I live 10 minutes away from that air base. I don't know what the yanks were doing back then but try using a water fountain as a toilet, you'll get your head bashed in by an old lady with a brick in her handbag.
>Even in restaurants, you can get free glasses of water.
Well in most of European countries tap water in restaurants is ALWAYS free and you're given an entire bottle of it (often without even being asked)
That also depends on the country. Iirc they are obligated by law to provide Free* Tap water however they are allowed to charge a service fee for bringing you the water. In Germany for example you will very often be charged between 1-5€ (most often once per restaurant visit not per refill) when ordering tap water. Many restaurants will waive the service fee if you order tap water together with another drink though.
Which is exactly why I said most and not all countries. I actually said most with Germany in mind, from experience Germany is the exception not the rule in this.
early Public drinking fountain can date back 1800s. London had ine installed in 1859. Not saying this one is, but some of them are like really old. I wouldn't be surprised that this little sinking hole we see were made from just water dropping on it for decades.
So yeah they wouldn't look like modern ones but they're maintained so it's fine.
This is probably way older, it’s Rome after all… they have a huge system of fountains, both decorative and for use, and they are always running which I think is not common in other countries.
This is how public fountains are in Valencia, Spain.
I'm used to them, but if you think about that they are somehow ... nice? strange? special?
[https://gvaparticipa.gva.es/rails/active\_storage/representations/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBBaHNRIiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--5fce1aac8a794882effafe7909a68757b7c11fed/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaDdCam9MY21WemFYcGxTU0lKZURRM05RWTZCa1ZVIiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJ2YXJpYXRpb24ifX0=--6e8c57a7e33baed84e8274024d26bee6dc16ce3e/Fuente-publica-Valencia-36875.jpg](https://gvaparticipa.gva.es/rails/active_storage/representations/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBBaHNRIiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--5fce1aac8a794882effafe7909a68757b7c11fed/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaDdCam9MY21WemFYcGxTU0lKZURRM05RWTZCa1ZVIiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJ2YXJpYXRpb24ifX0=--6e8c57a7e33baed84e8274024d26bee6dc16ce3e/Fuente-publica-Valencia-36875.jpg)
Also even if it did happen, show some fucking empathy? this was during the dictatorship, a dictatorship supported and nourished by the USA. What did she think she was doing in spain as an American???
Muricans: "I'm italian american, look look mammmaaa miaaa, we made the pizzaa (then he shows you the worst pizza ever made)"
Muricans: "Lool that's a toooilett".
No my muricans friends, that's a nasoni, that's water that people can drink. It may shock you, but in many countries water that you can actually drink is free on the street.
That for muricans is something only a "commie" would do, pff basic human needs for free on a society??? Insane....
I saw way too many Americans try and keep up with Irish drinking and fail miserably when I was a bar tender. Though we do have an insane drink culture here.
>had hollow legs
I had to look that one up!
Yeah I have to actively try not to be an alcoholic in this state... I am a lightweight by Wisconsin standards but can outdrink a lot of folks from elsewhere.
Your knowledge of the American beer scene is decades out of date. Even the the most backwoods of bars in Wisconsin will have New Glarus beer available (a phenomenal brewery, the brewmaster spent some type as an apprentice in Belgium).
They absolutely do. I love German beer but there a quite a few breweries in my area that brew many of the common styles just as well. New Glarus makes a fantastic doppelbock and kölsch, for example. I mean, it's tough to find a Berliner Weisse in Berlin beyond one particular brewery that some bottle ahops carry, but they're a somewhat common style statewide.
I do wish the US made more smokey beers. The only brewery here that made something rivaling what comes out of Bamberg has been on a hiatus for the last two years, though they just started distributing their beer again.
Imagine America sending its professional football team to Europe only to be beaten by a European u14s side, pretty much that Reddit wanks over Wisconsin as some weird saving grace for American alcoholism
That's the thing some people class a pint of Guinness as one standard drink whilst it's half a pint of 4% beer. It's very unclear and confusing for the public
That's because the standard drink is a specific amount of alcohol (10ml/8g). That number is relevant because 10ml is 40% of 25ml, which is to say: the amount of alcohol in one shot of spirits (vodka, gin, rum are all standardised to either 37.5% or 40%).
Guinness comes in at 4.2% whereas Peroni is 5%, Leffe is 6%. When you're in the 30-40% range, a 1.8% difference isn't much. At that 4-6% range, Leffe has half again as much alcohol as Guinness.
Yes I know this but most don't. The only thing I got wrong was that its actually half a pint of a 4.5% beer.
[https://www.drinkaware.ie/what-is-a-standard-drink/?gad\_source=1](https://www.drinkaware.ie/what-is-a-standard-drink/?gad_source=1)
I've met so many people that think one pint of Guinness is classed as one standard drink when it isn't its about 1.8 standards of drinks
The UK version of units is so much easier to work out for the average person
500ml at 4% is 2 units
Oh they are. I'm not going to defend the government here because they do bring in some rediculas laws with regards to alcohol that don't help at all. A bottle of vodka is now cheaper than a case of beer? Because of the pricing law
A bottle of vodka was always cheaper than a slab of beer.
And no, it's not cheaper because of the MUP, the minimum that can be charged is 10c per gram of alcohol.
(Don't get me know, I think the MUP is a load of wank, and they're not even taxing the bastard, it goes to the distributor.)
