Things You Just Don't Get

walker said:
if this is all you got from vienna, than it is a very said affair. nvm.

fortress is referring to the fact, that some people talked about closing the boarders like e.g. Hungary, after the experiment to let the refugees in failed big time. ymmv.
Click to expand...

Agreed: Pretty sad someone goes to one of the great cities of Europe and all they can come away with is the munchies for kebabs and some random photo of a poster made by the local urban guerrilla cell of the communist party or antifa. Hopefully the honourable member of the forum is staying for a few more days and can redeem himself. Even on a day business mission to Vienna I managed to fit in the photography museum which is excellent and world class.
 
walker said:
if this is all you got from vienna, than it is a very said affair. nvm.

fortress is referring to the fact, that some people talked about closing the boarders like e.g. Hungary, after the experiment to let the refugees in failed big time. ymmv.
Click to expand...

What do you mean this is all I got? I walked by and saw this. I took a lot of photographs of other things.

I'm about to go to a dinner with Italians, French, Germans, Austrians plus US and Canadian visitors. Do people here think homogeneity means a more effective work force?
 
Pimpernel Smith said:
Agreed: Pretty sad someone goes to one of the great cities of Europe and all they can come away with is the munchies for kebabs and some random photo of a poster made by the local urban guerrilla cell of the communist party or antifa. Hopefully the honourable member of the forum is staying for a few more days and can redeem himself. Even on a day business mission to Vienna I managed to fit in the photography museum which is excellent and world class.
Click to expand...

I did all that. I just didn't post it here. I'm not sure waking up every morning in my hotel to a photograph of Franz Josef was something I fancied.
 
Fwiffo said:
What do you mean this is all I got? I walked by and saw this. I took a lot of photographs of other things.

I'm about to go to a dinner with Italians, French, Germans, Austrians plus US and Canadian visitors. Do people here think homogeneity means a more effective work force?
Click to expand...

Sometimes, it's good to take a rest from the multi-cultural diversity is our strength mantra narrative and take in the local scene and culture:

 
Fwiffo said:
What do you mean this is all I got?
Click to expand...

you sounded skeptical from your intro via AA, anyway.

glad you can catch a little bit of the flair of vienna, with franz joseph or without. I have no remarks to your team building and/or the pool of people, you're going to meet, this is a different story altogether.

probably a bit of "whats on your plate", even the elite fipsi did that, when in vienna with his elite escort wife.
 
walker said:
you sounded skeptical from your intro via AA, anyway.

glad you can catch a little bit of the flair of vienna, with franz joseph or without. I have no remarks to your team building and/or the pool of people, you're going to meet, this is a different story altogether.

probably a bit of "whats on your plate", even the elite fipsi did that, when in vienna with his elite escort wife.
Click to expand...

The Italians live here full time. They're from the north so they said they learnt German in high school.

doghouse doghouse can see my instagram is full of tourist photographs. Clearly there was a lot of land to build these palaces and museums. It's also interesting how the Austro-Hungarian empire consisted of so many different ethnicities and languages and yet somehow operated as a nation. Curiously it has no track record of having overseas colonies like other European great powers. There is something elegiac seeing all the homage to the Habsburgs and the past; a decline and fall of what used to be what did I read, second largest European nation next to Russia or third next to Russia and unified Germany. I was reading at some tourist attraction when Austria was formed on its own, Vienna was an imperial capital and needed food and material that it never had to produce on its own.

Beyond schnitzel, I've been having tafelspitz, welschriesling, strudel, etc.
 
People having a pint at the airport before 8am.
 
Why do we still change time 2 weeks ahead of the world in North America? Now we're 4 hours away from London and 5 from CET.
 
People stopping in the middle of an intersection on a green light and taking photographs whilst impeding traffic such as someone wanting to make a right turn.
 
Asians queueing around the corner to Irish pubs to have a pint of food colouring dyed Guinness.

Orientals decking themselves out in clovers and lime green.

How in God's name are these people even remotely Irish?
 
