichto wash our clothes.
Two hours of walking around thecapital of a European country,
not being able to find some soapto wash your clothes.
(11:26):
My gosh, that was so annoying.
I mean, in a sense, once you getused to that lifestyle, you know
that, so you plan ahead of timeand then Sunday becomes a very
relaxing day because thingsaren't open, but that's not how
it works in America.
(11:47):
Sundays.
When you go out and you buy allyour groceries, go to mass and
then buy all your groceries andthen you, your groceries for the
week.
So you really need to, if you'recoming over here, just know,
Sunday is not a good day for youto do anything.
And also this is one of thereasons why as a traveler, your
(12:07):
clothes are never actuallydirty.
They are just different levelsof clean.
And yes, that does reset.
Once you have gone through allof your clean clothes, those
which were first dirty have nowbecome slightly cleaner and then
are on the top of the stack.
So you can just sort of turnthat stack of clothes upside
(12:29):
down, and then start again,going from top to bottom.
So it can be very difficultwhile traveling to get clean
clothes occasionally or actuallymore than occasionally.
So clothes are never actuallydirty.
They are just different levelsof clean.
So many memories of so manysmelly backpackers.
(12:54):
Oh, that's another thing that'sreally big in Europe.
The spray deodorant.
That's not really big inAmerica.
I don't know why.
Yeah.
We have Axe deodorant, so youcan smell like, I don't know a
transformer or something, but wedon't, we just don't do the
spray deodorant as much.
And, uh, as a backpacker, get afew of those bottles just so you
can spray yourself and your,your bag before your next 12
(13:18):
hour bus ride.
Um, there were a couple morethings I wanted to touch on
about cars, which isinteresting.
So I've said that we have areally big car culture in
America.
Europe doesn't really have a bigcar, Colt car culture at all.
And I think it ties back in withthe cities, how everything is
done.
I mean, here in almost everycity I go to in Europe, I can
(13:38):
walk everywhere in 45 minutesand that's basically my limit.
If it's 45 minutes to an hourwalk, then I'll walk it.
Otherwise I'm going to take somepublic transportation, never a
taxi, by the way, the numberone, most evil, little cheater,
scammer, horrible people in theworld.
It taxi drivers, taxi drivers,taxi drivers, taxi drivers.
(14:00):
So screw them all.
Uh, that's why Uber so popularinitially, I think.
Um, but anyway, so they don'thave a big car culture in Europe
and gas prices are insanelyexpensive, so expensive.
It's not even funny.
It's just crazy.
And I think the last time Ichecked in Germany to get a
(14:22):
license was 1200 euros or 1500euros.
And in America it's like$45 or$50.
It's very different there.
You have to pay for drivinglessons.
There's a lot to be said aboutthat if it's good or bad, but
the point is it creates a verybig hurdle for you to get a
(14:42):
vehicle and a vehicle at itscore level is freedom.
The freedom to wake up when youwant to get into your vehicle,
the key and go where you want,where you want, when you want,
how you want not to be relianton bus schedules or any other
public transportation.
It's your car.
And in America, we put a lot ofcrap in our car.
(15:05):
You can put some clothes inthere so you can change.
When you get to yourdestination, you can put all
your, just whatever you want.
And you have one section whereyou put all your gym stuff.
I mean, the car is, is more thanjust a transportation vehicle.
It's a way of life is what itreally is.
So Europe has high fuel prices.
(15:27):
They make it.
So it's very, very expensive toget a license, which really ties
in to the notion, by the way ofsort of bifurcating society.
There are those who can, andthose who can't.
And in order to become one ofthose who can, you need a lot
more money than those who can't.
(15:48):
And that ties in with my nextthing, which is tolls, toll
roads, toll roads, toll roads.
Now this isn't everywhere inEurope, probably in most places.
They're not going to have this,but in Greece where I just spent
two weeks about a month and ahalf ago.
Oh my goodness.
(16:09):
So you hear about toll roads andyou think, yeah, well there are
toll roads here and there, likein the U S we have them around
certain big cities on the eastcoast and maybe a few other
places.
