I don’t think some of these things are strange at all. A few are good advice.
The Austrians in particular are pretty casual about non-sexual, incidental nudity, and I had to give my Austrian visitors some of the same tips that this link considers strange. I learned this after I had visitors from Austria who changed into their bathing suits in a public park in Texas. They did not try to go swimming naked, nor did they walk around naked, they simply took off all their clothing and put on their bathing suits in full public view. This was meaningless to them, but rather more meaningful to the nearby Texans.
There are nude beaches along the Danube. I never considered that a big deal when I lived in Vienna, and got used to seeing the naked bodies from the road, but I never got used to seeing the naked bodies ON the road. The bathers would wear their street clothing for the drive to and from the beach, park on the streets, take off their clothes while next to their cars, then lock all their clothing and valuables in their autos. This meant they were naked on the side of the street, then naked on the walk to and from the car. I always found it weird to see naked people just wandering on public streets.
And they have no prohibition against taking a pee against a tree in a wooded, public area.
Everything I described is reasonable in any sensible world, which shows you why those “strange” warnings are necessary when Austrians (and others) expect the USA to be part of the common-sense universe.
Needing to tell tourists not to stalk someone is pretty weird.
That one is weird for sure, but there may be a translation issue there. Are there countries where stalking people is what the cool kids do?
Being able to lock your clothing in your car makes so much more sense at a nude beach. Taking a full backpack, or just hoping that your stuff doesn’t get grabbed if you go for a walk, sucks.
Okay, what’s the point of a line when you can join wherever?
I wonder if it’s more, in China, it’s considered impolite to make a thing of it when someone does it, so the warning is more, “No, Americans will make a thing if you do it, you could get punched.”
Depending on where you go in the United States, that warning about bad-tasting water is true. I grew up in NYC and have lived there most of my life. I have read on multiple occasions that NYC had won a poll for the best-tasting tap water in the U.S. I have spent time in VA and CA and the water tasted fine to me, but the water in MN was really gross. I was told it was because they had “hard” water. Perhaps a water filter would help, or I might get used to the taste if I spent enough time there. However, I was only there for three days, taking depositions. Then, my boss, our client, and I spent half a day at the Mall of America while we waited for our flight. They had a really cool NASCAR simulator there. Other than that, I bought a Governor Jesse the Body Ventura t-shirt and had lunch at the food court. Nice people, some interesting places to visit, but really gross tap water is my review of Minnesota.
I seem to remember many years ago, there was a posting showing a huge crowd waiting outside a grocery store before opening on a weekend morning in Austria. The writeup was along the lines of that this wasn’t anything special, usual crowds, and tongue-in-cheek mentioned that there wasn’t a word for “convenience” in German. My son is interested in seeing it, but I can’t find the picture anywhere in the archives or on the Internet. Would you happen to still have it?
The statistic they used for #5 is nine years old, so I don’t know if the US is still in “35th place” for gun violence. Looking at that study, however, shows that the higher-ranked countries for gun violence are either engaged in civil war and/or ruled by drug cartels, so it may not be the flex they think.
“Compared to active war zones, gun violence in the US ain’t so bad!”
Among high-income countries and territories with populations over 10 million, the U.S. ranks #1 for firearm homicide rates. Age-adjusted firearm homicide rates in the U.S. are 19 times greater than in France, and 77 times greater than in Germany.
I’m not convinced that would apply to tourists. The places they are likely to visit are not particularly more dangerous than Paris or Moscow or Mexico City. There’s not a lot of gun violence in Disney World, the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, or the Vegas strip. One exception might be New Orleans, which does attract some foreign tourists,. and can be dicey if one makes a wrong turn.
Also: New York attracts a lot of tourists, and I would not recommending riding the NY subways in the wee hours.
See DC.
Is DC dangerous in the area with the government buildings?
DC resident here. No, the tourist areas around the National Mall, Smithsonians, monuments etc. are all really safe. It’s once you venture east of the Capitol that things get complicated.
Of course, when the National Guard was “occupying” DC they spent most of their time down by the Mall. Not to enhance safety, but for the better visuals (troops with Lincoln Memorial in bg).
That’s the impression I got when I visited there a couple of years ago. It seemed that the most likely danger was to get run over by a food truck.
From what I’ve heard (but not seen), some parts of the USA are active war zones.
But to be fair, tourists don’t visit places like South Chicago, the South Bronx, or East St. Louis. They are not likely to be shot at Disney World or the Vegas strip.
I wonder how much of that is just fearmongering news sites that are being all, “You’re safe where you are, in your Good American Town, but those other city places you’ll die immediately.” This one young person I worked with was going to a concert in downtown Dallas, and their father (living in a small town outside of Dallas) was just “you’re gonna get shot!” Out of curiosity I checked out the location on Google Maps and it was the most gentrified, business-friendly, no-one-is-getting-shot-here block of streets you ever saw.
