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Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
I've only been abroad one time, and there were little gecko/lizard things everywhere, climbing up walls and scurrying across roads, and nobody cared. I was constantly fascinated but to the locals they're just kinda there.
Bonus question to anyone who visited the UK - was there anything that fascinated you but I'd be taking for granted?
Pic unrelated.
To answer OP's question, I'm American but spent a few years in the UK. Things that fascinated me included:
Having young men and some women ride public transport in full military get up including their military gun.
I've often overheard tourists talking about them with respect or feeling alarmed something crazy is going on. The funniest one, was an older American tourist asking them for directions and talking very, very, very respectfull to them. The scene was just to comical seeing a boomer being so respectfull towards 18 years old boys.
Meanwhile for us here it's the most normal thing in the world to see a bunch of recruits going home from training or going to their base by train. If anyone feels anything towards them, it's pity. Because most of them are just there because they have to and not because they want to.
For the second question: I really liked the English houses with their red brick facade. Generally a brick facade it's not something I often see here in Switzerland.
The trees. They’re big. I frequently pass by Douglas firs that are 100+ feet tall and 6+ feet in diameter. They’re just normal around here, but you realize that isn’t common when you travel to other places and all they have are spindly 30-foot-tall pines or wimpy looking deciduous trees. We have some that are notably big even for this area and are definite tourist attractions, but there are also so many that are objectively massive, but we just overlook them.
Evergreen trees. I know they're a big deal to people who visit but I grew up around them and think they're kind of boring.
IDK. Nobody visits me.
Mountains. We got a lot of em
cactuses
Deer. They are so common in this area they practically press the walk button to walk across the street. “hi bob. You gonna eat some more grass today. Yup ok. See ya later.”
In Seattle there are tons of cherry blossom trees. People come from around the world to see them in bloom. Most the locals I know are like "fuckin cherry blossom petals getting on everything, making the bike lanes slick, getting all over the cars, have to clean them off everything, tourists blocking things to take pictures"
The locations of past atrocities (N. Ireland).
Not even joking. It's a huge part of our tourism industry. It's like those Jack the Ripper tours in Whitechapel. Living here, you barely even think about them, but visitors act like they're meeting Taylor Swift when they spot a bullet hole, bless 'em.
Raccoons.
The tourists visiting Mount Royal park in Montréal are often charmed by the raccoons. Enough so that they feed them and some even let the raccoons climb on them. The city tries to warn people but they obviously ignore the signs. So now we have gangs of raccoons begging for food near the two most popular view points.
I go camping in provincial parks and the same seems to happen there. It's obviously also locals doing this but, people feed the raccoons, they come back, they harass you for food, they can carry rabies, and it's annoying as hell. I watch people hiking and camping in other countries, like the UK, and I'm constantly jealous that they can keep their food and cook near their tents. Doing this here will result in frequent annoying visits from raccoons (if not bigger animals).
For your consideration.
The Henrik Ibsen statue near my home, and also just about all street-facing buildings built before like 1960. People stop to take pictures but I’m just like, people live there. It’s a pretty row of houses, but have some respect. See also, Bryggen.
I'm in Tennessee. The smokey mountains. They are wonderful... But pigeon forge / Sevierville/ Gatlinburg is just a touristy blight now.
There's much better places to go than there.
Leaves.
Yes, tree leaves.
Each fall when they start changing color flocks of tourists come up to gawk at them.
I just moved to New England and this will be my first fall here. My property is completely surrounded by 50'+ trees. I'm sure it will get old quick.
We visited DC in the fall last year. It took us close to 2 hours to walk from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial statue because my wife was taking pictures of all the trees along the way.
This is what I was going to say.
In the late 1800s when Jasper Cropsey was exhibiting landscape paintings in the UK, folks didn't believe that his colour palette was accurate
https://collections.brandywine.org/objects/2656/autumn-on-the-brandywine-river
Wait hang on, the UK has heaps of trees that go that colour every year
Painting is of a river in Pennsylvania. The artist painted it while there, then displayed it in the UK. Many who saw it, not being familiar with the fall colors of the northeast US, thought it was fake.
I know, I'm saying that the UK gets the same colours at the same time of year. It should not have been weird to that audience
Yup I live right near the Brandywine. PA gets beautiful fall colors! They're also great along the Delaware up near the Water Gap (but I'm biased because the Delaware is my favorite river) :)
Outsiders are blown away when they see cattle/horses right along the highway and roads.
Depositing bottles.
Put them into a machine, and it gives you money back 🤯
Honestly this needs to be more of things in the States. And the deposit cost needs to go up.
If companies were forced to retake their garbage, we'd see far less pollution.
It's not just that, they wash and reuse the bottles (without melting them down or anything)! Amazing stuff.
They're finally starting to put more stuff in them here opposed to plastic bottles, and I'm so glad for it.
The US used to do that before the plastics industry (oil company derivatives) squashed it.
The ocean! So fascinated by it! I love it, but it is always there, waiting. No need to go to it. It will get you eventually.
The first time my cousins from FL visited Canada, it was July. They were surprised there was no snow. So, we took them over to the rec centre and they saw a small pile of snow out back. They were thrilled.
It was dumped out of a Zamboni.
Grew up in Ontario and it was always fun as a kid to grab some of the shaved ice behind rec centres to throw at your friends when it was like 33C out
Lakes. My small city has 330 lakes. There are more lakes in Canada than the rest of the world combined.
Ontario has lakes bigger than some countries
