# Wacky Stuff You've Encountered Overseas **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 9, 2003, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070 "2003-05-09T07:26:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/41 "2003-05-11T14:53:02Z")
I’ll do it if someone handles a) the link back to this thread; and b) a link from this thread to the new thread for me (my IE search bar at home has gone AWOL). Any takers? Otherwise, it’ll have to wait until I’m back at work tomorrow. Of course, I can’t promise that **Collounsbury** will post his own sordid tale; you guys will have to convince him. (Mine is actually not sordid at all, just funny.) ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/42 "2003-05-11T15:03:44Z")
The ladies’ restroom in a bar in Paris - a nice enough bar, not a dive - consisted of a hole in the floor with footprints on either side. Fortunately our hotel was near enough for me to go back and forth as necessary. And I like sweetcorn on pizza. The topping I see here in Ireland that I can’t bear the thought of is tuna. ---
**Author:** ![Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirror_Image_egamI_rorriM)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/43 "2003-05-11T17:18:20Z")
Unsweetened yogurt in Italy. I can’t read Italian, so I just opened up the little cup, and assuming it was like American yogurt, took a big bite. Bleargh! I ended up putting about half the sugar bowl in there to make it sweet enough for my tastes. Also, the public drinking fountains/sinks. They were all over the place, like on street corners or just in the middle of the sidewalks. I hadn’t ever seen anything like it before. And I took a picture of every painted dumpster I came across, too. ---
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/44 "2003-05-11T17:24:33Z")
In Puerto Rico when they want you to repeat something as if to say “come again” or “what?”, they twitch their nose at you bunny rabbit style. It was kinda funny at first until you got used to it. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/45 "2003-05-11T17:51:14Z")
“Pocuri Sweat” in soda machines Conjured images of a huge Totoro-like beast in a steam room, being scraped by styrgil-weilding Japanese women. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/46 "2003-05-11T18:52:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ol’Gaffer \* > Nope. > > I would also like to add that a Pepperoni Pizza in Germany does not mean the same thing there that it does here. Probably one of my most traumatic experiences in Denmark was after being there for a few months. I’d been gorging on _rod polser_ and _fiske frikadeller_ for quite a while and was jonesing for some 'Murican food. The marginally satisfying Whopper I’d had (at the foot of _Stroget_ no less, the horror!) had worn off rather completely by that time. My cousin directed us to Pepe’s pizza. He claimed they served the best pepperoni pizza in Copenhagen. Little did I know. How did our almost effing $30.[sup]00[/sup] pie differ from a genuine pepperoni pizza? Shall I count the ways? 1. Instead of a piquant spicy pizza sauce it was some sort of nearly uncut sweet tomato paste entirely uncontaminated by salt, garlic, oregano or basil. 2. Due to traditional and long standing animosity towards Southern Europeans, the pepperoni had been rejected in favor of thinly sliced smoked bratwurst sausage. 3. For reasons similar to those in item #2 any Mozzarella was jettisoned and summarily substituted with either Gruyere or Fontina cheese. Oh joy! Perhaps it was the red sauce-yellow cheese-pink sausage color coordination and the presence of an identifiable circular crust-like object that permitted my mind’s optical closure to identify this as a pizza. However, my first bite disallowed such liberality of definition and revealed that this was, in fact, the first pizza in my entire life to rival the melted-crayons-on-cardboard of genuine Domino’s pizza from back home. Needless to say (then why say it?), my jonesing was unrequited and having the privilege of shelling out nearly thirty frogskins for the occasion of leaving it utterly unsatisfied still rankles my @ss to this day. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/47 "2003-05-11T19:58:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jjimm \* > **Coll** , **Eva Luna** , you can’t just dangle these tidbits in front of us and then shut up. A new thread please. Entitled “Russian whore/Japanese fuck chick/Camel master”. Your [wish](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=183285) is my command. ---
**Author:** ![japatlgt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df705f/32.png) [@japatlgt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/japatlgt)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/48 "2003-05-11T20:23:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kferr \* > \*\*In the UK they put sweet corn on pizza. This is wrong. \*\* Bless your heart. The first pizza I ever ordered in the U.K. (Cambridge) was devoid of any cheese because I hadn’t specifically ordered it. It was a giant baked cracker with a little tomato sauce painted on it and some olives, mushrooms etc. It wasn’t much of a pie but it sure was crisp! Long time ago, here’s hoping times have changed. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/49 "2003-05-11T21:32:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by **Sublight** \* > Oh, how could I have forgotten: Washlets! > > You sit down on the toilet and do your business. Next to you, there’s an arm with a row of buttons and dials. Push one, and a small plastic arm with a nozzle on the end extends from under the rim and starts hosing you off. Not getting everything off? Turn the dial adjusting water pressure. Too hot? Turn the temperature dial. Not getting the right spot? Adjust the aim. When you’re done, push another button and the hose retracts. You’re now clean, but wet, so push another button and a jet of warm air dries everything off. What’s really weird is that they don’t have these in the US. And the sinks are many feet away from the toilets so you feel stupid hopping along with your pants around your ankles, then hoping no one comes in the door as you boost yourself up backwards onto the sink basin and… ::looks around:: pardon me. What was I saying? No, I would not have been saying that. No, you must have misheard. Um, yeah, I do think it would be a good idea if we had those in the states. