good things and bad things about your country

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Good and bad things, eh? Come visit and find out.

Good: It's home.


The Worst: Politics/politicians - without them it would be a lovely place

 

The artists themselves aren't Swedish but most of their music is written and produced in Sweden. Some Swedes are proud of this.

 

In reference to Jazhara7's post: Dieter Bohlen of Modern Talking and Blue System notoriety is a pest, and creepy. But he is quite successful selling mediocre music and his persona to a broad market. If 20 million people give you a penny, you have a lot of money, if they give you a Euro or a few, you're rich.

I agree about public transport, to a point: When you're in a metropolitan area it is pretty good. When you're out in the countryside you will want to have a car, even though, if you have the time (it can take long) and travel through the day and not on weekends odds are you can get there by public transport fairly well.

As for good things he left out:
-occasionally we make very good wine.
-German beer is rich in variants and flavours. It's fabulous, and I keep looking out for new variants, and keep finding them.
-we have fabulous bread, and ours is pretty much unmatched. France, Italy, UK, Ireland, Benelux can't compare. When travelling around and what I almost always miss is decent bread. After three weeks of toast in the UK, I became sullen at breakfast, and jubilant when I got some real bread on my return. Bread is an important part of German breakfast culture.
-there is a good and diverse local cuisine
-and then, there is Currywurst
-and there were a whole lot more great painters than just Franz Marc.
-we have great literature.
-we have great classical music.
-Things are organised, and fairly modern and efficient.
-when you have a claim, you have a good chance of getting your right. The legal system works fairly well. The police is generally capable.
-medical services are good and affordable.

Great stuff Germans invented:
-the four-stroke internal combustion engine, the rotary cylinder engine, the diesel engine and the automobile
-automatic transmission (for tanks originally, of course)
-the axial get engine
-swept wings
-the T-tail in aircraft
-movable type and effectively printed books
-the balance spring in watches
-mp3 format; the Fraunhofer codec comes from a publicly funded research institute
-the periodic system
-the tea bag
-filter paper for coffee and the decaffeination of coffee
-toothpaste
-aspirin
-the chip card
-the dovel
-the dynamo generator
-the cathode-ray tube
-the electron microscope
-neon light
-pregnancy tests
- ... and probably a lot of other cool stuff as well

As for the bad things:
-I noticed a widespread mentality that new is better. I don't like that. In combination with home improvement shops and the crap they sell that leads to ghastly things to be seen on and around houses in suburban areas.
-Germans can be whiny. East Germans even more so.
-Germans want to be liked, because they're still not quite over with WW-II.
-A boon at times, Germans have a tendency to lecture which can be tiresome

 

Chicken:

 

Good points:

Awesomeness

Bad points:

N/A

 

The good:

- overall good cuisine. It's actually somewhat of a blend between Turkish, Greek, and some original elements, but it works quite well.
- alcohol. The beer is decent, there are some great wines, and the local special - rakia - is pretty popular with tourists and locals alike. It's not too expensive, either - but remember, the small vodka/rakia/whiskey is 50 ml, the big is 100. People sometimes... miscalculate
- beautiful nature, especially mountains and seaside. The weather isn't very bad either, but sometimes it can get a bit too warm in the summer (35+ degrees is nice only if you are at the seaside)
- rich history. Ok, so we lose to China, big deal.
- low-ish prices (compared to the rest of the EU)
- good-looking people: I would say women, but I suppose it would be both genders. There are exceptions, but taking a walk around town can be very easy on the eyes
- good music, at times.
- outgoing, friendly (sometimes) people.

The bad:

- low wages - low enough to make the prices high for us natives.
- corruption
- politicians (they deserve a separate mention)
- know-it-alls. Everyone thinks they know all about politics/sport/history/whatever and is willing to argue non-stop that they are right - sometimes so loudly that they don't hear what the other person says. I'm not entirely innocent of this.
- unregulated building. Some of the best vacation spots are turned into construction sites. The new buildings can look even worse, not to mention that building hotels with a capacity of 200 thousand people in a town with infrastructure designed for 10 thousand can be a bad idea.
- chalga/BG rap, with few exceptions. It's not as bad as one Kirgiz rapper I heard once, but it's pretty awful - and I can tolerate rap in small doses.
- lack of organization. Bulgarians' inability to work together is legendary. Even our organized crime is not organized (and no, that doesn't make it any less dangerous).