On the trip back from Prague – yet another 14 hour marathon (ok, technically it shouldn’t be this long, but we are shameless cheapskates and buy the tickets with four hundred different connections) – we find the time to compile the great, the wondrous List of Cool Stuff in Europe.

Thumbs up:
- coke in glass bottles
- how waiters always bring out a little glass of water with your coffee
- violinists who really get into it
- Ampelman, the jazzy green walking man on East Berlin’s traffic lights
- oversized novelty cheques (not necessarily a European thing but great nonetheless)
- Oktoberfest
- mango-flavoured beer
- free walking tours
- €5 bottles of vodka
- Haribos (German jelly lollies that look like deformed gummy bears with mashed-in heads. Especially the green ones)

Thumbs down:
- creepy psychopaths who call themselves artists
- cheesecake of all nationalities
- fake sand/grass in cafes/bars
- the grizzly old women serving beer at Oktoberfest
- walking tours that AREN’T free
- American tourists
- women with big hair who sit in front of you at concerts
- dog salons and dogs with hair clips
- the White Rabbit’s weird one-legged costume in Alice in Wonderland the ballet
- the killer exchange rate
- tooth-grinders in dorm rooms