Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I will mention one experience which left me sickened. We took the tour of Auschwitz/Birkenau a couple of years ago, and as anyone who has done it knows, it is by group, by language. There was a bunch of Americans on our group who acted like it was a theme park. It was permitted to take photos anywhere, but most of the group was far too distressed and upset to even consider it. The Americans were snapping away at absolutely every opportunity, and it wound everyone else up bigtime. Most were sobbing, the Americans were flashing. This is ONE occurrence with ONE bunch of people. I'm not saying it is typical, but maybe just a little example of where they can be rather insensitive to their environment.
That's an interesting situation. For an American, Auschwitz is pretty far away and it is likely a one-in-a-lifetime trip there. I think I would be taking some photos too.
I'd say that 80 percent of people that eat that crap are tourists, and American franchises are not important in comparison with local ones. In fact, many have closed.
Italy, France, Spain and England receive around 200 million tourists or more, and they are the perpretators.
McDonalds is not ubiquitous throughout Europe, why do you make things up? It's quite evident you have never been in this part of the world.
I lived in Germany for half my life, and have been in every Western European country except for Portugal, Ireland and San Marino. You are simply lying if you claim that fast food restaurants like McDonalds are not ubiquitous throughout Western Europe, and not popular among the locals.
For example, in France, 90% of the McDonalds/Quick type burger franchises are NOT in tourist zones. Go to any random Paris neighborhood and you will see McDonalds or Quick (and there are many other franchises).
There are 1,500 McDonalds outlets in Germany, more than 1,300 in France, 1,300 in the UK, etc. The only places where McDonalds are rare are in rural backwaters, especially in Eastern Europe, like in Albania or Moldova or something.
I lived in Germany for half my life, and have been in every Western European country except for Portugal, Ireland and San Marino. You are simply lying if you claim that fast food restaurants like McDonalds are not ubiquitous throughout Western Europe, and not popular among the locals.
For example, in France, 90% of the McDonalds/Quick type burger franchises are NOT in tourist zones. Go to any random Paris neighborhood and you will see McDonalds or Quick (and there are many other franchises).
There are 1,500 McDonalds outlets in Germany, more than 1,300 in France, 1,300 in the UK, etc. The only places where McDonalds are rare are in rural backwaters, especially in Eastern Europe, like in Albania or Moldova or something.
You're right, it's very much a local thing, not so much for tourists. We also have McDonald's in pretty much every part of every city. Even in more agricultural areas where there are only small towns, there will always be a Mac within a 20 min drive. It's very popular among teens and little kids are crazy for it, so lots of parents take their kids there very often.
True, although I generally do not like to go to fast food restaurants France is one of those countries where I visited them a lot because regular restaurants are way too expensive. And it is true France is generally expensive. It's the same like the US, groceries are very expensive, good quality restaurants are very expensive so we ended up going to fast-food places a lot there too.
France is expensive? Grocerie in the US are very expensive?? Get out
I lived in Germany for half my life, and have been in every Western European country except for Portugal, Ireland and San Marino. You are simply lying if you claim that fast food restaurants like McDonalds are not ubiquitous throughout Western Europe, and not popular among the locals.
For example, in France, 90% of the McDonalds/Quick type burger franchises are NOT in tourist zones. Go to any random Paris neighborhood and you will see McDonalds or Quick (and there are many other franchises).
There are 1,500 McDonalds outlets in Germany, more than 1,300 in France, 1,300 in the UK, etc. The only places where McDonalds are rare are in rural backwaters, especially in Eastern Europe, like in Albania or Moldova or something.
Oh no man YOU don't know what you are talking about !!
I have to agree. It's pretty easy to get a good, reasonably priced meal in Paris. And yes, you can find McD's in most European cities, but only one or two - not like in the US where a major city has dozens of franchises. Overall, Europe has far less fast food.
I have to agree. It's pretty easy to get a good, reasonably priced meal in Paris. And yes, you can find McD's in most European cities, but only one or two - not like in the US where a major city has dozens of franchises. Overall, Europe has far less fast food.
Yes, there are two over here but we have no other American chains like Burger King, Pizza hut, Wendy's, Taco Bell, KFC, etc. The 'Americanization of restaurants' in Europe is greatly exaggerated here and it is not like the US that you run into a fast food restaurant every 500 meters.
Where are those 'good reasonably priced meals' in Paris? Seems rather impossible considering they may charge 8 euros for a glass of soft drink. France is crazily expensive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NOLA101
There are 1,500 McDonalds outlets in Germany, more than 1,300 in France, 1,300 in the UK, etc. The only places where McDonalds are rare are in rural backwaters, especially in Eastern Europe, like in Albania or Moldova or something.
So what is your point? These McDonalds restaurants sell European sandwiches, European meat, European vegetables, European fries, there is nothing American about them except the type of food they sell. The food quality is much better than in their American branches. And it's not like everybody goes there like in the US, its mostly teenagers and child birthday parties over here.
By the way, how small must a town be, to not have a single mcdonald's in your country?
Here most towns with a population around 30.000 have one, and even smallish cities of 100.000, already have 4.
Lisbon metro area has more than 50, and Porto more than 20.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