And in some European cities,they'll have some tolls as well.
And you may have heard of payingto enter London and things like
that.
So you think, oh, Greece, okay.
They just want to pay for somenice roads.
(16:30):
And then you get there and yourealize that all of their
highways, basically anythingbuilt within, I don't know,
since the Germans kept loaningthem money or these new, very
Nice, expensive toll roadhighways And all the things on
the side of them, by the way,are pretty much under
construction.
(16:50):
When I say all, I tried to takenon toll roads, five times three
of the five times, the roads onthe side were under construction
and bumped me back onto the tollroad.
Now what's the big deal with thetoll road?
Well, nothing, if you don't mindspending up to 30 years or more
in four hours of deriving, Ithink the average that I spent
(17:13):
was driving a couple hours aday.
And in those couple of hoursspending maybe nine euros to 15
euros, but God forbid you wentacross that nice, new,
Beautiful, sexy bridge, andPetross That everyone talks
about.
And then you're paying another13 euros just on that.
(17:34):
It starts to feel like drivingin Europe is just for rich
people.
I mean, what if you have to makea commute every day to work over
that bridge, we can take a ferryand spend six euros.
That's what I did.
Great ferry.
It, the bridge I don't think wasnecessary at all because, and
(17:54):
Petross you just drive onto theferry.
There's no booth or anythingstopping you.
You just drive onto a ferry thathas its gate down.
You park your car and you pay adude, six euros, and then you
chill on the ferry for 15minutes and that's it.
And five of those minutes arewaiting for other cars to get
on.
(18:15):
So I don't know a waste of aGermans taxpayer money, I
suppose, that is now beingrepaid with an insane toll.
That is, I don't know, onlymakes life easier for rich
people, I suppose.
So I don't know where I'm goingwith this, but it car culture in
(18:35):
Europe.
How are you supposed to have acar culture when it's just for
the wealthy people?
I mean, when I was in highschool, you know, a little bit
long ago, but not that long ago,you didn't have to be rich to
have a car.
You could buy a used car for notvery much money.
(18:56):
And the most expensive thingyou're going to pay for was
insurance.
And kids drove it to high schoolwhen they turned 16.
Yeah, but I do want to say, soI'm talking a lot about car
culture and positive things.
There are some negative thingsto it as well.
And the one that I want to talkabout here, which I find is kind
(19:18):
of interesting.
It also ties in with pedestrianzones and eating and drinking
when the smaller, um, or themore compacted European cities
when your whole life issupported through driving.
Well, one part which is alsogoing to be supported through
driving is drinking because togo to where you're going to
(19:40):
drink, unless you're drinking athome, which I've already
explained is not going to bethat close to the other people
in the area, not compared toEurope.
So if you're going to go out andbe social outside your home and
drink, you got to drive to getthere.
Now, some cities have very goodtaxi services and very good Uber
services a lot, do not.
(20:03):
I would say probably most don'ttend America.
And so we have an issue withdrinking and driving.
I don't know the numbers onthis, but I'm going to tell you
one story that, uh, it struck meand it stuck with me ever since
high school.
I went on a police ride along.
So you can go, I think on tworide alongs a year with your
(20:27):
local police force.
So you can see how they're doingthings.
It's actually amazing.
Everyone in America should goand do it.
Don't say anything about thecops, unless you've gone on a
police ride along, it gives youa completely different
perspective about what theyexperience.
One of the things that happenedthat night besides just general
insanity, Um, like a lady boy atThe hor motel in the ghetto, uh,
(20:55):
smashing a client over the headwith a toilet seat and slicing
the guy clean across the face,basically turning them into
Scarface, Sitting there like, Ohmy God, where am I?
This is an alternate universe.
I didn't know, existed here.
But that was, that was very,very, You had to see what the
(21:19):
cops have to come through.
It's really, it can betraumatizing.
I saw some things, uh, at thatmotel.
I did not want to see.
Um, so, uh, okay.
Okay.
So they had a lot of papersafter that incident.
