By depressing, I mean a lifeless city without anything noticeable.

For me it's Châteauroux in France. Went there on a week-end to attend the jubilee of my great-grandmother. The city was absolutly deserted on a Saturday morning. Every building of the city center were decaying. We were one of the only 3 clients of a nice hotel in the city center. Everything was closed. The only positive things I've felt from this city, aside from the birthday itself, is when I had to leave it.

I did came to Charleroi but at least the "fallen former industrial powehouse" makes it interesting imo. Like there were lots of cool urbex spot. What hit me about Châteauroux is that there were nothing interesting from the city itself or even around it. Just plain open fields without anything noticeable. I could feel the city draining my energy and my will to live as I was staying.

Just the title, thanks.

I'm really fascinated with France. It has insane lanscape, food and architecture diversity. I'm coming there on vacations evey summer with friends and family and it's always a blast. Plus I find most french people outside the Paris region to be very welcoming.

But the fact that car is pretty much the only viable way of transportation in much of the country, and that job oppurtinuties are pretty grim outside of Paris has always made me reluctent to settle there. Also workplaces tend to be much more hierarchical and controlling than back at home.

I've heard of people online having negative travelling experiences in some European countries with some people being cold, rude, distant, or even aggressive. I have never been to Europe before, but I've got the assumption that Europeans are generally very etiquette-driven, and value efficiency with getting through the day without getting involved in someone else's business (especially if said person doesn't speak the language). I'm also wondering if these travelers are often extroverted and are just not used to the more (generally) introverted societies that a lot of European countries appear to have. I kinda feel like the differing etiquette is misinterpreted as rudeness.

EDIT: Not trying to apply being rude as being part of a country's etiquette, I meant if a country's etiquette may be misinterpreted as rudeness.

EDIT: By "the west" or "western", I mean North America. Honest slip of the words in my head.

EDIT: I know that not all European countries reflect this perception that some people have, but I say Europe just because I literally don't know what other umbrella word to use to refer specifically to whatever countries have had this perception without it sounding more awkward.

EDIT: This is only in the context of Europe. There are probably other countries perceived as rude outside of Europe but I'm not discriminating in a wider sense.

I'm curious what people will come up with. What are your top three cities in Europe to look at and why?

To make this a bit more of a interesting question we will ignore idilic villages or towns. Population of the place has to be over 50,000 people.

Hello everyone! What is the friendliest European country you've visited other than your own country?

I am so sick of the shitty weather in Ireland. It's constantly cloudy and wet, even during the summer.

I have a 100% remote job, so I want to move somewhere in EU with better weather, but not the other extreme where I will be boiling alive in 40 degree heat during the summer.

Are there any countries that have nice beaches and the weather is not too extreme on either end of the spectrum?

Latvia being as small as it is probably wouldn't benefit from getting even smaller (even if Daugavpils is the laughing stock of the country and it might as well be a Russian city).

I'm guessing bigger countries are more complicated. Maybe you wish to gain independence?

How common is that someone from your country has never been to the capital of the country? Is it a norm that after certain age everyone has been to the capital? Is it normal just for travels / holiday or for some other reasons?

In the case of those decentralised countries, you might also tell us how common it is that someone from your country has never been to the capital city of your region / state / province. Like Edinburgh for a Scotsman / Munich for a Bavarian / Sevilla for an Andalusian.

Assuming one could magically afford it.

Europe only

What's legal in your country that is illegal in other countries, and which ones?

It's important to respect the laws when traveling to other countries.

As the saying goes, When in Rome, be a Roman.

From your travels across various European capitals, which has been your favourite and why?

And which has been your least favourite & why?

I‘m from Innsbruck, Austria and people always tell me what a magnificent place it is. I have to agree, that the mountains are really awesome, but without them, the city itself isn’t really worth anyone’s time. I wonder what places in other countries might be similar in this regard

A few European countries are overdependent on tourism. Politicians know that, and they have made public policy in such a way that tourists are attracted to their country. However, people working outside the hospitality or gastronomy sector may not always benefit from this.

For example, the Airbnbs across cities in Southern Europe have made some people very rich, but choked the housing supply. The country might be attracting tourism money, but maybe they are losing out on other economic development (for example, IT or Engineering, where you need plenty of housing to house qualified immigrants and locals).

People whose cities have a lot of tourists visiting, but are themselves not working in the tourism industry, is tourism really a good thing? Or do you think it takes away precious resources and creates jobs that are of low economic value?

Title says all

Patras is the third largest city in Greece, but I've never been there.

How far do you live from where you were born? If your family moved while you were a child how far do you live from where you grew up?

I’m interested how this might change across Europe.

American here, Chicagoan specifically, and my city is one of maybe 3-4 in the US with a solid transit system. Often the excuse you hear here is that “the city wasn’t built with transit in mind, but with cars in mind.”

Many, many European cities have clean, accessible, easy transit systems - but they’ve been built in old, sometimes cramped cities that weren’t created with transit in mind. So how have you all been able to prioritize transit, culturally, and then find the space/resources/ability to build it, even in cities with aging infrastructure? Was there like a broad European agreement to emphasize mass transit sometime in the past 100 years?

Why not?

I have not left Europe.

If you are an EU citizen…. what non-EU country do you like to visit for holiday the most and why?

good morning I would like you to tell me what is considered system biggest tourist trap, that all tourists go to that point, when it is really not worth the time and money.

Inspired by this post (https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEurope/s/hBlVlLjIxl): which city in Europe that you visited has the worst public transport system? Let's mostly include cities with a population of around 300K and higher.