Four constants of travel

As we've traveled around over the last nearly 2(!) years, we realized that we've seen the following things almost everywhere we've gone:

- Irish pubs -
Natch. We have always walked by (and OK, even tested out) an Irish pub in almost every city we've been to. It's funny, though, when you go to the bar and order something, and the person is a local, not Irish. Although when we were in Venice, one proprietor was Irish. The pub we have in town here is staffed by all French people. (You would like a Guinneez, madame?)

- Screaming/running/whining children with parents who don't do anything to stop it -
And all they do is smile at you in that "isn't s/he so cute?" way. Right. In the same way that a migraine headache is "pleasant". Train aisles are no place to test your kid's Olympic sprinting capabilities. We wish these people would control their kids. Many of the parents ignore the kids, perhaps hoping (like we do) that they'll just go away. However, in general, we've seen loads of extremely well-behaved children also. Of course, the troublemakers just stand out. Or in this case, scream out.

- Selling flowers in restaurants -
This is where someone comes into a restaurant with a big armful of pre-wrapped, single roses and goes from table to table trying to sell them. And most of the time, they're not the nicest looking flowers anyway. If it's a man and a woman at the table, the vendor waves the flower in the guy's face and then makes a "tsk-tsk" noise when he refuses. (We had a guy chase us down the street in Venice after we refused!) It is extremely annoying when you're trying to have a nice meal and you've got someone waving a grotty, hothouse rose in your face. More than once in an evening.

And finally...

- Starbucks -
Of course, they're everywhere. I went in Paris a couple of times. (I love my grande vanilla lattes and all the coffees we normally can get in France are really small...) Then, when we went to Geneva, there was one literally across the street from our hotel. Normally, we try to patronize small cafes, but, you know, sometimes convenience wins out. This is where the benefits of brand standards really comes into play. You know what you'll get when you order something and it is really comforting. Although we thought it was a bit of a bummer that even the decor is exactly the same. It would be nice to allow the franchisees a bit of leeway since the buildings are usually quite different, but there you go.