That presupposes that they would be heading in that direction. If it were I, it wouldn't. There are a lot more places in the world they could head for than the USA.
Yes. When I - a German person - want to travel to Malta, I should absolutely do the train/boat combo rather than take a plane. It would only take 41 hours, according to Google Maps.
inhale sarcasm We would all be forced to take your route sadly. Since there is absolutely no capable airplane in the whole of Europe that could land on something so small as Malta. I mean Gosh Golly Geez it "ain't even the size of Texas!" 🤣
American east coast has better train service, that is in good use. In the west the train service is extremely sparse and passenger service even less common.
I actually went from the UK to Malta by train/ferry. The terminal in Pozzallo is really poorly located (no connecting buses or anything) and the timetable is more inconvenient still. No bus connection with the terminal in Malta either, so more lugging your bags about. Public transport in Malta is slow and unreliable because of congestion, they really need to build some trams.
On the other hand the train to/from Sicily is a really unique experience, there aren't many (any?) places where your carriage gets loaded onto a boat. On a sleeper train you don't really notice or mind the 20 hour journey from Siracusa to Milano.
Viking offer a cruise from Amsterdam to Bucharest. They also offer Paris to Prague so there must be somewhere the two routes cross over and you could do Bucharest to Prague. You might need to wait a few months for your connection though.
You can get to the Netherlands from romania through the Danube, there is a lock system so waterfalls are not a problem. Its navigable until Kelheim, you can get to the Main river from Regensburg and then the Rhein and its subsidieries until Rotterdam. There is a lot of marine traffic along the whole route.
Tbf he never said that you could take a boat to any country, it’s either a train or a boat if you can’t take a train (UK to Norway, Ireland to UK mainland)
I sincerely doubt that Bill was the first president to tread that particular path. Surely at least one of JFK's ladies did the same at the very least, and I'd be surprised if the precedent wasn't set long before him.
That's something kinda sad for them, some sure are stupid, we have stupid people here too, but their education system it's a joke.
I can point every country in the world, I can point regions of other countries and I'm pretty sure I can point their states.
You can point out 145 countries? I think you may be one of a few people who can do that. I can point to regions on a map and be confident that the country is in that area. I can point out locations of countries I've been too and others I know of but not all countries of the world!
I used to without no problem maybe I lost a bit of practice with time. I learnt it when I was like 12yo, my ADHD did the rest to hyperfocus into the thing, I would probably have some trouble with some island states from the Pacific.
Europe it's easy, the Americas are super easy, Africa it's easy too, Asia it's fairly easy but you can make some mistake in Indochina, dunno, I may have to test myself.
Ah, that makes sense. I didn't want to label you and be that person! I am pretty good with Europe and the Americas but as soon as it goes to Asia or Africa I haven't a clue other than the 'main' countries.
Test yourself and if you end up with over 160 then you learn them awhile ago. 😉😄
Actually - dont underestimate the size of Brazil. The EU is only about 4.2million km2, about half the size of all of Europe (European Russia is a huge chunk), and brazil is alone about 8.5
For myself it is 1000 miles (1600km) to drive to visit my brother in Texas, but I certainly wouldn’t holiday there willingly.
For holiday, I would probably drive 400 miles (643 km) to holiday on the my closest USA beach. It’s a tad closer to drive 200 miles (321 km) to a Mexican beach though.
I believe you're highlighting OOP's point. There are no fast trains to take throughout most of the USA, so you either fly or drive. I technically could take the 422 Texas Eagle train from Phoenix (Maricopa) to Dallas, but it would take 31 hours. Flying takes 2 hours.
I do fully support building high-speed rail in the USA, however, I will not likely see high speed rail here until 2030 or later.
I was being a bit tongue in cheek of course, but understood OPs point more as a typical example of "US yuge, Europe small", whereas the distance Berlin to Rome is about roughly the same 1000mile trip by car (or by train or by plane) and it's not even a long trip within the EU.
And you if you do take that trip by train, I advise bringing so fresh clothes as you mightvend up stranded somewhere. Lol
Last time I tool a high speed in Germany I ended up at a hotel sowhere because I missed the last connection.
You sure about that number? I recall doing the math a couple years back that London-Warsaw was about that or a little over. I’d figure Berlin-Rome as more like 400-600 miles.
(But could easily be around 1000 kilometers through - unit confusion?)
I looked it up on gmaps and it came around 1500 km for the shortest route. Berlin - Munich is already 600km and remember Rome isn't in the north of Italy
Perhaps this is a case where ol’ Mercator struck again, stretching Europe (which is at high latitude) in the east-west direction. Or just not thinking in the north-side direction properly, at least I tend to inventory geography “north of the alps” and “south of the alps” in separate mental “bins,” if that makes any sense.
