Friday, March 4, 2011

This Ought to Make Search Strings More Interesting!

The other day, this post over at The Blue Zoo made me remember a picture I took last year. Europeans and Americans have a very different take on sex and nudity; this is an "Erotic Megastore" located next to a children's toy store. There are actual displays put up in that store front and nobody blinks an eye--no Germans, anyway! That is just something you wouldn't see in the U.S. (Except maybe Nevada, of course! Ha!)


It's not just Germany, though. It's all of Europe! While wandering through Luxembourg during our first year living overseas, we passed a coffee shop (a.coffee.shop) that had a HUGE picture of a naked woman on one wall. A little distracting for me, but nobody else seemed to even notice. Over time, I didn't notice those things as much either. It got to the point where even the red hearts in the windows (signifying an available "lady of the evening") or the women parked along one of the area roads waiting for their customers really didn't get our attention all that much. It's just part of the culture.

Isn't it amazing how things that are normal in one area of the world (or country or state) can be considered so outrageous in others? What outrageous things have you seen during your travels? Is there anything considered normal where you are now that surprises you?

4 comments:

  1. What a great topic. Not that this is in the same realm of what you were talking about... but when living in GA - if you ordered Tea, you were going to get Sweet Tea, if you wanted non- sweetened tea you had to order 'Unsweet tea' Unlike anywhere else in the united states where there is Tea and Sweet Tea. Just kind of funny :)

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  2. I have always thought that was funny too! I never knew what sweet tea was until I married Jason. He had never had unsweetened tea until he went up to Indiana with me--I will *never* forget the look on his face when he took a big swig. Priceless!!! Just as funny was seeing him drink the 'sweet' tea that my family made for him after that--by putting sugar into cold tea. LOL!

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  3. I honestly think we Americans are big prudes and we need to be more relaxed about this stuff. Maybe we wouldn't have so many teen pregnancies if we taught our kids about these things instead of shying away from the topic. And if it wasn't taboo, the kids wouldn't think they were being rebellious by having sex. But that's just my crazy opinion.

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  4. I have been in Germany now for 13 days. I am literally LOL because I took a picture at this locale and sent it home last week! Quite the cultural differences here for sure. Went to Yabadoo yesterday for a birthday party. An indoor inflatable playground with a huge tower thing to climb and there was also a row of trampolines. No socks required (even shirts were optional for some kids!) and no signing a medical release--that is something that would not be considered in our litigious United States.

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