Fwiffo said:
Asians queueing around the corner to Irish pubs to have a pint of food colouring dyed Guinness.

Orientals decking themselves out in clovers and lime green.

How in God's name are these people even remotely Irish?
Click to expand...

A lot of inappropriate cultural appropriation going on there!

Back in the day, when I was young man, all you needed to do to take part in Paddy's Day was to declare yourself an honourable free born man of the County Hell and you could be delivered to the promised land by the doctrine of Shane MacGowan. How times have changed!



 
Pimpernel Smith said:
A lot of inappropriate cultural appropriation going on there!

Back in the day, when I was young man, all you needed to do to take part in Paddy's Day was to declare yourself an honourable free born man of the County Hell and you could be delivered to the promised land by the doctrine of Shane MacGowan. How times have changed!
Click to expand...

The pub doghouse doghouse told me to go to had a few Irish complaining how back in the day it was no blacks, no dogs, no Irish. Up in Liverpool.

I reckon having one day to atone for that is fair.
 
Fwiffo said:
The pub doghouse doghouse told me to go to had a few Irish complaining how back in the day it was no blacks, no dogs, no Irish. Up in Liverpool.

I reckon having one day to atone for that is fair.
Click to expand...

I'm atoning for my uncultured week by attending Madame Butterfly today.
 
doghouse said:
I'm atoning for my uncultured week by attending Madame Butterfly today.
Click to expand...

It is an opera that works on stage but it’s not worth getting the CDs. Furthermore, producers don’t seem to muck about with it. So far no modern versions set in a fascist dystopia with a stage that looks like a sixties car park.
 
Pimpernel Smith said:
A lot of inappropriate cultural appropriation going on there!

Back in the day, when I was young man, all you needed to do to take part in Paddy's Day was to declare yourself an honourable free born man of the County Hell and you could be delivered to the promised land by the doctrine of Shane MacGowan. How times have changed!



Click to expand...


It has already been culturally misappropriated by the yanks.

When I was a lad, in an Irish area of NW London, it was Mass and ‘Hail glorious Saint Patrick’ (as referred to in a recent Billy Connolly documentary )plus shamrock and little medals with harps and flags. Grown ups did not go out on the lash and there were no processions - and certainly no green beer. Happy Days!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_-UffJ2bUA

Many of the Catholic hymns disappeared after Vatican 2 but you can still hear them on youtube.
 
Fwiffo said:
The pub doghouse doghouse told me to go to had a few Irish complaining how back in the day it was no blacks, no dogs, no Irish. Up in Liverpool.

I reckon having one day to atone for that is fair.
Click to expand...

Sounds like plastic woolly back Irish to me. Liverpool is the most Irish of English cities. No problems with the Irish being welcomed there.

It is recorded that in London in the 50s and 60s To Let signs often ran with the proviso: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs. Often Dogs was substitued with Children.
 
Wearing ripped jeans *and* a long john underneath.
 
Last night I was with a younger chap who said after our last outing or two he started to drink wine and indulge in charcuterie and cheese plates instead of beer and nachos. He says it is making him look sophisticated in front of his girlfriend. He is also sporting pocket squares now. He saw I had a silk scarf on for spring and said he wants to start wearing one. Never mind he indulges in whisky, old fashioneds and Manhattan's because of me. He really ought to join gents his age and drink gin.

I feel like Dorian Gray passing on my worst traits.
 
How the USA can afford to keep large numbers of people in prison on long sentences and also execute some of them later.

Meanwhile the UK, in contrast, is talking about not sending some criminals to jail. Those that do get a jail term can usually get out (of a comparatively short sentence) in half the time if they behave themselves in prison.

Obviously it would be a lot cheaper to execute criminals promptly; but in USA they often bear the cost of a long jail time before the execution takes place.

Why cannot the UK match the USA on punishment of crime?
 
