The coolest countries in Europe, according to you

[Tea Chuggers]

“Both of you wrote:
Some stuff. Don't worry, I've read both, it's just too long to quote both.

Makes sense. I didn't have any specific foreign upbringing so I don't really have the experience of having a foreign culture to look up to. Dad's family has been in Tennessee probably since it was still NC and Mom's from SoCal, which has a different Mexican culture distinct from Actual Mexico. The closest I got was tacos from my maternal grandma, but that's normal for the west coast.

No worries! And like you, I don't have a specific foreign upbringing since my dad's side came from Lebanon around the late 1800s, mom's side were Mexicans before the US annexed that portion of Mexico. Tejano, Californio, Nuevomexicano cultures are the closest thing to an actual heritage, but since it's distinctively an American culture, I'm as American as apple pie Only thing Lebanese about me is a Christian father and an Arabic surname. With 100+ years of being Americans, Lebanon is an alien world to my paternal grandparents so I see no point in having a Mexican or Lebanese flag hanging around

But at least we can take pride in awesome cuisines. New Mexican, TexMex, CaliMex, etc

Aye aye. I was in Tennessee for a month on summer vacation and when I got back, I was looking forward to a good burrito.

[Hrstrovokia]

Confused by people's addition of Ireland.

It's the eastern Europe of western Europe.

And I say that as someone who lives here.

Still it's a great country if you want to drink yourself to death, it's a national pastime.

[Bear Stearns]

England, because it was an ancestral home of Calvinist merchants
Scotland, because it was an ancestral home of Calvinist merchants
The Netherlands, because it was an ancestral home of Calvinist merchants
Switzerland, because it was an an ancestral home of Calvinist merchants

[Bear Stearns]

I particularly like Germany, but I am sort of biased since I have ancestry from there. But anyway, Germany has been home to many wonderful people, like St. Hildegard von Bingen, Martin Luther, Johann Sebastian Bach, Otto von Bismarck, and Angela Merkel. Also many beautiful historic cities, castles, and churches.

Martin Luther wonderful?

Since when is antisemitism wonderful?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Lu ... tisemitism

It's odd that the first things people think of when they hear the name "Martin Luther" are "proto-Nazi antisemite" and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.

Not the guy who literally turned Christianity on its head.

[Alternamerica]

Confused by people's addition of Ireland.

It's the eastern Europe of western Europe.

And I say that as someone who lives here.

Still it's a great country if you want to drink yourself to death, it's a national pastime.

Genuinely curious, how is it the Eastern Europe of Western Europe? They squat, wear adidas, listen to Eurobeats, and whatnot?

[Latvijas Otra Republika]

Confused by people's addition of Ireland.

It's the eastern Europe of western Europe.

And I say that as someone who lives here.

Still it's a great country if you want to drink yourself to death, it's a national pastime.

Genuinely curious, how is it the Eastern Europe of Western Europe? They squat, wear adidas, listen to Eurobeats, and whatnot?

What’s Eurobeats, first thing that shows up is anime. I’m guessing American suburban teen music

[Tea Chuggers]

Genuinely curious, how is it the Eastern Europe of Western Europe? They squat, wear adidas, listen to Eurobeats, and whatnot?

What’s Eurobeats, first thing that shows up is anime. I’m guessing American suburban teen music

Running in the 90s is a famous example.

[New haven america]

Genuinely curious, how is it the Eastern Europe of Western Europe? They squat, wear adidas, listen to Eurobeats, and whatnot?

What’s Eurobeats, first thing that shows up is anime. I’m guessing American suburban teen music

90's dance music that was only popular in Europe and in the racing anime Initial D.

[Vaspelia]

Genuinely curious, how is it the Eastern Europe of Western Europe? They squat, wear adidas, listen to Eurobeats, and whatnot?

Wait. Slavs don't listen eurobeat. They are more into Industrial or Hard-(insert suffix). Eurobeat is too cheerful for them.

[Bear Stearns]

What about countries in Europe that could have been?

Commonwealth of England
First French Empire
Dutch Republic
German Empire
Republic of Florence
Republic of Genoa
Jacobite Scotland
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Independent State of Croatia
Second Spanish Republic
Federal State of Austria

[Rio Cana]

“Both of you wrote:
Some stuff. Don't worry, I've read both, it's just too long to quote both.

Makes sense. I didn't have any specific foreign upbringing so I don't really have the experience of having a foreign culture to look up to. Dad's family has been in Tennessee probably since it was still NC and Mom's from SoCal, which has a different Mexican culture distinct from Actual Mexico. The closest I got was tacos from my maternal grandma, but that's normal for the west coast.

