Europe vs. America

It occurred to me that with this trip's prolific blogging, one or two of the least dedicated blog readers may not have had time to study the entire novel we have posted online. For their convenience, and since my portion of the trip is coming to a close, I thought that I would take advantage of this "internet" thing (it will never catch on) to summarize the trip so far:

Prague: Absolutely beautiful town but the tourist area has nothing but tourism, it is like a giant club with tons of young adults except with beautiful baroque cathedrals every few blocks.

Rome: Fantastic all-around town. Wonderful reception from Massimo, lots of history, lots of culture, still being used today. Had a wonderful time exploring local haunts and ancient ruins.

Serbia: Wonderful experience by relaxing in Banya, immersing ourselves in a foreign culture few Californians have the opportunity to enjoy, and had a great time interacting with people of various english proficiencies.

Istanbul: Massive culture shock, hectic, busy, slightly intimidating, but fascinating and a great learning experience. One of my favorite museums EVER and we had a great day with friendly Turkish locals at the beach. Most foreign, most interesting (in my opinion).


I thought I'd also take advantage of this time to make another few lists, with the purpose of sharing cultural differences and similarities between continents:

Europe vs. America: Universal things:
- McDonalds
- Coca-Cola (although European coke tastes better, probably due to the lack of high-fructose corn syrup).
- the word "ok"
- bad US pop music
- fascination and familiarity with Hollywood movies.

Europe vs. America: European similarities:
- "WC" = bathroom, regardless of language spoken.
- Coins are actually worth something here (I have $4 coins in my pockets right now!).
- McDonalds are actually nice.
- Everyone hates Bush (in Turkey it was even to the extreme that after mentioning we were from California, the people selling us a sandwich told us "BUSH!" with a forceful thumbs down symbol. Local english vocabulary was limited, but they knew a surprising number of profanities to tie to our president's name. This european universality was noticably lessened as we moved west, to the point that in the UK, people even made "everyone makes mistakes" comments about the Iraq war.
- Public transportation systems are amazing, although all I have to compare with in the states is BART and Caltrain.
- Europeans think american girls are really hot, probably due to aforementioned fascination with Hollywood movies.
- Internet cafe's aer much easier to find.

Europe vs. America: Why I'm glad to be coming home:
- Free bathrooms (these WCs cost way too much for a hole in the ground)
- easy-to-find trash cans (in Turkey you can find some corners where everyone throws their trash, in the UK, you have to find a janitor and throw trash in his cart).
- Free water with meals, and drinks that do not cost as much as a sandwich.
- people are much easier for me to understand.
- Twix bars do not cost $5.

There are many more, but my easily-found internet cafe is going to charge me another pound if I stay much longer, so ta-ta for now! And I hope to see many of you (at least the ones of you who know who I am) when I get back!