[Closed] What's your favourite country? And why?

uponthedowns - Member
Can't believe there are so many votes for France. OK its a nice country but it full of French who are the most arrogant and unfriendly people I've ever come across.

I'll add a vote for Germany- and Sweden if it wasn't for the long dark winters.

And of course the Germans are such a fine race of people as well aren't they? 😉

[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13545386 ]UK vs German manners[/url]

Elfin - you are so right. England/UK is a beautiful country, when i fly in it is always a joy to look down the patchwork fields etc. Grass is always greener (no pun intended) and most peeps could get what they want where they are - if they tried.

Dingle Peninsula - where my parents live and central Switzerland where i live.

Elfinsafety - Member
yep i bet im fast than you on bike as well.
I'm a better dancer than you, so shut up!

Love the UK, with its diversity of landscape, and the seasons just to keep us on out toes.
Would love to see Canada and NZ, but from the countries I've been to Zimbabwe (1990) was awesome.

Hmm.. dark winters never bothered me. The sky might be dark but the landscape is brilliant white... 🙂

This is a mountain bike forum you know

Don't be so silly... 🙄

Oh.

Hmm.. dark winters never bothered me. The sky might be dark but the landscape is brilliant white...

I visited Norway during the winter. About 3-4 hours daylight per day. Temperatures regularly below -10ºC. Dropping as low as -30ºC. No bike riding due to snow and ice everywhere. Very limiting in terms of outdoor activity. If you're ill or injured, you ain't going out at all. Crap telly. Very expensive pubs/nightlife. Limited in terms of art and culture and that, outside Oslo.

And it's like that for over 3 months. Further North, for longer.

Having said that, I was prepared to give it a go for a while, but sadly it din't work out. 🙁

Stunningly beautiful country though.

My "SO" lived in Bavaria for 6 years and loved every minute of it. I've only been to Dussledorf and the south on my way to Austria/Hungary so when I comment on the lack of German humour she's the first to pull me up on it. I've only delt with business folk in Germany so no real idea of humour which I think is a shame. She's quite adamant that they do have a sharp wit about them, but I've yet to see it.
Oh, I spent so time in Hangary too, befoer the wall came down, now that was lovely..

No bike riding due to snow and ice everywhere. Very limiting in terms of outdoor activity

Whoa there boy. No outdoor activity in the winter?

Snow and ice everywhere is a brilliant opportunity!

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I really really miss it... As for the cold.. I loved it. Like being in a sauna in reverse. Mmmmm crispy cold snow.. aahh.. tingly on the nose and in the lungs 🙂 Plus I went biking all year round on studded tyres. As did everyone else in Helsinki 🙂

Oh yeah cos you can do that all the time, of course....

And what else? 😐

Studded tyres are very heavy and riding in snow is sloooow and tiring.

The lack of sunlight thing woon't be any good for me. Love the XC skiing though.

In the winter you can!

The sunlight was ok for me. In the middle of winter in Helsinki it wasn't that different to here. Still went to work in dusk and got home in darkness. The middle of summer though was bonkers of course, but what I really loved was that you had light until 8 or 9pm for months and months. Plus dusk takes longer so even though the sun might go down at 4pm there's usable light for much longer, helped by the white snow everywere. I was a bit aprehensive about it before going but I really never noticed the dark - just tons and tons of light. I will always remember it as a country of light.

MTFU Elf 😀 biked all year round in Joensuu, the dark thing is weird but as there is snow everywhere it is not really dark if that makes sense. I saw on average about 3 live bands a week and 9 euros was the most expensive.

Finland flat out rocks 😀

Might not be a trendy thing to say as it's so easy to bash them but for me the USA.

I love lots of other places but I'm happy for them to be holidays.

USA; I could live there. Or maybe just a holiday home in France would work.

Only in hours of daylight you can! And as I said, what else? The extreme cold limits things somewhat.

Don't get me wrong, I love Scandinavia, will deffo go back there sometime, but the long dark winters aren't for me.

hey molgrips, can you recommend any spiked tyres? Or did you have homemade jobbies?

and yeah, i do waaaay more outdoor sports in the finnish winter than i do here in UK. As pgface says, you need to mtfu

There must've been hundreds of miles of lit XC trails around Helsinki.. plus you can of course use lights like you do for biking.. you can ski, skate, snowboard, ice climb, walk.. having a barbecue by a roaring fire out in the woods is fantastic.. especially if you have a sauna to hand... Extreme cold is no issue, just wear more clothes.. 🙂

Elf - I think you're a great bloke but you are a bit of a city boy - no offence intended 🙂

USA; I could live there

You'll never know until you actually have lived in a place... It's a different ball game.

