Transcript of Premium Bonus 059- Transcript

Charlie:
Hello and welcome to today's episode of the British English Podcast. This one is going to be focusing on the travels of Tristan, who was on this podcast before. We discussed his experience growing up in and around London and then moving abroad, spending a number of years in Costa Rica. And then he had just moved over to France with his French girlfriend. Um I met Tristan as I was looking for a teacher to help me take group classes in the academy that I run, and I'm so glad for it, as he is a brilliant teacher who has been helping learners pretty much every week for over a year and a half now. But recently he had a trip around Europe and I thought it would be a good excuse to record a conversation with him, as the last one was so enjoyable. So yeah. Um, today's episode is all about a Londoner called Tristan and his Euro trip. Here we go.

Charlie:
Hello, Tristan. How are you doing?

Tristan:
Hello, mate. I am very good. Thanks for having me back on.

Charlie:
Absolute pleasure. Yes, um, this is the second time recording this little intro, but I did say you're looking very tanned. Um, why is that, sir?

Tristan:
Well, um, just got back from a nice trip in Central Europe. Um, two and a half weeks, uh, five different countries and the sun pretty much followed us around. We were very lucky.

Charlie:
Beautiful. Beautiful. Yeah. Is it something that, uh, you are very keen on including in your holiday, the sun? Like, is it is it a major reason why you go somewhere?

Tristan:
This time it wasn't. I think this time we we didn't really care if we had a good weather or not, because they were kind of city breaks. Um, you know, obviously if you go on a beach, you're hoping for for perfect weather, but no, this time, um, it wasn't an issue for us. We just got very lucky. Um, but some days were actually quite difficult because, you know, you're walking around cities, sightseeing. You don't want it to be too hot. Um, but I can't complain. It was. It was pretty lovely. Um, yeah. Considering the time of year, um, we got we got pretty lucky, actually.

Charlie:
Nice. Okay, so you're still in France? That's where we left you last episode about a year ago. Is that right?

Tristan:
Mmhmm. Yep. Still here. Still here in the in the lovely French countryside. Um, still eating croissants and and my baguettes. Yeah. Um...

Charlie:
How's the French going?

Tristan:
The French is getting better. Um, I go to French class twice a week. Um, I've met quite a lot of expats, actually, surprisingly, because I'm quite deep in the countryside, I wouldn't expect there to be so many, so many Americans actually, there's quite a few.

Charlie:
Ah!

Tristan:
They're all kind of doing up, um, chateaux. Have you ever seen that that program when they on British TV, when they do up a chateau, a castle?

Charlie:
Yes, yes. I don't know the name of it, but yes, I know what you mean.

Tristan:
Yeah, my mum loves it. I used to watch it with her and it's like. Yeah, it's it's interesting. I think they're all kind of inspired to to by old, um, French houses, castles as well, I guess. Small castles. And just do them up. Um, and, uh. Yeah. Why not? If you can afford it.

Charlie:
Yeah. If you, yeah, absolutely.

Tristan:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Tristan:
But anyway, your original, your original, your original question.

Charlie:
Escape to the Chateau.

Tristan:
Yeah. That's it. That's the one. Yeah. Yeah. That's the one. Yeah, That's the dream.

Charlie:
Yeah, I don't know if it is. Is it for you? Would you really want that?

Tristan:
To be honest, like when I first came here it was a shock to live in the countryside because, you know, I grew up in London. I was living in Costa Rica, so. Yeah. Okay. Costa Rica was quite, um, you know, uh, rural a little bit. But I've got so used to living outside of a city now that during this trip that I was on, which I'm going to talk about, um, it was a bit of a shock arriving in some of these places. And I felt overwhelmed sometimes when I was in a city. Um, it's strange how quickly you adapt to living in a rural area. Um.

Charlie:
Yeah, I know what you mean.

Tristan:
Yeah. Cities become overwhelming quickly.

Charlie:
They can be. But there is the flip reverse, of course. Like, I have become used to city life. And when I stayed in my grandparents house for six months before coming back to a big city, it felt really slow. I mean, stating the obvious, but every, every it felt like I wasn't living. I wasn't I wasn't like part of a community. So I felt a bit displaced, which was, yeah, the opposite feeling, I guess. But uh, yeah. It's nice to hear that you can get used to it, though. I like the idea of that. Escaping eventually into a place that you can actually afford to get more than just a one bedroom, um, crappy little apartment. Um, so let's go back. So you you've been to five countries recently? Uh, let's let's ask you what, uh, what were the reasons you chose those five countries and what were those countries?