And, uh, the cop takes me, um,or takes us to the front of a
bar.
(21:40):
And it's about closing time andhe's got to fill out a bunch of
paperwork.
And so we parked there and hesays, you know, we'll just sit
here.
It's across the street from theexit.
It was a bar.
And you can just watch all thepretty girls as they walk out.
So it'd be something nice foryou to look at while I do all
this work.
So I'm sitting in the car, thebar closes and maybe a hundred,
(22:01):
150 people or so started leavingthe bar and I'm looking at
everyone drunk off their.
And I say to the guy, I say,these people are all drunk and
they're all walking to theircars right now to drive.
Um, why don't you like arrestthem or something, or I dunno,
(22:24):
do something.
They're all about to be drunkdriver.
And he said, I'll never forgetthis.
It would be like shooting fishin a barrel, a common saying in
the U S which means it's a veryeasy, it would be like shooting
fish in a barrel.
Now on one hand, you can say,well, that's nice that the cop
(22:46):
is being lenient, right?
You don't necessarily want acop.
That's going to give you aticket for going one little mile
per hour, over the speed limitor one kilometer per hour over
the speed limit.
But there are some rules then Idon't know, you decide.
So he finishes up the paperwork.
(23:08):
And a few minutes later, we geta call.
This was after the bar hademptied out, uh, about a man who
had crashed his car intothankfully a parked car, a drunk
man who was only a three minutedrive from where we were parked.
And there weren't any other barsaround that were just being led
(23:30):
out at that time.
So This, the guy was probablyone of the people that I saw
come out of the bar and hecrashes drunk into a parked car.
Thankfully he only hurtshimself, messes up his head and
probably his neck really badlygiven the way the windshield
(23:51):
looked.
And, uh, yeah.
So not enforcing that probablydirectly led to that guy
crashing.
And, uh, when you hear some ofthe other stories about what
happens with drunk drivers, it'sjust crazy.
So, you know, culture hasconsequences or results.
(24:14):
You leads to things, some good,some not good, but that's a bit
of a dreary note to end this on.
So I want to go back to eatingin Europe.
They take more time to eat.
Just simple.
It's plain and simple.
The number one complaint thatyou'll hear from an American
when they come to Europe.
And now that I've lived inEurope for a long time, it's
kind of fun to see this.
(24:37):
When, when, uh, people that arefresh off the boat arrive, the
number one complaint is it takesso long to get service.
I have to wait for ever.
But then when you live in Europefor awhile and you go back to
America, you sit down and you'relike, oh my gosh, they won't
(24:58):
leave me alone.
This lady is coming back to mytable every two minutes to
refill my drink, to ask me ifshe can get me anything else.
And what the hell is this checkdoing on my table before I even
finished eating it is it is the,you know, two funny things about
(25:20):
this.
So you get a lot, you get freerefills in America unless you're
in New York.
Cause they're, I don't knowwhat's wrong with new Yorkers,
but then I got yelled at fortrying to get a free refill
there.
I remember that.
So you order, um, a Coca-Cola asoda, uh, or you order a coffee
and you're going to be able toget as much of it as you want a
free refill.
And what they do is when youfinished half your beverage,
(25:43):
it's a soda.
They'll put another one on thetable next to it.
I mean, you never have to gowithout it.
Okay.
So when you get used to that andyou come over to Europe and you
order an incredibly overpricedbaby Coke, like you order a
Coke.
That's four times what you'd payfor in America.
(26:03):
And you get a baby littlebottle, like a tiny little
bottle, 0.2, five liters, or0.18, seven liters.
What is this wine?
Like?
Why is it so tiny like that?
I don't know.
So you get that.
And at first it seems like,okay, it's just an American in
(26:23):
once more Coca-Cola but thinkabout it this way, your whole
life, you have been raisedgetting unlimited amounts of
liquids while you eat and wateras well.
And it's from the tap and it'sice water.
It's very nice, very clean.
Unless you're in, I don't know,Michigan or Detroit or Flint,
wherever that happened, thething happened with a water
(26:46):
there.
