A couple of things you should NEVER ask a European you've just met...

1. What do you do for a living?

2. How much money do you make a year?

3. How much do you pay for rent and utilities?

I've seen it TIME and time again. You want someone to shut down and put you in the 'asshole' category of their estimation of you? Be my guest, go right ahead.

It is considered, and I consider it.... the height of rudeness.

People here will ask you about your 'pedigree'... what sort of mongrel... which can also be a bit rude.

If you haven't disqualified yourself by asking 1-3...

But on the whole... if you can be polite and charming, and show you have some sort of education, and something in your head instead of just money and numbers... you can be accepted, and travel in circles one would never have thought possible.

Been there, done it...

It was fun... but the higher you get... the less you like them.

And they get creepy.

I sorta like the middle class. The higher up you get, the more artificial they become... anywhere.

I didn't like it. And retreated.

But the new Romans, as I call them, the blow-hard 'Murkins', they really are in a class for themselves... In places where they have no idea where they are, or what the history is, and make bloody fools of themselves.

And looking for a buck.

I prefer to be where I am, but it's been corrupted over the years as well.