Tristan:
So it was mainly based on on budget. We did a quick research, uh, I think early last year, and we were like, okay, where can we go that time of year? Not too expensive and try and see as much as we can, um, and take buses and trains, um, in between each stop. So kind of trying to, um, avoid taking so many flights because I am pretty tired of airports. I've done a fair bit of travelling, um, and airports just tire me out now. I'm just. I'm getting old, mate. Um, dunno I just can't handle it anymore.

Charlie:
Let's, uh. I think I know the rough age, but tell the audience, if you will. How old are you?

Tristan:
31, 31, so people probably listening to this thinking, oh, shut up mate, like, you know, but yeah, no, I feel maybe I'm a bit mature for my age, quite possibly. Don't know.

Charlie:
So what is it that, um, annoys you so much about airports?

Tristan:
Uh, just long. And I've got a bit of an OCD about getting to an airport two or three hours before, and my girlfriend always just criticises, criticises me for it because, like, I obviously I have this fear of missing a flight and I've never missed one in my life and I don't know where it comes from. I think, I think my dad maybe he had he had that same anxiety, like, we have to get there on time. Um.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Tristan:
And he, like, he used to take our passports. We didn't have our passports because he would control the whole situation. He would be like, you know, we have to be there. I'm taking your passport. So I think that's that's, I don't know, that's where it came from. Um, but anyway.

Charlie:
I think it's...

Tristan:
Sorry.

Charlie:
I think it's quite reasonable. No, no, I like it. It's quite reasonable to have that fear because it's one of the biggest, um, like, if you don't get that flight, there's a lot of money at stake, depending on the circumstance. But mostly, like, that's a lot of accommodation gone to waste.

Tristan:
Yeah, it can mess up your trip, especially if you've planned everything to a T, um, down to a T that was in one of your podcasts recently, I think. Um.

Charlie:
Yeah, down to a T.

Tristan:
Down to a fine art. Down to a fine art as well. That was. Yeah. Perfectly. Um, so, yeah. Um, I think, um, yeah, that kind of annoys me about airports. And so we flew basically from Paris to Krakow. So Poland was our first stop, um, from Krakow. We took a bus down through Slovakia. Um.

Charlie:
Down through Slovakia. Okay. Yeah. I'm with you.

Tristan:
Then. Slovakia. Um, we stopped in a beautiful place in the mountains, but I'll talk about that later. Um, yeah. And we then went to Budapest. Um, after that, Vienna in Australia. In Australia? In Austria. In Austria. Oh, man.

Charlie:
In Austria. Yep.

Tristan:
What's wrong with me? It's too early, mate. We did this too early in the morning. This is. I don't I don't usually wake up this early. Um, but yeah. Austria. And then, um. And then what was next? I'm lost. Prague. Uh, Prague.

Charlie:
Prague.

Tristan:
I'm not even going to say the country because I'm going to get it wrong. Czech Republic, of course. Um.

Charlie:
I think.

Tristan:
So, yeah.

Charlie:
So Czech Republic on Google Maps, it always says Czechia now for me. Have you seen that?

Tristan:
Okay. Czechia. I think um, I don't know, maybe your location is set to somewhere else. Maybe. Yeah, because each country obviously says it very differently. Um, I noticed that as well because my girlfriend, um, I can't remember what they call it in French as well, but there's something different. Um. But, uh, Prague was I would say Prague was the best place. I don't want to say anything. There was nothing negative about anywhere. You know. I'm not going to say anything bad. It was all lovely. But Prague was was beautiful. Um.

Charlie:
Right.

Tristan:
I just loved the vibe and the architecture. It was. It was really cool.

Charlie:
Ah, okay.

Tristan:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Um, I look forward to delving into that. So, um, the first location was, was there an instant change in the the cultural norms that you noticed, do you reckon when you went to. No. Where was before Budapest? What was the first one?

Tristan:
It was, uh, so we started in Poland, in, um, in Krakow.

Charlie:
Krakow. Yeah. Um, okay.