You'll never know until you actually have lived in a place... It's a different ball game.

+1

hey molgrips, can you recommend any spiked tyres?

Nokian, naturally 🙂 Although I think they are now rebranded Suomi tyres.

I have had [url= http://www.suomityres.com/hakka300.html ]these[/url] since 2003 and they haven't perished or anything, still look new apart from tread wear. Of course they don't do many miles. I didn't lose a single stud the whole winter in Finland, but lost about half a dozen on one rocky but icy Beacons ride. I looked for spares but couldn't find any so I eventually emailed Nokian and they sent me a whole bag of them for free - he said 'oh let's just call it a warranty claim' 🙂 Mine weigh about 650g btw.

Top stuff. I'd recommend anyone have a set of winter tyres of some kind in the shed - it's a great feeling riding around with impunity in the worst conditions. I'd have had some for here in Germany but I only had my road bike and it won't take anything bigger than 23c 🙁 They used to do an insane DH winter tyre that had bonkers tread and was covered loads of angry looking 3mm long spikes.. but I see they don't any more...

Just got me thinking.. one of the best things about Finland was that whatever 'crazy' mad thing you find yourself doing in the outdoors - be it biking through snow, skinny dipping in an icy lake, having a barbecue in -20C - it seems perfectly normal to Finns. They completely understand. You don't get any of the 'omg you must be crazy hahaha I'd rather be at home' etc etc that you get from people here. They even keep the barbecue pits in the woods stocked with firewood all year.

Elf - I think you're a great bloke but you are a bit of a city boy - no offence intended

None taken. But you're missing my point; Scandinavia is fantastic, as I've said, but you are limited for things to do in the cold dark winter months. Ask any Scandinavian over here! They come here for culture and excitement. Outside of the larger towns and cities, there is very little in terms of cultural stuff to do. Life's not all about skiing and snowboarding and that. I'd get bored pretty quickly. And imagine if you broke a leg or something? Cabin fever!!!

It's not about MingTFU. The cold don't bother me. I'm naturally adept on skis. I'd adapt my bike.

But we want different things. An urban environment is better suited to me personally. Hence, why i'm happy where I am. Other countries are great for holidays, but nowhere has ever made me want to leave home.

Speshly not Belgium.

Well that's true about urban life. But surely that's proportional to population density? So anywhere there's lots of people you'll get more 'cultural' stuff.. by which I assume you mean arts, theatre, cinema whatever.. right?

I got a strong sense of culture from zipping through the woods in freezing cold weather. Or is that just history and tradition?

Life's not all about skiing and snowboarding and that

It's not? 😉

To those who have suggested that countries like Sweden, Finland, and Canada, with their long, dark winters, suffer for it due to things like a lack of mountain biking, I would re-iterate what molgrips posted above in his 'ski shot' post.

I would also say that, at least in Canada, every good bike shop switches to skis for the winter and back to bikes in the spring. It was always a pleasure marking the seasons with the change in activity.

Not that I mind being able to ride 365 mind...

Cheap fuel bills in Norway though. Bloody hell. You can light and heat a largish family house in Norway for less than it costs in my tiny flat here. 😯

Good food as well, although loads of stuff is imported and it's quite difficult to get a good selection of fresh fruit and veg in winter.

See, I'm not dissing a place just cos of one thing, I'm considering what it would be like to actually live there for me personally. I really don't think my personality disorders would be helped by long, dark winters with little to do. I'd need a bit more than sports.

I could do it for 3 or 4 months in the summer, mind. And it's fairly close to home, so nipping back and forth would be ok.

Oh.. if we are shopping for countries, then it's worth noting that the 'cold' Northern parts of the USA and Southern parts of Canada are not actually all that far North by European standards. Wisconsin, which gets -30C winters is on the same latitude as Southern Spain I think, so they get long baking hot summers as well as proper cold snowy winters 🙂

Elf.. yeah.. if I were ever to buy a holiday home overseas it'd be in Finland or even Norway. Prob won't though.. it's not very eco friendly to keep hopping back and fore.

Unless I get myself a sailing boat too, then I can come and go as I please 🙂

Spain would probbly offer me the optimum climate tbh. Love Barcelona, for sure. Yeah I could live there easily for a while.

Not for ever though. No place like home. I do admire folk who have left their own home countries to live permanently elsewhere; I coon't do it.

Choose the right place and you can have pleasant 365 biking combined with five months skiing with less than 50km (and 1300m) separating the two abodes.

The UK is ok.

My favourite countries are -
Czech Republic - lovely friendly people, amazing architecture, wonderful countryside. I would love to take my bike over there for a riding holiday in the hills and forests of Eastern Moravia. Did some walking there and there were some cracking trails.