Try 2050 at best in California. Everywhere else nationally one party is opposed on essentially ideological grounds and the other doesn’t view it as worth spending political capital on.
Meanwhile when you actually give people -a train-, just normal speed, they’re instantly popular. Heck, it’s might almost be a case of schedule it and they will come, and the existing ones don’t lack for riders. I suspect there’s a heck of a lot of hidden demand. I just wish one served the city my relatives lived in. It’s sooo much nicer then driving.
(Why are we not just sticking an extra coach or two on the end of the train during busier periods? We still universally have locomotive-hauled trains with individual separate passenger cars with couplings that take maybe a minute tops per car like you guys used to. Heck, why aren’t we increasing capacity slightly by just lengthening trains, almost all of them the locomotive wouldn’t have any trouble hauling an extra car or two.)
u/b3nsn0wrecovering from temporarily embarrassed future american syndrome2d ago
i think it's genuinely having access your car at the destination, rather than being stuck with a rental, that makes the yanks take ridiculous road trips. almost all of their cities are car dependent as fuck and if you live in your car like that you wanna keep things nice.
Are there flights that only go 200 miles? There is talk to ban super-short distance flights in the EU as they make no sense financially and environmentally.
400 miles or more I'd seriously consider flying. In Europe or Japan though I'd take a train. A train in US is very expensive (more expensive than flying) and usually doesn't go where you want to go.
I would probably drive 400 miles (643 km) to holiday on the my closest USA beach. It’s
As someone born in Italy, the thought of being so far from the sea is hard to truly grasp.
How common is it in the US to find people who have never seen the sea?
I'm not sure either, honestly. But it could be about travel distances inside the US. I live in South Louisiana. I used to live in the mountains in Colorado. It's nearly 2,000 miles between my current house and my old one. I can make that trip in about 23 hours if I drive the whole time and don't sleep and only stop for gas and snacks.
20 000m / 91,4m = 218,81. I got the 91,4 metres for average American football field length off of a very quick Qwant search. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
I'm Australian and unless it's an amphibious car the the only way I'm getting to another country is by plane or boat, I'm actually so delightfully isolated I need a plane or boat just to get to most of Australia. I live about 2000km closer to Antarctica than Jakarta, even New Zealand is 2400km away.
Nope, because they claim the USA is just too big for efficient high speed trains... not that that stopped the Chinese who as far as I know have a way bigger country. Anyways, knowing how gunhappy stupid some of them are, they would probably start shooting at the trains anyway to see if it was faster than a bullet.
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u/b3nsn0wrecovering from temporarily embarrassed future american syndrome2d ago
the us was built on rail and now it crumbles without it. it would be fun if it weren't so sad
Wtf do they think? That every country in Europe lies about 5 minutes apart? I live in Oslo Norway, and If I want to go to Greece I can't just walk a few blocks down the street and there it is.
I think they still have a point (EU really is relatively small), but USA problem isn’t their size but rather shitty infrastructure. At least half of their country has a perfect topography to connect every village by railway.
I mean, you could still go to Saloniki by car and it would take you 31 hours (including 2 ferries though, lol) or 2900 km. You can literally drive for 2,5 hours in Europe and end up in another country. Where I live you’d still be in the same region or even city. If I want to visit my hometown I’ll have to drive for 2 days non-stop or fly for 5 hours or go by train for 2,5 days. I’m 4500 km apart from my relatives and it’s not even halfway through the country and I don’t live anywhere near the western/northern border 😭 so yeah, y’all are pretty lucky.
The point he thinks he's making: It's much harder to travel anywhere in America than in Europe, therefore Europeans are lucky.
The point he's actually making: It's much harder to travel anywhere in America than in Europe, therefore Americans are shit at running public transport.
Budapest is cca. 1000 miles from Londres. And good luck going there by train. (Expect 2 days of travel, a very expensive price and transfers at Vienne, Francfort and Bruxelles. Oh and good luck with Deutsche Bahn...)
I can't remember, I get staff rates (which are like having an Interrail pass, without actually paying for the pass) so I was just paying for supplements. The Stuttgart-Budapest sleeper wouldn't have been expensive anyway, not if you're prepared to use couchettes.
This compares apples with oranges though. On the train you can take practically as much luggage as you can carry. Ryanair will sting you for anything more than a briefcase. You also arrive in Budapest at around 10/11am in a reasonable state of rest. With Ryanair you're either going to need to get to Stansted for 6am or you'll be on an evening flight and be straight to your hotel and to bed - that's an extra cost for the flier which is already included in the train ticket.