Tristan:
Which is, um, not that far away from Ukraine. Like when we were looking on the map, we were like, oh, wow. We are pretty close. Um, and I didn't notice it myself, but I've got a few Polish students and I've got a few Belarusian students who have moved to Krakow recently. It seems like a bit of a hub for Belarusians or people moving out of Belarus, because it's not that far. And um, basically a lot of them have said that they feel the tension a little bit because as we record this podcast, like, you know, there are tensions. Um, and Poland might kind of get involved. I don't know, they're close to the action, I guess, close to what's going on. Um, so they've they commented to me and said, well, they feel this kind of nervous energy in the air. I didn't feel it, maybe because I was on holiday just chilling, having a good time. Um, but, um, but yeah, um, it was quite close. When you look on the map, you're like, wow, okay, I could take a bus there to the border. Um, but obviously it's in the East.

Charlie:
Did that make you feel... Did that did that make you feel nervous?

Tristan:
Not really. No, no. Um, maybe I don't know, at the time that we went, there wasn't so much in the news building up to it. So I think that helped to keep us a little bit because, I mean, obviously the news is full of other stuff going on right now. It's not probably not worth going into politics, but, um, I think we didn't notice stuff that was going on, which maybe made us feel a bit a bit calmer. But, you know.

Charlie:
Yeah. Um, okay.

Tristan:
I loved the...

Charlie:
So the natural. Yeah, yeah. So the energy, it didn't feel too tense for you, but you loved it. Why did you love it?

Tristan:
Uh, it was cheap. Uh, no.

Charlie:
And when you say cheap, what do you find cheap? And what is really satisfying for maybe a Brit abroad to find that is cheap?

Tristan:
Well, I'm going to be very stereotypical here and say beer. The beer was pretty cheap. Um, no. Generally, um, the transport transport was really like, I think the transport in all of the places that we went to was amazing. Just how clean and efficient. And it's not like in the UK we don't have clean or efficient transport. It's just like, I feel like when I go back to London and I take the underground, you end up spending a lot of money just for a single travel. Um, and the buses in the UK, I realised that. I hate the system of the buses in the UK because everyone has to go...

Charlie:
Like the National Express?

Tristan:
No, the buses like London buses. Sorry.

Charlie:
Oh, sorry. Yes, yes. The buses or local buses. Yeah.

Tristan:
Yeah. Um, so, like, you always have to go on through the front door and everyone goes on one by one and taps their bank card or whatever. It used to be Oyster Card. Um and like, I don't know, it just feels very like I don't know what the word is to describe that. But in other countries in Europe, I've been to Italy as well. And other places people just get on a bus on any of the doors. Um, which actually speeds up the process because the driver doesn't have to wait for everyone to pass through and pay their fare individually. So you're not sitting there for two minutes sometimes in each bus stop and waiting for everyone to get on. It's just a quick exchange of passengers.

Charlie:
How are they? Um, how are they checking whether they've actually, you know, paid for their fare, though?

Tristan:
Well, that's the thing. Like, that's what I don't understand as well because are there a lot of fare dodgers? Is that what we would call them? Fare dodgers?

Charlie:
Yeah. Yeah. Sounds good.

Tristan:
Um, I think but that that comes down to culture really because is there in the UK more of a, um, a distrust of people that they, they think that they can't implement this system? They have to go one by one.

Charlie:
Yeah, I don't know. Well, this is interesting. I'm just recording another episode about, um, a book by George Mikes called How to Be a Brit, and he was a Hungarian that came over to the UK during the World Wars. Um, and he said, um, in comparison to mainland Europe and British people. He said, let me get this right. He said, um, there are criminals in the UK and then there are trustworthy people in the UK, whereas in Europe there are criminals, there are people in between and then there are honest people. So he said it's it's pretty black and white in the UK, whereas in mainland Europe he was saying that there's a grey area between the two. What do you feel about that comment? Because it kind of disrupts this... where you were going with with the idea of the, um, having to make sure you pay for your bus fare. So I don't know, because this was 50, 80 years ago that he had this opinion. Do you think it's changed?

Tristan:
Yeah. I feel, I don't know, it's hard. It's hard to say. I mean, also you have to look at the regions as well and think that London in itself is another entity like you've got, you've got so many different cultures, um, all mixed in together. And it's, it's hard to generalise. Um, I just think that. For me, the, the European system, let's call it European system, where you can jump on a bus on any door and, and there's a trust that you will buy a ticket and stamp your ticket because they have these machines, right? You just stamp it. And even there is like a kind of electronic machine where you touch the screen and you buy the ticket on the bus. Um, and that for me was also quite like advanced because on UK, on London buses we don't have that. I think. You buy it from the driver.