USA - thoroughly enjoyed every visit there. Again very friendly and accommodating people. Would love to take the bike over there at some point - so many places to choose from.

France - same reasons as above (once out of the cities)

Mrs Grips raised an interesting point last night. One of the things she didn't like about living in France was attitudes to women. Of course, you wouldn't notice stuff like that having a good time on holiday, but after a while of living there...

So how long has Mrs Grips lived in France? Edukatorin has lived 23 years in France says you should not confuse gallantry with sexism. In my personal experience I have found French women more independent and less likely to see men as a meal ticket.

you should not confuse gallantry with sexism

gallantry is sexism.

its just the part that women choose to accept. 😉

Never mind that! Put some nickers on and make me a cup of tea

So how long has Mrs Grips lived in France? Edukatorin has lived 23 years in France says you should not confuse gallantry with sexism.

I think you should speak to her about it. However I would advise being less of a cock when you do, she doesn't put up with it as well as I do 🙂

you should not confuse gallantry with sexism

Mrs Grips is not a knee-jerk style anti-male feminist 🙂

Put some nickers on and make me a cup of tea

Moooonkfeeesh!!!

I held a door open for a woman with a baby in a pram at Oslo station, and she swore at me. 😮

Apparently, to do such things implies a woman is weak and feeble, and can't cope for herself without a mayn's help. so, quite sexist and offensive. 😳

You consistently make great claims and fail to provide any information to back it up, Molgrips. You're a "committed cyclist" but won't say how many kms you cycle and drive in a year. What's the problem with posting howx long Mrs Grips has lived in France to have such an in depth appreciation of how sexist French society is? - in my experience less that British.

Edukatorin has run a business in Frnace, been through the French university system, worked for a variety of companies and currently teaches. She's also worked in the UK, been to British universities and taught in the UK.

Put up, or shut up and apologise.

Someone mentioned SF and Vancouver - never been to either but I think I'd live there sight unseen.

I'm in the Basque Country, don't think I'll be leaving. Has its own distinct culture mixed in with the Spanish, and you've got France just up the road. I'm training on the road 15+ hrs a week in the mountains or on the coast, and it's another world compared to doing the same in London and environs. Off the bike, there's the rare treat of quiet city beaches in April/May when the weather's good but the tourists haven't arrived yet.

It does take time to make friends with the locals though. The weather is quite British (warmer, but rains more than Manchester, with more sunshine), and the food is often awful (YMMV; I'm vegan).

I do miss London (and Cumbria), but a week there every year is enough 😉

You consistently make great claims and fail to provide any information to back it up, Molgrips. You're a "committed cyclist" but won't say how many kms you cycle and drive in a year. What's the problem with posting howx long Mrs Grips has lived in France to have such an in depth appreciation of how sexist French society is

The problem is that it's not going to end up anywhere other than a personal battle to prove who's better than whom. Which is completely puerile, destructive and makes sh*t reading for everyone else.

Grow up, move on, get over yourself.. cheers 🙂

I will give you a less personal anecdote from my Mum though, who lived in France for 4 years and worked with French schools for many more. Whenever she was visiting other people's homes or at the school residential centres they used, the women were automatically given half a glass of wine and the men a full one. She found this very annoying...

Every thread we meet on you get your facts wrong and then insult me when I point it out, Molgrips. This time calling me cock. Now you acuse me of being destructive. Try to stick to posting on subjects you know something about, or a least do a little research before launching into an attack on me.

I pointed out you could use lower speed rated winter tyres legally. You rubbished my comment despite european law confirming what I said.

You've rubbished my contributions to alterantive energy threads and each time I've provided information to prove what I originally said was fine.

You rubbished my comments about braking with ABS on snow but I was right all along.

One day you'll realise that if I post on a thread I've taken a few seconds to think it through and I'm basing my comment on my experience rather than what some bloke in a pub said.

Yo do realise that women generally weigh less and are less tolerant to alcohol so givng them a half glass is sensible. When I serve the wine at home my son and Edukatorin get a smaller measure. Obviously in a bar everyone gets the same but when not paying by the measure it's generally assumed a woman will want a smaller measure and ask for more or another glass if she wants more.

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!

😀

*sits back with a cup of tea to watch the entertainment*

Sorry guys I'm off to the pool on my bike. If I survive the (French) traffic entertainment will be resumed later this afternoon.

Won't it get wet?

Not a fan of the "FTFY" BS but

Which is completely puerile, destructive and [s]makes sh*t reading[/s] [b]hilarious[/b] for everyone else

Whenever she was visiting other people's homes or at the school residential centres they used, the women were automatically given half a glass of wine and the men a full one. She found this very annoying...

White wine for the little lady?

Fruit-based drink?