2002 World trip - Comparison of cities visited

But does this information give you a true idea of what life would be like in a city? I am sure that there are many other factors that are involved in determining if people are happy or not. Certainly personal wealth would be one of those. I once saw some graffiti in a drain that read; "If you think the system is working, ask someone who is not." Life for the unemployed and those on the poverty line is not as rosy and cheerful as life for those who are well off.

Green leafed Melbourne Street

Public land, trees and greenery

I think another big factor is access to parks, and greenery. Life in a concrete jungle can be a bit oppressive. While New York obviously has many more people than Los Angeles, and a greater population density there seemed to be a larger amount of parks in New York that were easily accessible and green. The few parks I saw in Los Angles were in need of water, were small, involved a lot of concrete in them and had few water features such as lakes or ponds. In New York the parks were set up for people to use. In Los Angeles the city seemed very devoid of real trees. Where I did see them was on the campus of UCLA and in Santa Monica and Beverly Hills. It worried me that real sizable trees seemed to be a luxury in LA. In New York and cities in Europe and the UK trees were commonplace, everywhere and green. Big trees grew along roads and in yards in Chicago, New York, Cincinnati and Fort Wayne. LA, Detroit and Gary seemed to be lacking these trees.

Urban sprawl, high density housing and concrete

I also found the predomination of concrete in some cities to be a factor in how happy I felt there. Los Angeles is covered in small concrete and brick lowrise apartments. These things are purely functional in design. There's no attempt to make them look attractive. You can tell these things have been built to a budget, with he aim of producing the greatest amount of housing for the smallest amount of payment. The bricks for some reason tend to be light shades of gray, like concrete. Gray and light pale yellow seem to be the predominant colors.

Both Chicago and New York also have huge amounts of apartments and flats. Probably far more than LA considering that LA has a lower population density. But these places have character, and they didn't seem as crowded. The brickwork often has different coloured bricks interspaced with other bricks to form patterns. The buildings have an older look, a more lived in look. Hand railings on balconies are often wooden instead of cheap mass produced metal hand rails. The most common brick colour was a deep burnt red, almost brown. This seemed to harmonize well with the deep luscious green of the many trees growing in streets and small yards. These places had character, history. You could call an apartment home. In LA, you had the idea a flat was just a temporary place people lived till they got something better.

London was another city that seemed to handle the millions of people well. This place was a sprawl, but a good one. People lived typically in single or double story houses here with their own yards. The English knew how to make good use of space. There was street upon street of little houses, neatly trimmed hedges, small patches of green yards, numerous large trees. There was so many big mature trees in London that it has sometimes been called an urban forest. Flats and apartments did exist, but they were not as common as I saw in the United States. In the center of the city terrace houses three and four stories existed, but there were also large areas of public land like Hyde Park, Regents Park and others that the public could relax in.

Paris is a city with millions as well. It handles the population somewhat differently than most cities I have encountered. Apartments are the norm here. Buildings that are often over a hundred years old line every street. Normally three or four stories high these buildings are wall to wall along street fronts. Often there is one or two apartments on every floor. Such buildings are everywhere in Paris, even out in the outer suburbs. Yards don't seem to be common, open space is at a premium. Parks exist, and there are plenty of trees along the avenues, but personal and private yards are rare.

This would probably explain one problem that plagues Paris, the large amount of dog droppings over footpaths. With nowhere other than the street to walk their dogs, Parisians see sixteen tonnes of dog droppings deposited on their streets every day.

Public Transport.

Weather you are a tourist or a local, getting around is important. Transport for the masses falls into either private or public transport. Every city of over half a million needs public transport. This not only caters for local needs, but also for people visiting the city who do not have their own private transport. Some cities handle public transport better than others. London, Paris, New York and Melbourne all have excellent public transport systems. Even small towns like State College in Pennsylvania can have good public transport. Then there are cities that struggle with public transport systems that are too small, overcrowded or non existent. Thankfully for me, there are also cities that build big public transport systems but can't afford to implement them and leave them abandoned. Charleroi and Cincinnati both are good examples.

Rome has a bit of a problem with public transport. There are just two rail lines in the city, which has a population of about three million. Trams and busses complement the trains but they don't seem to be enough. The trains are crowded, and so are the busses. Trams seem to be interurban routes, although some do run into the city center. It is obvious that Rome had a larger tram network at one time, as there are street where the lines just end, and others where track from points are truncated, not joining the main line. The underground runs frequently, but it seems to always be crowded.