Charlie:
I think since Covid it's pretty much just tap only.

Tristan:
For me it's more progressive, it's more it's more like, I don't know, it's like just this word.

Charlie:
Trusting in the people.

Tristan:
Like, yeah, you trust people to to do the right thing. And that kind of maybe is a better attitude to have.

Charlie:
Definitely. Because it's it's telling you that you're a good person. It's it's just these subtleties throughout the day of, like, I trust you to be an independent, respectful human and honest. So...

Tristan:
Exactly.

Charlie:
Please stamp the ticket, though.

Tristan:
Yeah, exactly, exactly. But I don't know. Part of me was like, should I buy a ticket? Should I do I do I really need to buy a ticket? Um.

Charlie:
Well, that's another thing, isn't it? When you buy a ticket and then there's no one checking, you're like, ah, people are people are not buying. And then I'm the mug. You start to question yourself.

Tristan:
Yeah. Yeah. No. But I again have this like, I think if you live in a place and you know how the system works and you know where the ticket inspectors are going to be, then you can probably get away with it if you really wanted to. But because I'm obviously ignorant to where they might be and, and I think they, they would probably be harsher on tourists. Um, my girlfriend said no, no, if, you know, if we didn't and they caught us, then they would probably be like, ah, whatever, he's a tourist, but I have the opposite feeling. I'd be like, well, they probably would be harsher because they want tourists to follow the rules and not disrespect them. And.

Charlie:
Yeah, maybe. It probably it depends on how much paperwork is involved. Because I remember in America, if, if you said that you're not from America, the police would be like, oh God, this is going to be so much more paperwork. Okay. Yeah. Kind of. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, I didn't get in trouble in America of course. Alright. Um, so you travelled with just your partner, yes?

Tristan:
Yes. Correct.

Charlie:
And did this, um, did this, uh, choice impact your experience at all in a positive or negative way?

Tristan:
Is she listening next door? I don't know, I have to check. Um, so, um, it's always different when you travel in a couple. I mean I love travelling alone and that's no disrespect to her. I just I'm a bit of a lonely traveller because, um, you can be a bit more spontaneous and you can kind of choose a restaurant very easily without having to have a debate, um, or a discussion about it for an hour and review and read every single review on TripAdvisor. No I'm joking, I'm joking. It's not that bad, but it can be, right? Sometimes.

Charlie:
I wanted to ask that because you've had I mean, I don't know what your situation was before her necessarily, but you were indicating to me that you've travelled around the world on your own quite a lot. So this is a maybe a stark contrast, isn't it?

Tristan:
Yeah. I've done a lot of backpacking. Um, but the problem with, um, solo travelling is arriving in, you know, completely strange places. Sometimes at night. You get off a bus or a train and you just feel really lonely in those moments, and especially when you're trying to, like, if you eat alone for the first night, it's hard. That's that's the most challenging thing, I think, is the loneliness sometimes.

Charlie:
Do you in those situations, can you remember if you would cling on to a device for comfort, or would you try to embrace being that lonely person and being fine with it and being mindful of the environment and sort of people watching?

Tristan:
Device. So you I mean, like I, I think when I was travelling 2014, my smartphone was pretty limited, like...

Charlie:
Pretty dumb.

Tristan:
I mean, I don't I mean, we had Instagram at that time. I mean, it's not like 400 years ago, but I wasn't I wasn't using it as much as I do now or that people do now. So I don't remember sitting at a table using my phone, to be honest. Maybe I'd read or kind of probably I was checking like travel stuff, like where to go next, like in a book, you know, like in a Lonely Planet book or something like that. Um, but, um, yeah, it is kind of like awkward when you're sitting at alone, uh, sitting at a table alone. You feel a little...

Charlie:
Okay.

Tristan:
Well I do sometimes, but anyway.

Charlie:
You do yeah.

Tristan:
The...

Charlie:
Okay.

Tristan:
The trip was good. Like, we, you know, we have pretty similar tastes. And, um, of course, you want to enjoy the experience with someone, right?

Charlie:
Um, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

Tristan:
Yeah.

Charlie:
So you you were reading some reviews to to find the right restaurants. And did you find the right restaurants? Was, uh, was there really good food out there that you couldn't get back in the UK or in France?

Charlie:
We have come to the end of part one, so feel free to take a break from your listening practice, but if you're happy to keep going, then we're now moving on to part two of this episode. Thanks so much for being a premium or Academy member and enjoy the rest of the show. Was, uh, was there really good food out there that you couldn't get back in the UK or in France?