No worries! And like you, I don't have a specific foreign upbringing since my dad's side came from Lebanon around the late 1800s, mom's side were Mexicans before the US annexed that portion of Mexico. Tejano, Californio, Nuevomexicano cultures are the closest thing to an actual heritage, but since it's distinctively an American culture, I'm as American as apple pie Only thing Lebanese about me is a Christian father and an Arabic surname. With 100+ years of being Americans, Lebanon is an alien world to my paternal grandparents so I see no point in having a Mexican or Lebanese flag hanging around

But at least we can take pride in awesome cuisines. New Mexican, TexMex, CaliMex, etc

The only thing I can say about this is Viva México!! Time for a song. Two Californian sisters (parents are from Oaxaca) singing the following - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j954C8XBIgw

[Hrstrovokia]

Genuinely curious, how is it the Eastern Europe of Western Europe? They squat, wear adidas, listen to Eurobeats, and whatnot?

After Dublin, Ireland has a massive gap in wealth distribution. Places like the midlands are broke as fuck. They aren't destitute but a lot of towns rely on government welfare. It's mostly coastal cities/towns that do well. Cork, Galway.

There's quite a big underclass in Ireland, as in the UK, of people living in council estates, not going into education, happy enough to exist on government welfare. Not even council estates anymore because they have affordable housing in private estates so its more spread out. And I don't want people to mix up underclass with working class. The working class work and want their children to do better. The underclass do not work and do not want a better situation, just a free house, free money.

[Nevertopia]

Right now Id say the coolest European country would be Switzerland.

https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/switzerland/glarus

[Borderlands of Rojava]

Confused by people's addition of Ireland.

It's the eastern Europe of western Europe.

And I say that as someone who lives here.

Still it's a great country if you want to drink yourself to death, it's a national pastime.

At least you're not in Northern Ireland.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

“Both of you wrote:
Some stuff. Don't worry, I've read both, it's just too long to quote both.

Makes sense. I didn't have any specific foreign upbringing so I don't really have the experience of having a foreign culture to look up to. Dad's family has been in Tennessee probably since it was still NC and Mom's from SoCal, which has a different Mexican culture distinct from Actual Mexico. The closest I got was tacos from my maternal grandma, but that's normal for the west coast.

No worries! And like you, I don't have a specific foreign upbringing since my dad's side came from Lebanon around the late 1800s, mom's side were Mexicans before the US annexed that portion of Mexico. Tejano, Californio, Nuevomexicano cultures are the closest thing to an actual heritage, but since it's distinctively an American culture, I'm as American as apple pie Only thing Lebanese about me is a Christian father and an Arabic surname. With 100+ years of being Americans, Lebanon is an alien world to my paternal grandparents so I see no point in having a Mexican or Lebanese flag hanging around

But at least we can take pride in awesome cuisines. New Mexican, TexMex, CaliMex, etc

My mom and dad's families immigrated here from Puerto Rico and before that, dad's family came to Puerto Rico from Lebanon in the 1800s. The closest relationship I have to foreign culture is the fact I grew up in a heavily hispanic neighborhood and an area that also has a shit ton of Lebanese people and Arabs in general, but I'm more American than every John Mellencamp song ever.

[Onocarcass]

I figure I'll just do my ten favorites.

1 ) Finland
2 ) Estonia
3 ) Norway
4 ) Romania
5 ) Iceland
6 ) Bulgaria
7 ) Croatia
8 ) The United Kingdom
9 ) Denmark
10 ) Switzerland

[Alternamerica]

What’s Eurobeats, first thing that shows up is anime. I’m guessing American suburban teen music

This. The anime Initial D got the world associating the genre with it.

-snip-

Now to know what they're saying. To google!

-snip-

Yikes. I never knew Ireland would have issues like that. While I'm aware poverty is in every country, but not to that extent. I know the UK has similar issues (which isn't surprising given Thatcherism) but I always saw Ireland as having more in common with Finland or Netherlands in terms of income disparity and the like Here comes the Paris Syndrome but at least I'm not a racist Irish-American who give the Irish-Irish secondhand embarrassment

[Latvijas Otra Republika]

Genuinely curious, how is it the Eastern Europe of Western Europe? They squat, wear adidas, listen to Eurobeats, and whatnot?

After Dublin, Ireland has a massive gap in wealth distribution. Places like the midlands are broke as fuck. They aren't destitute but a lot of towns rely on government welfare. It's mostly coastal cities/towns that do well. Cork, Galway.

There's quite a big underclass in Ireland, as in the UK, of people living in council estates, not going into education, happy enough to exist on government welfare. Not even council estates anymore because they have affordable housing in private estates so its more spread out. And I don't want people to mix up underclass with working class. The working class work and want their children to do better. The underclass do not work and do not want a better situation, just a free house, free money.

Versatile music videos gave me a good picture

[Rio Cana]

-snip-

Now to know what they're saying. To google!

Its your lucky day. Duolingo is a free on-line language course where you can learn Spanish.

And in no time you will learn what the sisters from California are saying. Those two youtube singers are very popular in Latin America. They even have a fan from Australia. In reality, you will open a door to tons of things in youtube that are in Spanish.