Frankly I'd want to be paid if I'm to suffer Ryanair.
Europe from north to south, is longer than the continental USA, and slightly shorter east to west. But sure, we don’t understand about distances. But I guess someone from the north of Sweden who have ever taken the E45 down to southern Italy, have ever whined so much about the long drive as an American having to cross state lines once in their entire lives.
Tf bruh, if i wanted to go to London from home it would take me according to googlemaps 1538 miles/26hours driving too 🤦🏻♂️🤣 (in reality much more, nobody can drive 26 hours straight at max allowed limit, without peeing/eating/resting etc)
You clearly don’t know how many different languages (yes, Venetian and Neapolitan are languages) we speak here.
Going from the top north of Italy to Sicily takes about 14 hours, but you cross at least six COMPLETELY DIFFERENT languages, different traditions, and many different kind of cheeses…
I did once have to explain to shocked Englishmen in a pub how in the US we drive 100+ miles for a good burrito. Then they explained to me an optimized route including all roundabout names for me to drive from Oxford to Cambridge.
Back in 1971, I had to travel 70 miles Southampton to London for a really crappy KFC, followed by 70miles back! Meanwhile, in the late 1980s, my wife used to do a 200mile round trip from Quairading to Perth in West Oz to play Bingo.
I did once have a British version of this - I was working at Oxford and craving a burrito. The only think I could find was a place in Brixton, South London. I didn’t have a car so took the “Oxford Tube” bus to Victoria, navigated the tube to Brixton, and a long walk to the restaurant (which was very good but sadly closed). It was run by an Irishman who lived in San Fran and learned the “Mission burrito” style, and made an extremely hot salsa (found habanero peppers in the Brixton market I guess). Anyway, Oxford now has two burrito joints so I wouldn’t need such a trip today
I remember when Europeans were poor, as well. Used to get whole caravans of cars going from the Baltic to Italy. Thank god our economy improved and now we don’t need to any more!
Why is he telling Europoors that, when they, according to Americans themselves, cannot even understand how large the USofA is? /s
Although I don't really see the issue, considering the USofA are also the richest and best country, so surely building more efficient transportation should be easy af, right? Right?
We have trains that travel 800 miles so we can easily go 1,000 miles with just one change. The American mind clearly can't comprehend trains. Has he never heard of Amtrak?
It takes me anywhere between 3 and 7 hours to drive to London (fuck you the M6!) and about 6 hours to get through it because of high population density. (Play them at their own game) There's more people living on my street than their are in your empty Bumfuck County, pop. 57. American mind can't comprehend (numbers higher than 12 etc)
This is quite a good point. We travel 200 miles to london and it takes 4 hours on a bad day, and we consider that a long journey. That’s a night out for an American.
I hate to break it to Americans, but the world's longest domestic flight starts and ends in France. You can't take a train or boat from Paris to Reunion and it's significantly more than 1000 miles.
When I was a child in the 1970ies/1980ies, the summer holiday trip to visit the old country and meet the grandparents (Paris region to center-north Portugal, around 1600 km/1000 miles) took basically a day by train (Sud-Express from Paris Austerlitz to Lisbon and Porto) or car.
With Portugal and Spain joining the EU in 1986, road infrastructure has improved tremendously in those countries throughout the 1990ies and 2000s.
Nowadays... well, the train route isn't feasible as AFAIK the Sud-Express (Irun at the franco-spanish border to Lisbon and Porto) ended service during Covid and hasn't resumed since then. The journey by car is 15 to 16 hours according to Google Maps but better add a stop for the night in Spain. And a Paris-Porto flight is only 2 hours and probably cheaper than what you'd pay for gas/petrol and toll roads. If you need a car, rent one in Porto.
So "drive 15 hours or plane" is also a thing in Europe.
It's as if they've no concept that some parts of Europe and some parts of the US are closer together than others.
Most trips in the US taken by car are not coast to coast or 15+ hour drives. They're regional. Most long trips are by air. In Europe you also add the option of most medium distance trips having access to ultra fast or at least reasonably fast rail, but long trips are mostly by air too.
For example, if I were to just decide to jump into a car and go from lets say Helsinki to Athens it would take 37 hours.
It always, ALWAYS baffles me, the Two things Americans brag about is land size and inventing the internet, yet the amount of Americans willing to use the one to fact check the other is nonexistent.
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u/Ophiochos 2d ago
But we know plenty of Scots will go 500 miles then 500 more so what’s the fuss about?