The other day I waited one hour for a bowl of ramen at this one Japanese ramen restaurant. Next to me was an Asian couple who ordered some gyoza as appetizer so they had something to eat. They're holding hands and then as the wait goes on he shifts over from the chair to the bench side where she is and puts his arm around her. Lovey dovey stuff.

The restaurant staff say they're changing water it's 20 minutes. Then another 10 minutes. Then the boiler is broken so they are boiling water with a kettle to make broths one at a time. The boyfriend and I get our ramen because we ordered the same thing. She needs to wait till they get around to people who ordered the same as her. He had ordered extra noodles and other toppings. He moans to the waitress he doesn't see the extras in there and doesn't want to be charged for it. All the while his girlfriend is still starving. Then he starts digging into his bowl and almost finishes it before hers arrives. Talk about being tone deaf. I'm not demanding every man exhibit chivalry but what about common decency and manners.
 
People who order a pint and only drink half a pint. Why not order a half pint?
 
I'm not sure how this discussion descended into phallic banter.
 
I always thought of travel as an experience - but it seems that, more and more, people think of travel as ticking a box to say "seen that" and then posting the pic on Facebook or Instagram.

This article helps to illustrate the point:

https://www.news.com.au/travel/trav...y/news-story/22d30bba4db604a58cec6940af926c83

She's apparently the youngest person to travel to every country in the world - but it doesn’t seem that she necessarily enjoyed it:

Accomplishing the lifelong dream as she stepped foot in North Korea on May 31, Lexie Alford told Fox News that she immediately felt “relief.”

“I’ve been working through extreme anxiety for the past six-plus months overcoming the obstacles that go along with getting into some of the least accessible places in the world. It wasn’t until the moment in that obscure conference room, of all places, that it really sunk in how far I’ve come,” Ms Alford said.


Why do it if you don't enjoy it? Why not forget setting a record and, you know, actually enjoy the experiences rather thinking, "Oh, I've got to be in North Korea by Monday!"
 
Same as those fuckers who climb Everest and wait 6 hours, yes, six hours, in a queue of 40 people to reach the summit.
 
Journeyman said:
Why do it if you don't enjoy it? Why not forget setting a record and, you know, actually enjoy the experiences rather thinking, "Oh, I've got to be in North Korea by Monday!"
Click to expand...

I'm not sure anyone *needs* to be in North Korea by Monday or any day for that matter.
It makes you think about those people who row across an ocean or swim across another body of water. Pourquoi?

Rambo said:
this is why i'm pro them dying up there.
Click to expand...

You've been pretty bitter lately ever since you commented about the kids being not alright in the climate change thread. Hope everything's alright mate.
 
Now pretty much anyone can travel, meaning it's as you said, just ticking the box. It's like if you don't travel you have leprosy. It's the equivalent of talking about whatever latest TV show or movie people watch. It's just something easy for people to do. You buy some tickets, book some lodging, and then spend a few days elsewhere they want to get away from home or work. I have the feeling that if people lived weren't stressed about their home life or work (and had money), there would be less travel because then people wouldn't be escaping anything.

Two, the tourism industry is larger and therefore a greater majority of people do the same things whether they're interested or not in them because everyone is pushed into the same activities. No one's traveling because they want to do something special out there. They're traveling because other people are doing something and they feel they should do it too. How often do you hear about people visiting a museum or beach or whatever it is in some foreign country, but they don't visit the ones in their own backyard?

Three, the rise of the globalization and technology seems to make everyplace more and more similar rather than different. It also seems to make people less social and requiring company to go outside. Gone are the days where you could find someone outside alone and start up a conversation as if it were like breathing. Everybody needs company with them now and instead of finding people who go out to meet people, you see people meet up to go out. It makes it much harder to meet people on the street now because it's no longer expected or common to chat with random people. And also, it seems some of the hangout spots of yore, record stores, book stores, coffee shops, etc are gone or become places where people 'work'. So instead of actually immersing yourself in something different, you're just physically in a new country but blocked from immersing yourself unless you get a job or take classes. They're travelling, but meeting other tourists from their own country.