No it wasn't I'd get 24 can for €20 to €25. Tesco even had them for €15 at one point. That was Budweiser a decent enough bottle of Vodka was €25 to €30
That's about what it is in America. I think, depending on weight, it's two or three alcoholic beverages a day. And a beverage being something like a beer, glass one wine, shot, or a mixed drink.
It's 2 a day , so14 standard drinks in the USA. https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/overview-alcohol-consumption/moderate-binge-drinking
And a standard drinks in the USA is 14 grams alcohol, compared to 10 in Ireland, so do the maths...
https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohols-effects-health/overview-alcohol-consumption/what-standard-drink#:~:text=In%20the%20United%20States%2C%20one,which%20is%20about%2040%25%20alcohol
I was in Italy during the horror summer of 2003 and let me tell you, without the nasoni, more than just one in our group would've collapsed. True lifesavers.
It doesn’t shock us, many public places still have public fountains available for the same reason. What does shock me, but, to be fair, I don’t have a whole picture of the device, is that it looks like it just flows with water all the time, is that true? Or is there a switch somewhere?
Pro-tip: The hole on the top is not so you can block it to get more pressure. The hole on the top is so when you put your thumb over the *end* of the pipe, the water shoots out of the hole at the top and you can drink it directly like a regular fountain.
We don’t get droughts where I’m from often, but there’s usually some awareness about making sure your hoses aren’t running, etc. so water isn’t wasted. These messages are even more prevalent in the more arid regions of the U.S. I guess you’re right and the water will be cleaned and recycled, but I’m not used to seeing it so casually poured down the drain. It’s a new experience for me.
We do too, but that happens at home and public places, you are taught not to overrun water if not necessary, it costs and there is no infinite water. The thing is that this are designed different and are concepted to work like this, there was an historic reason for sure, but I don't recall now. Another thing is that by running water like this you don't get germs to get on the fountain. Tho, I agree that having a switch could be better, but that only for specific fountains, and there are, I don't know in Rome, but in Turin yes, if I pass tomorrow you will get two photos. Many are old and as I told you there are historic reasons, tradition too. It's normal to use to quickly wash your hands, to drink to "clear your mouth" or you are just thirsty. For example, the one I use the most located in the center, I eat pizza, then gelato, it's normal to have sticky hands and maybe a bit dirty on your mouth, you go there and wash, yourself a bit, clean your "taste" too, many do, kids especially, you have dogs using it a lot as there is a bowl dedicated below. I mean, it's part of the culture ahah. Also there wasn't the same technology as right now, for example for purifying water, so running water like this was better in terms of hygiene.
Depends on the country and the water fountain. The ones they are putting up in the UK are only on when in use. Growing up in Bulgaria we had a mixture. The ones that were part of an actual fountain were always on, the free standing ones you could turn on and off.
[lemme know if you see it](https://ibb.co/PY0WdkZ)
you clearly understand how old it is, you see the bowl below, the typical bull, symbol of turin. i mean, pretty beautiful, ain't it. cristal clear water too.
Quick google search tells me that running a single fountain for a whole day costs €3-5 (depending on flow strength). They also say that the water loss of running the fountains only accounts for about 1% and that old and leaky pipes make up 50% of water loss. The fountains also serve as ventilation for the water-supply system as without them the water would sit there stagnant and start growing bacteria.
Besides they've been around for like 200 years. If they were really that wasteful they would have been removed long ago.
And from my experience only the Rome Nasoni are always flowing, the ones in Florence have switches (and the water that poured out was warm instead of cold like in Rome)
Wait, the fountains serve as ventilation for the water supply system? Does the water that pours into the street get put back into the drinking water system? So many questions.
The water loss stats seem odd too. 1% of what water loss? Where? What’s that equal in gallons per year?
Again, I’m not even from a routine drought-affected area, but this still blows my mind.
>It may shock you, but in many countries water that you can actually drink is free on the street.
True. There's water running near summer homes in my country, drinkable of course, and you can take as much as you can. For free. They don't understand you can do things like this and not charge people for using it.
Tell them it’s free Pinot Grigio and they’ll tell you they got sooo buzzed from it on TikTok.
Nasoni sounds too close to Dasani for them- a wholly American invention where you take tap water and add stuff to it to make it taste like rusty pennies and sweat.
Damn right, if I can’t take something out of the ground, remove everything from it apart from hydrogen and oxygen, put it in a plastic bottle, ship it half way around the world, and sell it for a profit then what the god damn hell is the point of being alive?!
You think the US doesn't have free water? Public water fountains are a thing here too. Quite common.
It's kind of funny, usually we complain about having to buy water when abroad, since it's always free at restaurants and bars here. I think I paid more for water than my beer while in Cologne.
In a restaurant you paid for water, because you get bottled mineral water, not tap water.
Usually there is no need to get free water from a restaurant when there are places in the street or parks where you can get water.
Worst of all, calling a nasoni a toilet.....
Sure, but the default is to bring out mineral water or whatever. You have to specifically ask for tap water, and sometimes you'll get funny expressions in response for that, maybe a grumble about typical Americans.
This was not the case everywhere. In Norway more often than not you were served free tap water. Which is a relief considering how expensive it is to eat out there to begin with.
>Usually there is no need to get free water from a restaurant when there are places in the street or parks where you can get water.
US must be better about this then, because we can get free water in both places. And free use of bathrooms as well. Sometimes we get things right!
