Five eiffel towers for $1!!

 If I ever had any illusion of living in a big city, Europe has dashed those thoughts. I could not live in the middle of crowds so large you can barely walk down the street. Subway cars so packed, people have their face against the window. Lines, everywhere lines. 

Today we went to a new hotel 30 minutes from the old one. We let 5 trains pass by because they were so crowded.

The thing is we have been in Europe in what is considered the low season of tourism. I cannot fathom what it is like in Barcelona or Paris in the middle of summer. Add in heat, humidity and tourist trinket hawkers, instagrammers in the middle of the streets getting pictures. Getting into museums, restaurants without a couple month prior reservation would be impossible.

Everybody must breathe a sigh of relief in late September when tourist traffic lessens. Even when it lessens, there are still a lot of tourists here. 

Five eiffrThese cities, because they are old tend to be gritty like New York, but the subways are so much cleaner. 

There are as many homeless people here as in the United States. They sleep on the streets. There are a few tents here. No tent cities. 

In some countries the homeless just sat with a cup and quietly asked for money. In the UK they were more aggressive. In Spain there were people sitting and wailing about their situation. I saw the same person do that every day. There were people who sat in a hunched over prayer position with their cup in front of them. People go into restaurants going from table to table asking for money.  The most striking thing I saw was a couple of women laying in the middle of the sidewalk in a rich area with their head and face covered with a cup out. Same problem, different expressions of it.

Safety wise, I haven't felt threatened by anyone in any country. We have used common sense and been careful. 

One big difference is that there are very few mentally ill people acting aggressive and weird on the street here. That is very common in U.S. cities. I haven't seen any really drunk or high people either. You might think, well, you are in tourist areas. In Minneapolis, it doesn't matter where you are, you deal wit this. 

There are no homeless sleeping on public transit here. Many places you have to have a ticket for access. No drunk or drugged up people. There were so many countries that operate their trains and trams on an honor system but you still don't see it. I swear we could have gone through half of Europe and not paid a dime on trains, trams, even a couple longer distance trains. Nobody would have known.

The conclusion: Big cities with millions of people here have many advantages. There are great museums, monuments.concerts, restaurants, beautiful architecture and much more. They are great to visit, but I would t want to live in them.

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November 05, 2022 at 07:00PM