Personally, I like Spain better. It’s cheaper. The people there are friendlier. Any attempt at speaking Spanish to them will result in free booze. In fact, the government is so broken in Spain that free markets actually exist.
I’d skip out on those other socialist stink-holes - especially Belgium where the seat of European government is. The people there seem cold and it is filled with bureaucratic douchehbags. They seem not to like Americans there much.
[quote]strangemeadow wrote:
[quote]Cuso wrote:
[quote]strangemeadow wrote:
[quote]pittbulll wrote:
The way I understand it is Germany is more liberal than America but more prosperous .I do not consider myself to be anything like a socialist .I think with my anti war stance along with my anti war on drugs makes me more conservative than even Zeb 
Smoke that ZEB :)[/quote]
You mean 'Liberal" in that there are so many fucking laws there that they can tell you when you can cut your lawn? Most Germans hate the amount of laws there and want to leave.[/quote]
The German law pretaining to cutting your lawn outlines the time frame (from 08:00-22:00) when you can cut your grass. As most people don’t want to be woken up by some idiot cutting his lawn at 04:00 before he goes fishing, the law is just.
But you’re right about the amount of laws. Almost every little thing has a law to make sure that ALL people have equal rights, and nobody is at a disadvantage. The reason some Germans would like to leave is because the German people as a whole are stiff, aloof and it takes time and effort to make binding friendships. In this aspect countries like Holland, Sweden or the USA For example are much looser.
Believe me, based on the current economic and employment situation in Europe, not a whole lot of people want to leave Germany.[/quote]
I see your location is Germany, so you know of what you speak about, but, I used to live in Holland (which the Dutch call Germany “light”) and we have German friends and had a German AuPair for our daughter. They were all very sour about the amount of laws. They may be intended to be fair to all, but in my experience the German public isn’t so happy about it. I didn’t spend a lot of time in Germany, mainly Munich and Dusseldorf, but I thought the people were very warm and friendly, as opposed to Holland where people would look at you like your were a mental patient if you smiled at them. Very chilly reception. The Dutch people next door to me said something like “We Dutch don’t even like other Dutch.”
[/quote]
Of course when you’re visiting a foreign land, you’ll walk away with a different opinion than someone who spends their life in the country. But this kind of surprised me: “We Dutch don’t even like other Dutch.” Thats about 180 degrees from what I (as a tourist) encountered. Maybe the friendly Germans you had contact with in Munich and Dusseldorf were also as superficial as the Dutch people which I had contact with. I used to have a hotel here (with a great weight room thank you) and I was as pleasant as can be to all who were traveling.
What a lot of Germans complain about, which makes them in some ways no different from Americans is the amount of bureaucracy in everyday life. Of course bureaucracy is regulation which means laws. You need permission to add a wing to your garage or to put those huge pimp spin rims on your car etc. but if you build that new wing on your garage without having the proper structural plans done and approved, are you not endangering someone other that yourself?
A good example is an earthquake which happened in Turkey about 2 years ago. Turkey has construction regulations, however they weren’t enforced. Boom. 7.2 on the richter scale and several appartment complexes collapsed killing hundreds of people. Unsurprisingly the appartments which had been built to the imposed standards faired much better.
Laws not only govern society, but also protect it. More laws make it more difficult to get some things done (who likes waiting in line to get a stamp on some mundane form) but I bet alot of people wish that Timothy McVeigh had to have gone through a little more bureaucracy trying to get that ammonium nitrate.
Sorry for hijacking the thread.
Pitt,
Just a heads up…
If you plan on buying anything expensive (not sure if you are or not), claim that you brought it with you. When they ask you where you bought that in customs, tell them you bought it in the US, to avoid paying the VAT tax.
Unless, you embrace your Liberal-ness, and want to pay more taxes
I hope you have fun, and why you didn’t manage a trip to Italy is beyond me. Make sure you have an authentic Belgium waffle, and drink up a shit ton of that awesome coffee over there. Watch your wallet, lots of pick-pockets over there. If someone bumps you on a train, check your pockets ASAP.
[quote]pittbulll wrote:
Germany , France ,Belgium ,Netherlands and London . any suggestions of things not to miss would be appreciated . Already plan on checking out the coffee shops in Amsterdam :)[/quote]
Try to do things off the beaten path…Go do some restaurants where the locals eat.
There’s two ways to do Europe, stay in one place for a while and dig your heals in, or go see as much as you can… There’s no real formula, it can be loads of fun. France has those stand up toilets…which is weird, you’ll see what I mean when you get there.
Also, especially in france secure your belongings. They have a huge gypsy problem there. When I would tour around, I would only carry a bank card, credit card and cash in my front pocket. DON’T CARRY A WALLET. Once you pass customs, you never need an ID in Europe, they just don’t give a shit.