So you get as much as you want.
And what happens is you get usedto having a drink of something
after every bite of food.
Another reason why we'reprobably quite fat.
Uh, so you have food, then youhave some Coke, food, Coke,
food, Coke, food, Coke, food,Coke, or food, water, food,
water, but usually it's Coke.
(27:07):
And then you come to Europe andyou get a baby bottle of soda,
baby bottle of Coke.
You can basically just notfinish your meal, your tongue.
Isn't used to not having liquidsplashed on it after every bite.
And so you actually end up witha dry tongue.
(27:29):
It's really kind of funny tothink.
What about your body's been usedto all this liquid now?
You don't have it.
And not only that, you can't getthe waiter to come to your table
so you can get another babyCoke.
You can see why, why?
Yeah.
Americans can seem, I don'tknow.
(27:51):
So rude or so blessedness andcomplain a lot about the service
in Europe.
It's slow.
I don't get enough of what Iwant.
My body isn't even used to it,but there, I do believe, I don't
know if there's any evidencebehind this.
I really do believe it's aphysiological thing.
You're just not used to eatinglike this.
And also you're used toeverything very quick.
(28:11):
And so you don't space out yourday long enough because you
think I'm going to sit down, I'mgoing to eat and I'm going to be
done in 20 minutes.
Okay.
Maybe you'll get your firstdrink in 20 minutes.
And now let's, let's turn thisaround.
Okay.
So you spend a lot of time inEurope or you're born and raised
here depending where you go.
(28:33):
Things obviously are going to bedifferent for really big cities
where you have to go quickly.
Um, but in most places you'regoing to sit down, you're going
to relax, relax.
Did you hear that word re Laxand take your time?
And then you get to America andeverything is thrown at you so
(28:55):
quickly, so quickly, so quickly,so quickly, the water is Ice
cold.
The Cola is ice cold.
I can't serve you alcoholbecause they didn't get the
alcohol license, the liquorlicense, because we don't drink
alcohol at every foodestablishment in America.
Yeah.
And then you physically can'teat that quickly.
(29:17):
And then the check comes andyou're like, wait a second.
Uh, I'm kind of wanting to ordersome more food or maybe a
dessert or something.
And there's a check on my table.
What am I doing?
What's going on here?
And then you are so rushed thatyou don't understand what just
happened.
You didn't have a nice relaxing,enjoyable meal.
It's like your cat that'll forcefed and then get the hell out
(29:41):
and there's pressure to go out.
And they do come to your tableevery two minutes.
It's very, very annoying.
And yeah, the body's not used toit.
The mind isn't used to it.
The soul is not used to it onceagain, I don't know which one's
better, but they're verydifferent.
And going between the twosocieties will not to there's
(30:04):
many differences in Europe, butyou know, generalizing going
between the two areas is, uh,yeah.
It's, I don't know.
It's interesting, interesting tothink about.
And I think I'd kind of like toend it on that, that part, you
know, a kind of funny, moresuperficial note about food and
the different ways that we eat.
(30:26):
And, um, actually I'll leave youwith one thing.
This is one that I really,Really, I really want To do.
Hopefully very soon when I'mfully vaccinated, I can fly into
Italy and have this Sunday withmy friend.
So I met her in Dublin years agoand she said that in her region
of Italy on Sundays, not everySunday or maybe every Sunday, I
(30:49):
don't know, they will have a lotof people get together and they
will start cooking at 10 in themorning or so, and just cook and
eat and a drink for hours Andhours and hours and hours and
hours Cooking, eating, drinking,slow roasted meats and wine.
(31:14):
Oh, four hours.
How beautiful is that?
Anyway, It just went to another,another plane of existence right
there.
Very happy one.
Let's end this talk on that.
I have so much more that I couldsay forever and ever, and ever
(31:38):
all of the differences betweenall of these cultures are so
interesting and there are somany of them.
So I think I'm going to touch onthis topic many, many more times
and, uh, Yeah, cheers to ourbeautiful differences.
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