My favorite thing is that Europe is spooky because it’s old and America is spooky because it’s big
“The difference between America and England is that Americans think 100 years is a long time, while the English think 100 miles is a long way.” –Earle Hitchner
A fave of mine was always the american tales where people freaked out because ‘someone died in this house’ and all the europeans would go ‘…Yes? That would be pretty much every house over 40 years old.’
‘…My school is older than your entire town.’
‘Sorry, you think *how far* is okay to travel for a shopping trip?’
*American looks up at the beams in a country pub* ‘Uh, this place has woodworm, isn’t that a bit unsafe?’ ‘Eh, the woodworm’s 400 years old, it’s holding those beams together.’
A few years ago when I was in college I did a summer program at Cambridge aimed specifically at Americans and Canadians, and my year it was all Americans and one Australian. We ended the program with a week in Wessex, and on the last day as we all piled onto the bus in Salisbury (or Bath? I can’t remember), the professors went to the front to warn us that we wouldn’t be making any stops unless absolutely necessary. We’re headed to Heathrow to drop off anyone flying off the same day, then back to Cambridge.
“All right, it’s going to be a long bus ride, so make sure you’re prepared for that.”
We all brace ourselves. A long bus ride? How long? We’re Americans; a long bus ride for us is a minimum of six hours with the double digits perfectly plausible. We can handle a twelve hour bus ride as long as we get a bathroom break.
The answer. “Two hours.”
Oh.
English people trying to travel around Australia and wildly underestimating distance are my favourite thing
a tour guide in France told my school group that a particular cathedral wouldn’t interest us much because “it’s not very old; only from the early 1600s”
to which we had to respond that it was still older than the oldest surviving European-style buildings in our country
China is both old and big. I had some Chinese colleagues over; we were discussing whether they wanted to see the Vasa ship (hugely expensive war ship which sank on it’s maiden voyage after 12 min). They asked if it was old, I said “not THAT old” (bearing in mind they were Chinese) “it’s from the 1500s.” To my surprise they still looked impressed, nodding enthusiatically. Then I realised I’d forgotten something: “…I mean it’s from the 1500s AFTER the birth of Christ” and they went “oh, AFTER…”.
My dad’s favorite quote from various tours in Italy was “Pay no attention to the tower – it was a [scornful tone]tenth century addition.”
ksamcantdraw liked this
weiszleigh liked this
ady-dreamer liked this
donteatasnail reblogged this from ziraseal
legowerewolf reblogged this from fluffy-undertale
iwillbiteyoulove liked this
nodlesss reblogged this from ziraseal
amuthyst liked this
eldritchoftheironhorse reblogged this from ziraseal
ziraseal reblogged this from urawizrdmovncastlesoutofoz
urawizrdmovncastlesoutofoz reblogged this from lovecanbesostrange
youkilledthecar reblogged this from atheist-xmas
leftlanden liked this
lovecanbesostrange reblogged this from mariathepenguin
hackernomi reblogged this from mythos-theos
acethebard liked this
noella0203 liked this
enginerd-ninjaneer reblogged this from lanaparrillaismyqueen
yourewhythefucknot reblogged this from hungarian-words
wildlybeardedbouquetobagdipho198 reblogged this from theundead-queen debellatis reblogged this from gaslightgallows
whomstdtvefucktdtve reblogged this from elizabethschuyler-hamilton poppiesstaysandhalycondays reblogged this from naughtysalamander
sgt-nolisten liked this
isthisanobsession reblogged this from hungarian-words oyapan liked this
gustavolope liked this boopinsnoots87 liked this
nomoreswears reblogged this from mariathepenguin
ssymbiotic reblogged this from lamelesswanderer
misty-seas-and-mysteries liked this
screec reblogged this from ticiatigr
mariathepenguin reblogged this from orangeyouglad8
p-please-do-not reblogged this from fushibi
- applemintsunday liked this
blancalionessrampant reblogged this from armsofthearts
ihannahnas reblogged this from lanaparrillaismyqueen
lamelesswanderer reblogged this from ticiatigr
lanaparrillaismyqueen reblogged this from ticiatigr
ticiatigr reblogged this from wolfdogonthemoon
sardonic-sweetness liked this
defineinterestin liked this
mightbewrong reblogged this from sanzuwuya
fushibi reblogged this from foxtrony
allthatglittersisusuallyglitter liked this
- Show more notes