SpoonyBard
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They get confused because Deliverance gives an accurate portrayal of 50% of America.
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Anyone else find Eastern Europe mysterious/intriguing?
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They get confused because Deliverance gives an accurate portrayal of 50% of America.
We're very lucky Texas Chainsaw Massacre is confined to only one state.
IncandescentPrecept
Banned
Even past the torture movies, EE countries probably aren't as safe as WE countries.
Because communism =/= dictatorship. What the soviets made out of it wasn't anywhere close to the main idea. But after all, Russia really wasn't the right place for it to work as intended. In theory, everybody is equal and everybody rules, that's as far removed from dictatorship as you can get. So, if they call themselves communist doesn't mean they are soviet style "communists". Most of Europe's communist parties are closer to the "true meaning", at least in the south/not-iron-curtain-states they are.
because it's the day of the lord, dude
Actually I don't mind them being closed on Sunday. I surely wouldn't want to work on weekends/sundays, so why should others have to? Bars, restaurants and others are still open though. Don't know about the places you mentioned, but why would you ever visit the most boring cities in the country anyway?
SpoonyBard
Banned
I was pretty surprised a couple of years ago, how practically all the shops were closing already at 5.30 PM in England on weekdays. Made the shopping after work quite difficult, but I guess locals can live with that.
Kaisersalsek
Member
Austria is a total pain in the ass on Sunday, ski resorts transfer on Saturday night, meaning I can't go to the shop for snacks or drinks until Monday. Grrr
I hate the UK Sunday trading laws - completely needless and annoying. Though after work shopping is getting better - my local mall is open until 8-9pm, as is the local out of town retail park. Supermarkets 24 hours too, except Saturday night when they close at 10pm - kinda used to annoy me when we came back from snowboarding at 11 and I was dyin of thirst
I hate the UK Sunday trading laws - completely needless and annoying. Though after work shopping is getting better - my local mall is open until 8-9pm, as is the local out of town retail park. Supermarkets 24 hours too, except Saturday night when they close at 10pm - kinda used to annoy me when we came back from snowboarding at 11 and I was dyin of thirst
This seems to be true for a lot of places in the balkan. I´m currently in Pristina, and whenever i´m here i always feel like i have to step up my game
. Women tend to use the streets as if they are on the catwalk. That combined with the fact that the median age in the country is 27 makes it a place full of pretty people. Difficult to compare it to the 41 yo average in the Netherlands 
I've once met a guy from Hungary. I was curious so I asked about the culture there but he only told me that Hungary is boring and all the countries that sorround it hates Hungarian people.
I still want to go there some day.
Edit: Now I don't know which part of Europe Hungary belongs to.
I still want to go there some day.
Edit: Now I don't know which part of Europe Hungary belongs to.
I actually agree with you. It is due to shitty economy, high unemployment rates and great worker exploitability that so much businesses are open so long. But I still hate that banks, government/public offices have the same working hours in Austria so if you have to do something you need to ask for leave from work.
This seems to be true for a lot of places in the balkan. I´m currently in Pristina, and whenever i´m here i always feel like i have to step up my game
This as well. But damn, is that median age accurate? Seems impossibly low. No disrespect intended.
He could be exaggerating, but there is a stereotype that Hungarians are quite an envious folk.
Geographically Hungary belongs to Central Europe.
Non taken, i just noticed people are way younger here. Decided to google it. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2177.html
Kiraly
Member
It is true. It is not as boring as the proper Eastern European countries, but my god does it feel depressing all the time.
Second part is true, but Hungarians hate everyone else as well haha. Hungarians are, with the Fins, the only in Europe to speak a Finno-Ugric language, while the surrounding countries speak mostly Slavic.
True as well, there is still a lot of envy in the country over the injustice that was done at the end of the first world war. There is a lot of nationalism in Hungary.
Treaty of Trianon was a disgrace.
sure, why not, it's all arbitrary anyway
SpoonyBard
Banned
Poor Estonia, always left out from our exclusive language club.
What is quite interesting in my opinion is that there's an actual corridor between the Western/Eastern and the Southern Slavic languages:
And all languages in that corridor are widely different from each other, with Hungarian probably furthest away from everything else and (Austrian) German closest (because it's also Indo-European).
Glass Rebel
Member
Born in Kosovo, raised in Switzerland. I love the culture and the history of Eastern Europe but I could never imagine living there. The racism alone would probably kill me in less than a month.
what does it all mean
what does it all mean
Aww, no need to leave Estonia out of the Finno-Ugric hipster league.
No... might be ignorance but it feels like a place where I will get my face kicked in by 75 skinheads the moment I step foot in the country...
I remember though when I was 16 I went on an exchange in Poland.
Two skinheads sorta became my bodyguards to protect me from the others when we went out in the evening.
I remember though when I was 16 I went on an exchange in Poland.
Two skinheads sorta became my bodyguards to protect me from the others when we went out in the evening.
Um, if the poster is male and gay, he will most certainly not be welcome in Silesia or Poland for that matter.