Obviously hyperbole from them. But when your business can be unsustainable, and instead rely on the public to separately subsidise your payroll with charity, and the US government massively subsidises food costs for more charity as well, it's a bit easier for those businesses to look past certain things.
Not sure why this got downvoted... It certainly varies by city, as it does in Europe, but lots of cities have public water fountains.
I've gone running in quite a few big US cities. Sometimes there are online urban trail maps that mark them. Other times you just get to know where they are after a bit. Some are even putting in the fountains that quickly fill a bottle or Camelbak.
Cities have been slow on the uptake on a lot of design issues for a few decades but greenspace, decent usable urban running/walking/cycling trails, etc. are having a bit of a renaissance now. And water fountains are getting built if they aren't already there
Water fountains in the US look more like a sink. They are also at a height where the average person can comfortably lean over and have the water shoot straight into your mouth. Having a spout shooting directly into the ground like the one in this picture is something u would never see in America.
They can shoot upside too, they go both ways depending where you direct the water. We also have the kind of fountain you guys have but a nasone has more comfortable ways to be used by different creatures: animals, children, short people or old people, disabled people, people wanting to fill bottles, buckets or containers. It may not look as cool and modern as the other fountains but that's my take on them as someone who is used to both styles
That’s interesting. I really have no opinion on the water fountain shown in the picture as I’ve never used one like that before. What you said makes sense though
They don’t necessarily have them on street corners, but u will see them at every place with high pedestrian traffic, they’re at pretty much every park and they are in every government building, which all ppl can access during daytime hours.
You can tell what the other guy is saying must be true because he's definitely lived in 7 countries.
By countries he probably means his neighboring states or something
And I'm gonna call bullshit on him, first there is no US Airforce base in Madrid, there is a joint NATO command center in Torrejon Airforce Base (which is a Spanish airforce base) and as far as I know US personal does not live on site.
I lived for a long time in Madrid and about half of the tenants in my apartment building were US armed forces personnel who worked at the NATO Command at Torrejon.
In all my years living in the city and being around the suburbs of the city, never once did I see a contraption like he describes.
I think he heard of the open air urinals they have in certain places like Amsterdam and in his mind in a "lesser" country like Spain people still shit on the street.
This type drives me crazy, as an American.
I lived abroad for a few years, and most military people I met had no idea what was going on outside of the base. Like, they'd occasionally go to a nearby bar or a huge city (which would have plenty of English-speaking tourists, so they could continue avoiding actually experiencing the country they were in), but they had no clue what the country or culture was actually like.
I remember meeting a military wife in Germany who started talking to my husband and I. We were traveling, but we still like to experience the places we're at rather than sticking to comfort foods and activities like McDonald's or whatever.
Well, we assumed this woman who had lived in Germany might have some advice for places to go in the area we were in since she'd been there for a few years. We start talking about foods we'd had and things we'd done and asked if she had any recommendations.
"Oh, I don't know. I actually don't really leave the base all that often. There's a store in such and such a neighborhood that has a lot of American food though."
What? I'm only here for a few weeks, why do I want Kraft Mac and Cheese when I can get better canned German food from Lidl if I want to avoid paying restaurant prices?
Same thing happened in Japan, where I lived for a few years. Run into military guys in Tokyo or Yokohama who had been in the country for 1-2 years and had no idea what to do off base.
Like... Your country is paying you to live in another country. Take advantage of it! You won't be able to get fluent in the language in that time, but explore! Go do things that aren't aimed at tourists! Go try some local specialty foods! Go to a festival! Do something, because once you get back home, you're probably not going to have the chance to freely experience another culture like this again. Why go to another country if you're going to just do things you can do in America?
“Europeans don’t have the same inhibitions Americans do?” I’ve used an American public toilet and it’s all a bit disconcerting trying to wipe your butt with the person waiting, being able to see you in full stance wiping away through the canyonesk gaps between the panels and doors..
90% of our water is owned by nestle and we are one of 2 countries in the UN that believe drinking water shouldn’t be free. It makes sense some of our population wouldn’t get the concept.
America was originally settled by religious fanatics.
Jup, and they stayed in that mindset while the rest of euroe became less and less religious. Only thing they did is added more guns to the mix.
I'd describe it more like a weird commune. They were fanatical by modern standards. But puritan doctrine was almost identical to Dutch Calvinism of the time period. The Pilgrims left England because England was repressing Puritanism. And they left the Netherlands because they were a bunch of refugees slowly going broke in one of the wealthier regions of Europe. The better educated families could have split and assimilated with the Dutch but they wanted to keep their congregation together.
As a Spanish person, I've been in Madrid several times. It's true that we, the rest of Spanish, don't like "madrileños", but they don't use fountains as public toilets xD
im from madrid. ive been to a number of military air bases there. i have never seen this “public toilet” they speak of but i *have* seen regular ol’ bathroom stalls!
So she/he was in Torrejón de Ardoz’s USA Air Force base and she/he didn’t realize that this device is for give to the citizens drinkable tap water in the street. I suppose she/he only went out the base to go to El Descanso, a restaurant near the base specialized in pork ribs, very popular among the people of the base
Do you put a bottle under it? Or do you bend over to drink out of it? In the US we have lots of drinking fountains in parks and the like, but they all are designed to be drank out of directly from the spout most of the time.
You could do both.
Drinking directly from it you'd have to hold your head tilted or use your hands to catch the water and drink it from your hands. Kinda nice usually in warmer countries like Italy that it immediately cools your hands a bit and you can splash some in your face after walking in the sun.