Considering that Rome has such narrow, crowded streets, and many caldesacs it is surprising that no effort has been put in place to extend the metro system with more train lines. Busses struggle at times to make headway through the traffic.

Cost of living.

One thing I found very annoying and even insulting in Europe was the concept of having to pay to go to the toilet. This is something unheard of in Australia. There are numerous public toilets and even public showers that are free to use in Australia. I was introduced to this concept in London, where toilets at Victoria Station cost fifty P, or about a dollar and a half Australian. There were some free toilets in Paris, mostly in shops and restaurants. Rome was particularly bad for this. There weren't even toilets in the McDonalds, the only county I've ever seen that had this. You often had to walk quite a distance to go to the toilet, and then you had to pay to use it. By my third day in Rome I was learning to visit the Vatican in the middle of the day as the toilets there were free. I did observe some locals simply drop their pants and pee on the floor of one McDonalds in protest.

Speaking of McDonalds, I began to judge the price of things based on the cost of McDonalds food. I hate McDonalds food, it tastes like crap, and looks much smaller than the advertising would lead you to believe. But at least it is consistent. I popped into many McDonalds simply to compare menus and prices with what I have seen in Australia. I began to notice a strange trend that I shall call the 'MMI', Makkers Meal Index.

I observed that in Australia, a McDonalds Big Mack meal is $4.95 Australian for a standard size meal at most places. In the United States a Big Mack Meal is also $4.95 without tax in most places. But these are US dollars. In Rome, the same meal is worth 5 Euro. In London it costs Five pounds fifty pence. That's a staggering $16.50 Australian. It's the same meal, it just costs different amounts depending on the country you live in. Or does it?

While in London there was a Tube strike. Drivers were striking on account of a wage case and better conditions. It would have been a great day to explore abandoned stations. In newspapers I discovered that the average Tube driver earned 31,000 Pounds a year. If you look at the exchange rate, that's about $94,000 Australian dollars per year. That's in the top earners in Australia. Executives and managers can expect to earn that sort of money as a middle wage. For some that's even a top wage. So a London Tube driver earns more money than many Australian executives and tertiary educated professionals.

But how far does that money go? With food being so expensive in England (particularly meat) and other costs of living being so high, 31,000 Pounds does not go a long way. It is little wonder so many Australians go on working holidays to England. It's the only way they can afford to stay there for any length of time. The money a London Tube driver earns may be more in terms of exchange rates than their Australian counterparts, but it has less spending power. An Australian on $31,000 Austrlian in Australia probably has the same spending power as the Englishman in England. The costs of food and other costs of living in Australia are lower.

But before everyone begins a mass migration to Australia, wages here are lower than overseas. A typical suburban train driver in Australia would earn about $34,000, and could afford to live a life only marginally more better off than their English counterpart.

Cultureshock. Things that were different and weird overseas but not all that unusual.

In the United States, switches go up to go on. In Australia and Europe they go down. Water taps in the US often use a combined lever type tap instead of two separate taps. Sales tax. Sales tax is the dumbest thing ever implemented in the United States. You go pick something off of the shelf, count your money, figure you have just enough and the go pay for it. It's there that you find out it costs more than the price on the shelf. Only you don't find out how much more because the level of sales tax in each state is different and some areas of a state have lower sales tax than others. Then there is redemption tax. This is a tax on bottles and cans which you can get back some part of when you return the bottles and cans. Once again this adds to the shelf price and you only find out about it at the cash register. It all adds up to a frustration for visitors to the US. You never seem to pay what the advertised price for something is.

Advertising in Rome. Now that was a real eye opener.

Comparison of cities visited

Los Angeles.

Los Angeles is not a city I think I’d want to live in. My overall opinion of Los Angeles is that it is a little too dry, too crowded and not enough green. The city is a city of contrasts. There’s the seedier suburbs of Hawthorne, Watts and Inglewood, and the up-market areas like Beverly Hills and Santa Monica.

LA is a crowded city. There is hundreds of thousands of houses with little garages, concrete fences, narrow back lanes. Lots of dust and smog from cars. Dried up little lawns, a feeling as though the place is about to burst. Apartment blocks dominate. Little ones, big ones. There’s lots of them. It’s the only way to fit so many people into the city. I also suppose there’s always those people who can never afford to rent a house.

