What countries have you visited and what impressed you about it ?

[JMR]

Been to / lived in USA (visited nearly all 48 contiguous states/capitals ), France, Austria, Hungary , Canada, Bulgaria.
By far America is the most diverse ( beuatiful scenery, changes from all green to all mountains and to nothing at all /customs ( you 'd better know what a pop, soda, fizz , bubbly is depending on what part of country you ask for a Coke) / accents ( from not being able to understand nothing in Alabama/Louisiana/Texas, wondering to New York/New Jersey slur/ fast talking Californians / spanglish all over ) and easiest/fastest to travel form point to point, food so and so unless you eat only ribeye steaks ( i've had stomach burns 15-16 years almost everyday and used to eat Tums like candies ).All in all an excellent vacation package if you have the time and money .
France...beautiful, but they will snub you if you use any other language other than ,good food, good social life ( before corona)
Austria..welcoming, nice quiet people , beautiful , simple and clean ( excellent vacation time , kinda expensive though)
Hungary..good food if you like it spicy ( paprika everywhere), clean, nice people , Budapest is beautiful at night
Canada (eastern side) , big cities, somewhat dirty , american cities with an european influence ( Toronto , Montreal ) , vast and f%&^% cold in winter , canadians aspire to be americans for no reason whatsoever, good food , diverse as it comes
Bulgaria , nice places /beaches, cheap food/so and so, don't you ever dare drink Coke there , tastes like piss and i don't know why , cheap vacations with everything included , nice people but a habit that differs from all the world over : if they nod their head up /down means NO , while side to side means YES ( everywhere is viceversa) .
Would like to see Turkey,Greece, Italy,Germany,Poland,Slovenia, Russia and more of my own country.

 

[Ronaldo]

Bulgaria , nice places /beaches, cheap food/so and so, don't you ever dare drink Coke there , tastes like piss and i don't know why , cheap vacations with everything included , nice people but a habit that differs from all the world over : if they nod their head up /down means NO , while side to side means YES ( everywhere is viceversa) .

Interesting! Thanks for the info, especially on the local Coke!

 

[JMR]

If you ever find yourself in Bulgaria ,try the Coke ..and tell me if I am wrong. It seems that Coca Cola is licensed to sell it s beverages only if they draw local water and tailor the taste to the respective country. For example in US Coke is really freshy , really bubbly and not that sweet compared to the Coke in Romania , which is a lot sweeter and not as fizzy. For Bulgaria..it s got a really flat taste because i don t find the right words to explain it ( personal opinion , compared to Romanian made Coke ).

 

[PetrolDave]

If you ever find yourself in Bulgaria ,try the Coke ..and tell me if I am wrong. It seems that Coca Cola is licensed to sell it s beverages only if they draw local water and tailor the taste to the respective country. For example in US Coke is really freshy , really bubbly and not that sweet compared to the Coke in Romania , which is a lot sweeter and not as fizzy. For Bulgaria..it s got a really flat taste because i don t find the right words to explain it ( personal opinion , compared to Romanian made Coke ).

When I went to Egypt for work I was strongly advised NOT to drink the locally bottled Coke - not because of the flavour, but because the cleaning of the recycled bottles was 'not as good as it should have been' and the local water (of doubtful purity) was used to dilute the concentrate.

 

[vreihen]

When I went to Egypt for work I was strongly advised NOT to drink the locally bottled Coke - not because of the flavour, but because the cleaning of the recycled bottles was 'not as good as it should have been' and the local water (of doubtful purity) was used to dilute the concentrate.

Always made me wonder why Coca Cola imported from Mexico sells in specialty stores here in the USA? My first thought every time that I see it on a store shelf is Montezuma's revenge.....

 

[NZDubNurd]

I was warned off the Coke in Thailand and Colombia...

 

[Ronaldo]

I've always lived in Brazil, so my experience in other countries are mostly short visits. Never noticed any difference in local Cokes tastes, maybe it's so subtle, if there is any.
Only been in the USA twice, both times only in Florida (Miami, Ft. Lauderdale), so I'm not sure I had a really representative sample of the country. Though the big cars on the streets looked very "american" to me, there were so many people speaking Spanish and lots of stores and restaurants run by people with latin american origins. I even ate at a Brazilian restaurant, and listened to Brazilian music passing in front a Brazilian grocery store. Almost felt at home.

France is awesome with so many places to visit that I couldn't see many of the places I wanted to see in Paris, even visiting many places a day. Don't remember how the local Coke tastes, but they sell a drink named Orangina, which doesn't taste that good, but seems to be srtrangely efficient as a thirst-quencher. Followed the popular advice of starting the talk to people in French before resorting to English and it worked very well!

England also seemed to be a nice place for tourism, but I only stayed there for 1 1/2 day, so no much experience there. Fortunately, the British know they drive the wrong side of the street and paint that "LOOK RIGHT" warning on the asphalt for pedestrian crossing. I was almost ran over by a car when I was looking to the worng side anyway.

Portugal is wonderful, it has an excellent food and also has many historical places to visit. Winter is not so cold so it seems to be good to visit any time of the year. Being a Portuguese speaker helped a lot, though Poruguese spoken in Portugal is pronounced in a way that it's almost uninteligible for a Brazilian (interviews with Portuguese people are shown in Brazilian TV with Portuguese subtitles, even though the language spoken is Portuguese, believe me!). Anyway, English seems to be spoken everywhere. I found a bit strange when I was in a local souvenir store and the owner was a foreign guy who barely spoke Portuguese, so I had a better result talking to him in English.

Mexico has a very friendly people. Visiting ancient Mayan ruins is awesome, and so are the beaches especially on the Caribbean side.

Colombia looked a little strange at first, with so many security searches in the airport and the street police carrying submachine guns. Never seen that anywhere else. But I enjoyed a lot visiting the historical city of Cartagena and the Caribban islan of San Andres. I had no problems with the local Coke, but they sell energy drinks made with hemp seed. Doesn't taste good though.

If you like a diverse country, you'll probably love Chile. You can visit the Atacama Desert, or a ski station in Valle Nevado, or beaches in Viña del Mar, or walk among the penguins in Isla Magdalena. Higly recommended.

Jamaica is probably the country I remember as the one which looked like most exacly as peope imagine it is. Great beaches. Very friendly people. I just don't remember which side of the street they drive because I've seen cars with both LHD and RHD steering wheels there. A Jamaican guy offered me marijuana by yelling from the other side of the street.

Uruguay, small country but very well organized, strong cellphone signal everywhere. Nice beaches and landscapes in Punta del Este. Also worth a visit.

Argentina, only visited Buenos Aires, but there is much more to see, like the ski stations and the Perito Moreno Glacier. Maybe in the future.

I also visited a few Caribbean islands, Barbados, Grand Cayman, Saint Marteen and Martinique. All beautiful places, but I can't say much because those were verys short visits in Caribbean cruises and it was some time ago.

 

[DneprDave]

Always made me wonder why Coca Cola imported from Mexico sells in specialty stores here in the USA? My first thought every time that I see it on a store shelf is Montezuma's revenge.....

They use cane sugar in the Coke in Mexico and high fructose corn syrup on U.S. Coke. Some people think the cane sugar variety tastes better.