Halifax Retro

Our laptop has crashed here in Europe. It was probably bound to happen, as we have SO many great articles to write. Unfortunately we will have to wait until we step onto Canadian soil again… which will be in early September. Please check back then and there will be lots of updated articles about our journey!

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Internet in Italy seems almost non-existent sometimes, as this article was actually written almost two weeks ago in France. We have since passed through Italy and Switzerland and are learning and experiencing more than we ever could have dreamed. We are now in Austria using free internet at McDonald’s, and one of the most shocking things we’ve noticed in Europe so far is the rather bizarre presence of McDonald’s. While we usually only buy an ice cream or coffee to use there facilities, it has saved us from having to spend 30-50 cents on using the bathroom (the standard rate for using the bathroom in many places here) on numerous occasions, it also proves to be the only location with free WIFI access almost everywhere we go.

The bizarre thing? You know how back home how it is actually called McDonald’s “Restaurant”? Well, here it is actually much more like a restaurant than a fast food place. The food is pricey, there are no $1.69 cheeseburgers you can purchase to make yourself sick with over here. We couldn’t believe this, mostly because the restaurants were unusually packed, with outrageously large seating area’s you would never see back home.

About a week into our trip, we figured out why: There is no mass production of beef here, and with American beef deemed too low grade for importation to France and Ireland, the McDonald’s here are forced to use real meat. You heard me correctly, when you go to a McDonald’s in France, you are actually eating meat that isn’t pumped full of strange chemicals and isn’t packed full of other mystery substances.

In Ireland, the beef used is even sometimes local free range cattle. Although this isn’t required, many have signs up stating its commitment to using local Ireland beef – something that if you ever saw back home you’d have to rub your eyes and read again and again to accept the belief of.

In Italy it is a little different, as one McDonald’s actually sold single hamburgers for 50 Euro cents. It goes to show just how McDonald’s Restaurant is able to sell such products at such cheap prices, because you pay for what you’re getting, and Italy has no restrictions on US beef imports.

It’s a funny thing. While back home we had grown to loath McDonald’s and its food which always makes you sick with its profits driven, cheaply health abusing menu; over here we have grown somewhat attached to it. Well, Its free bathrooms and internet, anyway. The Sundae’s are pretty good, too!