Tristan:
Um, obviously each place had its own, you know, specialities. And, um. Poland has pierogi. Pierogi? Have you heard of that before? Maybe I'm saying it terribly. I'm sorry to all the Polish people listening. Um, pierogi. It's kind of a dumpling. Um, similar to gyoza. Like the Japanese one.

Charlie:
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Tristan:
Yeah? Um, similar to ravioli, maybe. Um, so it's it's kind of like, uh, a dumpling filled with a filling. Um. And it was tasty. It was nice. Um, that's one of their most famous dishes. And there was some kind of, like, cheese that was baked. Baked cheese, which was delicious as well. Yeah. I can't remember the name.

Charlie:
Mmm. Baked cheese. That always sounds nice.

Tristan:
Cheese in Poland. Um, yeah. Um, I might find the name later, but, um, anyway, it was good. And, um, what else was there? I think that most of the places we stopped off were famous for beer. I mean, Czech Republic is the biggest beer drinker in the world per person.

Charlie:
Is it?

Tristan:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Really?

Tristan:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Did you um, did you help them out when you were there?

Tristan:
Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Charlie:
Does your partner indulge?

Tristan:
Contributed to that statistic. Um. She did, she did. But, um, she's not a big, uh, drinker. Nor am I really. But I do like to have a beer. Um, one of the strange things we did have in Prague was beer with absinthe.

Charlie:
Oh. I've never had that.

Tristan:
Have you been to Prague?

Charlie:
Wow. I have.

Tristan:
Yeah?

Charlie:
Yeah! I don't think, um, I mean, we were being fairly tame. But...

Tristan:
You're making me sound like an alcoholic. Like I was on a pub crawl the whole time.

Charlie:
I mean, I mean, if you're tipping absinthe into a beer, you do sound like an alcoholic.

Tristan:
So, um, there's. I don't know why, but in in Prague. Absinthe. They have a few absinthe bars. Um.

Charlie:
I think I did see that, actually.

Tristan:
Yeah. And there's a special way of making it. They they do some kind of process which adds to the flavour or. I don't know, it's part of the process. We didn't have that like, I wanted to, but we never got round to it. So anyway, we went to this one pub and they were like promoting a beer with absinthe. So we're like, yeah, okay, why not? It was green. Um.

Charlie:
The beer was green?

Tristan:
Yeah. It was kind of like a light greenish colour. Um, not super dark green.

Charlie:
Did you go around Saint Patrick's Day?

Tristan:
No. Well, yeah, maybe. I think I was in Slovakia during Saint Patrick's, but yeah, I was, but, uh, I didn't get involved in any celebrations.

Charlie:
But I was just thinking that it's not to do with that, is it?

Tristan:
No, no, they kind of just have this weird obsession with absinthe. Or maybe it's from there. I'm not sure.

Charlie:
Yeah, yeah. Where is absinthe from? Switzerland.

Tristan:
Oh, really? That's surprising.

Charlie:
Absinthe was created in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland in the late 18th century, um, by a French doctor, Pierre Ordinaire. Ordinary, I don't know. Okay, so you had some absinthe in some beer, or did you actually have it?

Tristan:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Yeah. You tried it. Was it?

Tristan:
Yeah. Yeah. We tried it yeah.

Charlie:
Was it nice?

Tristan:
Yeah. Yeah yeah, yeah, it was alright. It had a little bit of a, you know, different taste to it. Um, was feeling a little bit tipsy afterwards as well. So it did the job.

Charlie:
Oh yeah. Did the job. Very nice, very nice.

Tristan:
So Austria was pretty good for beer as well because Austria is second highest on that list as well for beer drinkers.

Charlie:
I'm starting to see a pattern as to why you chose these countries.

Tristan:
Yeah, I'm just gonna admit that I have a problem. Yeah.

Charlie:
Did you encounter any social customs or etiquettes that were unusual to you, and how did you adapt to them during your stay? So absinthe in the beer. Apparently unusual for you.

Tristan:
One thing I noticed about, I guess, that region of the world. I don't want to group them all into one kind of generalisation, but I noticed that people were very, very polite. Like really polite, um, but not overly smiley. Um, that doesn't mean they weren't friendly. They just didn't smile as much, maybe as other places that you visit. And but I think they were very nice and polite. But yeah.

Charlie:
Where would you think of as countries that do smile a lot?