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/50 "2003-05-11T21:34:56Z")
The first thing that came to mind is what \*\*Pipper \*\* said about german toilets. They are called ( at least my friend who is a plumber called it this) \*\*Shelf Toilets \*\* It’s fascinating, yet disgusting at the same time. It is suppose to be more economical with water. My second surprise was grabbing toilet paper whilst in a john in Colchester England and discovering it was the \*\*consistancy of the wax paper you get your bakery products wrapped in \*\*. That was very weird. And no public drinking fountains to be had anywhere I’ve been in Germany. This is a crime for the terminally cheap. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/51 "2003-05-11T21:41:10Z")
A long time ago, I ordered a pizza somewhere in Southern Sweden and made the mistake of ordering it with everything. A team of forensic scientists would have been unable to identify the toppings on that pizza. I’m fairly certain that one of the toppings was a fried egg. And maybe there was a banana too. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/52 "2003-05-11T21:43:32Z")
Sure you don’t have to go overseas to find weird toppings on pizza. In Brooklyn they make them with eggplant :eek: ---
**Author:** ![LilyoftheValley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@LilyoftheValley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheValley)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/53 "2003-05-11T21:59:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shirley Ujest \* > \*\* > My second surprise was grabbing toilet paper whilst in a john in Colchester England and discovering it was the \*\*consistancy of the wax paper you get your bakery products wrapped in \*\*. > \*\* YES! I always thought absorbancy was a key characteristic of toilet paper until I encountered this. I sure hope someone can explain. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ruadh \* > \*\*Sure you don’t have to go overseas to find weird toppings on pizza. In Brooklyn they make them with eggplant :eek: \*\* 😕 Eggplant pizza is great! It reminds me of eggplant parmigian. Mmmmmm… ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/54 "2003-05-11T22:50:28Z")
We used to have the greaseproof-style toilet paper in the bogs at school (with 'NOW WASH YOUR HANDS" printed in faint blue on alternate sheets). On the plus side: -Nobody steals it -Being much thinner, you get a lot more of it (lengthwise) on a roll. On the minus side: -It is totally bloody useless ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/55 "2003-05-12T00:27:43Z")
I’m pretty sure that European toilet paper is where all the old American candy bar wrappers have died and gone to. As to the toilet paper in Armenia, I’ve refinished cabinetry with sandpaper that was less abrasive. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/56 "2003-05-12T01:15:44Z")
Rules of the Road: ATWTP Always Travel With Toilet Paper. ---
**Author:** ![MusicJunkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@MusicJunkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MusicJunkie)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/57 "2003-05-12T02:31:27Z")
> [@](#): > > Taiwan’s Musical Garbage Trucks > > Refuse collection vehicles playing Beethoven’s ‘Fur Elise’ will always top the list. Yeah, I know they have no set time schedule and must broadcast some sort of ‘clarion call’ during their rounds. Yet, the irony of garbage trucks playing a classical piano piece while trolling back alleys of a densely overpopulated Asian city will always be nearly too much for my own (admittedly) warped sense of humor to handle. Here in Brasil we have cooking gas delivered by trucks that go around from place to place. They announce themselves by playing Fur Elise. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/58 "2003-05-12T03:07:26Z")
Ok, **MusicJunkie** , it looks like it’s up to just us two to figure this out. Could it be that all the excess methane being generated by the refuse in those Taiwanese garbage trucks is being piped over to Brazil for resale? Inquiring minds want to know! ---
**Author:** ![phraser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a88e4f/32.png) [@phraser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phraser)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/59 "2003-05-12T05:20:02Z")
In Australia it’s the door-to-door icecream salespeople who play “Fur Elise” (or “Greensleeves”). We also have pizza with banana, egg and bacon, apple, creamed corn (my favourite!), corn chips, sour cream etc etc You name it, it’s probably been on a pizza :rolleyes: Strange thing I saw- I went to New York and they had these huge floppy dough things they called “pretzels”. Over here, a pretzel is a small salty crunchy snack that you buy in a packet, like chips. Another odd thing about America is how everyone calls things by brandnames (eg Kleenex instead of tissues, Coke instead of cola…) Oh, and hot apple cider! I love that stuff (and it’s hard to get here) but why oh why do starbucks put cream and caramel sauce on it? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/60 "2003-05-12T09:41:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mamm \* > Wacky things I can find in the US (overseas to me): American cars. You US’ers have the most ugly and poor handling cars in the occident (excluding the Corvette, of course). Man, didn’t you learn anything from the Italians and the Germans? Things like extracting a good size/performance ratio from an engine, or make a car that you can actually drive fast in a curvy road? \*\* I just have one thing to say to you about that… …They’re poorly made, and break down a lot, too. At least, most American cars built within the last 20 years. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070.md?page=4)