More thoughts on Europe

Yes, I know this is about two weeks late, but no bother.

I mentioned to someone on MySpace the other day that Europe wasn't quite what I was expecting it to be on many levels, and I'm going to elaborate on that here. I think that it can all be effectively summed up by saying that I was expecting Europe to be different, and really, I felt like I was in various non-English (or non "American"-English as it were) speaking parts of the U.S.A.

Sure, the U.K. had terrible plumbing, and Coke cost MORE than a glass of wine in Paris, and oh, what's that? EVERY major city in Germany had public transportation.

But people seemed the same for some reason. For instance, Europe was NOT the gay mecca I'd heard it rumored to be. Gay guys weren't all hot and muscular, and European boys certainly aren't "friendly." They're prude and bitchy and hard to get and I swear I wouldn't have been able to get hard for one of those bitches.

OK, well I did a couple times. But a friend of mine was quote as saying "you can walk down the STREET in Paris and find a hook up," and if that's anything more than the gross exagerration I've always kind of believed it to be, then I REALLY must be missing something.

It also surprised me how Americanized Europe was. American businesses everywhere, English spoken almost everywhere, habits, "styles", and mannerisms that were all very American. And no one seemed to hate me because I was American; on the contrary, I became the life of the one party I went to and everyone wanted to know how WONDERFUL it was living in Florida part of the year.

Wonderful, ha ha ha.

I don't know, I liked it, mainly for the H&M's and the bountiful, cheap Neapolitan Pizzas. But Europe is not some paradise (much less a gay one) and I REALLY don't know how people afford to live in most areas.

Robert