When in Europe do as the Europeans do: Get drunk and have sex

by Anna Brones on

Fitting in with the local culture is often the most difficult of tasks when traveling. But if you’re a young adult headed to Europe this summer, acting like a European might only entail living up to frat party standards. According to a study published in BMC Public Health, young adults in Europe deliberately booze it up to increase their chances of scoring.

According to the BBC, the study was done with 1,341 people from 9 different cities across Europe. A third of the men, and 23 % of the women — who were all between the ages of 16 and 35 — said they drank to improve their chances of having sex. The researchers concluded that the fun-loving youngsters were “strategically” binge drinking or taking drugs to improve their sex lives.

All jokes aside, drinking and sexing is a health concern; especially since the rate of unprotected sex goes up. However, now that we know what the European strategy is, it looks like we no longer need a “How to Score a European Fling” post.

French trains go for British baguettes

by Anna Brones on

In a country so proud of its culinary heritage, it’s hard to imagine any foreign versions of local specialties ever being sold. I’m talking about France, the country where the capital city organizes the Baguette Grand Prix, just to determine which boulangerie makes the best one (it even makes the French national news). Surprisingly enough, even in a place with such high bread expectations, somehow British baguettes managed to make their way onto the trains of the French railway.

The Guardian reports that Fosters of Barnsley, a Yorkshire bakery, has started exporting truck loads of baguettes across the Channel to be sold on trains. The move has made baker John Foster deemed the “most hated man in France,” according to French media.

With a well-known background of Franco-Anglo tension regarding food, the fact that British baguettes are being sold to French railway passengers is rather humorous. Maybe Sarkozy will see it as an attack on his country’s culinary heritage, or maybe the French will just start exporting fish and chips.

Serial bottom-pincher on the run in England

by Iva Skoch on

Wanted in North Manchester, England: Serial bottom-pincher. A surveillance camera caught the man in action, loitering in the Tib Street area between 7 and 8 a.m. Police have asked that if anyone should recognize the suspect to please get in touch. No word on whether or not he is after a specific type of bottom.

A Turkish or Greek-looking man has grabbed the behinds of at least 19 girls and women between the ages of 13 and 43 over the past 12 months in the town’s center. The suspect, in his late 20s or early 30s, usually approaches his victims from behind and tries to sexually assault them by grabbing their bottoms. While the incidents have not increased in severity, the man has put his victims in extremely uncomfortable situations, police said.

Here is a message for you, serial bottom pincher: Move your operation to New York City. There are plenty of women there who would kill to get their butts pinched occasionally. (Don’t tell anyone I told you to do it.)

[via APP]

The tradition of pigeon feeding in Venice’s St. Mark’s Square is over

by Jeffrey White on

It is now illegal to feed the pigeons in Venice’s St. Mark’s Square, or anywhere else in the city for that matter.

Venice’s avian crackdown, which went into effect on Wednesday, joins the likes of London’s and New York’s, where it’s been against the law to feed pigeons for some time now. But it’s difficult to name a city that has a closer connection with the “winged rat” than Venice: Who hasn’t imagined walking across St. Mark’s early in the morning with no one around (“Yeah right!” you say of Venice) and scattering pigeons, which take flight in a rush of wings that do not quite drone out the chimes from a nearby bell tower.

Of course, you can still scatter the pigeons, I guess — there are an estimated 40,000 living in Venice. But feeding them is going to cost you a 50 euro fine (around $75)

Naturally, the dozen or so vendors in St. Mark’s Square who made their living selling breadcrumbs to tourists who wanted pigeon-laden snapshots are angry at the city’s mayor for imposing the crackdown, saying they’ve been catering to this particular niche in Venice’s tourist market for more than a century.

What do you think? Is banning pigeon feeding silly or practical? Do places like St. Mark’s and Trafalgar Square in London lose something by such laws?

From the New Europe: Marketing beautiful women to tourists

by Iva Skoch on

God help us! Prague has unveiled its latest desperate attempt to find a new identity and market it to tourists. I hope you are ready. The punchline, in essence, is: Come here because we have beautiful women. (And architecture, but really, who cares. Too many syllables in that word.)

As you can see from this video ad, the Czech supermodel Petra Nemcova and last year’s Miss World, Tatana Kucharova, with a kitschy backdrop of the Prague Castle, are trying to tell you that you should come to Prague because–quite frankly–everyone here looks like this and lives like this.

Before you buy your ticket, let me warn you:

  1. Not all Czech women look like this
  2. In fact, most Czech women do not look like this
  3. Those who do look like this are–don’t take this the wrong way–not waiting around to meet you. Unless of course, you are rich and famous
  4. Did I mention not all Czech women look like this?
  5. Although prices are certainly becoming top-notch, the service in a lot of “luxury places” in Prague still isn’t
  6. Then again: the Champagne they are drinking will always be there. Mercifully, the girls in the ad are not drinking beer and eating roast pork because that would make it just unbearable cheesy in a traditional culture kind of way.

I feel bad for this beautiful city sometimes. Right after the Revolution, Prague city officials were happy to get anyone to come here and spend precious hard currency. Then, they got tired of the “broke backpacker crowd” so they started marketing to the “cultured tourist”: Prague has great live music, amazing architecture…you get the idea.

That didn’t really work, either. Although Prague has great, talented musicians, you are still better off going to see opera in Vienna (granted, not as cheaply). So, they went back to the party crowd, marketing to semi-wealthy Western European folks to come here for the weekend and party it up. That is, in a nutshell, how we ended up with a bunch of stag-party types from the UK throwing up all over Prague’s mediaeval cobblestones.

With the new spot, apparently, we want to attract the “luxury travel people”, who like to engage in expensive Champagne-drinking with a view of Gothic spires while exhibiting their latest supermodel girlfriend.

I wonder what kind of undesirable Eurotrash crowd this will attract. Do I smell Gucci opening a store?