pltrgyst wrote:
On Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:30:33 +0100, Frank Slootweg wrote:

1. American rental car rates are a steal.

We payed only 22 Euro - about 28 US$ - per day for a 'compact' car,
including full insurance. Are you kidding me!? For that kind of
money, why would you want to buy/own/maintain a car?

Because $28*365 = $10,000+ ?

Believe it or not, but for (most of) Europe that's a *good* deal, for
*such* a car, which is mostly *new* (*both* of ours had less than 4,000
miles on them).

As a reference: I drive a Renault Clio, which is much, much smaller.
It is 4 years old. I have *maximum* (70+%) discount on my insurance
premium (because of no claims in a long time). *That* small 'old' car,
under those rosy conditions, already costs me some US$ 270 per month,
3240 per year (of course without petrol/gas, i.e. apples-to-apples).

[...]

4. American petrol/gas stations charge what they bloody well like.

While American petrol/gas prices are still ridiculously low compared
to Oz/Europe, prices vary by upto a *factor* of two within a short
distance, sometimes even a few miles or even less....

It doesn't, anywhere. You must have misread the signs (or been looking
at rental car company top-off rates).

No, we didn't misread. Trust me, we are *very* careful reading fuel
prices, especially considering we drove/drive 'around the world' in Oz a
couple of times in very thirsty campervans.

The extremes were on highway 395, probably somewhere between where
89 joins from the west and Bridgeport in the south. Next time I'll make
pictures! :-)

5. Americans don't quite grasp what the 'G' in GSM stands for.

They apparently think it means 'the whole world except us', so they
use a different, incompatible frequency....

And non-Americans don't generally realize that the US has two competing cell
phone technologies. And that the non-GSM technology actually has significant
advantages under some conditions, and offers generally better coverage in the
US. It's not just the frequency that is different.

The US isn't at all special in that respect. Europe and Oz each also
had and have competing cell phone technologies.

6. Americans don't quite grasp that SIMs can be put in *other* phones.

That's because our GSM carriers are allowed to sell their phones "locked" to
their system only. Sad.

Again, no news there. Same story in Europe/Oz.

But, as you say, the *phones* are locked, not the *SIMs*. So if you
have an unlocked phone (which I had), you can put the American SIM in
there and it will work just fine, and that's what I did and it did. I.e.
there is no need for another phone if the customer has an unlocked
phone.

8. Americans don't realize that salt-lakes don't need mobile-phone
coverage, but that towns *do*.

.... by stunning engineering the network people
managed to fully cover the big salt-lake to the south-east of the
town, while completely evading the town itself. No mean feat!

This is probably not the fault of the network people. In the US, some
towns have actually decided that they do not want cell phone coverage,
and refuse to allow the installation of cell phone towers/antennae.

I 'hear' you, but I don't think that's the case here. If I can be
bothered, I'll try to re-find the actaul coverage map. It's *so* weird
that *missing* antennas don't explain it.

[...]

10. Americans don't have coffee.

We do; we just don't believe that real coffee is for just anyone. Hence we
created these "Charbucks" places to service desperate foreigners. It's a
"balance-of-payments" thing.

I think you confuse foreigners with people-without-taste. While there
surely *is* an overlap, and probably a big one, they aren't the same
set.

N.B. Of course the Americans also do not have beer, but that fact is
so indisputable, I won't have to get into *that* one.

Good, because you're wrong. The US these days has a greater variety of
outstanding beer -- including ales -- than any other nation on earth. OTOH, on
my visits to A+NZ, I have never once encountered a beer with any character. I
suspect that Fosters and the like are fronts for repackaged Budweiser.

Same here. You can't mention Fosters or Budweiser when talking about
beer, because they're not. (And no, Heineken isn't either.)

Case in point: On the Lufthansa flight back, I asked the flight
attendant for an American beer. She smiled with pity and gave me a
Warsteiner.

BTW, if you haven't "encountered a beer with any character" in Oz,
then you didn't look very well, IMNSHO.

11. Americans don't realize that you don't *have* to 'deep' fry fish.

Americans do, however, realize that if you don't want fried fish, you
shouldn't seek out resturants that sell only fried fish.

My point (which you snipped) was/is that there *are* no other
restaurants (in those areas). So apparently many/most Americans *do* want/
tolerate such 'food'.

[...]

If anyone has any doubts, we *loved* our trip and would do something
similar again in a flash, so you Seppos aren't all that bad!

Glad you enjoyed yourselves. Come again. 8

Thanks. We will!