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Group buys up large tracts of land in Romania to create 'European Yellowstone'

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Re: Group buys up large tracts of land in Romania to create 'European Yellowstone'

#191

Post by kelnos »

alistairSH wrote: post #116
giantg2 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to see the research behind that. I don't know where Americans rank, but I wouldn't guess we rank high.

Personal experience from travel in Iceland, Peru, UK (mostly Scotland), and Italy. Obviously generalizations and anecdotes, so take with a grain of salt. Americans often stand out. Look more "touristy" - wearing shorts, goofy bags, unstylish footwear, etc. Most likely to ask "what do you do?" (for a living). Not rude, but can be more boisterous/social than some others. Chinese - tend to travel in large tour groups. F…

> Americans often stand out. Look more "touristy" - wearing shorts, goofy bags, unstylish footwear, etc.

Interesting. When I travel, I usually dress the same out in public as I do at home (well, modified for the local weather, anyway). Usually that means jeans, t-shirt, and possibly a hoodie and/or jacket if the weather is cooler, with fairly plain sneakers or perhaps a nicer shoe, depending on how much walking I expect to be doing. I tend to not carry a bag with me unless I'm going to or from an airport or train station. If I do need a bag, it'll usually be a backpack or shoulder bag, something I would use at home for a similar purpose.

I do expect that there are a lot of us who inexplicably dress differently when traveling, but I wonder if your assessment of American tourist dress as "goofy" or "unstylish" is just that the styles that are popular over here aren't popular where you live and where you've traveled and seen American tourists.

I really don't get why some people drastically change their wardrobe when traveling, though.

Re: Group buys up large tracts of land in Romania to create 'European Yellowstone'

#192

Post by kelnos »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #53
kjkjadksj wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably british youths on holiday, they are pretty notorious. This demographic of american is just as bad but can only afford to get belligerent domestically in florida or south padre isle during spring break, much less afford a flight to europe.

Exactly, shitty American tourists are staying within America or going to Mexico/nearby Latam countries.

Right, and this is why I believe American tourists (in general) have a much worse reputation in Latin America than in Europe.

Re: Group buys up large tracts of land in Romania to create 'European Yellowstone'

#194

Post by burkaman »

anon291 wrote: post #193

Say what you like about America but our public lands are worth more than all the crown jewels of Europe.

I could be wrong but I'm guessing nearly every European would agree that their own national parks are also worth more than their crown jewels.

Re: Group buys up large tracts of land in Romania to create 'European Yellowstone'

#196

Post by hasoleju »

This really sounds too good to be true. I understand why the locals are sceptic at first. If they achieve their goal of creating a national park with 200.000 square hectares they have covered 3% of the Romanian forests. That is impressive.

Re: Group buys up large tracts of land in Romania to create 'European Yellowstone'

#197

Post by rrr_oh_man »

kelnos wrote: post #190
rrr_oh_man wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't dislike US-Americans. Very far from it. Most US-Americans that I have encountered (both abroad and stateside) are a lovely bunch, great tippers, and have a distinct happy-go-lucky attitude that is hard to find anywhere else. The crux: When a place gets popular with a certain tourist demographic (through Instagram, Tiktok, whatever) there is an inflection point where the place / experience starts to become com…

> US-Americans You can just say "Americans". It's a well-recognized demonym, everyone knows what it means, and no one is going to be confused and think you mean someone from one of the many other countries in North or South America. And it's not some sort of "injustice" that the US "stole" the term American to refer to solely themselves. It's just... not a big deal.

> It's just... not a big deal.

Says the thief? ;)

Re: Group buys up large tracts of land in Romania to create 'European Yellowstone'

#198

Post by WalterBright »

hnbad wrote: post #150
WalterBright wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a lot of it would have been bankrolled by robber barons trying to secure their legacy and avoid taxation. Do you have a cite for that? BTW, donating to charity is tax deductible. For example, if I donate $100 to charity, I can deduct $100 from my taxable income. My choices: 1. paying taxes: I pay $20 2. donating to charity and deducting it from my income: I pay $100 I'm $80 worse off financially by donating to char…

That's a very naive understanding of how charities work. You don't donate to a charity, you donate to your charity. Now, obviously your charity still needs to act as a charity so that money can't go back in your pocket but there are plenty of things the charity might spend it on that are in your financial interest and because you founded it, you likely have sufficient influence over it to make that happen even if you…

> there are plenty of things the charity might spend it on that are in your financial interest

How do you think Carnegie's libraries across the country benefited Carnegie financially?

Re: Group buys up large tracts of land in Romania to create 'European Yellowstone'

#199

Post by WalterBright »

r00fus wrote: post #107
WalterBright wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People like to eat.

France is a major food exporter. Some of those lands could be re-acquired by the state for non-food uses. Our capitalist world economy equates wealth based on extraction, not preservation. It really needs to be reimagined if we're going to be sustainable at all.

> Our capitalist world economy equates wealth based on extraction, not preservation

Why is there no shortage of corn, cows, pigs, and chickens, then?

Re: Group buys up large tracts of land in Romania to create 'European Yellowstone'

#200

Post by 1letterunixname »

pfdietz wrote: post #57
nottorp wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are more bears than the land can sustain. Go to any tourist (or non tourist) spot in the mountains and they'll come down and steal from your garbage in town . Look up Brasov. It's a reasonably large touristic town and it regularly gets bears at the periphery.

Bears are common in western US mountain towns. The solution is being careful with garbage, including use of bear-proof containers. I'm not sure this is a sign of "too many" so much as that the bear population is healthy, meaning it's up against the carrying capacity, as a healthy population should be.

My mom lived in Paradise, CA. There was at least one black bear who roamed the neighborhood because it took a dump in the middle of her lawn to proclaim ownership of their land. According to neighbors, it didn't get into garbage containers there. There were red foxes, opossum, deer, and corvids to do that.

In parts of rural, wooded America, you don't venture outside in situations where you could surprise a large animal without some sort of stabby weapon or firearm if you value your life (if they decide to charge) and that of critters (to try to scare them off).

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