After a LONG day yesterday with two flights, we are back home in AZ. We flew out of Dublin, so we did the whole customs & immigration thing before we boarded the plane. It’s really convenient since you don’t have to deal with it after you land in the US. There are two airports in Ireland that have this service, so it makes sense to fly out of there if you want to avoid a little bit of hassle. The process was quick and efficient, no wait in line at all and it took less than 3 minutes total. The customs guy wasn’t all that interested in seeing my boots that I bought over there, since they weren’t over $800.
We sat next to a young man on our flight from Dublin to Newark who is very involved in AI research. We talked to him about our travels and he told us about his trips to Egypt and several other countries. He had been out of the loop for the past couple of weeks and had gotten quite the surprise when he got to the airport and started seeing the news stories about the Iran war. He mentioned that he was thinking of going to Mexico next, so we got to break the news to him that maybe that wasn’t the safest place to be right now either.
Everything is now unpacked, the laundry is done, and it’s good to be home. The dog and cat are both on the bed next to me this morning, reverting to their lazy ways.
I thought it might be fun to do a comparison of the countries we visited based on a few criteria. Part of the reason for the trip was to determine where we might want to live if we go on a more extended stay abroad. Our final determination didn’t surprise me at all, but I think Zbyszek was a bit surprised at how he felt at the end of the trip.
AESTHETICS/BEAUTY
France: 10/10 – One thing that is really nice about France is their view of how things should be. Specifically, things should be pleasing to look at. Basic apartment buildings, parks, office buildings, etc. are often decorated to look nice. There are flowers in many places, and villages campaign to be added to the registry of “villes fleuries” (flowered cities) or the most beautiful villages of France. While it’s not necessary to make things look nice, the assumption is that people should enjoy looking at things, even if they aren’t rich or powerful. The scenery is also gorgeous, and there is always something to look at.
Poland: 8/10 – There are a lot of nice things to look at, especially in the old town. But there are also a LOT of abandoned buildings that have just been boarded up and covered with graffiti. Since it’s so cold, it’s hard to say about the flowers or plants – it was all covered with snow. Some of the older buildings look very nice, and they have a style and decorative features – but the communist-era buildings tend to be ugly concrete monstrosities that nobody likes.
England: 10/10 – London is really very beautiful, with a completely different style of architecture and decor from France. They have many parks and green spaces and things are for the most part clean and well-kept. There is a nice variety of old and new, and even the modern buildings are nice to look at. The museums are architecturally interesting, even if you don’t go inside.
Norway: 5/10 – Very utilitarian as far as buildings go. The snow and the trees outside of Oslo are pretty, but the city of Oslo itself is stark. It’s super basic, but that’s the Scandinavian style – everything is functional, and while it may not be ugly, there isn’t a lot of effort to make it pretty, either.
Public Transportation
France: 8/10 – this one is highly dependent on location. In Paris and Nice, there were busses, trams, subways – easy to navigate and inexpensive. You could get anywhere you wanted to go with minimal effort. But outside of the big cities, you’ll be lucky to find a bus. The one bus that service Confolens only came 3 times a day and went to Angouleme. So you could get to the main train station there, but you couldn’t really get to other places in the region. The train system is easy to use and goes everywhere in France, but always through Paris.
Poland: 7/10 – same issues as France, but without the really fast trains. Very easy to get around in the cities, but smaller towns and cities may not have many options. The tram system still has drivers who have to get out and change the tracks from time to time in order to go in the correct direction. One time our tram was stuck waiting for 5 minutes for an ambulance to move off the track.
England: 8/10 – The Tube is easy to use and goes everywhere, and the bus system is very efficient. I’ve heard that the trains going out of London can be very expensive. We took the Stansted Express to the airport and it was very convenient and easy to navigate.
Norway: 8/10 – I’m going to assume that it’s on par with France and England, but our experience was limited. I saw a lot of busses and trams, and the train system was great. It was very clean and the train station was the easiest to navigate, even though we don’t speak any Norwegian.