But there are houses, even nice houses. There are whole suburbs of them, and not just the trendy ones. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nice suburbia here. There just does not seem to be enough of it. Crowding seems to be the norm. Yet, what I see as crowding I expect many people might see as every day.

Transport in LA is mad. Traffic on those freeways is crazy. They have interurban freeways. Freeways designed to get you from one part of the city to the other. I’m used to freeways that take you in to the city or out of it or maybe from inner city to outer city. Here there’s freeways with exits at every major road they cross. Six exits per suburb in some places. No wonder the traffic can slow to a crawl. Everyone’s taking the freeway. What happened to good public transport? I never even saw the trains, because they didn’t service any of the areas I went near to. There is just three lines. For a city with such a large population public transport was abysmal. Busses crawl along above ground with the rest of the traffic. I didn’t see a single bus only lane.

I only spent two days there, but apart from my excellent hosts, the city seemed a bit seedy, and too dry.

Chicago.

This is a city I could easily live in. So green, so alive, so vibrant. Easy to get around in, with excellent public transport, Chicago has buzz!

I loved the big parks that I saw in Chicago. Wide open spaces that the public could access. These were parks where kinds and adults alike could play, relax or take time out. Most importantly, access was easy, the parks were situated near the people, in the suburbs, by the lake, even close to the city center. Kids didn’t need to resort to vacant blocks to play. There were also open squares in the center of the city.

The suburbs of Chicago that I saw were more crowded than those back home, but not overly so. People had back yards, trees, lawns, greenery. There was room for off street parking. There were apartment blocks, but apart from those down town they were not large, and did not seem crowded. These were not the concrete dog box variety, but rather the older more stylish brick variety.

Public transport in Chicago was good. While there wasn’t a massive rail network, it was large, frequent, clean and felt safe. Busses served areas where trains were lacking. At the end of lines there were good bus and train interchanges. There were express trains that bypasses local ones. It was all fast and efficient. For a tourist it was easy to get around.

Chicago night-life seemed more alive than LA. I really didn’t see much nightlife in LA. In Chicago the streets were crowded well into the evening. I got the feeling these people were not wandering aimlessly looking for action, but they had destinations in mind. They were going out to restaurants, movies, going shopping, meeting friends. There was also less of the wariness I seemed to detect in LA. People were out having a good time. The streets felt safe, even first thing in the morning and late at night.

I really liked Chicago. It had a good vibe to it.

Saint Louis.

Saint Louis seemed to be an okay place. It had vibe, it hadn’t quite lost it. I got the feeling the place had seen some hard times, but not too hard. Saint Louis had zing, spirit, life.

Houses were nice, leafy tree lined roads, lawns, yards. There were little shopping streets and supermarkets. You didn’t have the sharply defined living areas and shopping areas of LA. It was more like Chicago where there were shopping streets mixed in with the suburbs so you didn’t have to travel miles to go shopping. I think that helps build community spirit, meeting the same people at the shops helps you to get to know them a little better.

I didn’t see much of night life or public transport in Saint Louis, but I think it had them. At the very least the city or state government seemed to be promoting Saint Louis as a place to be, the ‘Show Me’ State.

Gary Indiana.

Gary is a city where one should feel unsafe, but somehow I didn’t. There’s lots of talk about the town. High unemployment, high crime rate, very few Caucasians. It didn’t escape me walking through the city that David and I were the only dudes on the street who weren’t African American. But nobody bothered us. I hadn’t expected they would. Though I figure a lot of people with narrow minds would have expected trouble. David had once been escorted out of town by cops who thought he was lost.

I figured that sure there was a lot of unemployment and depression here, I mean half the main street was either bulldozed, abandoned or boarded up. But even in towns with bad economic depression people make do. People get along with their neighbors, they form a sense of community. Probably more so than richer suburbs where people just mind their business.

At the same time, while Gary was okay to visit, I wouldn’t want to live there.

Detroit.

Detroit was a lot like Gary. Lots of old abandoned buildings, kind of depressing really. The place was a city that seemed to be missing it’s heart. Too much decay, too obvious too. Whole buildings downtown boarded up. The magic seemed to be gone. Sure there was a big new stadium for their sports team, but the old ballpark remained, with the spirit and magic still there. The new ballpark had yet to prove itself and gain acceptance.