JzeroT1437
Member
I've been to Russia and Poland, and have friends/researched the history of the Ukraine, Croatia, and Belarus, and the reason no news comes out of those countries is because they're still recovering from Cold War era oppression (with the exception of Belarus, which is still living under Cold War era oppression), and their leaders still treat civil liberties as privilege and not a right.
The class division in Russia is as striking as it is frightening--it feels like the logical conclusion of where the US is heading. The people of Belarus live in perpetual fear of their government.
Out of all the places you listed, Croatia and Poland are probably the most enjoyable for tourism. I'd suggest avoiding Russia if only because by visiting, you're sponsoring an oligarchy led by a egotistical asshole and furthering a class division the likes of which you can barely imagine.
There are a lot of countries more exotic than anything in Eastern Europe; beautiful women are everywhere in the world, as are intelligent individuals.
lol that's utter bullshit.
I live like 15 minutes by car from bratislava and drive there every now and than. And not even the most run down area I've ever been to looks anything like that movie clip. Since they joined the EU most places got cleaned up quite a bit and the old town is like a smaller version of Budapest/Vienna/Prague or any other of the former Habsburg imperial cities.
this is pretty much what eastern europe looks like in my head:
It can also look like this:
http://imgur.com/a/JM7AI
A few very random photos I snapped today.
They probably just took down the big ice skating rink and all the hot wine booths + food vendors, right? I loved the hot wine!
dsp
Member
It's just comedy, man. The only funny part of that awful movie, actually.
I am not sure if they had a skating ring yet this year. They are preparing for New Years Eve. As for the wine booths they aren't there all the time. Only when some wine fest is organized.
Thanks a lot, lol.
This seems to be true for a lot of places in the balkan. I´m currently in Pristina, and whenever i´m here i always feel like i have to step up my game
Yeah, and I like it but when you hook up with a girl and see her without makeup, well FUCK.
I've been to Netherlands recently and in first day or two I couldn't see 1 hot girl. Then I looked more and it was either really hot or ugly as fuck (plus I was in Amsterdam for few days of my stay and I've seen more non white people than white at places), also noticed none of the girls wore makeup and were fit and upon closer inspection naturally beautiful (those that weren't straight up ugly I mean). Just my experience with NL, will go again next year most likely.
It is true. It is not as boring as the proper Eastern European countries, but my god does it feel depressing all the time.
Second part is true, but Hungarians hate everyone else as well haha. Hungarians are, with the Fins, the only in Europe to speak a Finno-Ugric language, while the surrounding countries speak mostly Slavic.
True as well, there is still a lot of envy in the country over the injustice that was done at the end of the first world war. There is a lot of nationalism in Hungary.
Treaty of Trianon was a disgrace.
Thing about that picture, all countries in Europe were bigger at some point and have suffered "injustices" were land was taken from them. But in most cases that land wasn't really theirs in the first place and different people lived there for long ass time. That picture made me think of Austro-Hungarian empire and how they could claim half of Balkans was "theirs". Some places were held by them for long time but still.
And it's not even racism for specific reason, it's just because they're black. Most of people I know here are racist in a way or dislike black people even though they don't know any are very few live here. It's just because they're different and no first hand experience with them, plus all the movies and news focusing on bad parts of the culture.
Not really, starting a war in the first place and mostly being at the wrong side of history twice is a disgrace.
True as well, there is still a lot of envy in the country over the injustice that was done at the end of the first world war. There is a lot of nationalism in Hungary.
Treaty of Trianon was a disgrace.
Injustice? INJUSTICE??
Croatia sends nice FUCK YOU FOREVER to "Old Hungary" which was despotic, hegemonial, authoritharian and vicious "kingdom" that oppressed Croatia - and other countries on that map - for centuries.
Fuck you Old Hungary, fuck you. Fuck you.
Came here to post this.
Even if it's purely irrational fear I would never go to any Eastern Europe Country after watching the Hostel movies.
Have you ever been anywhere?
Americans are scared of everything though so it's natural.
yeah, also this. you may get robbed by an unarmed chipsy without you even noticing it but I'd take that over robbers with guns any day.
True that. I've travelled quite a lot in Eastern Europe, some of it alone, and the only bother I've ever had in any sense was a gypsy once asked me for money then kept shouting 'whore!' at the girl I was with when we refused.
Ive travelled off the beaten track in Eastern Europe a fair bit, some of it solo, and found the language barrier to be the only daunting thing. I've felt more unsafe in my hometown in one night out on the town than all my time east (although I hail from Glasgow so YMMV).
Ive travelled off the beaten track in Eastern Europe a fair bit, some of it solo, and found the language barrier to be the only daunting thing. I've felt more unsafe in my hometown in one night out on the town than all my time east (although I hail from Glasgow so YMMV).
Hat tip to you sir! I didn't have the courage to post something like this.
Mattlikewhoa
Member
Yeah, this is one of the main reasons why I haven't visited some of these places.
My ears disagree. I am pretty sensible with roughness, that's why I don't really like arabic. Russian intonation is particular but it still the softest slavic language, the notion of weak consonant and vowel is the best example. However I could concede that it may sound more unpleasant when we are talking about a man speaking than a woman. I am sorry that you're not pleased with your native language.
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