[Auze]

Well I just googled it, and apparently it's Norway. Makes since, it has a pretty high average latitude.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

Genuinely curious, how is it the Eastern Europe of Western Europe? They squat, wear adidas, listen to Eurobeats, and whatnot?

Wait. Slavs don't listen eurobeat. They are more into Industrial or Hard-(insert suffix). Eurobeat is too cheerful for them.

The only music slavs listen to is the songs of their Gods.

https://youtu.be/UA_j_72psoo

[Stellar Colonies]

I've never visited a country other than the US (I've technically left it since I've been over international waters, but I was in a plane and that was international waters so that doesn't count), so I can't say for certain outside of what I've seen from here.

The UK seems interesting, plus they speak some form of English, so they go on my list.

The word 'Sweden' makes me think of cold, crisp cleanliness, and they're also kind of interesting, so them too.

Germany's kinda cool, interesting history, heart of Europe, etc.

The Netherlands tend to do stuff which either unnerves me, disappoints me, or makes me want us to imitate them, so the lack of nuance when it comes to my view of them adds that country to my list.

Similar views on Italy as I do with Germany, except with the 'heart of Europe' bit being more 'heart of Mediterranean'.

I don't know what to think of France.

^ Ditto for Spain.

Poland is interesting, since they are a smallish country on the North European Plain between larger powers and are somehow still a thing.

The Balkan countries in general are just messy from my POV, although they are certainly an interesting melting pot/salad bowl/stew pot/whatever they are. Oh, I can never get over the fact that Montenegro has the population of a Californian county whilst being the size of Northern Ireland.

Switzerland is a weird mishmash, partially mountain country which is also interesting.

...

I don't really have a favorite, they're all kind of interesting in their own way. The only ones I've seriously considered visiting are the UK and Germany (although I'd want to have at least a basic grasp of their language before I visited).

[Nobel Hobos 2]

1. Iceland. Most electricity generated by renewables (geothermal). Island. Volcanic. Has a glacier. Told the bankers to fuck off in 2007.

Not really, it’s way more complicated than that and the effects of the recession are still felt today due to a number of reasons

Unless you're going to offer a more nuanced analysis, "told the bankers to fuck off" stands.

[New Carthagea]

I've never visited a country other than the US (I've technically left it since I've been over international waters, but I was in a plane and that was international waters so that doesn't count), so I can't say for certain outside of what I've seen from here.

The UK seems interesting, plus they speak some form of English, so they go on my list.

The word 'Sweden' makes me think of cold, crisp cleanliness, and they're also kind of interesting, so them too.

Germany's kinda cool, interesting history, heart of Europe, etc.

The Netherlands tend to do stuff which either unnerves me, disappoints me, or makes me want us to imitate them, so the lack of nuance when it comes to my view of them adds that country to my list.

Similar views on Italy as I do with Germany, except with the 'heart of Europe' bit being more 'heart of Mediterranean'.

I don't know what to think of France.

^ Ditto for Spain.

Poland is interesting, since they are a smallish country on the North European Plain between larger powers and are somehow still a thing.

The Balkan countries in general are just messy from my POV, although they are certainly an interesting melting pot/salad bowl/stew pot/whatever they are. Oh, I can never get over the fact that Montenegro has the population of a Californian county whilst being the size of Northern Ireland.

Switzerland is a weird mishmash, partially mountain country which is also interesting.

...

I don't really have a favorite, they're all kind of interesting in their own way. The only ones I've seriously considered visiting are the UK and Germany (although I'd want to have at least a basic grasp of their language before I visited).

This. Almost exactly similar to my views.

[Sanghyeok]

I've never visited a country other than the US (I've technically left it since I've been over international waters, but I was in a plane and that was international waters so that doesn't count), so I can't say for certain outside of what I've seen from here.

The UK seems interesting, plus they speak some form of English, so they go on my list.

The word 'Sweden' makes me think of cold, crisp cleanliness, and they're also kind of interesting, so them too.

Germany's kinda cool, interesting history, heart of Europe, etc.

The Netherlands tend to do stuff which either unnerves me, disappoints me, or makes me want us to imitate them, so the lack of nuance when it comes to my view of them adds that country to my list.

Similar views on Italy as I do with Germany, except with the 'heart of Europe' bit being more 'heart of Mediterranean'.

I don't know what to think of France.

^ Ditto for Spain.

Poland is interesting, since they are a smallish country on the North European Plain between larger powers and are somehow still a thing.

The Balkan countries in general are just messy from my POV, although they are certainly an interesting melting pot/salad bowl/stew pot/whatever they are. Oh, I can never get over the fact that Montenegro has the population of a Californian county whilst being the size of Northern Ireland.

Switzerland is a weird mishmash, partially mountain country which is also interesting.

...

I don't really have a favorite, they're all kind of interesting in their own way. The only ones I've seriously considered visiting are the UK and Germany (although I'd want to have at least a basic grasp of their language before I visited).

This. Almost exactly similar to my views.

Interesting