The streets of Detroit tell the tale of the city. Worn, cracked, the old bricks below showing in places. Grass growing in the cracks. There seemed no effort to patch them up. It was like people had given up. The feeling I got from Detroit was of a city on the edge of a long slide into oblivion. Unless they did something quick, the city seemed to be in for some big problems.

Accommodation, what I saw of it in Detroit was of low standard. There were a lot of board ups. I passed many of them on the bus. Houses though did have yards and trees. But many looked a little neglected. Public transport? I saw a tram line down town but that was it. Not that I had much time to look.

Fort Wayne.

Fort Wayne is a nice place. It’s not big. It doesn’t have to be. It was about the right size. The town seemed laid back, relaxed, low pressure. Despite there recently being a particularly gruesome murder in town, you felt safe there. Crime seemed to be something that belonged somewhere else although I’m sure it happened. The big issues in town revolved around the proposed closing of a small local airport and some guy who painted his garden rocks gold.

Fort Wayne seemed to be a nice place to live. There were leafy green parks down town. The river that ran through town was polluted, but it flowed okay. There was a big campus of a university in town to give locals access to a good education. Yet the city was big enough not to be a college town.

I don’t know what public transport was like there. I don’t recall seeing any. I did see bus stops though.

I think I could easily live in Fort Wayne, though I’d need to make the occasional trip to larger cities for something to explore.

Cincinnati.

I didn’t really see enough of Cincinnati to form too much of an opinion of it. We drove through depressed areas but they seemed okay. People lived primarily in houses. Lawns looked unkempt but green. Public transport existed in the form of busses. The city obviously took some pride in itself, building a new football stadium and downtown transport hub. Not necessarily a place I would like to live, but a place I could live if I had to.

State College.

I really liked State College. Triterus also indicated that on my wage I could afford to live there, and live well. State College is not your normal town or city. It is set up primarily to cater for the thousands of students who attend Pennsylvania State University, at the heart of the town, both physically and economically.

Though you would not think it, State College is really quite crowded. The majority of old homes have been converted into multi residential units, essentially apartments. Some of these conversions have been done gracefully, but some have been done badly, hooking modern external staircases to graceful old buildings. Student occupation rates are so high there has been talk of bylaws to restrict the number of unrelated people living in a single dwelling to three. I suggested everyone just adopt everyone else. This could cause problems when getting married though.

Public transport in State College rocks. There are busses and lots of them. They are frequent and the network is good. Patronage seemed high, they were packed. Best still, the busses are free on campus and fares else where are affordable. Likewise entertainment is good. There is lots to do for such a small town. There are many restaurants and places to eat out. General shopping though is done in supermarkets rather than corner stores, though you can shop down town if you want to pay premium. The prices didn’t seem too expensive to me. Best still, you can get cable Internet. This is something I have not seen in similar sized towns elsewhere.

Frankly, State College struck me as being like a densely packed suburb of a larger city. It had the facilities of larger cities, but in a small country town.

Washington.

Once again, I did not stay in Washington long. It was a bit unfriendly, a bit artificial. It was kind of like Canberra in Australia. The culture and action seemed a little like it was there for the tourists. Mind you this was before the sniper problems.

Downtown seemed devoid of people even at 6pm. I had to walk over to Chinatown before I started to see people on the street. Even during the day many of the shops seemed near deserted. The only people around were in the office blocks or tourists walking around. There was public transport, though I never used any of it. Some locals I met said it was okay, clean and safe though a bit infrequent at times.

Washington is set up for the tourist, but some of the people employed to serve tourists badly need lessons on customer relations. The staff at the youth hostel were obviously in it for the money apart from one guy who tried to give good service despite other staff discouraging him. The lady who checked me in didn’t even bother to say welcome. She was more interested in if I wanted to store my bag for a dollar a night. Getting change for any note was a big task for her. She seemed really inefficient, slack and down right rude. So were most of the other staff.

It didn’t stop there either. Don’t bother even buying food from the official food vending carts. It’s over priced, poor quality and the service is bad. One vendor asked me to wait a few minutes while they wiped down their already spotless metal surfaced cart. Another told me their cash register was rebooting and also asked me to come back in a few minutes. Finally arriving at a functioning vendor I asked how much a drink would cost. The woman serving was engaged in a conversation with her co-worker, she barely even looked at me and said "That’ll be three dollars fifty." And held out her hand, not even looking at me as she carried on her conversation. Despite the price being a total rip off, she was just plain rude.