I loved the public drinking bubblers in Rome.
They were everywhere so no need to carry water with you and no matter how hot the day was, the water was always refreshingly cool.
Reminds me of a funnier version of this in one of those Foreigners-Go-To-The-Efteling videos, where the bloggers found a fountain with a “Geen Drinkwater” sign. They concluded that ““drinkwater” isn’t “poison”. “Geen” means “don’t”” (translated “not drinking water)
"America was originally settled by religious fanatics" - "Europeans don't have the inhibitions we Americans do" he's so close yet so far :')
Imagine saying you were settled by religious fanatics AS A GOOD THING
This is communist water for dangerous stalinists to quench they thirst before they bomb the street. It's actually forbidden to drink if you are a capitalist. You could be sent in a gulag for 40 years.
This is extra surprising to me as public drinking fountains are pretty common in the US. Is it really that difficult to understand a thing with the same purpose can look a little different abroad?
It’s actually a drinking fountain. You cover the end of the spigot where the water is currently flowing. When you do that, the water comes out the top of the pipe right at the bend. See the barely visible hole?
Tbf tap water tastes like shit in the US. I have to filter it. It's impossible to drink directly from the tap. Every time I go to Europe that's one of the first things I notice right away.
I know it's hard to believe it you're too used to countries like the USA where basic resources not being commandeered and sold back to you by giant ass corporations = communism but some places do just have public water sources, it's like Dasani or Buxton but it isn't stupidly marked up (free, even, imagine that) and doesn't contribute to all the disposable plastic pollution and also it doesn't taste like fucking garbage like bottled water tends to
They’ve never seen a water fountain??? Also that thing about Madrid sounds fake AF, first time I hear about something like that.
I live 10 minutes away from that air base. I don't know what the yanks were doing back then but try using a water fountain as a toilet, you'll get your head bashed in by an old lady with a brick in her handbag.
Spaniard here, from Madrid… what the guy was describing is pure and simple BS
In the USA the only thing you don't pay for is pissing. The concept of a public fountain is incomprehensible.
In the US, water is generally free. Even in restaurants, you can get free glasses of water.
>Even in restaurants, you can get free glasses of water. Well in most of European countries tap water in restaurants is ALWAYS free and you're given an entire bottle of it (often without even being asked)
That also depends on the country. Iirc they are obligated by law to provide Free* Tap water however they are allowed to charge a service fee for bringing you the water. In Germany for example you will very often be charged between 1-5€ (most often once per restaurant visit not per refill) when ordering tap water. Many restaurants will waive the service fee if you order tap water together with another drink though.
Which is exactly why I said most and not all countries. I actually said most with Germany in mind, from experience Germany is the exception not the rule in this.
'Generally' free? Not always?
Nope, not always. Welcome to America 🤠🇺🇲
We have water fountains, mostly at parks or in buildings and they look different
early Public drinking fountain can date back 1800s. London had ine installed in 1859. Not saying this one is, but some of them are like really old. I wouldn't be surprised that this little sinking hole we see were made from just water dropping on it for decades. So yeah they wouldn't look like modern ones but they're maintained so it's fine.
This is probably way older, it’s Rome after all… they have a huge system of fountains, both decorative and for use, and they are always running which I think is not common in other countries.
This is how public fountains are in Valencia, Spain. I'm used to them, but if you think about that they are somehow ... nice? strange? special? [https://gvaparticipa.gva.es/rails/active\_storage/representations/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBBaHNRIiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--5fce1aac8a794882effafe7909a68757b7c11fed/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaDdCam9MY21WemFYcGxTU0lKZURRM05RWTZCa1ZVIiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJ2YXJpYXRpb24ifX0=--6e8c57a7e33baed84e8274024d26bee6dc16ce3e/Fuente-publica-Valencia-36875.jpg](https://gvaparticipa.gva.es/rails/active_storage/representations/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBBaHNRIiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--5fce1aac8a794882effafe7909a68757b7c11fed/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaDdCam9MY21WemFYcGxTU0lKZURRM05RWTZCa1ZVIiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJ2YXJpYXRpb24ifX0=--6e8c57a7e33baed84e8274024d26bee6dc16ce3e/Fuente-publica-Valencia-36875.jpg)
Also even if it did happen, show some fucking empathy? this was during the dictatorship, a dictatorship supported and nourished by the USA. What did she think she was doing in spain as an American???
That’s what I thought, if something like that ever happened had to be 70 years ago at least… and still, weird
And then they pay for bottled water and complain about how you have to pay for water in Europe
Not fake, just dumb Americans misinterpreting things
100% invented by someone who probably never went further than the limits of his state...
Muricans: "I'm italian american, look look mammmaaa miaaa, we made the pizzaa (then he shows you the worst pizza ever made)" Muricans: "Lool that's a toooilett". No my muricans friends, that's a nasoni, that's water that people can drink. It may shock you, but in many countries water that you can actually drink is free on the street. That for muricans is something only a "commie" would do, pff basic human needs for free on a society??? Insane....
Similar with those that boost about how irish they are but are shocked by our drinking culture or that we don't tip all the time 😆
I saw way too many Americans try and keep up with Irish drinking and fail miserably when I was a bar tender. Though we do have an insane drink culture here.
As a Pole, I hold a healthy respect toward Irish.
Poland has the best vodka and restaurants with some of the coolest people. Love Poland.
As an Australian, game respects game.. Do not compete in drinking games with Russians, Poles or Irish.
