Originally Posted by Steve_

Charleston is supposed to be quite nice. Been to Memphis... mmm... no.

Originally Posted by Jensmate

Both counties have their positives and negatives but I must admit I find English towns congested to the point of inhumanity! We stayed in Lewes, East Sussex which is a lovely Georgian town with VERY steep streets. I got very tired of being bumped and jostled on the sidewalks and close to being mown down by drivers who clearly thought that driving down a one lane backstreet was an invitation to try out for the Indy 500. The antidote was taking long train rides to Eastbourne and Southampton across acres and acres of lush, verdant ( and virtually uninhabited) farmland.
A clear plus is the quality and choices of foods. At the South of England Show I bought 3 kinds of duck sausages which were unequaled in flavor and cost - 8 pounds for a kilo! The cheeses are fabulous and the bread.....warm bread fresh from the oven with good butter is the ultimate comfort food!
This may sound old fashioned and fuddy-duddy but I was shocked at the use of bad language in the streets by kids and the disrespect shown by kids to adults. I encountered a family on Southampton Central railway station, two teens, a parent 2 grandparents and a great-grandfather who had just returned from a cruise and were arguing about having had to spend 20 pounds for a taxi from the docks. ( I got this from sharing a lift to the platform with them). The argument escalated with the kids shouting f words and c words at the grandparents on the platform as they were entering a train.
Call me a fragile flower but I've never heard that kind of language used in public by American families and I was numbed by the ugliness of it all.
Another shocker was public drunkenness. I encountered quite a few sloppy drunks while taking the bus in the evening from Uckfield to Lewes and on my evening walks around town. Perhaps this all occurred when I lived at home and I just didn't notice it?

Originally Posted by jeepster

Public drunkenness? Probably Poles.

Originally Posted by Nutmegger

That is an incredibly stupid statement. I have also had the misfortune to witness gross public drunkenness on trips to the UK, and the culprits were obviously British to the core. What I found worst was that during one incident, which took place on a train from London to Leeds at only 7 pm, the rest of the passengers behaved as if absolutely nothing untoward was going on, while I was utterly disgusted.

Originally Posted by Sally Redux

Is it part of this UKIP hysteria, blame everything on the Poles?

Originally Posted by SultanOfSwing

Yeah, those pesky Polish immigrants. Like RAF Polish Squadron 303. Damn Poles, coming over to the UK, protecting our women and children during the war.

Imagine ...

Originally Posted by Sally Redux

Taking our protecting jobs

Originally Posted by SultanOfSwing

A European community uniting for the common good. Who ever heard of such a thing

Originally Posted by Sally Redux

Lest we have forgotten.

Originally Posted by jeepster

I have a Polish last name, my mother had a Polish last name and my grandparents had Polish last names. Where I was raised it wasn't unusual to see people sleeping it off in the gutter on a Saturday Morning. On the other hand the English have a low rate of alcoholism (at least they used to, unless things have changed). There's cultural differences between the two groups, one of which is their attitude towards alcohol. Poles and Romanians and Bulgarians are being recruited into England strictly on the basis of working for lower wages. There's a five to one difference between the zloty and the pound. Why work in Poland for a thousand zloty's/month when they can go to
England and multiply it five times.

The Eurozone (or what ever they call it) doesn't keep the Euros from going to War, that's been NATO's acomplishment. For all practical purposes the Eurozone has become greater Germany. That's why England should leave and focus on emerging markets.
And one last item, the English should be so defensive when someone criticizes the English but most of you are conspicuously silent. The working class English in your country are getting a raw deal and it's about time someone started speaking up.

Originally Posted by jeepster

I have a Polish last name, my mother had a Polish last name and my grandparents had Polish last names. Where I was raised it wasn't unusual to see people sleeping it off in the gutter on a Saturday Morning. On the other hand the English have a low rate of alcoholism (at least they used to, unless things have changed). There's cultural differences between the two groups, one of which is their attitude towards alcohol.

Originally Posted by Steve_

And as for the UK, the last time I was there I nearly went mental. Too noisy, too many people, too crowded, overcast,..........And the thing I notice is that because I rarely visit, I notice just how much more crowded it has gotten, people who live there don't realize the gradual change.

Originally Posted by Lothianlad

It's true - we don't notice it......we've obviously become attuned to it all....even sedate and gracious Cheltenham, Capital of the Cotswolds, is used to crowds of people...so many festivals of all kinds all the year round for one thing.

I was with my partner in the Gielgud Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, London - Angela Lansbury playing the part of Madame Arcati in Coward's "Blithe Spirit" and at 88 years of of age she certainly was a blithe spirit on stage, no mistake there!

In the interval we got talking to a couple from Vermont, USA who said that their ONLY gripe with London was that it was SO very crowded, so astonishingly cosmopolitan and international, and very noisy and everything moved at a hectic pace. Coming from a very small town in rural New England, they said it was such a contrast to what they were used to.

Our response to that was that we don't really notice it anyway - as far as we're concerned London has always been like that - if it wasn't we'd know that something was wrong somewhere along the line. The same can be said for Edinburgh for that matter.

But even in the nearby Cotswold area you can certainly find corners of relative calm and serenity in many of the villages, especially those away from the main roads.....among the most scenically beautiful countryside imaginable.