What in your country/area is totally normal but visitors get excited for?
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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.
wrote last edited by [email protected]My Polish wife was thrilled to see fireflies in Kentucky.
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We have cicadas in Provence, but only when I moved to southern Japan did I understand the meaning of the adjective deafening. They must be a different species. I had to actually scream to my partner to be heard.
must be a different species
They are! Japanese cicadas are more shrill than the ones found in other parts of the world, and even the different subspecies within Japan have different frequencies they shrill at. I swear the cicadas in Okinawa were more ear piercing than the ones around Tokyo when we visited, but my family didn't believe me :')
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must be a different species
They are! Japanese cicadas are more shrill than the ones found in other parts of the world, and even the different subspecies within Japan have different frequencies they shrill at. I swear the cicadas in Okinawa were more ear piercing than the ones around Tokyo when we visited, but my family didn't believe me :')
Sweet, appreciate the info
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That would still be just as dangerous for other drivers...
A little less, less speed means less energy and more time for others to react
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I feel like it's crazy to not research that in advance...
I get that and I often do. But even doing that sometimes it’s not super clear what we need to do, seems like it will be easy and then is not, or it’s a spontaneous weekend getaway so we just show up like dum-dums.
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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.
No squirrels? You from Greenland? Antarctica?
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I was a bit excited that the US squirrels are gray and large, we have smaller red ones in Germany.
American squirrels can be aggressive. I was eating an apple one day and I kid you not, a squirrel jumped at me and took it from my hand.
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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.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Niagara Falls. It's spectacular to visitors but for me it's right there so it's just a bunch of water falling off a ledge.
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To answer OP's question, I'm American but spent a few years in the UK. Things that fascinated me included:
- How green it is (being from Texas this was the first thing that stood out to me)
- The shear amount of history that is just everywhere (I remember eat lunch at a park and reading a sign about how it was the site of a huge battle during the war of the roses)
- Pubs (man I miss going to my local. We really don't have 3rd places in the US anymore)
The history. Jesus fuck, it's the history. I swear in the south we talk about things from the 1920s like that shit is ancient. Meanwhile in the UK you're just casually staying at a hotel that was built in the 1600s.
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I've lived in and around the Appalachians my entire life, and didn't understand why people were so fascinated with them until I went to Michigan and realized how irksome it was to me when they weren't there.
Try Florida, flattest state in the union. You would laugh out loud at what I call a valley around here.
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You forget that the world was B/W until the sixties, give or take.
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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.
Everything. I live in Orlando.
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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.
One of the guys that came for our February wedding was truly alarmed at all the dead tress. I couldn't figure out why he was saying that, but he was a tree guy so I went with it.
10 years later I figured it out. He assumed none of the trees dropped leaves because Florida. Some do, some don't, some stay yellow all winter and drop in the spring. It's not even consistent within species.
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I had a similar experience with an exchange student who visited in february. She very worriedly asked why our trees didn't have any leaves and was amazed when I said that just happens in winter and they come back.
I just made much the same comment!
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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.
For some reason, Japanese tourists go nuts for PEI. Now I've nothing against PEI, it's a nice enough province in the beautiful maritimes. Good potatoes.
But I don't think it deserves THAT much hype.
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My Polish wife was thrilled to see fireflies in Kentucky.
I haven't seen fireflies in YEARS, but I was recently in Astoria, Queens, NYC, and there were fireflies all over the place! NYC would have been the last place I would have expected to see them.
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Every region is different in that regard.
Maybe youre just numb to the view.Told a lady I had just moved here (NW Florida).
"Oh honey you'll love it here! We have four seasons; green, green, green and brown."
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I live near the Rocky Mountain line so I've seen it many times. People I've met in other cities I've lived in always say they're jealous that I'm close to such a place but live there long enough and they just become another mountain
I've only ever lived in Northern Ohio and Florida, two very flat places. So when I visited Denver, it was so weird to see the mountains always looming RIGHT THERE. You always know which way is West.
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If you're in the UK, then here in the US, it's the sounds.
Crickets, frogs, birds, beetles, giant wasps, small mammals. The spring and autumn are wild with sounds.
My partner is a Brit in an industry where many get stationed here, and they all say the same.
Edit: And if you're outdoorsy, the geography, of course.
We took my wife's friend to our camp in the boonies. I think she was from Leeds?
The sounds as the sun started going down, and being in the woods in general, scared the shit out of her. She honestly thought wild animals would come at night and attack us.
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Evergreen trees. I know they're a big deal to people who visit but I grew up around them and think they're kind of boring.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Just trees in general. I was ferrying around some VIPs from California once, and they were amazed at the endless miles of thick trees on both sides of the highway. Yeah, they're trees, they're nothing special. They grow everywhere, you don't even have to do anything.