(Please note, these observations stem from yuppies I've met throughout the years who talk about travelling the most. Other demographics may have different travel experiences.)
 
ballmouse said:
(Please note, these observations stem from yuppies I've met throughout the years who talk about travelling the most. Other demographics may have different travel experiences.)
Click to expand...

If you go back to the late 70s and early 80s, certainly from a UK perspective, there was great cache and status if you travelled to the States, the Carribean, to the Far East or on safari. Those kind of trips were expensive and once in the lifetime experiences. Now the exotic and glamour of travel has gone. The Jet Set is no more.

We missed the first showing of the Elton John film in The Hague on Sunday and we ended up with 2.5 hrs to kill. So we went to some global Italian restaurant chain which boasted about all its restaurants on the wall, basically everywhere in Europe, the Middle East and Far East. Outside a lot of shops are now empty, even whole streets in the center and they're trying to move away from retail and get restaurants in. But it really is the model of globalism: indistinct, every nationality under the sun, you could be anywhere. There's nothing distinctively Dutch. And there's lots of kids dressed like American gangsta rappers loitering around either dealing drugs, trying to score or looking for a victim. I also notice parts of the center are empty during an evening, especially in winter.

I've been here nearly 20 years now and the vibe of the center of The Hague has completely changed.
 
“If you go back to the late 70s and early 80s, certainly from a UK perspective, there was great cache and status if you travelled to the States, the Carribean, to the Far East or on safari. Those kind of trips were expensive and once in the lifetime experiences. Now the exotic and glamour of travel has gone. The Jet Set is no more.“

Alan Whicker RIP always dapper in his suit or blazer. Documented the lives of the worlds rich and famous. That was in the days before the hoi polloi were flying around the world. I am surprised he is not yet an iGent hero.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_IzDxHCILo
 
One of my cousins travels just to post and do check ins on Facebook. Another one's wife is an Urbanspoon top reviewer. I think they went to Lebanon just to review anything there including the hotel restaurant.
 
It’s always been a rite of passage for Australians to take a year to backpack around the world - whether to the Old Country or SE Asia. The only difference now is that pub tall tales have been replaced be Instagram humble brags
 
Kingstonian said:
Alan Whicker RIP always dapper in his suit or blazer. Documented the lives of the worlds rich and famous. That was in the days before the hoi polloi were flying around the world. I am surprised he is not yet an iGent hero.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_IzDxHCILo
Click to expand...

Whilst it's easy to fall into the trap that the 70s was one long Ken Loach film or Rising Damp set up until about 1982, the reality was, if you had the right English look with tortoise shell glasses, blazer and club tie you could be interviewing Papa Doc at breakfast and fly into Rio just time for the cocktail party at Tom Jobim's.

A more elegant age, if you just had the class to be Roger Moore, Bryan Ferry or the gentleman himself, Alan Whicker.
 
ballmouse said:
They're travelling, but meeting other tourists from their own country.
Click to expand...

People who fly to the same foreign places every year, eat the same stuff as at home and spend all day either lying in the sun or getting their money's worth out of the "all inclusive" deal. Even worse, when they cannot really afford it and pay for the trip the rest of the year!!!

Have you heard of "Ballermann"? Very famous strip of beach on Mallorca, very popular with younger Germans who want to get hammered every day, drinking Sangria with straws out of a bucket!
 
Scherensammler said:
People who fly to the same foreign places every year, eat the same stuff as at home and spend all day either lying in the sun or getting their money's worth out of the "all inclusive" deal. Even worse, when they cannot really afford it and pay for the trip the rest of the year!!!

Have you heard of "Ballermann"? Very famous strip of beach on Mallorca, very popular with younger Germans who want to get hammered every day, drinking Sangria with straws out of a bucket!
Click to expand...

But they are really just after reliable warm, sunny weather on their holidays. Might be a bit cheaper than home too. They are not into oneupmanship or exploring different cultures or cuisines.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 3 (members: 0, guests: 3)
Back
Top Bottom