You only eat ice when you’re alone, right? I’m not a violent person, but I become extremely stabby around ice crunchers. I know, I know. Delicate snowflake and all of that. I try to be reasonable, but I can’t stand the sound of most crunchy things and ice is the worst.
The “recipe” for most dishes is “water+energy;” do these people not cook either?
:dubious:
It’s not about energy conservation. Sorry to disappoint you, but “Europe” isn’t some third-world backwater with energy shortages. (We tend to leave those to *really *backward places, like California 
)
A lot of what you mention is because lots of things in Europe are old. They were built before air-conditioning was invented, or at least before it became anything like standard. And, unlike the USA, we don’t have a culture of ripping things down and replacing them after 20 years or so.
Funny you mention the metro in Prague, though. That is actually fairly modern as far as city metros go (it was built in the 1960s, which I guess would make it eligible for listing as a historic monument in America), and I remember it as being pretty roomy and airy, at least compared to the 100- or 150-year-old systems in London and Paris, say.
As for drinks, my own reasons for not liking lots of ice are the same as many others on here: if something’s too cold, you can hardly taste it; it waters down the drink, and you don’t always know where the ice has come from. Huge American-style fridges with built-in icemakers are still not that common around here.
Plus, when it’s hot, we drink beer. I don’t think much of Europe really has a “soda culture” like America, where people drink Coke all the time, on its own or with meals. Ordering a Coke in a restaurant, other than a fast-food place, just seems wrong somehow.
Pfft… Keep in mind that this is coming from a land of people who used to think the tomato was poisonous.
An unusual response. I drink both water and soda with ice in them out of glasses at home, and without a straw. There’s absolutely no problem doing so.
What’s this stuff about fans and Korea?
Wow…thanks. I had no idea. How crazy is that? I love my fan.
This. I’ve seen listings for London townhouses selling for tens of millions of pounds that boast air conditioning in “most major rooms,” and often this is achieved by installing apparatuses that resemble those butt ugly metal heating/cooling units that they had in the public school classrooms I attended growing up in the US. - and keep in mind that these houses have typically undergone costly modernizations that often include indoor pools, among other things.
Whereas, in many parts of the U.S., it often goes without saying that a typical home has central air.
I always figured this was the reason Euros don’t put ice in drinks to keep them cold. Ice machines cost money.
Europeans evidently have not heard of free refills - whoops, it’s that money-saving thing again.
Those tall narrow glasses, the type they typically serve a soft drink in here, filled to the brim with ice can make it difficult for the drinker, especially towards the latter half. The ice can slide down the glass and hit your teeth. For this reason alone I can see why some people don’t like ice in their soft drinks (as served in your average Irish restaurant or bar).
It astounds me how cheap soft drinks are in America compared to here. I can pay $1.30 for a 330ml can of a popular cola and buying in bulk scarcely provides much saving. A 2 litre bottle of a popular cola will cost anything from $1.80 to $4 depending on where you buy it. In restaurants and bars it’s far worse. You’ll pay anything from $1.80 to $4 for a smaller amount of cola (200ml or 250ml not too sure), typically served in a glass bottle. Soft drinks seem to have stopped being a luxury in the US long before they were here and the prices reflect that.
No one’s mentioned ice cubes in beer, but that’s the easiest way to tell how long a Westerner has been living in rural Thailand.
A Farang who’s been here only a few months will laugh when they see ice in beer, saying it’s the stupidest thing they’ve ever seen. After a few years, when outside or non-air conditioned, they’ll be surprised if beer is served without an ice bucket.
Subway was my saviour on a sweltering day in Berlin. I don’t think the European aversion is specifically to ice, but to really cold drinks. The coolers that the little shops keep their sodas and beer in are set much warmer than those in the US.
But the soft drinks they do serve are TINY! Even without ice, they get a lot less for their money than Americans do, when they order a Coke.
This, for me. I’m an American, BTW
Anecdote, but whenever I have to drink an ice-cold drink nowadays, I get heartburn. Maybe that’s where the idea that it’s unhealthy came from. I no longer have the stomach for icy drinks.
California does fine now that Enron went bankrupt.
It may not be because of energy shortages, but Europe does spend a lot more time worrying about conserving energy than the US does. Look at the gas prices. Plus, our new and spiffy hotel in Barcelona required you to put your keycard in a slot to run lights and electricity, so these went off when you left the room. I’ve never seen this very reasonable feature in the US.
I’ve had my iced drinks served in glasses of all shapes and sizes. Never had a problem with any of them.
I figured that was just a thing that big chain hotels did everywhere in the world. I don’t recall if I seen it in the USA, but then I don’t think I’ve stayed in a big chain hotel there.
I encounter this set up all over the US; actually more often than I’ve seen it in Europe.