Voulas breakfast special yesterday: French Toast with strawberries and spray cream. That explains a LOT about this place. Actually, it wasn't quite as bad as it 
sounds, 'quite' being the operative word, of course. Euan warned me about this last month, when you arrive in the US everything is strangely familiar and then, after a while, you discover that the familiarity is quite superficial and the real differences emerge. Like, how I'm made to feel like an unfriendly, grumpy ne'er do well every time I walk into a store and don't immediately walk over to the counter to introduce myself to the assistant in excruciatingly personal detail, and instead I walk in and quietly go about my business before being welcomed by the store-assistant from half way across the bloody store, thus forcing me to offer back a surprised, stumbling reciprocal greeting rather belatedly. "Oh yeah, um, Hi, er, I'm fine thank you...."
Conversely, visiting a continental European country is quite the opposite, the superficial differences are obvious straight up front, not least language, but then after a while the European cultural similarities become apparent, unspoken politeness, over-respect for personal space, repressed cultural etiquette & protocols read: not in your face brazen-ness.
sounds, 'quite' being the operative word, of course. Euan warned me about this last month, when you arrive in the US everything is strangely familiar and then, after a while, you discover that the familiarity is quite superficial and the real differences emerge. Like, how I'm made to feel like an unfriendly, grumpy ne'er do well every time I walk into a store and don't immediately walk over to the counter to introduce myself to the assistant in excruciatingly personal detail, and instead I walk in and quietly go about my business before being welcomed by the store-assistant from half way across the bloody store, thus forcing me to offer back a surprised, stumbling reciprocal greeting rather belatedly. "Oh yeah, um, Hi, er, I'm fine thank you...."Conversely, visiting a continental European country is quite the opposite, the superficial differences are obvious straight up front, not least language, but then after a while the European cultural similarities become apparent, unspoken politeness, over-respect for personal space, repressed cultural etiquette & protocols read: not in your face brazen-ness.