And people smoke everywhere and they don’t give a shit if you don’t like it. So get used to it. Non-smoking signs are for the media… People piss all over that shit.
As Pat said, try to eat where the locals eat and go to the stores the locals go. All the tourist shit they try to sell you is shit and overly expensive. I now you arent going to Norway, but we sell some moronic stuff
to tourist. I guess it is like that on the continent too.
Regarding gypsys: If you encounter any, treat them like people and not like shit as many of my fellow europeens does. You will make the europeen continent a tad better if you do this, but keep a hand on your wallet when you do 
Pittbulll, don’t forget to PM me when you get here. I’d love to show you around Amsterdam if my schedule permits me.
Amsterdam is quite lovely if you avoid the tourist traps.
[quote]Cuso wrote:
[quote]strangemeadow wrote:
[quote]Cuso wrote:
[quote]strangemeadow wrote:
[quote]pittbulll wrote:
The way I understand it is Germany is more liberal than America but more prosperous .I do not consider myself to be anything like a socialist .I think with my anti war stance along with my anti war on drugs makes me more conservative than even Zeb
Smoke that ZEB :)[/quote]
You mean 'Liberal" in that there are so many fucking laws there that they can tell you when you can cut your lawn? Most Germans hate the amount of laws there and want to leave.[/quote]
The German law pretaining to cutting your lawn outlines the time frame (from 08:00-22:00) when you can cut your grass. As most people don’t want to be woken up by some idiot cutting his lawn at 04:00 before he goes fishing, the law is just.
But you’re right about the amount of laws. Almost every little thing has a law to make sure that ALL people have equal rights, and nobody is at a disadvantage. The reason some Germans would like to leave is because the German people as a whole are stiff, aloof and it takes time and effort to make binding friendships. In this aspect countries like Holland, Sweden or the USA For example are much looser.
Believe me, based on the current economic and employment situation in Europe, not a whole lot of people want to leave Germany.[/quote]
I see your location is Germany, so you know of what you speak about, but, I used to live in Holland (which the Dutch call Germany “light”) and we have German friends and had a German AuPair for our daughter. They were all very sour about the amount of laws. They may be intended to be fair to all, but in my experience the German public isn’t so happy about it. I didn’t spend a lot of time in Germany, mainly Munich and Dusseldorf, but I thought the people were very warm and friendly, as opposed to Holland where people would look at you like your were a mental patient if you smiled at them. Very chilly reception. The Dutch people next door to me said something like “We Dutch don’t even like other Dutch.”
[/quote]
Of course when you’re visiting a foreign land, you’ll walk away with a different opinion than someone who spends their life in the country. But this kind of surprised me: “We Dutch don’t even like other Dutch.” Thats about 180 degrees from what I (as a tourist) encountered. Maybe the friendly Germans you had contact with in Munich and Dusseldorf were also as superficial as the Dutch people which I had contact with. I used to have a hotel here (with a great weight room thank you) and I was as pleasant as can be to all who were traveling.
What a lot of Germans complain about, which makes them in some ways no different from Americans is the amount of bureaucracy in everyday life. Of course bureaucracy is regulation which means laws. You need permission to add a wing to your garage or to put those huge pimp spin rims on your car etc. but if you build that new wing on your garage without having the proper structural plans done and approved, are you not endangering someone other that yourself?
A good example is an earthquake which happened in Turkey about 2 years ago. Turkey has construction regulations, however they weren’t enforced. Boom. 7.2 on the richter scale and several appartment complexes collapsed killing hundreds of people. Unsurprisingly the appartments which had been built to the imposed standards faired much better.
Laws not only govern society, but also protect it. More laws make it more difficult to get some things done (who likes waiting in line to get a stamp on some mundane form) but I bet alot of people wish that Timothy McVeigh had to have gone through a little more bureaucracy trying to get that ammonium nitrate.
Sorry for hijacking the thread.[/quote]
You hit on one of the things the Germans told me about that the hate: things like changeing the rims on your car. That is the sort of over regulation that is invasive and unreasonable. Of course building codes are needed, and these sorts of things, but many go too far.
Also, the laws in Western Europe of often written like “This is Allowed” in contrast to the US where our law are like “This is Prohibited”. So in a way their laws are “you can do these things only, everything is is forbidden.” Here in The States, it’s a free-for-all. We’re like “hey, I didn’t do that, I did something 15% different”. We like this letter of the law vs spirit of the law deal so we can manipulate it to our advantage. Which of course leads to problems=America 
Hijacked!
[quote]ephrem wrote:
Pittbulll, don’t forget to PM me when you get here. I’d love to show you around Amsterdam if my schedule permits me.
Amsterdam is quite lovely if you avoid the tourist traps.[/quote]
If possible bring him to Utrecht. All the best parts of A’Dam, but cleaner and non-touristy.