Tristan:
Well, Costa Rica was a bit like maybe I'm comparing it to Costa Rica. And they were.

Charlie:
Yeah?

Tristan:
They're kind of known for um, their smiley kind of outgoing, um, kind of just, I don't know, expressing that kind of happy emotion. I think that. People were more reserved, especially in Poland. Maybe because maybe because of the tension perhaps that's going on at the moment. But like, don't get me wrong, they were super, super nice and polite. Um, not rude at all. What I one thing I noticed was that, um, very quiet on public transport. Um.

Charlie:
Oh.

Tristan:
People are really, really quiet. And I don't know if that's, like, a sign of respect, perhaps.

Charlie:
Yeah. Sounds quite nice, though.

Tristan:
It is nice. Like it's better than having teenagers at the back of the bus playing like shit music, you know?

Charlie:
Um, yeah.

Tristan:
That's what I grew up with, pretty much.

Charlie:
Were you one of those teenagers?

Tristan:
Sometimes. I'm not gonna lie. Yeah. Um. But, you know, I don't know. Just like you don't want to listen to someone having a big conversation on the phone. Um, you don't want to hear their life story. Um, and I think people are more conscious of that there, I think.

Charlie:
Yeah, I'd say so. I'd say so too. Yeah. I think in in England I get more of that sort of wanting to say something, but ending up just tutting and trying to eyeball them. But then they never look and they don't, they don't care.

Tristan:
Yeah, yeah.

Charlie:
But yeah, that's all we can do as Brits. Tut and try to eyeball. Um. Was there something that you didn't bring that you wished you had? Or something that you did bring that was surprisingly useful?

Tristan:
Oof! We travelled light. We travelled really light. Like just to kind of not have to check in a bag and have to carry it around because it's kind of it wasn't like a backpacking trip, but we had backpacks. Um, so it was a backpacking trip. So, so we had a very, um, ah, flip flops when I went to, um, I know it sounds stupid, but flip flops for the baths in Budapest.

Charlie:
Yes, yes.

Tristan:
I had a bit of a, I had a bit of a fight with my girlfriend. I was saying, you need flip flops for this bath because, you know, I read somewhere it's disrespectful not to wear flip flops. And when you're walking around the public baths.

Charlie:
I think that...so... Is your girlfriend French or British?

Tristan:
Yes. Yes. She's French. Yeah.

Charlie:
She's French. Okay. So I think British people don't have this respect for spa hygiene as much as continental Europe. And I mean, you said she's French, so maybe not, but yeah, I found in Germany.

Tristan:
She's an exception.

Charlie:
Yeah. In Germany they had an assumption of wearing I think I'm. Yeah. They all wore flip flops. Stacey, my partner, she tried it. Her German friend was like, you need to wear flip flops in the in the gym changing rooms. That's disgusting. So she wore them and then she slipped on them and cracked her knee straight away. And so she was like, oh, never again. But, um, yeah. For for I think Brits don't typically do this. I'm going to a gym locally here and I'd say 1 in 10 probably wear a shoe in the shower. But yeah.

Tristan:
A shoe in the shower. Really.

Charlie:
I mean, flip flops.

Tristan:
Okay, okay. Crocs maybe. Yeah.

Charlie:
Trainers!

Tristan:
Yeah, that's weird mate. What kind of gym do you go to? Um, yeah, there was, um, there was a few people walking around with bare feet. Um, me, I don't know, I think that's a bit. It's maybe it's not even to do with respect. It is just hygiene. Like, I don't know, there's so many people walking around, I don't know, in a in a spa. It's just. Yeah, it's just nice to wear flip flops. So I took some and my girlfriend didn't. And I was like, you need to get some. And then, you know, around the spa, as you can imagine, they just hike up the prices of flip flops and they charge you.

Charlie:
Oh yeah.

Tristan:
Extortionate amounts for some cheap pair of flip flops. So that was her fault.

Charlie:
We have come to the end of part two now. So again, feel free to pause the episode, to take a break from your listening practice and come back to the last part when you're ready. Alright. So moving on to part three now. Enjoy.

Tristan:
Um...

Charlie:
So did she buy some very expensive flip flops?

Tristan:
I had to buy them. I had to buy them because I was the one pushing for it. Um, and then I ended up losing them on the trip, um, because they were in the side pocket of my backpack, and they just fell out.

Charlie:
Naturally. Yeah.

Tristan:
Yes. So I don't know. That was that was the worst part of the trip.