The licensed but non tourist authority vendors on the other hand were cheaper, for better value for money, far more polite and more enthusiastic than the official city ones. These people were characters. They had life in them. This wasn’t just a job to them, it was how they earned a living. They put their heart into it. Unfortunately they were often forced to put up with second rate vending locations, out the back of attractions instead of out front. It was worth looking around for them because you got better food, paid less and got real service.

Blacksburg.

Though a college dominated town, Blacksburg wasn’t as geared up to college students as State College was. It seemed to be a town in it’s own right. The college could go and the town would suffer, but it wouldn’t die.

There were the shops and restaurants to cater for students, but they were more spread out. There didn’t seem to be a ‘main street’ shopping center like State College. Instead there was a sort of mini mall supermarket like regular USA suburbia. There were busses, but not as many and not as frequent as State College. Blacksburg seemed a little more laid back than State College.

New York.

Now here’s a Mega-City. New York, New York. I only got to see a small part of this metropolis that houses millions. There are more people in Greater New York than there are in the whole of Australia. I think that’s even without New Jersey’s Newark population included, though I may be wrong.

New York is a place that rocks, it rolls, it’s got vibe, it’s got action it just about buzzes with activity. It has to in order to meet the needs of the masses of people that live there. New York is a city that handles the population problem well. Despite a huge population density there is green, there is room for two quite sizable parks, Riverside and Central Park. The smaller parks like Washington Square park serve the needs of many, and are almost compartmentalized in how small areas are set aside for different functions.

Public transport in New York fairly buzzes along. New York, London and Paris are each examples of Mega Cities that rely on their underground railways to move millions of people each day. By and large these subways work well and do the job. In each of these three Mega Cities busses are integrated with the subways, and integrated well. Only in cities with such organised public transport is it possible to get from almost anywhere in the city to almost anywhere else in the city within an hour and a half’s time, even including walking, waiting and transfer times.

New York is of course crowded. Despite that, I could probably live there if I had to and be reasonably happy. Provided I got a place in a side street in a reasonable neighborhood. I could not afford to live there though. It is expensive. The crowding and crime rate do worry me as well. It would not be a place I would choose to live.

Toronto.

Toronto reminded me a lot of Melbourne, and not just for the trams. It was a friendly place, multicultural, open. Some things struck me about Toronto. The first was the many notices on street poles, bus shelters and street planters warning that they were private property and notices etc. attached to them would be prosecuted. This seemed to work. I saw only two stickers posted on these poles in the whole city. Other street furniture without notices such as newspaper stands were covered in stickers.

The other thing I noticed were the number of middle aged women beggars. These weren’t obviously immigrants either. Seemingly local women down on their luck. I had seen beggars elsewhere, but these were men. Toronto was the first place I had seen women beggars. Paris, Rome, Naples and Glasgow also seemed to have many beggars. In Paris and Rome the beggars were predominately women with children. They looked to be gypsies, unable to gain social security benefit. In Paris one beggar who was missing both hands made no bones of his request, entering a metro train and standing in front of the obvious tourists till they gave him money to go away. In Glasgow young unemployed men begged for money. According to the social services these people often make more money from begging than they get from unemployment benefits. They are said to make a comfortable living through begging. I have always been soft hearted though and gave many dollars, Euros and pounds over my holiday to beggars. I know what it’s like to be poor. The beggars in Rome got little sympathy from me however. Some mothers would deliberately shake their children to make them cry. Others were dressed wearing good clothing and Nike shoes. More than once I saw women slap children when they thought no one was watching to make the children cry louder.

London

London we great! I love that old city. The place has life in it, a vibrancy and buzz that many modern cities just don't have. London seems to be a city where something is always happening. Having flown over it in the day is something, but it is not till you fly over it at night that you realise how huge it really is. The lights of London at night stretch for miles and miles, right to the edge of the Thames estuary. London truly is a massive metropolis, a Mega City in it's own right.

London is a city with history and traditions that go back for hundreds of years. This seems to give the city a very unique character. Everywhere you look you can see history in the buildings, ornate stonework and wrought iron. Then there are the English themselves. A very diverse people. From 'traditional' Anglo Saxons to people from all parts of the Commonwealth. Even within those groups I found a hugely diverse range of people. I liked the punks and hippies I encountered along the Embankment in the center of London. There was also the prim and proper English gentlemen riding the Tube.

