Who here has been to Europe?

[IBhacknU]

I just got back and was appalled at all the graffiti there.

 

[AndrewR]

I lived in France for 9 months in college and in England for the summer. I don't remember all that much graffiti, but their dogs crap with wild abandon all over the sidewalks. You lift your head up from staring at the pavement at the peril of your shoes.

Where did you go?

 

[oldandquitemad]

My Dad was in the Army; we spent 3 years in Germany (68-70).

Germany is a great place to live.

 

[RSI]

I haven't been, but I really would like to when I can.

-RSI

 

[mAdD INDIAN]

I visited England, Switzerland, Belguim, Germany, and the Netherlands.
I really liked Switzerland the best!

 

[cardiac]

Spent 3 weeks in Vladivostok, Russia last summer. Not your first choice for a vacation spot. Beautiful scenery outside the city, but the poverty and alcoholism is running rampant. In a city of 1 million, they still do not have grocery stores. Most food is purchased at street corner vendors......

Bob

 

[perry]

Hmm.. Thinking back to that spring break trip to England during my senior year of high school... Hmm. Can't remember much grafitti. A few years further when I was in Spain.. hmm.. nope. Paris.. nope. Athens.. nope.

FWIW, I hated Paris.

 

[Mill]

Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and Morocco.

 

[IBhacknU]

someone here will back me up... really, there was lots of graffiti. Maybe it was just tags from tagging, but not what I'd have expected.

 

[Regine]

I grew up in Germany, lived there for 14 years. Four years ago I went back for vacation.
I don't remember graffiti being that much of a problem, but I guess that all depends where you went.

 

[Stark]

There is plenty of graffiti in Amsterdam. The biggest difference I found in the graffiti of Europe and that of southern california is that you can actually read the european version.

 

[JPT]

Well, I'm from Europe, which might count as having been there... You would have to specify where in Europe you saw the Graffitti.

 

[DarK SagE]

Spent 3 years in Moscow, Russia. Nice place, beautiful train system, some nice sights, and gata love the snow. O and the ice cream there rocks.

It would be a nice place o leave if Russia was not so economicaly troubled.

 

[THELAIR]

Okay here is your back up.

I spent 2 months backpacking in europe throughout may, june and into july. And one of my pet peeves while touring throught out was the MASSIVE amount of graffiti. Now albeit, im from Canada, which doenst mean that were not immune to grafiti here but its pretty lo key, alot of volunteer teams help to keep it down to a minimum. However when we got of the plane in Copenhagen and took the airport express train you could see the graffiti along the tracks for MILES AND MILES (err kilometers and kilometers!) heh... it was pretty sad. The train station in Copenhagen, built in like 1878 or some such time period had very large quanties of graffiti all over it, it was a shame to see such an old and cool looking building "pillaged" in such a matter.

It only got worse as I headed south. One glimmmer of hope was in Barcelona, not much there, especially not on the metro, in fact it had one of the nicer metro systems (air conditioned) of all the cities i attended. Not really crowded either and only 3 mins from my hostel to the beach!

Berlin was bad in some places, but other places okay.... rome had some nasty stuff in the ancient city, and there was some inside the colliseum...

So yes... i did see the graffiti, and lots of it.

 

[Gizmology]

I lived in France and Belgium for a total of 5 years and travelled to: Germany, Holland, Luxemborg, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, England and the former Yugoslavia and although I did see Graffiti it wasn't like it overwelmed me in anyway.

-Giz

 

[callspread]

I must admit that there is more graffiti in parts of England than I ever saw when I lived in Chicago for 5 years. I think that it is illegal to buy spray-paint in the Chicago metropolitan area - seems like a good solution.
The other thing is that once the graffiti is painted it may be there forever, since nobody bothers to clean it off.

 

[DABANSHEE]

I've been to Europe a few times (The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, France, the UK, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Greece & Russia) & I don't remember seeing anymore graffiti than either the US or Australia. Last time I went I spent most of the time in the Netherlands, which (except for Central Amsterdam & arround the railway stations) is amazingly clean, those Dutch certainly have pride in keeping their community clean. However I found Paris very dirty.

 

[DaemoN]

I've been living here in Bavaria (Southern Germany) for nearly 2 years now and the only graffiti I usually see is around the bahnhofs (train stations). I usually find it fairly amusing because a lot of it is writen in broken english such as "Hanz is suck" hehe

 

[TomC25]

Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Germany in '92

most of it was in the Copenhagen area

 

[DaemoN]

BTW, I've also spent time in Austria and Italia and they are both pretty much graffiti free... at least in the areas where I was visiting (mostly northern Italy and the Salzburg area of Austria).

A little urban graffiti can't touch the beauty of the land here in Europe. You wound't believe the scenes I've saw yesterday while driving along the German/Austrian border. Very Nice

 

[IBhacknU]

Hanz is suck. I love it!

Como, Italy was the worst. Some of the smaller towns (don't know how to spell them) in Germany had a lot of tagging. Lucerne, Switz. wasn't that bad.

 

[DABANSHEE]

Next we'll have tours to Europe to check out the cultural aspect of continental grafitti.

Hey thats a great idea. I'm off to apply for a govt arts grant tomorrow. Afterall that no stranger than most of the other arts grants they give out.

 

[Moonbeam]

San Francisco is Europe and Asia and Canada and Mexico and the USA and numerous other places plus across the bay in Berkeley is the home of the next and most advances species of man, Homo Berkeleyensis.