Charlie:
What a shame. RIP flip flops.

Tristan:
Um, they are somewhere on a train.

Charlie:
They are somewhere in Austria. Yeah. Not Australia. Okay, so I've got a tough question for you. Can you describe a particularly meaningful interaction you had with a local? Did it teach you something about their local culture?

Tristan:
That's a hard one because, um, one okay. During the trip I actually met some students. Um, so...

Charlie:
That you teach online?

Tristan:
Yeah, that I teach online. And, um, they are from Belarus, actually. And they moved to Krakow recently. Um, and they took us to a really cool, uh, shisha bar. I don't I'm not really a big fan of shisha. It's alright sometimes. But it was so cool. It was like full of, um, I think it was quite Ukrainian. Um, and the vibe was, was really nice. And there were people just chilling on these massive sofas, playing FIFA and smoking shisha. And I was like, if I lived here, I would definitely be here, like every weekend with my friends.

Charlie:
You would live THERE.

Tristan:
Yeah, yeah. Um, but that wasn't that doesn't answer your question. It wasn't a very meaningful experience.

Charlie:
I like that. Let's let's stay with that. So meaningful smoking shisha, playing FIFA.

Tristan:
Yeah. Playing FIFA. Um, yeah. I really got into the culture basically. Yeah. Got stuck in.

Charlie:
And they say culture is dead.

Tristan:
Um, yeah.

Charlie:
So I, I like shisha. So where was I having I think I had it in Bali last. I, I, I don't know exactly what's in it. So that's probably my bad. But I look at vaping as a new age excuse from quitting cigarettes. And it is probably, it probably has a lot of chemicals in it that you you don't know what's going in your body. So I'm not that interested in vaping. And I used to be a social smoker at university during my drinking years, and now I don't really want to do any of the smoking. But there's something about shisha that feels a bit more acceptable in my opinion. It just seems more social. I don't know if it's cleaner, it's probably just as bad. I don't know.

Tristan:
I think it's worse.

Charlie:
Is it worse?

Tristan:
Someone told me that it's like smoking ten cigarettes.

Charlie:
No!

Tristan:
I think I think it is quite harsh on the lungs. Yeah, I think so.

Charlie:
Wow.

Tristan:
Might have to Google that. I'm.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Tristan:
I'm making stuff up.

Charlie:
Let me, let me find that. Is shisha safer than cigarettes? No. Smoking shisha is not safer than smoking cigarettes. Many people think that drawing tobacco smoke through water makes shisha less harmful than cigarettes. But that's not true.

Tristan:
But does that mean it's worse?

Charlie:
In a shisha session. It's a bit of a tongue twister that. Shisha session. Um, between 20 and 80 minutes, a shisha smoker can inhale the same amount of smoke as a cigarette smoker consuming over 100 cigarettes.

Tristan:
Yes. Yes.

Charlie:
So I should take everything I just said back. It's really bad for you.

Tristan:
Yeah. And if you imagine, like, you're kind of these bars, you know, the one I went to, it hits you when you walk in because obviously they have, I don't know, um, ventilation but it, there's a cloud of smoke and so you're breathing in passive smoke as well. So it's almost, you know, double. Um, but anyway.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Tristan:
The one off time it's it's nice.

Charlie:
Not a place. Yeah, yeah. One off.

Tristan:
One thing I would say. Sorry. One thing I would say is about the vapes. I noticed as I was walking around in these places, young people like, like smoking these vapes, um, as if they were nothing, um, you know, and they were young, like, I mean, some of them looked 14 to me. 15. Um, um, and there are all these, like disposable ones that are like bright colours. And I think that they've recently become, um, illegal in the UK or in France.

Charlie:
They're doing rules, they're doing things to try and perturb people from, um, using them. But I think they're genuinely a problem in the UK. I don't know the, the difference to what you saw, but. I see it everywhere in London at the moment.

Tristan:
Yeah, and ecologically they're not great because, you know, they're full of batteries and they're just being discarded. Um, you know, people use them for a day and then they chuck them away. Um, but personally, from my experience, I stopped smoking maybe two years ago. I smoked cigarettes, I smoked, um, vapes. Vapes always caused me more negative symptoms. Like, I just felt my my chest was tight all the time.

Charlie:
Um, right.