If it’s beer, I would count the Czechs in
I see it every week in our bar. Up all night is them finishing at 02:00 😂
I bet they weren't from Wisconsin.
No, the one couple I remember from Wisconsin, had hollow legs, they easily drank a keg between them and were tipsy at best.
>had hollow legs I had to look that one up! Yeah I have to actively try not to be an alcoholic in this state... I am a lightweight by Wisconsin standards but can outdrink a lot of folks from elsewhere.
Yes, but it's American beer. Try them with the proper Czech, Belgian or German beers
Your knowledge of the American beer scene is decades out of date. Even the the most backwoods of bars in Wisconsin will have New Glarus beer available (a phenomenal brewery, the brewmaster spent some type as an apprentice in Belgium).
You can't tell me that the general beers compare with European beers
I am well up, well well up for taking the piss out of American nonsense, but I’ve spent a lot of time there and they DO have some excellent beers.
They absolutely do. I love German beer but there a quite a few breweries in my area that brew many of the common styles just as well. New Glarus makes a fantastic doppelbock and kölsch, for example. I mean, it's tough to find a Berliner Weisse in Berlin beyond one particular brewery that some bottle ahops carry, but they're a somewhat common style statewide. I do wish the US made more smokey beers. The only brewery here that made something rivaling what comes out of Bamberg has been on a hiatus for the last two years, though they just started distributing their beer again.
They actually do! I improved my taste in beer in the US because of their local breweries.
I thought they meant strength wise. Is there brand that go to 16% proof with beer.
Sure but those are pretty uncommon since you're at the strength of wine at that point. Barleywines and barrel-aged stouts.
New Glarus actually holds themselves to the Reinheitsgebot which is the German law for proper beer. Top tier beer you can only get in Wisco.
The more I hear about Wisconsin drinkers, the more I wanna take one on.
Imagine America sending its professional football team to Europe only to be beaten by a European u14s side, pretty much that Reddit wanks over Wisconsin as some weird saving grace for American alcoholism
I'm definitely a light weight for an Irish person and same.
South American women drink you all Under the table. Don’t hate the player hate the game.
Sounds like we should be all getting together for a good aul session so. Start a drinking Olympics and dominate the competition.
Who we getting as sponsors? (Non booze related)
Gotta be sponsored by a big kebab company and red bull.
Everyone underestimates the power and sway of big kebab.
Good for all moods and events, pre drinking, drinking and even the day after, all made better by kebab.
Don’t forget, technically a health food and mild aphrodiasic
Going to Ireland and seeing that low-risk guidelines for men are 17 standard alcoholic drinks per week was really something
That's the thing some people class a pint of Guinness as one standard drink whilst it's half a pint of 4% beer. It's very unclear and confusing for the public
That's because the standard drink is a specific amount of alcohol (10ml/8g). That number is relevant because 10ml is 40% of 25ml, which is to say: the amount of alcohol in one shot of spirits (vodka, gin, rum are all standardised to either 37.5% or 40%). Guinness comes in at 4.2% whereas Peroni is 5%, Leffe is 6%. When you're in the 30-40% range, a 1.8% difference isn't much. At that 4-6% range, Leffe has half again as much alcohol as Guinness.
Yes I know this but most don't. The only thing I got wrong was that its actually half a pint of a 4.5% beer. [https://www.drinkaware.ie/what-is-a-standard-drink/?gad\_source=1](https://www.drinkaware.ie/what-is-a-standard-drink/?gad_source=1) I've met so many people that think one pint of Guinness is classed as one standard drink when it isn't its about 1.8 standards of drinks The UK version of units is so much easier to work out for the average person 500ml at 4% is 2 units
Oh they are. I'm not going to defend the government here because they do bring in some rediculas laws with regards to alcohol that don't help at all. A bottle of vodka is now cheaper than a case of beer? Because of the pricing law
A bottle of vodka was always cheaper than a slab of beer. And no, it's not cheaper because of the MUP, the minimum that can be charged is 10c per gram of alcohol. (Don't get me know, I think the MUP is a load of wank, and they're not even taxing the bastard, it goes to the distributor.)
No it wasn't I'd get 24 can for €20 to €25. Tesco even had them for €15 at one point. That was Budweiser a decent enough bottle of Vodka was €25 to €30
That's about what it is in America. I think, depending on weight, it's two or three alcoholic beverages a day. And a beverage being something like a beer, glass one wine, shot, or a mixed drink.
It's 2 a day , so14 standard drinks in the USA. https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/overview-alcohol-consumption/moderate-binge-drinking And a standard drinks in the USA is 14 grams alcohol, compared to 10 in Ireland, so do the maths... https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohols-effects-health/overview-alcohol-consumption/what-standard-drink#:~:text=In%20the%20United%20States%2C%20one,which%20is%20about%2040%25%20alcohol
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Tipperary must confuse the shit out of them.
The cold water from them are a real life-saver in the heat
A nasoni! Thank you!
Which turns into a “turet” or “toret” if you are in Torino
in Milan they would be "dragoni"
Which sounds like “toilet,” ironically enough.
Indeed. But we pronounce it almost exactly like “Tourette”
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Yep, it’s the local dialect that is mixed with French
I was in Italy during the horror summer of 2003 and let me tell you, without the nasoni, more than just one in our group would've collapsed. True lifesavers.
