# [roadtrip US] photo journal



## Bulevardi (Jul 19, 2007)

Hi,

Just did a trip to America and have my photo journal online:

http://bulevardi.be/?page=america-log&inh=kv/america

Check it out !

Thnx

Disclaimer
It's not bad that there are negative things, it means there's lots of stuff to do on change. Well, not that I say you have to change, it's your own decision, but if you see things you stand behind that can do better, go ahead. It's positive, no?
It’s true that if you come to my country you'll also have a long list to laugh with. And it won't bother me, we do it all the time here. Belgian people laugh every day with Belgium. There are lots of things going wrong here too…

It’s not that I just want to insult people of you guys and generalize the cliché’s for everyone, but I admit, we Belgians like to laugh with people, even if it are Belgian people… so you certainly don’t have to take it personally.

The observations I made are just for those things I saw, not generalized for all the American people of course. I also understand that I don’t know everything about the history of the fact that some things are grown different per region, but I understand that they’re different in socio-cultural-historical way. I have a friend of mine who studied American Studies and History at the uni here, and we have had already lots of interesting discussions about it. Of course it’s not the same if you don’t live there and don’t know everything about the real facts. The observations are in this case just ‘observations how I experienced them’, not always the real facts how they are.

I guess I’ll have to make a disclaimer underneath the first post of this thread, because lots of people misunderstand it.

It’s possible I’ll visit the US another time in the future, but I’ll probably travel to other places first, like Asia. But there’s still lots to discover in the US I don’t know about, every region is different, also on the small part I’ve been visiting I saw lots of differences.


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## rossie1977 (Jul 17, 2007)

great tour, i love the american west


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## Paddington (Mar 30, 2006)

It would have been better without all the whining about America. Why do you people even come here?


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## Bulevardi (Jul 19, 2007)

Paddington said:


> It would have been better without all the whining about America. Why do you people even come here?


Exploring the world? Learning different things than only my own country?
Speaking to locals in a pub, to know if the "stories" I hear from others about Americans are true?
Hiking the national parks, seeing a different a nature, climate, environment of living. Learning more about the history, culture, etc... the small differences. 
Getting inspiration from other things than those I see in my own life.
etc...
That's why I travel....
If I go to other countries here in Europe I also have a list with small differences, they only aren't that fatalistic.

You ?


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

Paddington said:


> It would have been better without all the whining about America. Why do you people even come here?


Well, most Dutchmen whine about Belgium like he whines about America.


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## Bulevardi (Jul 19, 2007)

Even Belgian people whine about Belgium... 
Belgian people can laugh with everything, also with theirselves. That's openmindedness.


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## MDguy (Dec 16, 2006)

Awesome tour! Ive been to many places you have. I love the Southwest

Though i don't think you should generalize that much the entire US at the end based on the Southwest. The US varys so much, its hard to generalize it all.


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## rossie1977 (Jul 17, 2007)

Paddington said:


> It would have been better without all the whining about America. Why do you people even come here?


come on now, people whine about things, its in their nature, when my cousins born and bred new yorkers first came to ireland they whined about the weather, the narrow roads in the countryside, the amount of litter on the street after the clubs and bars closed on a saturday night, the price of stuff..........they still returned time and time after that


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## DarkLite (Dec 31, 2004)

the waiters arent annoying to me, i think theyre just being friendly and i like that! if you find them annoying tis for a good reason. they want you to enjoy your meal and for their good service, expect a tip.
why do european people think friendliness is annoying? european people proclaim how open minded they are but when people are friendly to them, they automatically shut themselves off and walk away. now thats what i call being closedminded


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## bakatje (Jun 2, 2007)

Visited the US this summer too, wescoast as well, started off in LA. I liked the pictures until I reached the last page; why all the whining? Honestly. Instead of talking shit about people asking how you're doing, you could also mention that shop/restaurant staffs are usually much nicer than European staff. I'm not saying nothing's wrong in America, but the list you made is kinda one-sided.


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## Bulevardi (Jul 19, 2007)

Paneco said:


> the waiters arent annoying to me, i think theyre just being friendly and i like that! if you find them annoying tis for a good reason. they want you to enjoy your meal and for their good service, expect a tip.
> why do european people think friendliness is annoying? european people proclaim how open minded they are but when people are friendly to them, they automatically shut themselves off and walk away. now thats what i call being closedminded


Where did I say friendlyness was annoying?

Saying 'hi' is okay... but saying 'hi, how are you doing?' and running away when you want to tell him how you're doing isn't showing interest at all.

Anyway, when we want something in a restaurant, we make a sign to a waiter at the bar, he comes, we order, ... he's friendly at that time, no problem?
But when we want to sit and relax and enjoy tasting the food, and someone comes 10 times to our table interrupting a conversation to ask if it's okay... than it's annoying. It can be meanth friendly, but it's too much. 
1 time is okay you know. We will call them if we need something. For what I think, they just do friendly for the tip, not because they 'are' friendly. 
Sometimes I thought, after 6 times interrupting: "one more time and you just don't get a tip".

Afterwards, we want to relax a bit after the meal, maybe drink another coffee, thinking about a dessert,... 
But the American way is: fastfood. They seem to want their customers as fast as possible out of the restaurant to have place for new customers to get in. (While there are still plenty of free tables in the restaurant)
They come with the bill immediately after you finnished your meal, without having the chance for some more. It's like they're with a barn brush after your ass to get you out. If you think that this is friendly... than it says lots about you.