Public transport in London

Liverpool

Liverpool was one of the nicest and most friendly places I visited on the entire trip. I loved Liverpool. All of the people I met were very friendly. This wasn't just the people I was there to meet but also the youth hostel staff, the cabbie who drove me to the bus station and the people in the bus station itself.

I expect that Liverpool is geared up for tourism seeing as how it has a massive Beatles influence. Even with that, the friendliness and hospitality of the city left a lasting impression on me.

Glasgow

Now Glasgow is a city with history, culture and friendly people as well. It was a vibrant and bubbling place. The city has plenty of character. Lots of history there too. If it stayed warm all year round I would be happy to live there. It was a vibrant bustling city. There were plenty of people on the streets even in the short walk from the bus depot down to Buchanan Street underground station.

I wasn't in Glasgow long, but long enough to see the city had a large industrial past, lots of historical buildings with character and despite past problems with unemployment the city seems to be on it's feet and doing well. I really liked Glasgow.

Kelvin River - Glasgow Glasgow High Street

Rotterdam

Rotterdam was a wonderful city. It seemed to be a city that was mostly low density, with a city center and large industrial areas around the port. I saw little signs of decay in Rotterdam. Admittedly I did only spend a day riding around, and a couple of drives out of the city but I did see a bit of it. It seems that space is at such a premium in the Netherlands that as soon as some becomes available, it is cleared for something new to take it's place.

Rotterdam is a green and leafy place. There are lots of trees there, even some growing on converted canal boats used as houses. While many streets featured wall to wall houses, some were set back from the street with front yards. Naturally Rotterdam is a city with lots of water features. Not only are there many navigable canals for boats, but there are also quiet placid canals for drainage. These are more like long formal ponds, with grass growing right to their edges and sort of slates or roofing tiles holding up the edges of these ponds. I call them ponds more than canals because instead of having bridges under roads they have pipes under water level giving them the appearance of being many separate ponds instead of a joined system.

Public transport in Rotterdam has three systems that work in unison. There is the trains on the railway network, underground in the city and above ground in the suburbs. There is just two lines at the moment. Trams run around the inner city of Rotterdam. These are multiple unit articulated trams. Finally busses spread out from any railway stations. This is very similar to the network in Rome, but for some reason the transport in Rotterdam seems so much more efficient and less crowded than in Rome.

The White House, a hostoric building in the old harbour. Leafy green streets of Rotterdam.

Tram in inner city Rotterdam Ultra modern looking housing in Rotterdam

Central Rotterdam with statue and buildings. Underground station Rotterdam

Paris

Paris really is a most amazing city. Very crowded, with bad air pollution but with stunning history and an amazing culturally rich people. I met some of the most genuine, straight forward and down to Earth people in Paris. My guide there Stonga, and I talked a lot about a lot of things, including French culture. While Stonga mentioned he thought the French were arrogant (he is French himself) I did not notice any of that. Every French person I met was polite, kind and helpful. My grasp of French is poor even after reading a phrase book and listening to tapes. But I could pick out many words and get the gist of things. I was also able to make myself understood. Many people did speak some English, particularly in rail stations, but most preferred not to speak it. This is perfectly understandable, how many of us English speakers bother to learn another language to help out tourists?

I was particularly charmed to meet an old man in the south of Paris while I was looking at a map to decide which of two parks to explore. He walked up to me and asked if I was lost in French. I replied that I was not lost. He switched to English and asked; "In English perhaps? Where do you want to go?" I replied that I was deciding which park to explore, and thanked him for his help. "You are English?" He asked. "No" I replied, "Australian."

The old man looked at me and his whole body seemed to change, he smiled and patted me on the shoulder. "Ahh, I remember the Australians! I fought with them in the last war against the Allemande (Germans). They were the bravest people I ever saw. Here, you go down the road, you see my friends down there, have something to eat, I will show you the park myself." I spent a few hours talking with the old man, finding out he knew people from where I lived and learning a lot about the history of Paris since world war 2.

