I’ve only been abroad one time, and there were little gecko/lizard things everywhere, climbing up walls and scurrying across roads, and nobody cared. I was constantly fascinated but to the locals they’re just kinda there.

Bonus question to anyone who visited the UK - was there anything that fascinated you but I’d be taking for granted?

Pic unrelated.

  • philpo@feddit.org
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    21 hours ago

    Living in the Black Forest is sometimes fun.

    First of all people admire the “mountains”. While yes, the Black Forest is not quite flat and especially in winter it is often underestimated (we have avalanches and occasionally people die in them) it’s not like they are that step and high. At least from my perspective - I grew up in the actual alps. It would be totally different If I grew up in the Netherlands. (And again: The nature is nice and we have wild wolves, Lynx and s few other rare animals here)

    The other thing people totally get excited about is “Black forest cake”. But… It has nothing to do with the Forest… it’s just a reference to its looks and was invented hundreds of kilometres away. While you can get a decent one here by now, it’s still funny.

    So…what is the most original thing you can get here? It’s the thing the tourists think that they are all produced overseas. The cuckoo clock. Not kidding, while a shitload of them are cheap china trash, you can actually get nice ones for a reasonable price that were still built here. (And some really really nice ones that look modern and stylish as well. I need one of those one day,but they are ridiculously expensive)

    Other than that: Old buildings. My last apartment had some walls that were built at a time Australia wasn’t discovered by Europeans yet. My kids friend lives in a house that is 800 years old - and always belonged to the same family. The hill the local kids go tobogganing in winter very likely was already used in that capacity 2500 years ago as some archeological sites have shown.

    Even my current house is 80 years old and that sometimes sounds absolutely ridiculous to friends overseas.

    • Angelusz@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      Awesome, thank you for sharing!

      I do live in NL, almost 100yo house in area that has seen war. Resonate!

      • philpo@feddit.org
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        18 hours ago

        Funny sidefact as Dutch tourists are the ones most keen on the Black Forest cake: No matter who you believe invented the black Forest cake(either a baker in Bonn or a bakery in. Brandenburg):

        It’s always closer to the Netherlands than to the actual black forest.

        Gnhihihi.