No worries, I’d like to blame it on my mothers cooking (not good) but I’m just weird. My own kids make fun of me.
My wife’s friends take her out for meals at more interesting places when I’m on trips.
Since I’m the more limited one, I do most of the cooking. We often make things where I can add different stuff to her portion (like a pasta dish I’ll divide it in half and add broccoli to hers or pieces of meat can be seasoned individually).
At least I’m not a chicken fingers only adult like some I know. My wife can easily pick up the handful of things on a menu I might choose.
I switched to travel mode for Tinder and Bumble for Albania and I’ve never seen so many people with no profile photo. Just random photos and memes or pics of the back of their head. I wonder if the country has figured out how this works or if it’s some sort of silent protest.
From what I’ve heard, Georgia is awful for Tinder/casual dating and I think Albania is the same. They are just super conservative countries in terms of relationships and things like one night stands are quite rare. There is probably embarrassment even being noticed on Tinder.
Someone on Reddit posted this “Albanian chick on Tinder starterpack” which confirms what you said:
Alcohol is so damn expensive in Singapore, wonder if they have like no alcoholics living here. You’d have to be quite wealthy to do it. Even buying beers at 7/11s in a not super touristy areas is expensive. Enjoying my time here though, great food and weather minus the rain.
Cans of beer in the store are $5+ for a crappy light lager. I’ve seen the same beers in restaurants $8-12 or so and craft beer closer to $15-20 per pint. Basic cocktails $12-15 up to $25 at some swanky place i went to. Went in a bottle shop and the cheapest wine bottles were $30+. Bottles of liquor were crazy expensive, like $60+ for rail type stuff but that was in the downtown area.
Nobody wants to hear it but booze should probably be prohibitively expensive like this everywhere. I guess if you make alcohol too expensive with policy in North America it would create a black market for homemade plonk. I assume in Singapore they would come down on you pretty hard.
I’m for it. Throw in cigarettes while you’re at it too.
One of the few negatives I have about Europe is the # of casual smokers. I don’t care that they smoke, just when they do it in public places in proximity to others. If an outdoor patio or balcony is fairly busy, then it’s a lock someone around you will be smoking and ruining the experience for non-smokers. Even stadiums (where I believe it’s supposed to be illegal) will have them.
I was planning to do the Balkans, but had to audible that trip at the last second due to a paperwork issue with our dog and that’s how we ended up in Georgia for a year.
From April to November, we’re planning to travel in E. Europe/Balkans, but it will be a very slow pace. 3 months Poland, 3 months Romania, 1 month Turkey. I would’ve liked to spend about 3-4 weeks in each place and see many more countries, but travel in the Balkans is super under-developed and especially tough with a dog.
Not sure how I would’ve managed the smoking stuff. Probably just attempt to find patios that weren’t too busy and only 1 or 2 groups smoking. I guess technically Istanbul could be considered E. Europe, and culturally, Georgia is E. Europe, but haven’t found the smoking to be too annoying here, or at least, no worse than W. Europe.
Would definitely be easier to stick to the EU if that’s the case.
Anyway, it depends on what you define as the Balkans. For example, Croatia, Greece, and Slovenia are defined as part of the Balkans and have a very well-developed and oft-traveled tourist infrastructure. But yeah, Bosnia and Serbia are very much not that. I assume Albania and Kosovo will be more like the latter two than the EU Balkans.
Can check out the laws in each country. Surprised to see Serbia listed as a partial ban for restaurants/bars because I was there for a week and saw zero restaurants/bars that were smoke free. I assume the enforcement of these regulations are pretty terrible.
Tons of smokers here too, I don’t mind it as a casual smoker but I was surprised it was so out in the open. Figured they would push all the smoking away from general public areas. For how expensive everything is here you can get cheap food at the hawker centers and food stalls on the street.
Greece is dark green? I’m surprised because so many people I know and seemingly most of the other tables at the tavernas were smoking. Compliance is often really good in places that don’t allow smoking though, so I think that’s why it ranks high. I get Spain and Netherlands for dark green but Greece struck me.
Yeah I’m visiting France for the first time. As someone who is A2/B1 in the language I’m more scared of all the smoking ruining things more than anything else.
Tiger beer is definitely my favorite shitty beer. Brings back a lot of memories, even though I didn’t drink much.
I’m pretty much going to use exclusively public transportation when I get there, but occasionally if I’m running late for something or if just raining a lot, I might consider something else. What’s the ride share app situation there? Are cabs still numerous and easy to hail down nearly all the time?
I’ve been using Grab which is an Uber like app. Cabs are plentiful around hotels but just walking the streets not so much. The rain was awful the first couple days and temps were in the mid 70s which i guess is considered cold but weather has been much better the last 3-4, just occasional rain showers instead of full on steady downpours. I’ve got a small umbrella that I can tie to my pack so I never go out without it.