Tristan:
And so, I don't know, long term whether or not vapes will produce some kind of. Dunno, um, more negative effects than cigarettes, but, um.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Tristan:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Watch this space. There there are. There are some negative things about them already. Um, but yeah, we don't need to delve too much into it, but, uh. Yeah. So shisha is terrible. That's that's news to me. That's a shame, because I was actually, I, I think I've got a shisha in my Amazon cart right now. People were like, what do you want for your birthday? I was like, we've got a small little garden area. We're going to have a barbecue in the summer that one week where we get good weather. Maybe I could have a shisha as well, but yeah. 100 cigarettes! Gosh, mental.

Tristan:
I should say that that in some places they call it hookah. Um, yeah. Hookah h o o k a h hookah I think. Um, and yeah, so I think in the UK we tend to call it shisha, but some places you see signs saying hookah.

Charlie:
Mm. Okay. Good to know.

Tristan:
So that was interesting because I kind of had never met my online students in person before. And that was really cool. And um, kind of we discussed like the political situation, right? Like because they had to leave Belarus because of what's going on. Um, so it was quite like, you know, very interesting for us to hear, like some first hand stories about how, you know, the war has affected them. And it was really, really interesting. Yeah. Sad.

Charlie:
Yeah. That's sobering. Massively.

Tristan:
Yes, yes. Yeah, definitely.

Charlie:
This wasn't a conversation that you were having whilst playing FIFA, was it?

Tristan:
No, no, no, unfortunately I didn't get to play FIFA. Um.

Charlie:
Oh!

Tristan:
Just shisha.

Charlie:
Just just shisha.

Tristan:
I wasn't sitting on the right, on the right sofa. Um, yeah.

Charlie:
So, yeah. So you're back here now let's conclude on the trip. How are your thoughts towards it, looking back?

Tristan:
Um, it was great. Yeah. I, you know, um, I want to I want to mention one more thing. One more thing, which I thought was, was with ties in with some of your previous questions, but I forgot to mention it. When we were in Austria, in Vienna, there was, um, we were in a park, and this father and son had their bike on, kind of like a I don't know what it was. It was like a pole that came out of the ground. And, and on this pole, they had all these different tools attached to fixing your bike. And I just I was just like, wow, how practical is that? Like, I've never seen something like that. I imagine that there's only certain places in the world which would have, um, I don't know, the initiative or the foresight to put those kind of things or implement those kind of things. Uh, and, you know, Austria is probably one of those places, maybe Japan as well.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Tristan:
Somewhere like that.

Charlie:
Hm, yeah. That's nice.

Tristan:
Maybe it's more common than I think. I don't know.

Charlie:
I've not seen it. It's just it's reminding me of, like in the mountains, they have a sort of DIY sort of screwdriver and a few other things to use to, to check your bindings for your skis or your snowboard. But I mean, that's quite specific. And they've got a huge infrastructure to keep the money going with their kind of the whole ski lift pricing. But um, yeah, that's lovely to hear that the I guess the council is putting that in place around the city. Um, I noticed in Australia they have a few more things like that, like, um, public barbecues and like lots of water fountains and good facilities around the beach. I was always like, God, England would never provide this kind of stuff for free.

Tristan:
That's that's like really terrible to think that you have that that immediate thought. Because that's exactly what I thought when I saw it, I was like, oh, you'd never see that in London. You never see it in London.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Tristan:
Because I don't know! Why. I mean, why is that so impossible to have a simple pole with some tools attached to it? You know, like, I just felt like sometimes public money, uh, isn't spent on some things that could be very, very useful to people. Um.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Tristan:
Perhaps, but that's that's a political, uh, debate.

Charlie:
It is. And until I, uh, you know, if I was ever elected as prime minister or something, I don't know the full extent of how much money we spend on things that are worthy, like the NHS. I'm sure that's a huge amount of the taxes that we have to give away. And maybe.

Tristan:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Maybe that is why we're not able to provide bike facilities for free.

Tristan:
Yeah, possibly. Possibly.

Charlie:
Who knows? But there we go. Um, thank you so much. That was an absolute pleasure to speak with you.

Tristan:
You're very welcome. Yes. Yes.

Charlie:
And all the best, Tristan.

Tristan:
Thank you.

Charlie:
Bye for now.

Tristan:
Thank you very much. See you soon.

Charlie:
There we go. The end of part three, meaning the end of the episode. Well done for getting through the entirety of it. Make sure you use all of the resources available to you in your membership. Thanks once again for supporting the show and I look forward to seeing you next time on the British English Podcast.