Well, for foreign tourists, it can be a matter of making a wrong turn. Turn right in Dade County or in Dallas and it’s safe. Turn left, and you’re in trouble. Maybe that’s what that father feared. Most of those tourist advisories just warn people to be careful, and not to explore before finding out about the area, or to make sure to get off the subway at the correct stop. That sort of thing.
But I get your point. My ex-girlfriend has a daughter who lives in the city, and is always worried about her. I told her that the homicide rate is higher for the state of Wisconsin (where she lives) than for the city of New York (where the daughter lives), but that doesn’t ease her mind.
Violence isn’t exclusive to the cities, because liquor and drugs and homelessness and firearms are everywhere. I live in one of those all-American Midwestern towns, and there are places I would not walk at night. Scariest of all, they are only a block or two away from busy, safe areas. Not far away from our town, there are some trashy rural areas that I would not even drive through at night. Conversely, there are areas of Chicago where I feel safe.
This is where the irony comes in from the right-wing position of calling everything to the left socialism. Think of these large metropolis supercities and how much these municipalities pay in federal and state tax that could go to their county or city. Not to mention the costs of entitlement funding where most of the money is likely flowing outwards.
The propaganda machine talks about how these cities are warzones, yet imagine what Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, etc could do with the federal money that goes outwards to dirt poor MAGA rural Mississippi? Or to the state to fund the infrastructure of red counties in their state?
You could likely quadruple the amount of law enforcement and anti-poverty efforts in each of these cities alone to fight recidivism. I don’t see any of these people in bumfuck USA turning down the federal or state dollars coming out of the pockets of big city residents for their own personal welfare.
A couple years back I was talking with some folks from Australia who were contemplating visiting the states but afraid of the idea of All The Guns, as they had really internalized the idea that you will just encounter armed folks all the time, and I had to say, no, really, that isn’t the case at all.
I take it you don’t live in Texas.
Or AZ. Or Idaho. or SW UT. All three have had road rage incidents leading to death by gunfire in the last 10 days.
It’s the uncertainty that is the problem. That you can be killed because you were rude in traffic is, to my knowledge, an entirely US specific problem.
Ironically enough, I do.
Germany fully legalized and regulated prostitution in 2002, making it one of the more permissive countries in Europe on this issue. Sex work is recognized as a legitimate profession.
That’s why the government advises Germans not to talk to American prostitutes. Even chatting them up could be construed as solicitation in some parts of the States, and Germans are likely to do so because they view the whole process as a mere business negotiation.
Also, legalities aside, Germans are used to the fact that prostitutes are regularly tested. They may not be aware of our higher-risk, Wild West approach.
Also, while prostitution is legal in some parts of Europe, it is usually controlled. The pros don’t generally come up and ask you if you want a date, or wave to you on random street corners. They have to follow various rules, varying by area. They may have to let you come to them, or they may be restricted to certain areas, etc. Europeans may not be familiar with our particular manifestation of the oldest profession.
Also, Germans may not realize that what seems to be a prostitute is an undercover cop, something that presumably doesn’t happen in a country with legalized prostitution.
Reminds me of the old Tom Lehrer song:
If you go to American city,
You will find it very pretty;
Just one thing of which you must beware,
Don’t drink the water and don’t breathe the air!
This issue of nudity is curiou, I know Brazil quite well and I can say that it’s not how some people from abroad imagine this nudity issue, lol. Of course, the Brazilian Carnival is the biggest in the world and is quite sexualized, yes, you see semi-nude or even nude women sometimes, etc. Brazilian series and films have a decent amount of nudity, although they used to have more in the past. However, paradoxically… People in everyday life tend to be quite conservative on this issue of nudity, it’s very similar to Americans in that sense. It’s not as liberal and naturist as those places in Europe.
As Scoop has well documented here, Brazil has loads of nudity on TV, just no working light bulbs.
Light bulbs working? I’m not sure I got the reference lol. And no, there isn’t as much nudity on TV today as there used to be, unfortunately.
I think he’s saying, “Yes, the scenes have nudity but they’re very dark.”
Ah yes, that was in reference to one of those Brazilian series that just came out. But let’s be honest, this doesn’t only happen in scenes from Brazilian productions, and it’s not a new thing, lol.
There was one Brazilian series, Guerreiros Do Sol, that tried to shoot almost every scene in ambient light, ala Barry Lyndon. Unfortunately, the director was not Stanley Kubrick and could not solve this technical problem.
I was kidding about that particular series and did not mean to apply the criticism to all projects from Brazil, although I kept the joke running when scenes from Continente were too dark. If I remember correctly, the lighting techniques in Madam Beja were always at least quite satisfactory, and occasionally excellent.
Exactly. Unfortunately, scenes of nudity in the dark have always been quite common, lol. And really, Dona Beja’s scenes so far have been some of the best of the year; they’ll certainly be on our list at the end of the year.