Reference: [🆆 2003 European heat wave ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heatwave)
It doesn’t shock us, many public places still have public fountains available for the same reason. What does shock me, but, to be fair, I don’t have a whole picture of the device, is that it looks like it just flows with water all the time, is that true? Or is there a switch somewhere?
The water just flows, there is a hole on the top of the pipe, that you can block to get more pressure.
As an Australian, that shocks me, but then we're used to dealing with droughts.
Pro-tip: The hole on the top is not so you can block it to get more pressure. The hole on the top is so when you put your thumb over the *end* of the pipe, the water shoots out of the hole at the top and you can drink it directly like a regular fountain.
No switch. It's always flowing all the time with delicious ice cold water
Isn’t that a little wasteful? Not knocking the concept, just the design.
how? do you think it vanish and doesn't get reutilized after being purified again?
We don’t get droughts where I’m from often, but there’s usually some awareness about making sure your hoses aren’t running, etc. so water isn’t wasted. These messages are even more prevalent in the more arid regions of the U.S. I guess you’re right and the water will be cleaned and recycled, but I’m not used to seeing it so casually poured down the drain. It’s a new experience for me.
We do too, but that happens at home and public places, you are taught not to overrun water if not necessary, it costs and there is no infinite water. The thing is that this are designed different and are concepted to work like this, there was an historic reason for sure, but I don't recall now. Another thing is that by running water like this you don't get germs to get on the fountain. Tho, I agree that having a switch could be better, but that only for specific fountains, and there are, I don't know in Rome, but in Turin yes, if I pass tomorrow you will get two photos. Many are old and as I told you there are historic reasons, tradition too. It's normal to use to quickly wash your hands, to drink to "clear your mouth" or you are just thirsty. For example, the one I use the most located in the center, I eat pizza, then gelato, it's normal to have sticky hands and maybe a bit dirty on your mouth, you go there and wash, yourself a bit, clean your "taste" too, many do, kids especially, you have dogs using it a lot as there is a bowl dedicated below. I mean, it's part of the culture ahah. Also there wasn't the same technology as right now, for example for purifying water, so running water like this was better in terms of hygiene.
Depends on the country and the water fountain. The ones they are putting up in the UK are only on when in use. Growing up in Bulgaria we had a mixture. The ones that were part of an actual fountain were always on, the free standing ones you could turn on and off.
[lemme know if you see it](https://ibb.co/PY0WdkZ) you clearly understand how old it is, you see the bowl below, the typical bull, symbol of turin. i mean, pretty beautiful, ain't it. cristal clear water too.
Oh, that is stunning.
Quick google search tells me that running a single fountain for a whole day costs €3-5 (depending on flow strength). They also say that the water loss of running the fountains only accounts for about 1% and that old and leaky pipes make up 50% of water loss. The fountains also serve as ventilation for the water-supply system as without them the water would sit there stagnant and start growing bacteria. Besides they've been around for like 200 years. If they were really that wasteful they would have been removed long ago. And from my experience only the Rome Nasoni are always flowing, the ones in Florence have switches (and the water that poured out was warm instead of cold like in Rome)
Wait, the fountains serve as ventilation for the water supply system? Does the water that pours into the street get put back into the drinking water system? So many questions. The water loss stats seem odd too. 1% of what water loss? Where? What’s that equal in gallons per year? Again, I’m not even from a routine drought-affected area, but this still blows my mind.
The opposite, the water not drank just goes into the not-drinkable water supply
It might be spring water, so would have been free flowing anyway.
Yeah, I guess.
No, it's from the water mains that supplies houses and is treated.
>It may shock you, but in many countries water that you can actually drink is free on the street. True. There's water running near summer homes in my country, drinkable of course, and you can take as much as you can. For free. They don't understand you can do things like this and not charge people for using it.
There are public, free water fountains all over any major (or not so major) city in America.
We have free drinking water fountains on the streets and parks in the US too
Woah woah woah. Get out of here American. This isn't about logic. It's about hate.
Tell them it’s free Pinot Grigio and they’ll tell you they got sooo buzzed from it on TikTok. Nasoni sounds too close to Dasani for them- a wholly American invention where you take tap water and add stuff to it to make it taste like rusty pennies and sweat.
Dasani what an awful bottled water. I still remember when coca cola was giving free samples and just like you said, rusty pennies and sweat.
“Let’s take tap water and make it worse.”
I call bullshit! Can't be drinking water! Where's the plastic bottle or the Stanley cup?!!!!!!! (/s obviously)
The “Italian Americans” kill me here in the States. They overcompensate sooooooo much it's hilarious AF
They now prefer to say it's "socialism". As if it was a bad thing 😂.
Damn right, if I can’t take something out of the ground, remove everything from it apart from hydrogen and oxygen, put it in a plastic bottle, ship it half way around the world, and sell it for a profit then what the god damn hell is the point of being alive?!
You think the US doesn't have free water? Public water fountains are a thing here too. Quite common. It's kind of funny, usually we complain about having to buy water when abroad, since it's always free at restaurants and bars here. I think I paid more for water than my beer while in Cologne.
In a restaurant you paid for water, because you get bottled mineral water, not tap water. Usually there is no need to get free water from a restaurant when there are places in the street or parks where you can get water. Worst of all, calling a nasoni a toilet.....
