Saturday, November 13, 2010

Europeans and Friendliness

Friendliness is a difficult thing to measure around Europe.  For an American, we are always looking for a friendly nod, a handshake, a hug, or some moment when the other guy is just acting in a friendly way.  To be truthful...you can find Germans who are actually overly friendly, although it might not be in the manner that you'd expect.

I always considered the Italians and British to be about the most friendly folks that you could bump into when traveling around Europe.  Every single Italian is like a local guide and wants to give you the best restaurant for a meal or a glass of wine.  For Brits....all you have to do is admit you are lost...and suddenly you've got a cast of crazy characters wanting to give you twelve lines of information on how lost you are, where you got lost, and how you might regain your compass points (they will list eight points in the local area to remember).

Number three on my friendly list are the Danes.  They tend always offer a helping hand and you'd almost feel at home in Denmark.

I won't go to a bottom of the list group because it really doesn't help.  Sometimes...you'd be shocked at some car problem you have in a isolated Bavarian village, and then discover that the local mechanic does speak English and going way out of his way to help.  You could be in Amsterdam and have some local spend ten minutes explaining how things work there.  You could actually be standing in the midst of Paris and some friendly character comes up to point in the right direction to recover your bearings.

So I'm not trying to say negative things about anyone in Europe.  It's just that you ought to have a lesser set of expectations.  Going to Europe isn't like visiting Murfreesboro, Tennessee.  If you start at that level....you probably will be happy and satisfied.  And remember....they are observing you at the same time.

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