21TCar

What's funny about all this to me is that Europeans *could* have adopted the same approach that we've all seen within Japanese and American conversations for the last couple months, where they say "Look at this beautiful/cool thing about my country!" and then we say "That's gorgeous, check this out!" and send something of our own in return. Instead, they go "My country is so much better at yours, look at THIS you stupid Yank!" And it's just a castle that we know was built 400 years ago and that their current culture would say was a waste of effort, or it's a mountain that's not really any prettier (and is in some cases much less attractive) than dozens we have here, or it's a north Atlantic beach that's nowhere near as nice as a hundred you'll find from South Carolina to Florida or the Gulf. Like... Hey, you wanna see something cool? There's an enormous, underground lake in Tennessee that they call "The Lost Sea". Fish live in it because something like 70 years ago some scientists thought it'd be cool to drop some in and see if they could help them map the cave (they still have no idea who deep the lake is or how far into the mountains it goes). They figured the fish would eventually "find their way out" and if they tracked them they could find other entrances and exits and stuff. Turns out, the fish never left, so they have boat tours down there (which I've done), and you feed the fish while exploring the lake. The fish have to be fed either way, since there's nothing else living in there, and they just follow the boat in this super deep, perfectly clear water lit by electric lighting installed a hundred years ago. Another weird story from that lake is that a long time ago, probably during prohibition, somebody built a 100'+ ladder going straight down into the cave and people used to hide out down there and make moonshine. Over time, they started having parties down there, and they kept doing it until some drunk guy climbed halfway up that ladder to go home and fell off. We don't use the ladder anymore. This is the largest underground lake in the US and 2nd largest in the entire world at 4.5 acres. The largest is in Nambia (4.9 acres), so you're not going to find anything quite like this anywhere else on the planet -- including, obviously, in Europe. Now... The normal thing to do upon learning this fact is say "Wow, that's neat!" and if you want to follow up by giving me a neat thing from your area, I'd be thrilled to see it. That's what all my Japanese bros do, and it's awesome. Instead, the Euros come on here and go "That's RUBBISH mate, and I'd never go to Tennessee because of all the gross hillbillies. They'd probably shoot me because they're all packing guns, and their redneck stupidity will rub off on me somehow. Besides, that's not a REAL lake anyway." Feck off.