Food
France: 10/10 – this one is a no-brainer. By far, France has the best food, no competition at all. Every grocery store, market, even the convenience shop has good things – and if you go to the actual specialty shops, even better! We ate well without spending too much, and there are so many different options. Cheese, chocolate, wine, produce were all cheaper than at home and much better quality. Bread and pastries are amazing, and the baguettes are a bargain.
Poland: 6/10 – They have some good things and a lot of mediocre things. Poland is known for it’s heavier foods, and sausage is very common. Processed meats in general are the big thing and we don’t really love eating those so often. Produce was good quality, but more limitation in what you can buy. Really good chocolate and candies, but pastries were disappointing. Except for the paczki – those were excellent. But you definitely shouldn’t eat them every day.
England: 8/10 – English food gets a bad rap, but it really isn’t bad. The grocery stores weren’t too expensive and they had lots of good quality foods. The breads and pastries were good, although not quite as good as France. What is really nice about the English stores is the wide variety of prepared things you can get – lots of dishes from all over the world. The Lebanese restaurant we went to was amazing, and we got some Indian prepared things from the grocery store that were delicious. The fruit was great – a guy at the market was selling fresh apricots for about $3 for a bowl of 12 apricots – cheaper than in the summer here, and the best apricots I’ve had!
Norway: 6/10 – Food (and everything else) in Norway was expensive. And it was just OK. The produce was limited/expensive. The breads and pastries were decent, but kind of boring. Maybe if we had access to a kitchen we could have tried more, but nothing really stood out as anything you “have to try.” Very limited selection of chocolates, they seem to like other kinds of candies instead. A surprising fondness for Mexican food kits, judging by what we saw in the stores.
Friendliness of People
Kind of a trick question – every country has friendly people and unfriendly people! And some of the friendliness comes down to the national character and what is “normal” in the culture.
France – 9/10 – if you say Bonjour, people are nice to you. I didn’t run into anyone who was mean or rude to us, and most people were very friendly. But if you break the social rules, you probably will be called out on it. Maybe. A couple of times on public transport, someone was listening to music without using headphones. I was surprised nobody said anything to them, because I’ve seen people get called out on bad behavior before. We did see a seller at the market yell at a potential customer because she felt they were not being polite enough to her. If you do strike up a conversation with someone, they’ll probably talk to you a bit. Then again, they might not.
Poland – 9/10 – Everyone was nice to us, but there are definitely some annoying types. Problems with soccer hooligans do exist, so you’d want to stay away from them. When the tram driver politely asked the ambulance driver to move just a few cm so that the tram could pass by, the ambulance driver told him to go fornicate with himself. So not everyone is pleasant. Most people will talk to you, but small talk isn’t a thing.
England – 9/10 – Again, everyone was nice to us. It probably helps that we could speak English to them, so no language barrier for either of us. England is more like the US, where small talk is OK and people will just start talking about the weather or the situation. We did have an experience when someone on the bus missed their stop and yelled at the bus driver for not stopping. I can see why she was angry – she had pushed the stop button and he didn’t stop – but she went way overboard with the things she was saying.
Norway – 9/10 – People are fine, we didn’t really talk much to anyone other than the curling team. Not really big fans of small talk at all. We weren’t here long enough to get to know anyone.
And the winning country is…
If we were going to stay longer, it would be France. There are more options for places you can go on public transport, and there is a wide variety of things to do and see. France is pretty big, so that’s no surprise. They also are the #1 tourist destination in the world, so their infrastructure is built to deal with lots of people coming in. But the deciding factor for us really was the food. Despite being born in Poland, Zbyszek didn’t really like the food so much. He said it was heavy and salty and made him feel sluggish. On our next trip, he would like to visit the northern part of France – Normandy and the area closer to Belgium. I’m not sure when that will be, but I will probably start planning in the next year!
We would certainly go back to Poland again, but either not for so long OR not in the winter OR not just to one place. We’ve done everything we want to do in Gdansk, and it’s harder to get around in the winter.
We would go back to England if it happened to be convenient, but we wouldn’t necessarily go there on purpose. I doubt we’ll go back to Norway, since it’s pretty out of the way for getting to other places in Europe and very expensive.