Headed to Europe on Vacay

[Centerpiece]

Taking the wife to Europe again, for two weeks. Switzerland, Germany and France. Doing a Viking Rhine river cruise. Got a T-shirt that says “I didn’t vote for him” in about 10 different languages.

I’m ambivalent as to wether or not I won’t to engage in any political conversations with fellow cruisers, whom I’m guessing will be a lot of fellow Americans. I will however actively persue the subject with Europeans I engage. I speak a little German, but most folks in the cities we will visit speak good - if just decent - English, so language shouldn’t be a barrier.

Viking does a ton of advertising on PBS, so we’re hoping to run into a lot of Grantchester, CalltheMidwife, Miss ScarletandtheDuke, AustinCityLimits type progressives on board. If so, I’ll gladly engage them in some trump-bashing chats. I seriously doubt Trumpers watch PBS, nor see many Viking commercials so hoping the rednecks aren’t on board with us. Also I’m guessing Trumpers prefer oceanic cruises, not European river cruises.

But I’m more interested in getting a barometer on our European friends. I’ve heard Trump has an unfavorable rating of about 80% on that side of the pond. My goal is to 1) apologize on behalf of all us sane Americans 2) find out what they think about Maga/trump 3) get a feel for their own right wing wackos in their countries and see if they have any answers or solutions to the hard right scourge - or how they cope with all of that.

Anybody been abroad lately, either on business or on vacay? What was the vibe you encountered? Any advice or suggestions for me? Should I just shut up and keep my head down, don’t wear easily recognizable American clothing and just speak German the entire time? I can fake a little Swiss German and my wife is fluent in Spanish so we could pass as Europeans in a pinch. Or should we say we’re Canadians?

 

[05C40]

It was a long time ago when I spent 3 years in Germany while in the Army. I was always surprised that pretty much every time I attempted to speak Germany, the person I was talking to helped with my pronunciation and vocabulary and usually spoke English as well or better than I did. It was as if they appreciated the effort I was making and wanted to help me get better. So just do your best and the people you interact with will probably treat you as if you are bringing money into their country and helping their economy.

 

[Bobfripp]

Got a T-shirt that says “I didn’t vote for him” in about 10 different languages.

 

[donbosco]

Spent a couple of weeks in Spain last summer, mainly in Sitges, a beach town outside of Barcelona while my daughter did a dance program. During that time the first ‘No Kings’ protest went down and prior to that the National Guard was deployed in Los Angeles.

I talked to Spaniards about that - I speak Spanish pretty well and had some good conversations. I made it known immediately what my sentiments were regarding trump so I didn’t catch grief nor shunning. Catalonian’s in particular despise authoritarians.

My daughter on the other hand only made friends with Latin Americans at her school because the Euros tended to treat her poorly and a big part of that was that she was the only Estadounidense in the program. Some of that I also suspect was some of the ‘Mean Girl’ prima ballerina complex at work - my daughter always has that clash no matter where she is. She made friends with some British tourists as well as some local punks though.

I enjoyed conversing with the Spaniards - didn’t talk to any gringos but like I say - speaking Spanish tends to dispell any suspicions of being trumpist.