MDguy said:


> Though i don't think you should generalize that much the entire US at the end based on the Southwest. The US varys so much, its hard to generalize it all.


Indeed, the east side of America seems totally different. America is big and each region as its differences.


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## Bulevardi (Jul 19, 2007)

bakatje said:


> Visited the US this summer too, wescoast as well, started off in LA. I liked the pictures until I reached the last page; why all the whining? Honestly. Instead of talking shit about people asking how you're doing, you could also mention that shop/restaurant staffs are usually much nicer than European staff. I'm not saying nothing's wrong in America, but the list you made is kinda one-sided.


Well I mentioned the points about Americans that are more social than Europeans and that they say 'hello' all the time etc... 
It wasn't one-sided if you just read the...

Anyway, I make such lists every time when I visit a country, because there are also things that catch my observing eye. For example when I went to Finland, lots of differences too. But more in the neutral way, because there were less negative things my eye catched...

I'm not whining, I'm just comparing, hoping some people learn from it.


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## UrbanImpact (Jan 10, 2005)

"Lots of Americans live in trailerparks, wooden houses in a poor state that can be mobilized by trucks to another location. There's a giant gap between the rich and the poor in America. Is this the American Dream? Some peolpe just don't get the opportunity to make choices in their life as in Europe."

You have to be joking with a statement like this.

"Yes, we got our kicks on the Route 66. This was the historic part, but there was really nothing to see except desert. Some areas that were less worth than a second world country, and still people live there. Lots of places away from the big city just don't look like America being a powerful nation."

We should have our taxes raised so we can pave the streets in the desert with gold.


Anyways...........the pictures were nice but some of the comments seem a little far fetched. Remember you can not generalize Americans based on visiting San Fransisco (The most liberal city in America by the way), desert towns, and Las Vegas (a city that caters to the gambling and entertainment industry).


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

Well, I don't think Europe is much richer than the US. We only know to hide it better I guess. What trailerparks are for Americans, are social housing flats for Europe. And we have a lot of them.


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## Alex Von Königsberg (Jan 28, 2007)

Paddington said:


> It would have been better without all the whining about America. Why do you people even come here?


Poor Indian Trash (your tribal name?), why do you have to bitch about everyone and everything all time on this forum? :lol:


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## Alex Von Königsberg (Jan 28, 2007)

Paneco said:


> the waiters arent annoying to me, i think theyre just being friendly and i like that! if you find them annoying tis for a good reason. they want you to enjoy your meal and for their good service, expect a tip.


Ha, once in a restaurant they asked me and my wife 5 (!) times if the food is OK. Five times! Not only that, the waitress chose the time when my mouth was full to ask me if we were enjoying our meal :lol: Needless to say, she ended up with $0.00 tip. Another extreme service was in Paris, where we were waiting for the menu for nearly 30 minutes trying to catch passing waiters. Two extreme sides - not good hno:


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## Bulevardi (Jul 19, 2007)

Alex Von Königsberg said:


> Ha, once in a restaurant they asked me and my wife 5 (!) times if the food is OK. Five times! Not only that, the waitress chose the time when my mouth was full to ask me if we were enjoying our meal :lol: Needless to say, she ended up with $0.00 tip. Another extreme service was in Paris, where we were waiting for the menu for nearly 30 minutes trying to catch passing waiters. Two extreme sides - not good hno:


Yes that's true, it's sometimes the opposite here.
But here, the workers need to be more productive, less people doing harder work.



ChrisZwolle said:


> What trailerparks are for Americans, are social housing flats for Europe. And we have a lot of them.


But in America, you only got the good opportunities when you grow up in a rich environment.
If you're poor, you can't have good education, need to combine 3 jobs a day to get around. You won't have time to get extra education to grow in your job or life.
There is a poor social system, no retirements, ... name it.
It's not that easy same as in Belgium, where people just get a house when they have no job or money or help... Right here, we have governmental organisations trying to close the gap between poor and rich, giving education to the poor and trying to get them a job so they can buy their own house later on.
And no lousy or unnecessary jobs.


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## Audiomuse (Dec 20, 2005)

Nice pictures, but the captions were a little insulting. 

Just to let you know.. you were in the middle of the desert, far from everything. People who live there are probably going to be poor. On the contrary, look at what Americans made of Las Vegas.. a massive oasis in the middle of the desert.


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## Audiomuse (Dec 20, 2005)

By the way, did you enjoy your time in the U.S.? We're a massive country, we may have a million people living in trailers in one side of a country but 200 million living in "American Dream" houses in other areas. Maybe next time you should visit Seattle or New York.. possibly more of your taste.


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## Bulevardi (Jul 19, 2007)

Some people have already seen the movie I made about our trip to America in september.
The webshow is around 47 Mb streaming, contains around 175 photographs and a few movies made by my girlfriend and myself, surrounded by music and has a duration of 15 minutes.
You can click the link below to watch it.

Normally, your browser won't run this show, you first have to download the 'Photodex Presenter Show' plug-in and run the installer afterwards to be able to watch it. The installer can be found on your desktop after downloaded. So if you see this warning, it's not a virus.

P.S. The last scene of the Bellagio fountain isn't working for some reason.

View: http://users.telenet.be/bulevardi/webshow.html


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