Day two in Wexford
May. 31st, 2010 08:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bebootsOne of the things I love most about Europe is the fact that the past is everywhere. Evidence of their history is all over the place. It's not just evident inthe buildings and statues, but in other inadverdent ways (take, for instance, the bullet holes I wrote about earlier).
On the train today we passed by old stone farmhouses, roof-less and gutted, covered in vines and overgrown with grasses. In canada, the old farmhouses that scatter the countryside are old wooden structures, their weatherbeaten gray wooden beams collapsing under their own weight, listing to the side. They're nearly destroyed after what, 150 years, at most.
Europeans built things to last. In Canada, it's amazing if something is more than a century and a half old. Three hundred years or more is something to marvel at. In Europe, that's business as usual, or maybe something to renovate because that old wiring is a fire hazard, you know.
The plastic siding so popular in 20th century north American buildings looks so unappealing. Give me stone or brick anyday, and throw in some climbing vines while you're at it.
On the train today we passed by old stone farmhouses, roof-less and gutted, covered in vines and overgrown with grasses. In canada, the old farmhouses that scatter the countryside are old wooden structures, their weatherbeaten gray wooden beams collapsing under their own weight, listing to the side. They're nearly destroyed after what, 150 years, at most.
Europeans built things to last. In Canada, it's amazing if something is more than a century and a half old. Three hundred years or more is something to marvel at. In Europe, that's business as usual, or maybe something to renovate because that old wiring is a fire hazard, you know.
The plastic siding so popular in 20th century north American buildings looks so unappealing. Give me stone or brick anyday, and throw in some climbing vines while you're at it.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-31 06:27 pm (UTC)THIS.
Also, you know what they say: In Europe, 200 years is a short time. In North America, 200 miles is a short distance.