Or at least we really liked it…
[quote]ephrem wrote:
Pittbulll, don’t forget to PM me when you get here. I’d love to show you around Amsterdam if my schedule permits me.
Amsterdam is quite lovely if you avoid the tourist traps.[/quote]
Red light district, baby.
CS
[quote]florelius wrote:
As Pat said, try to eat where the locals eat and go to the stores the locals go. All the tourist shit they try to sell you is shit and overly expensive. I now you arent going to Norway, but we sell some moronic stuff
to tourist. I guess it is like that on the continent too.
Regarding gypsys: If you encounter any, treat them like people and not like shit as many of my fellow europeens does. You will make the europeen continent a tad better if you do this, but keep a hand on your wallet when you do ;P[/quote]
Or avoid them like the plague, they are easy to spot. They look very different and the tend to smell like a toilet.
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]florelius wrote:
As Pat said, try to eat where the locals eat and go to the stores the locals go. All the tourist shit they try to sell you is shit and overly expensive. I now you arent going to Norway, but we sell some moronic stuff
to tourist. I guess it is like that on the continent too.
Regarding gypsys: If you encounter any, treat them like people and not like shit as many of my fellow europeens does. You will make the europeen continent a tad better if you do this, but keep a hand on your wallet when you do ;P[/quote]
Or avoid them like the plague, they are easy to spot. They look very different and the tend to smell like a toilet.[/quote]
You should read up on some of the racist motivated murders of the rom people in Europa the last decade. And when you are at it you can also read up on the fucked up shit different countryes state have done to them in the 1900`s. Cliff notes: nazi deathcamps, eugenic measures against them( castration and sterilasation ) and other shit( lobotomisation )
ps. Not saying that Pitt should be naive and there are gypsys that are pick pocketers etc, but saying shit like that against an entire people that also have been treated like shit during history is ignorant, racist and mean.
[quote]pat wrote:
Or avoid them like the plague, they are easy to spot. They look very different and the tend to smell like a toilet.[/quote]
Didn’t expect that one from you, but I’m new here and maybe you’re just being sarcastic.
[quote]Cuso wrote:
[quote]pat wrote:
Or avoid them like the plague, they are easy to spot. They look very different and the tend to smell like a toilet.[/quote]
Didn’t expect that one from you, but I’m new here and maybe you’re just being sarcastic.[/quote]
Pat seems to generally be an ass, so…it’s par for the course.
What are you interested in seeing in London? There’s tons of good stuff but careful for tourist traps - they will try and rip you off! I personally recommend a greasy spoon where you can experience fried British everything in all its glory.
[quote]pittbulll wrote:
Germany , France ,Belgium ,Netherlands and London . any suggestions of things not to miss would be appreciated . Already plan on checking out the coffee shops in Amsterdam :)[/quote]
Stay, please. You’ll like it there.
[quote]Bambi wrote:
I personally recommend a greasy spoon where you can experience fried British everything in all its glory.[/quote]
Yorkshire pudding with roast meat, veges and gravy.
[quote]pittbulll wrote:
Already plan on checking out the coffee shops in Amsterdam :)[/quote]
You should try some real tea stewed in a pot and served in a bone china cup. It has a remarkable rejuvenating effect and it’s still taxed by the crown(VAT etc.) Don’t add any sugar or you’ll completely ruin it.
[quote]Cuso wrote:
In A-Dam check out the Bulldog Coffeeshop & the redlight district. Do not take a credit card to either.
In Germany go to the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, leave your CCs at the hotel in the safe. Rent a Porsche if you can and drive it 200 mph to Munich which is very cool. Go to the P3 disco and make a scene.
Skip France…and Belgium
In London take all of your credit cards with you, and don’t ask any drunk buggers to show their “Yorktown Medals”.
Edit:
I’m sorry, but would you rather have info over tourist stuff like the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam or the Deutsche Nationales Technik & Wissenschaftsmuseum in Munich?[/quote]
I would recommend the WWI battlefields of Northern France and Belgium. I would avoid French people rather than France per say but that can get a little difficult in France. And if you’re not used to the nauseating stench it can be a little overwhelming.
There’s some good skiing in Austria(I skiied Mt. Zell am See) but you have to watch out in the Austrian Alps as homosexuality/bisexuality is very common and you get guys coming onto you and so on. I’m sure orion will confirm this being a native.
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
I would avoid French people rather than France per say but that can get a little difficult in France.[/quote]
This is funny. I’ve always had a good time in France, but I’ve definitely met a few assholes.
[quote]smh23 wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
I would avoid French people rather than France per say but that can get a little difficult in France.[/quote]
This is funny. I’ve always had a good time in France, but I’ve definitely met a few assholes.[/quote]
Oops. Should’ve been “per se.” Good food and wine in France of course. I haven’t spent much time there though.