Tag: Foreigners

Temporary Living

Good Stuff, Travels

A little while ago I talked about how I used to dream about living in various cities around the world, and realized that I wouldn’t do it even if I could, because freedom and guns and stuff.

But then I saw this photo essay about Amsterdam, and I have to admit I felt a tug.

You see, I’ve actually stayed in a hotel on this very canal — I have several pics similar (in subject matter, not in quality) to this one — and so maybe, just maybe, I could live here:  not forever, but for just a few months.  Long enough to submerge myself in the city’s ethos, not that long where I start to get twitchy about not being in America anymore.

Which got me to thinking.  In my dreams of what I’d do after winning the lottery, travel would of course be a definite;  and with sufficient funds, “travel” would mean an extended stay rather than just my normal five days.  (I’ve always thought that you can figure out a city, any city, in about three days.  Add another couple-three days, and you can pretty much say you’ve seen it all.)

But a longer stay — say, for three or four months — would enable you to really dive into the city, beyond visiting museums (a must-do in Amsterdam, by the way) and the usual “places of interest”.  Renting a decent apartment for that long a time, as opposed to just staying in a hotel, would mean having to get to know the city properly:  where to shop for food, which foods to buy, finding restaurants whose menus you love and are therefor worth multiple visits, the best places to buy clothes and shoes, and so on.  (Best would be to arrive with empty suitcases, to be filled during your stay.)  Finally (and this is important), a longer stay would require you to learn more of the home language than just which foods to order off a menu.

Having spent so much time over the years in London, I already know all these things about the place.  I have favorite restaurants, shopping destinations, places simply to walk around, and of course pubs.  That doesn’t mean I couldn’t find more of the same — London is amazing in that regard — but my deeper knowledge of London, I think, needs replicating in other cities around the world.

So a list of major cities to be visited in such a manner would include, in order:  Amsterdam, Vienna, Paris, Prague, Budapest, Milan, Barcelona and Lisbon.

Smaller cities (with a stay of only a month or so) would be, once again in order:  Porto, Dubrovnic, Graz, Bruges, Bratislava, Nuremberg, Brest, Bristol and Valetta.

Alternative suggestions (from experience) in Comments.

Question Of The Day

Bad News, The Gun Thing

Go ahead and read this little snippet:

Large lizards are invading Georgia and pose a major threat to native wildlife, state officials have warned residents.
Argentine black and white tegu lizards, which can grow up to four feet long and weigh more than 10 pounds, have been spotted in Georgia for years, and officials are now trying to eradicate the species from the state.
“They eat just about anything they want,” retired Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division biologist John Jensen said in a 2019 video about the lizards.

So, Gentle Readers, here’s the question:

What would be the cartridge you’d choose to help Georgia out with their little problem? 

Your suggestions in Comments.

Here’s mine.  And here it is, demonstrated — but this old boy is having WAY too much fun.  Jealous.

No Big Deal

Behind Enemy Lines, Travels

I see that we’re still not allowed to visit Canuckistan until June, but that’s okay.  Montreal is only worth visiting for the three weeks of summer in July anyway.

Here’s a recent pic of same:

I am going to be taking New Wife up there soon.  She’s never been to Canada, and I love Montreal — other than the fact that it’s in Canuckistan, I could live there quite easily.

 

If I may digress for a moment — and I believe I can — there are quite a few places in the world similar to Montreal, where I could easily live but for the fact that the countries in which they’re located are completely fucked up.

The first example is Wiltshire, England, home to Mr. Free Market, The Englishman and a couple of other Bad Influences:

Of course, there’s meine schönes Wien:

…and Paris — the Paris I knew back in the early 2000s, not the refugee-infested shithole it’s since become:

Ditto London:

All these places, and so many others, captivated me utterly when I was there and I remember thinking at the time, “I could live here.”

Then I’d come back home, and realize that I loved my freedom more.

And our TV is better.

Don’t get me started on guns…

…none of which I’d be allowed to own in any of the above European cities.

So Montreal can wait.

The Way Forward

Business

As any fule kno, Insty has put together many excellent posts during his long and storied reign as the King Of The Internet.  This one is not only one of his best, but almost certainly the most timely.

The title is excellent:

FASTER, PLEASE: Unleash the entrepreneurs America needs to build a post-coronavirus economy.

The first link is good, but it’s the second link that sets the post apart from the pack, because it points to history as a way to move forward.  Please read this Reason article (it’s long, but oh-so worth it), and I hope that our various gummint “leaders” read it too.  (I’m not too sanguine about that, though.)

Basically, the “German Non-Miracle” is of particular interest to me because in my major of Modern European History we spent almost an entire semester studying just the period 1945-1990 in West Germany.  What made the course extraordinary was that my lecturer at UNT, the peerless Dr. Alfred Mierzejewski, was not only an economic  historian, but the author of the biography of the man behind West Germany’s recovery, Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard.  (His other two works on the German railway system from 1920 until 1945 are, despite their dry titles, probably the most thought-provoking history books I’ve ever read.  They are to the history of that period as a study of the economic implications of the  Internet would be to our era.)

Needless to say, I devoured the course and read the biography (it wasn’t a set work, although it should have been), and my only wish was that it had been longer.

And for those who are Too Damn Busy to read anything longer than a few lines, here’s the executive summary of the lesson for our modern-day governments as we try to pull ourselves out of the morass of the Chinkvirus-ravaged economy:

Quod Desiderata Est

Bad News, Disaster, Mocking Furriners

That’s Latin for “things to be desired”.

A couple years ago the locals on Spain’s Balearic Islands (Majorca, Ibiza etc.) staged massive demonstrations against the crowds of (mostly British) tourists who invaded the islands each year and partied ’til they puked, literally.

Well, thanks to the Chinkvirus, the islands have gone from this:

…to this:

I guess all those erstwhile Balearic protesters are now seeing the wisdom of that old question:  “Suppose you got exactly what you wanted…”

That’s More Like It

Disaster, Mocking Furriners

When even the normally-docile Germans start rioting against the lockdown nonsense, you know things are getting out of hand:

Today saw a demonstration involving hundreds of people, and chants of “Wir sind das Volk!” [“We are the people!”] and “Freiheit!” [“Freedom!”] could be heard.
Law enforcement attended the scene to disband crowds, with officers reportedly having to detain people and deploy pepper spray.
Pictures showed lines of police with riot shields clashing with angry-looking protesters as well as people being dragged away in handcuffs.

If the Kraut cops need some reinforcements, we could always send them the dreaded Meal Team Six from Ector County:

Those old boys could use the exercise.