[OT] National Pride?

[Henry]

Mmm, where I live we're used to having hundreds of years old buildings lying around. After a while, it doesn't feel much special. Heck, my city is something like 3000 years old. Really, I'm more impressed by the way Americans find it normal to travel 200 km to visit a friend.

Zappo brings up another point - mass transit is far more common in Europe than the U.S. - We think it nothing to go 100 miles to another city or state to visit friends - yet that's a LOT of fuel by, say UK or Italy standards. Americans pay anywhere from $1.35 to $2.00 per gallon - Europeans pay the equivalent of - what - $5.00 per gallon? If I paid that much per gallon, I couldn't even afford to go to work from where I live! I make a 70 mile (about 112 km) round trip each day to go to work.

 

[Ravellion]

Allonon, where in the NL are you from? The old VOC (United Eastindies Company) cities breathe history. At least, to me they do. I noticed it especially when I just came back a few weeks ago after a prolonged stay in Brighton (where I'm going to be returning to next sunday).

One interesting thing is that Culture in Europe is so diverse that you can't compare a trip from The Netherlands to Germany (quite different in culture) with a trip from Michigan to Ohio (same culture). If in the US you travel from the extreme East to the extreme West, you still get the NFL, Letterman, Bud beer, more or less the same laws and prices, same language. In Europe you probably have to start getting used to everything, and culture shock is a very likely event.

That said, I am in a Uni with 33% exchange students, and almost half of them are Americans. The other exchange students (from all over the world) do seem to settle down there a lot better... the Americans have a lot more trouble. Perhaps experience with different cultures surrounding you also makes it easier to travel.

Though perhaps it is just that the political arena is shifting to an anti american attitude throughout the world, and the exchange students are a bit uncomfortable because of it.

In the end, I don't hink this thread will clear that issue up.

Rav

 

[AGGEMAM]

5$ per gallon ? Ok, IIRC a gallon is 4,6 liters, then you correct !

Personally I have allways hated flying. Luckily I can take the train from Copenhagen and be in just about every country in Europe in less than 24 hours. I also take ferries, and allthough slower, it is a convinient mode of transportation.

 

[Mercule]

Mmm, where I live we're used to having hundreds of years old buildings lying around. After a while, it doesn't feel much special. Heck, my city is something like 3000 years old. Really, I'm more impressed by the way Americans find it normal to travel 200 km to visit a friend.

Bah! 125 miles (if'n I did my math right) is nothing. Before I had kids, I used to do that just to see a movie with friends. About a 200 mile/320 km drive is my limit for a day trip. I can do up to 350 mi/560 km for a weekend. I've done as much as 800 mi/1280 km, though. Beyond that, I fly.

Of course, I live in the Midwest where everything's a bit spread out -- I know my East Coast cousins shudder at the thought of drives like that.

What I'd love is to be able to find something man-made that predates gunpowder in the range. Something like the Porte Negre, Charlemagne's palace at Aachen, or the Basilica. I can't really even conceive of the age of those places, let alone something like the Parthenon.

 

[Ravellion]

Henry beat me to it (about homogenous culture) while I was typing and making some tea. Oh well...

And how do I view it, that I can travel short distacnes and end up somewhere completely different? I would like to ask you the opposite. I just find it strange that the US is so homogenous for it's huge landmass. The other two large nations mentioned (the soviet union and the roman empire) did not have such a homogenous culture. So you're pointing at me and saying "look at that strange culturally heterogenous lot!" While I point back and say: "look at that strange culturally homogenous lot!"

I think that the heterogenic culture also makes it a lot more interesting to travel around, so this might reinforce or actually be the reason for the perceived trend of Europeans to travel.

Also it is somewhat strange that we don't even first visit all the other countries in Europe, before travelling intercontinental. All of my close circle of friends (I am the oldest of the five at 23) have been to either South East Asia or the US or the Caribbean at one point in their life. I don't even think this is that anomalous either.

Rav

 

[diaglo]

5$ per gallon ? Ok, IIRC a gallon is 4,6 liters, then you correct !

3.78 Litres to the US Gallon

 

[AGGEMAM]

3.78 Litres to the US Gallon

Oh, well, then the price is a bit high, but note that gas prices vary a lot in Europe, and is quite erratic geografically, ie in Denmark and Norway fuel prices are quite low compared to our nieghbouring countries (Germany and Great Britain among others), and then further south in europe they are even lower than here.

 

[Henry]

And how do I view it, that I can travel short distacnes and end up somewhere completely different? I would like to ask you the opposite. I just find it strange that the US is so homogenous for it's huge landmass. The other two large nations mentioned (the soviet union and the roman empire) did not have such a homogenous culture. So you're pointing at me and saying "look at that strange culturally heterogenous lot!" While I point back and say: "look at that strange culturally homogenous lot!"

Touché, my dear Rav.

I have always found it surprising, as well. But the origin of America as melting pot goes back to the foundation of the country. The funny thing is that America is not a nation in the classic sense; the definition of a nation is a group of people with a common cultural identity - and America's "cultural identity," unlike most other nations, keeps changing as its population changes.

 

[Sixchan]

Oh, well, then the price is a bit high, but note that gas prices vary a lot in Europe, and is quite erratic geografically, ie in Denmark and Norway fuel prices are quite low compared to our nieghbouring countries (Germany and Great Britain among others), and then further south in europe they are even lower than here.

What's worst about the UK, is that when you take away tax, we have one of the lowest (if not the lowest) prices in europe.

 

[Ravellion]

Oh, well, then the price is a bit high, but note that gas prices vary a lot in Europe, and is quite erratic geografically, ie in Denmark and Norway fuel prices are quite low compared to our nieghbouring countries (Germany and Great Britain among others), and then further south in europe they are even lower than here.

In the Netherlands/Germany border area, most Dutchmen actually fuel up their cars on the German side of the border... I have a driver's licence... and I haven't used it in 4 years...

I think that's why Maldur thinks the SMART is the best car in the world as well. (See UK enworlders thread)

Rav