What is Europe like?

As a visitor, I found it to be a rich cultural experience. Bad or good, it is still that, I think.

I've been to Florence, Paris, Rome, England, Amsterdam and Germany, so it's hard to sum them all up into one snippet of digestible info. There's bad and there's good. The art, architecture and general history of places are breathtaking. People who beg for money often can be aggressive; people just living their lives can be very kind if you bother them with questions or ask for directions. It's different everywhere, not just country to country, but town to town, country town to town, town to city, etc. And obviously you participate in things you like, so I only saw it from my narrow perspective of what I enjoy.

Switzerland is just about the prettiest place I have ever seen. It is like walking through a snow globe. England has lovely rolling countryside too with lots of cute towns and villages to explore. The big cities are busy and full of so many cultural things you either run out of time or energy to see them all. Public transportation in the cities is excellent and the railways are good too. Food is best in France and Italy. Never been to Iceland but have been to Norway and Sweden. Very pretty, quaint, cold. Food is good but basic (fish, stews, cheese). Europe is expensive but luckily I saw a lot of it as a college student using student rail passes and youth hostels. I haven’t ventured too much into Eastern Europe, except Slovakia and Hungary. There is more of an old world feel there, plus a distinct imprint of the postwar socialist era. The coolest thing was driving through a dilapidated and abandoned Iron Curtain checkpoint between Austria and Hungary. It looked like an old abandoned movie set from a Cold War spy film.

Traveling is the greatest antidote to ignorance and this goes for ALL people to ALL parts of the world. Sight seeing is often not enough and spending years on some army base or resort town won't do it either. Every human should endeavor to go to a different culture and spend at least six months with the regular 'Joe' of that country, enough time to learn the language, eat the food etc. What they will learn is worth a 4 year degree!

Amazing. It's hard to explain. Just go there!