Another trip to Europe; this time it was a bit unexpected. But nevermind, I enjoy meeting my European (i.e. not British) friends!

It all started in the usual way: trains. I learn from my own mistakes, and so I came to Piccadilly earlier than last time. One train left just as I arrived to the airport (bad luck). Next train to the airport was scheduled at 15.37 from platform 13. All the signs were in agreement: platform 13. So I went to platform 13.

Just before you actually go down the stairs to platform 13, there is a sign... which insisted that next train goes at 15.43 to Liverpool Lime St. However, three metres back, another sign said that the 15.37 airport train goes from 13. So I went down. The first thing I've noticed was a huge platform sign saying that next train goes at 14.58 to airport. Which was funny because it was, like, 15.30 already. Then, a train arrived. I know how things go in Manchester, so I asked a train company employee. 'Nope, this train does not go to the airport,' confirmed the lady what I already knew. When asked about the final destination of the present train, she responded with some funny name (maybe Welsh?) and that was that.

Anyway, this time I was lucky, and the next train that arrived was the 15.37 train to Manchester airport.

During this funny process of looking for your train and asking various people dressed in the railway colours, I relfected on various cultures. I've recently read some articles about Japan. In particular, the articles mentioned that Japan is 'train culture', people ride trains every day. Japanese people are in fact 'hobby drivers', driving their cars only during weekends. Well, if I could say anything about UK people, it'd actually not be the exact opposite - it would be a 'twisted opposite'. At least some people in Manchester use trains quite a lot, they do not all go by car to work! Generally, many people travel by train every day (and I suspect that it's not only Mcr, in London it's even worse). However, this is not reflected in the quality of service, which can be described by many very interesting synonyms of the word 'a joke'.

Hi ho.

In Europe, it was kinda refreshing to be able to joke with people in more 'free' manner. I realized that in the UK, people are afraid of generalisations of any kind, and attributing a certain behaviour to a certain group of people, and making certain kind of fun of people. They are in fact terrified of offending someone, and practice a lot of auto-censorship.

Example of such forbidden statement statement may be: French people drink wine and occasionaly eat frogs. Statistically, this is absolutely right, this is how it is. French people drink wine (and are damn proud of their wine, and I think they have every possible right to be proud of their excellent wine), and at least some of them, and at least sometimes, eat frogs.

I am quite sure they would not be insulted at all: they love their wine, and if the one person you are talking with doesn't like frogs, s/he would tell you, but agree that other people eat frogs, and it is also tourist trap! You'd laugh together, and that's that.

My point is, there's nothing too bad about making such statements in Europe, while in the UK, this is an absolute no-no. We had a discussion once about prices of things. I mentioned that certain things, which cost, like, 1620 euro, are expensive for Czech people, because the average monthly salary (before tax) in the Czech Republic is 900 euro. British people were surprised, they have never realized this.

Then someone mentioned something like 'imagine how expensive this is for Africans'. Well, hell expensive, I guess, because in general people are not as rich in Africa as they are in Europe, even in Eastern Europe. This is in my opinion again a statistically correct statement. However, one guy got kinda angry, and started saying things like 'there is no such thing as Africa!'

I had to ask someone else for explanations, and they told me that the guy has just been angry because we say 'Africa' and mean everyone in Africa and Africa is big and diverse and it is not nice to just summarize all these beautiful, unique and diverse people in one judging word 'Africa'. I don't think we've done such thing, but hey. Objectively seen, there is Africa. I have been there. I have seen it. It's on the map, and it's on the internet, and BBC inform about AFrica every day, so I think its existence is proved beyond doubt!

What I am trying to say is that it was a relief, to be able to say things about people, to express your opinion freely, and to be able to refer to some very well known national characteristics. I mean, some people certainly do not fit in the 'average' of their country/nation, but some just do, and you should be allowed to say it aloud!