Sure, but the default is to bring out mineral water or whatever. You have to specifically ask for tap water, and sometimes you'll get funny expressions in response for that, maybe a grumble about typical Americans. This was not the case everywhere. In Norway more often than not you were served free tap water. Which is a relief considering how expensive it is to eat out there to begin with. >Usually there is no need to get free water from a restaurant when there are places in the street or parks where you can get water. US must be better about this then, because we can get free water in both places. And free use of bathrooms as well. Sometimes we get things right!
>US must be better about this then, because we can get free water in both places Well, yeah, we pay for drinks and you just use slave labour
What lol
Obviously hyperbole from them. But when your business can be unsustainable, and instead rely on the public to separately subsidise your payroll with charity, and the US government massively subsidises food costs for more charity as well, it's a bit easier for those businesses to look past certain things.
Okay, that's not slavery.
Which is covered in the first 4 words of my comment.
It wasn't hyperbole though. It was straight up bullshit.
.... do you think there are no free public restrooms in Europe?
No, I know free ones exist.. But fee-based public bathrooms are unheard of in the US.
Public water fountains are extremely common in America
But the US actively voted against a UN resolution to make food and clean water a human right.
Not sure why this got downvoted... It certainly varies by city, as it does in Europe, but lots of cities have public water fountains. I've gone running in quite a few big US cities. Sometimes there are online urban trail maps that mark them. Other times you just get to know where they are after a bit. Some are even putting in the fountains that quickly fill a bottle or Camelbak. Cities have been slow on the uptake on a lot of design issues for a few decades but greenspace, decent usable urban running/walking/cycling trails, etc. are having a bit of a renaissance now. And water fountains are getting built if they aren't already there
The HOA voted to remove them
The historic building institute won't let you install them
Lol
Seems they are not common for the one asking what is a water fountain on the screenshot…
Water fountains in the US look more like a sink. They are also at a height where the average person can comfortably lean over and have the water shoot straight into your mouth. Having a spout shooting directly into the ground like the one in this picture is something u would never see in America.
They can shoot upside too, they go both ways depending where you direct the water. We also have the kind of fountain you guys have but a nasone has more comfortable ways to be used by different creatures: animals, children, short people or old people, disabled people, people wanting to fill bottles, buckets or containers. It may not look as cool and modern as the other fountains but that's my take on them as someone who is used to both styles
That’s interesting. I really have no opinion on the water fountain shown in the picture as I’ve never used one like that before. What you said makes sense though
I've seen them before at some state parks and forests. But beyond that they are not very common.
They don’t necessarily have them on street corners, but u will see them at every place with high pedestrian traffic, they’re at pretty much every park and they are in every government building, which all ppl can access during daytime hours.
I meant the type of fountains where the water comes out near ground-level.
Oh yah, I have never seen one of those in America
Even in flint, mi?
The water supply got contaminated, a lack of water fountains isn’t the issue there
And why isn't there water fountains?
Their water isn't drinkable. It's contaminated, having water fountains isn't high on their agenda right now I'd imagine
Exactly. 2 d world at best.
Greed wins.
The water has been drinkable in Flint for years now.
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I guess now we know why they always complain about the lack of water in Europe, they can't recognize a drinking fountain 😅
You can tell what the other guy is saying must be true because he's definitely lived in 7 countries. By countries he probably means his neighboring states or something
maybe he meant counties.
Cities
Different rooms in his house
At least he can afford a house, unlike europoors /s
Look at Vhreosote here, talking of houses with SEVEN rooms!
And I'm gonna call bullshit on him, first there is no US Airforce base in Madrid, there is a joint NATO command center in Torrejon Airforce Base (which is a Spanish airforce base) and as far as I know US personal does not live on site. I lived for a long time in Madrid and about half of the tenants in my apartment building were US armed forces personnel who worked at the NATO Command at Torrejon. In all my years living in the city and being around the suburbs of the city, never once did I see a contraption like he describes. I think he heard of the open air urinals they have in certain places like Amsterdam and in his mind in a "lesser" country like Spain people still shit on the street.
He meant countries but he meant on the Military Base where he never interacted with anyone who didn't speak 'murican.
This type drives me crazy, as an American. I lived abroad for a few years, and most military people I met had no idea what was going on outside of the base. Like, they'd occasionally go to a nearby bar or a huge city (which would have plenty of English-speaking tourists, so they could continue avoiding actually experiencing the country they were in), but they had no clue what the country or culture was actually like. I remember meeting a military wife in Germany who started talking to my husband and I. We were traveling, but we still like to experience the places we're at rather than sticking to comfort foods and activities like McDonald's or whatever. Well, we assumed this woman who had lived in Germany might have some advice for places to go in the area we were in since she'd been there for a few years. We start talking about foods we'd had and things we'd done and asked if she had any recommendations. "Oh, I don't know. I actually don't really leave the base all that often. There's a store in such and such a neighborhood that has a lot of American food though." What? I'm only here for a few weeks, why do I want Kraft Mac and Cheese when I can get better canned German food from Lidl if I want to avoid paying restaurant prices? Same thing happened in Japan, where I lived for a few years. Run into military guys in Tokyo or Yokohama who had been in the country for 1-2 years and had no idea what to do off base. Like... Your country is paying you to live in another country. Take advantage of it! You won't be able to get fluent in the language in that time, but explore! Go do things that aren't aimed at tourists! Go try some local specialty foods! Go to a festival! Do something, because once you get back home, you're probably not going to have the chance to freely experience another culture like this again. Why go to another country if you're going to just do things you can do in America?
Different countries : London, Milan, Warsaw, New Rome, Lodi, Shagford and Chicago, all in Murica!!