I have to admire the French for their patience and decorum in putting up with tourists. The city swarms with tourists. I tried to avoid seeing too much touristy stuff but saw the Eiffel Tower and Arc De Triumph. This was mainly to use them as vantage points for photography. Tourism must surely affect the culture of a city even as large as Paris. Some people's lives revolve around the tourists, others would prefer not to know them. I have to say the number of middle aged American tourists was annoying. They were all over the place, expected everyone to know English and were frankly rude when they encountered people who did not know English. There were also many college aged young Americans in Paris, for their summer vacation. Having met many people this age and knowing them to be nice and genuine people I expect the ones I met were rich and spoilt as they were also quite ruse and obnoxious.

In a funny incident one asked me; "Excuse me. Par-lay-voo En-glace?" I was wearing a T-shirt saying 'Otico Magazine' but I guess they mistook me for a local. So I decided to play a trick. "A little." I replied in a bogus French accent, probably poorly done. "Where is the station? The Metro?" Asked a middle aged woman in a terrible yokel accent. I guess from my stunned look she thought I did not understand so she started speaking slowly, like real slow like you speak to people when they're stupid. "See that sign behind you? The one that say's 'Metro'? That's the station." I said in my normal voice. They had been standing right in front of it. I think they realized how stupid they were and walked off.

Oh, and did I mention the dog poo on the streets of Paris?

In many European countries there were large indoor public spaces to cater for cold weather. Paris is a high density city

Rome

Rome, it’s an amazing city. A mixture of the old and the new. There are lots of monuments there, some surprisingly old. One of these monuments I saw was a pyramid, built in 81 BC, that’s over 2000 years old. But it was finished in smooth stone, and could have been built just a few decades ago by the look of it.

I visited the coliseum where immigrant men trying to make a living sold me a toy bubble gun. This device blows bubbles, as the name implies. It was a lot of fun. I blew bubbles at the coliseum, at the Spanish steps, at the Trevi fountain, on the train, in busses, at the breakfast table, in the Vatican while the Pope was blessing the crowd, but not in the Sistine chapel as I haddn’t brought it then. It was my favorite souvenir of the trip.

One important thing about traffic in Rome is that drivers often ignore zebra crossings. I saw several tourists step off the road at zebra crossings only to jump back as they were almost run over by cars. A zebra crossing is simply a place you can cross, not necessarily a place where cars will stop for you. Even if here is a gap in the traffic, be cautious. I observed three car accidents in Rome, one a head on from a car driving down the wrong side of a road. And scooters and motor cycles of all types dart in and out of the traffic.

Rome also had lots of parks and open space for people to relax in. The river seems to be a relatively under utilized area, with walkways beside the water, but little access to them.

Eating in Rome seemed to be quite expensive. I was originally eating food at the youth hostel but the food was so bad I started to look elsewhere. Most places seemed to be a bit on the steep side (more so once I realized what the exchange rate was) but another Aussie I was hanging out with found a great little shop down near Ottaviano station just off the south side of Via Julia Caesar (Viale Giulia Cesare) probably on the corner with Via Santa Maura, which is three streets west of the station. They sold traditional Italian pizzas starting at about 4 Euro. Another good buy was the mini pizzas in the snack vendor just across the road from the youth hostel. It wasn’t always open but the food was much better value than the youth hostel and much tastier.

As far as youth hostels go, Rome was the worst, followed closely by Washington, and then Toronto. Liverpool was by far the best, followed by New York then Glasgow. The fact that you could not lock your rooms was a big downer for Rome, as was the lousy food, mosquitos, the dodgy money stealing lock machine, cold (as in no hot water most days) and not very private showers and the less than polite staff.

One of the things I loved about Rome was the advertising. In Australia posters of scantily clad women advertising things would get news coverage and would be vandalized by women's movements. In Rome they were all over the place. Billboard after billboard seemed to be covered in women in their underwear advertising all sorts of things from women's underwear (it would seem obvious) to weight watching programs and milk. I asked a woman from the hostel what she thought of them, expecting that she would be angry at them. Instead she said; "They're so stupid. I saw this add for a bra and I can't find it anywhere. I have been looking for two days and not one shop sells that brand. What a waste of advertising!" That's Rome for you.

Rome mixes the very old with the new. There were many public monuments in Rome including the Trevi fountain

The coloseum in Rome 2000 year old pyramid in Rome

Older and Newer trams in Rome. The city needs more public transport. This would be seen as conservative clothing in Rome.

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