What in your country/area is totally normal but visitors get excited for?
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I grew up in Portsmouth, England. Some my friends would come to school from the Isle of Wight on the hovercraft service. We all thought the hovercraft was pretty cool, but I only recently found out that it's the only commercially operated hovercraft in the whole world.
I was in pompy 2 years ago and yes i found the hovercrafts cool. I didnt know that fact! Thanks! I wonder if my boyfriend from pompy knows that fact too.
Fratton is quite scary though ngl
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Is it still operating? For some reason I thought it stopped quite a while ago. Or maybe that's the one that used to cross the channel.
Yes it is! Costs £20 if i remember correctly
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I've only been abroad one time, and there were little gecko/lizard things everywhere, climbing up walls and scurrying across roads, and nobody cared. I was constantly fascinated but to the locals they're just kinda there.
Bonus question to anyone who visited the UK - was there anything that fascinated you but I'd be taking for granted?
Pic unrelated.
When visiting the UK. Arriving at St. Pancrias International station and needed to get to waterloo. I had no idea how to move about.
But i found it weird how you have the power lines of trains ON THE GROUND and have TV adds of "hey dont get on the rails!". Plus that you cant even get onto the platforms without a ticket. That you cant get into the underground without a ticket!! That there are cameras and cops EVERYWHERE! And i only visited 2 years ago!
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I love when people see deer here in North America. You'd think they're seeing a unicorn, when it's just some plain ol' mule deer.
Forest rats.
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A statue of a dog pissing into a girl's mouth. It's a fountain. Not kidding either.
Ok. Need a picture of that.
I'm not putting that into a search engine on works WIFI.
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I've only been abroad one time, and there were little gecko/lizard things everywhere, climbing up walls and scurrying across roads, and nobody cared. I was constantly fascinated but to the locals they're just kinda there.
Bonus question to anyone who visited the UK - was there anything that fascinated you but I'd be taking for granted?
Pic unrelated.
Leaves.
Yes, tree leaves.
Each fall when they start changing color flocks of tourists come up to gawk at them.
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When visiting the UK. Arriving at St. Pancrias International station and needed to get to waterloo. I had no idea how to move about.
But i found it weird how you have the power lines of trains ON THE GROUND and have TV adds of "hey dont get on the rails!". Plus that you cant even get onto the platforms without a ticket. That you cant get into the underground without a ticket!! That there are cameras and cops EVERYWHERE! And i only visited 2 years ago!
Only some metro systems, like the tube, have third rail - standard railways have overhead power. But since a lot of metro trains run outside tunnels as well it's not always obvious which rails are and aren't electrified.
The whole thing with gates is because the UK train system is privately run for profit and so respecting human dignity is less important than making sure every individual adequately prostates themselves before the company decides to provide service. Even TfL, the council-owned operator of the tube, is forbidden by law from receiving any taxpayer subsidy so must run at a profit.
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I'm originally from the Orlando area and worked for Disney for a while. Tourism folks there pass stories around and have their own folk tales of sorts. Your question reminds me of one of them.
Central Florida has anoles, little lizards, absolutely everywhere. A woman was working the front desk at a hotel, and a couple comes up to check in. She tells them the room number and hands then the key. A few minutes later the husband runs back up to the desk and tells her that "there's an alligator in our room!" "An alligator?!" She replies and they both rush to the hotel room, where she finds the wife screaming and pointing at the couch. "The alligator is under there!"
The front desk worker lifts up one end of the couch and spots a four inch green anole. She catches it and sets it outside.OP, I've never been to the UK, but don't you have hedgehogs? How common are they?
Not OP, but can confirm we have hedgehogs and they are adorable.
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There is this bridge over a river that people come from all over the world to fuck under.
I have no idea why. It doesn’t even show up in search results for the bridge.
Look, some bridges just do be like that.
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When I visited the US I was excited to see squirrels running around. We don't have squirrels where I'm from. We took pictures.
It must have looked like we were excited to witness a cloud in the sky.
I saw my first chipmunk last week and I totally screamed oh shit there's Alvin! in my heart.
Don't let your inner child die!
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Hahaha that sign is so charming though
And it's another example of "if you don't want me to do it, don't make it look so fun".
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Leaves.
Yes, tree leaves.
Each fall when they start changing color flocks of tourists come up to gawk at them.
To be fair it's very pretty. I get that one
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Italy. I've seen tourists (probably american by the looks and the words) cheering and in awe because, in cities, there are free public drinkable water fountains.
UK here. Various right-wing governments have discouraged and torn out almost all the public drinking fountains on the basis they were being used by the homeless (they were also being used by everyone else, but ignore that bit). I've not seen much of Italy outside Rome but the water fountains there are amazing; just a simple gesture of mutual respect between humans.
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I remember I was maybe 8 years old and lucky enough to go out on my dad and uncle's fishing boat. They were commercial fishermen, netting sardines.
I was so excited when dolphins showed up, only to discover that not everyone loves dolphins when my uncle got the shotgun out. He didn't actually murder any dolphins that day but not for lack of trying.
Suffice to say, I think most fishermen have a healthy dislike for other predators.
Platypuses don't eat fish. They eat worms and yabbies and insect larvae. I don't know why the fish stay away from them, but they do... Maybe the platypuses are territorial as they're competing for the same food?
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Leaves.
Yes, tree leaves.
Each fall when they start changing color flocks of tourists come up to gawk at them.
When I was a kid we hosted two Trinidadians as part of an exchange in the Autumn and they'd never seen the leaves falling - they were worried that all the trees were dying off. This isn't a "stupid foreigner" gag, it was probably just the thing that shocked them the most. They loved the trains and the narrowboats.
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Leaves.
Yes, tree leaves.
Each fall when they start changing color flocks of tourists come up to gawk at them.
This is what I was going to say.
In the late 1800s when Jasper Cropsey was exhibiting landscape paintings in the UK, folks didn't believe that his colour palette was accurate
https://collections.brandywine.org/objects/2656/autumn-on-the-brandywine-river
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Depositing bottles.
Put them into a machine, and it gives you money back 🤯
I'm in this picture and I don't like it.
But, yeah, seems like such an obviously good idea and it works so well. Why can't we do that?
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Wait...you dont hear that in the USA?
I hear that even in the city!
I'm in the USA, OP appears to be in the UK.
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I've only been abroad one time, and there were little gecko/lizard things everywhere, climbing up walls and scurrying across roads, and nobody cared. I was constantly fascinated but to the locals they're just kinda there.
Bonus question to anyone who visited the UK - was there anything that fascinated you but I'd be taking for granted?
Pic unrelated.
The ocean! So fascinated by it! I love it, but it is always there, waiting. No need to go to it. It will get you eventually.
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Only some metro systems, like the tube, have third rail - standard railways have overhead power. But since a lot of metro trains run outside tunnels as well it's not always obvious which rails are and aren't electrified.
The whole thing with gates is because the UK train system is privately run for profit and so respecting human dignity is less important than making sure every individual adequately prostates themselves before the company decides to provide service. Even TfL, the council-owned operator of the tube, is forbidden by law from receiving any taxpayer subsidy so must run at a profit.
Germanys trains are also private and we dont have that. So this isnt an excuse
