Positives:
1) Beauty- every building is amazing. The architecture is nothing like most American cities. its like ever building has its own story. Just walking around sometimes makes me say "wow" out loud.
2) Culture- Everything here has so much more history to it than anything in the US. You feel like you are walking somewhere that has been a turning point in human civilizaton at all times.
3) Walkability- Overhere everyone walks and bikes EVERYwhere... it is really pretty amazing. The way we have explored every city is essentially just to walk around the city aimlessly. It has always been easy. This is not only fun to do but also leaves a smaller carbon footprint... well done Europe.
Negatives:
1) Beverage cost- Most of you know I drink a lot of beverage. When I am at a restaurant I often require a whole pitcher of water over the course of a meal. For this reason it upsets me greatly that water is not free over here. I guess I can understand charging something but here all drinks are unbelievably priced. Yesterday I had to pay 2 Euro for a can of sprite... what the shit?
2) not so public bathrooms- Bathrooms cost money too! They charge 40 Eurocents per use which is a small enough cost I guess, but the system as a whole doesn't make any sense to me. Sure they generate some revenue, but then they have to pay someone to sit there and collect money from people going in which I think probably results in minimal gain for the owners of the bathroom. Just let me pee for free!
3) Confusing streets- The streets here (especially in Amsterdam) are not constructed in a logical way. Cars are going everywhere, there are no clearly defined places for pedestrians to walk. Bikes and Vespas run rough-shod over the streets. It all results in me being fearful of being hit by everything at all times. As a note... this does not affect it's walkability. You can easily get from everywhere in these cities to everywhere by foot.... you just might get hit walking first.
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