I was out of my house for about 10 days traveling in Europe for my research project. Met many people there and I was really impressed with the people in Vienna, Munich and London.
They are really really cool people.
People in EU are very well-mannered and very elegant. They speak nicer and more politely than any other kinds of people.
I am not talking about the racial differences but all races in EU and UK are very classy people. Simply amazing.
My favorite city in the Western Europe is Vienna, and I think by far it is the most underrated city in the world. Unlike many tourist cities in Laten Europe, the capital of sweet thing is extremely safe. All foods in Vienna are simply fantastic.
The airport is the safest and most convenient port in the world.
The immigration officers are super friendly and kind, I was so impressed. This was my second time in Vienna, but I think I was more impressed by them and their ways of living in the small but very convenient and classy legacy city of Habsburgs than the last time in 2019. I also love Salzburg.
One thing I did not realize about Vinna last time but this time I did was that people in Vienna are huge on sneakers especially on Nike and Jordan.
Even old ladies at a small bus stops there have a pair of nice Jordan 4 or Jordan 1, or some NB Made or interesting local brand sneakers. I also saw many people in Vienna wearing Asics Gel Lyte 5 and EX89, that was a very interesting fact I noticed there this time.
I think the Viennese people love Jordans, Nike, NB and many other brands but I do not see many people wearing Adidas there and that is a huge surprise to me. I thought Adidas and Puma would be more popular over there than here in Japan or in US, but I think Nike and NB are much more popular than Adidas even in Vienna and Berlin. To me it was a shocking fact. I thought Adidas is more popular in EU, or it simply dominating the market there. I also visited London very briefly and realized that they love Adidas there. I guess those people are too sophisticated for being nationalistic about their choice of shoes. I think I much prefer Europe and UK than US or Asia now, they are simply more well-mannered people than most Japanese, Korean or Chinese, and far less aggressive than most Asians or Americans, I think their long history has just made them that way.
I think if you ever visit Austria, you should visit as many cafes, or I call cake-houses as your free time there allows you to.
There is a legitimate reason for the capital city of the great legacy of Habsburgs is often called the capital of sweets.
Their cakes and pies are simply outstanding! No cake shops in US, Japan, or even Italy can rival that kind of quality, IMHO (in my brutally honest opinion). Also, their beers are amazing, much better than I expected, after having spiled with their quality foods and their amazing service for a few weeks, it is really tough for me to go back to my normal lifestyle here in this boring wet nation.
I also noticed that Puma is actually quite popular in Italy, Austria and UK (at least in London). That was quite surprising to me.
UPDATE: I wore a pair of Nike Manoa Boots (the camel like colorway) in Vienna and Salzburg, but I really regretted my shoe choice for Vienna and London. The boots were not comfortable out of the box, needed about a whole week of breaking in time, and every time I stopped at a big airport like Heathrow, Haneda and Frankfurt, I had to take off the boots to show inside of them to the officers. It was annoying. At London and Tokyo, they even asked me to take off my Adidas rain jacket.
I originally planned to wear NB Rainer Boots, but they did not come in time and could not wear them for my Vienna trip.
I think the NB Rainer is a bit more stylish and better made shoes than the Nike Manoa, but the Nike is more practical as the Manoa is a lot cheaper than the NB. Also, the Nike feels like airmax 90 with hi-top finish after breaking in. So, in the end of my trip, they became pretty comfy shoes like my normal airmax 90 or 95. I think the Manoa Boots run big and long and I think I should have gone half a size down on them.
Actually, my gut feeling told me to go half a size down on these, but I believed the Reddit consensus on sizing on them.
Most people suggested me to go TTS on them, I think I should have trusted my gut feeling this time.
So, which pair will I pick if I do it one more time in this autumn? I think I will choose the Nike Manoa Boots as they are cheaper and more comfortable than the early 80's design of NB boots. And the Nike Manoa boots go well with many styles and colors of pants. The NB boots need a certain type of outdoor or workwear-like pants to look really great.
UPDATE 2: replaced them with the Adidas Terrex City Hiker Boots.
UPDATE3: now I came back to the Manoa camp again. I bought this new Grey Black colorway for about 40 dollars, and I couldn't be happier. This time, I bought a 9.5 US pair and they fit perfect.