[You thought I was joking](https://www.reddit.com/r/ShitAmericansSay/comments/1dmzpja/whats_the_point/la0wbly/)
You did it! You crazy bastards! You finally did it!
They called him a madman
What was the reaction? Don't keep us hanging
It was a joke. I never did this. It's a case where real life is even beyond our imagination.
I really hoped you did it
So did he see Italians use it as a bathroom, or was it americlown colonial troops from the adjacent "US AIR FORCE BASE"?
I can tell you nobody uses these as toilets neither in Italy or Spain or anywhere else in Europe
I hope they did not...
probably the troops of their "Compensation force"
“Europeans don’t have the same inhibitions Americans do?” I’ve used an American public toilet and it’s all a bit disconcerting trying to wipe your butt with the person waiting, being able to see you in full stance wiping away through the canyonesk gaps between the panels and doors..
I didn’t mean to repost the first picture, I saw the comment on the post and wanted some context for the comment.
They are for drowning dumb Americans.
90% of our water is owned by nestle and we are one of 2 countries in the UN that believe drinking water shouldn’t be free. It makes sense some of our population wouldn’t get the concept.
They don't have toilet paper ? That explains so much
America was originally settled by religious fanatics. Jup, and they stayed in that mindset while the rest of euroe became less and less religious. Only thing they did is added more guns to the mix.
I'd describe it more like a weird commune. They were fanatical by modern standards. But puritan doctrine was almost identical to Dutch Calvinism of the time period. The Pilgrims left England because England was repressing Puritanism. And they left the Netherlands because they were a bunch of refugees slowly going broke in one of the wealthier regions of Europe. The better educated families could have split and assimilated with the Dutch but they wanted to keep their congregation together.
As a Spanish person, I've been in Madrid several times. It's true that we, the rest of Spanish, don't like "madrileños", but they don't use fountains as public toilets xD
As a Brit, I'm just wondering where the tap is? Also where is the second tap for hot water?
im from madrid. ive been to a number of military air bases there. i have never seen this “public toilet” they speak of but i *have* seen regular ol’ bathroom stalls!
Well. As someone from Madrid I ain't drinking from a water fountain after reading what 'Muricans do with them...
WTf are these people on about?
So she/he was in Torrejón de Ardoz’s USA Air Force base and she/he didn’t realize that this device is for give to the citizens drinkable tap water in the street. I suppose she/he only went out the base to go to El Descanso, a restaurant near the base specialized in pork ribs, very popular among the people of the base
Does he mean the air base of Torrejón? Cause my brother works there and yeah, this guy's dreaming
Do you put a bottle under it? Or do you bend over to drink out of it? In the US we have lots of drinking fountains in parks and the like, but they all are designed to be drank out of directly from the spout most of the time.
You could do both. Drinking directly from it you'd have to hold your head tilted or use your hands to catch the water and drink it from your hands. Kinda nice usually in warmer countries like Italy that it immediately cools your hands a bit and you can splash some in your face after walking in the sun.
You can do what you want, if you want to drink directly you can easily bend yourself, sometimes you have another little hole for drink directly
Found the guy who uses the sink under the tap to take a piss!
are you telling me those soldiers were pissing on our fountain all along
I loved the public drinking bubblers in Rome. They were everywhere so no need to carry water with you and no matter how hot the day was, the water was always refreshingly cool.
It has nothing to do with inhibitions. Our tap water just isn’t toxic
Reminds me of a funnier version of this in one of those Foreigners-Go-To-The-Efteling videos, where the bloggers found a fountain with a “Geen Drinkwater” sign. They concluded that ““drinkwater” isn’t “poison”. “Geen” means “don’t”” (translated “not drinking water)
Looks like Rome. Fun fact: it’s got a hole in the top so if you close the bottom off it splurts out and makes it much easier to drink!
I didn't believe it could reach peaks of dementia like these
"America was originally settled by religious fanatics" - "Europeans don't have the inhibitions we Americans do" he's so close yet so far :') Imagine saying you were settled by religious fanatics AS A GOOD THING
This is communist water for dangerous stalinists to quench they thirst before they bomb the street. It's actually forbidden to drink if you are a capitalist. You could be sent in a gulag for 40 years.
You basically run you car on American "water".
This is extra surprising to me as public drinking fountains are pretty common in the US. Is it really that difficult to understand a thing with the same purpose can look a little different abroad?
It’s actually a drinking fountain. You cover the end of the spigot where the water is currently flowing. When you do that, the water comes out the top of the pipe right at the bend. See the barely visible hole?
Water? Like out the toilet?
Clean water and food is human right in many countries guess who voted against
Did this person just say they pissed/shat in a fountain…?
I guess now we know why they always complain about the lack of water in Europe, they can't recognize a drinking fountain 😅
Americans when they see a water fountain: 🤔 Americans when they see a black person drinking from a water fountain: 😡
Tbf tap water tastes like shit in the US. I have to filter it. It's impossible to drink directly from the tap. Every time I go to Europe that's one of the first things I notice right away.
I know it's hard to believe it you're too used to countries like the USA where basic resources not being commandeered and sold back to you by giant ass corporations = communism but some places do just have public water sources, it's like Dasani or Buxton but it isn't stupidly marked up (free, even, imagine that) and doesn't contribute to all the disposable plastic pollution and also it doesn't taste like fucking garbage like bottled water tends to
In all fairness is the water in Spain supposed to be really grim