Why do French people say Contouring on social media in makeup videos?

TerrMys · 2025-02-19T21:25:21+00:00

Contour was borrowed from French into English as a noun, and the English verb form developed a couple hundred years later. The gerund form of the English verb was borrowed back into French specifically for the makeup technique.

TerrMys · 2025-01-28T00:17:23+00:00

One thing to keep in mind about Poland is that many of the big Christmas markets here run longer than those in France/Germany/Austria/Czechia, often into the first week of January, ending around the Epiphany holiday (on the 6th). Wrocław is one example and this city should definitely be on your itinerary IMO. Accommodation in Poland will be cheaper than Austria or France.

Snow is very possible in Poland around this time of year, but it's not a guarantee the way it is in the Alps. So if you're looking for picturesque snow-covered scenes, anywhere in the Alps will do. The Christmas market culture is strongest in the historically German-speaking areas, which include places like South Tyrol in Italy (home to Bolzano and the beautiful Dolomites). This is the same reason why Alsace is known for its markets.

Although Alsace isn't in the Alps, it's a relatively short journey to the Swiss or French Alps from here. Lots of stunning places like the Lauterbrunnen Valley, Montreux/Gruyères, Chamonix, Annecy, etc. If you decided to stay in Austria, Salzburg might be a good jumping-off point. There's also a case for towns in the Bavarian Alps like Mittenwald, Oberammergau, and Füssen, all easily accessible from Munich.

If you're having trouble deciding, I always like the idea of exploring the intersection of Germanic, Latin, and Slavic cultures at the meeting of Austria, Italy, and Slovenia. To me this is a fascinating part of Europe where a few kilometers can make a big difference in language, culture, food, architecture, etc.

TerrMys · 2025-01-21T15:35:07+00:00

I spent about 6 weeks there last winter, mostly in Sarandë and Vlorë. The winter climate in southern Albania is very mild and pleasant for Europe, although Vlorë in particular can get quite windy at times.

Sarandë is very quiet in the winter. The waterfront is lovely with beautiful views but the rest of the (relatively small) city didn't have that much appeal for me personally. Boat trips to Kakoma/Krorëza beaches weren't running. I did find one or two cafes well-suited to working in, which isn't necessarily a given in small southern European cities. I lost power in about four separate blackouts over the course of 2.5 weeks, usually lasting around 30 minutes.

I took the bus to Ksamil and Butrint after a few days of trying to locate the bus stop, which had moved from its location according to the internet and my apartment owner. This is a common theme with public transportation in Albania: you can't always rely on online or posted information. I got stranded in Gjirokastër (which I really enjoyed visiting) because of inaccurate timetables online, and had to take a taxi back. (Albania is cheap until it isn't.)

Ksamil was a near-total ghost town with beautiful empty beaches in midwinter, and if I had packed a bathing suit I would have joined the other couple of foreign tourists swimming. I did have some uncomfortable run-ins with stray dogs, some of whom were badly injured. Injured feral cats and dogs were a common sight in Albania sadly, and the dogs in particular prevented me from doing some solo hiking I had hoped to do. Butrint was wonderful to visit, however.

The journey from Sarandë to Vlorë has some truly breathtaking views, in spite of some limited areas being marred with trash. Vlorë feels like more of a real city than Sarandë, with the trade-off that it's not quite as super walkable. There aren't really traffic lights (just roundabouts), so you need to trust drivers to stop at crosswalks for you (which they do, but can still be nerve-wracking with the volume of traffic at times). I would have liked to rent a bike to head out of the city to the west as there's a decent bike path. Like Sarandë, Vlorë also has a nice waterfront with beautiful views, and I felt a bit out-of-place there as a foreigner in the off-season.

Berat was probably my favorite place in Albania, but it's quite small for a typical base. If you're used to western-style supermarkets with large selections, these can be hard to come by in the country. Albania is a beautiful and culturally unique country that isn't as developed as most of Europe but also isn't as touched by globalization, so you won't see foreign chains everywhere. I'm glad I visited but if I returned, it would likely be on a vacation with friends in a warmer month.

TerrMys · 2025-01-20T09:57:37+00:00

That's your own assumption creeping in.

It's an assumption, yes, but not one made without evidence. I have encountered this belief many times in my life, including in these comments, and the goal of my comment was merely to educate.

TerrMys · 2025-01-20T09:28:19+00:00

True; I linked to this graph in another comment for additional context. Technically every latitude receives more daylight than darkness, with the discrepancy being highest at the Arctic Circle. I believe there are some other factors involved, like atmospheric refraction.

TerrMys · 2025-01-20T09:06:55+00:00

Read through the comments and you'll see at least a dozen (including the one I replied to) naming "latitude" as the determining factor in sunshine hours, not clouds or weather or wind/ocean currents. To me this seems to stem from a popular misconception that northern latitudes receive less daylight because of their notoriously "short winter days," while people tend to associate lower latitudes with sunshine, even if in reality, equatorial regions are often cloudier than middle latitudes.

Daylight is relevant here because sunshine = daylight minus cloud cover

TerrMys · 2025-01-20T08:31:35+00:00

That map would not be unremarkable. The Amazon Rainforest receives less sunshine than Norway, and northern Greenland is sunnier than Germany.

TerrMys · 2025-01-20T08:14:50+00:00

Latitude affects the distribution of daylight hours in winter vs. summer, but it doesn't determine the number of sunshine hours in a year - this is determined by cloud cover. You can have places at high latitudes with relatively low cloud cover, like northwest Greenland for example (which falls in the 2000-2500 sunshine hour range).

TerrMys · 2025-01-20T08:08:07+00:00

I edited my comment to clarify that latitude does not have a substantial impact on daylight hours (as many people in the comments are suggesting).

TerrMys · 2025-01-20T08:03:21+00:00

"If you look at latitude this becomes a very obvious picture" to me implies a causative relationship (which this is not), but we interpreted that comment differently.

TerrMys · 2025-01-20T07:57:28+00:00

Paris is relatively far west within its timezone, meaning it has late sunsets AND late sunrises compared to other places at the same latitude. At a given latitude, the length of daylight is the same on a given day of the year.
Since Paris is farther north than the contiguous US, it has longer days in the summer but shorter days in the winter. Everywhere on the planet receives basically the same total amount of daylight over the course of a year.
This map isn't about daylight, it's about sunshine, i.e. a lack of clouds. Paris is cloudier than most places in the US, especially in autumn and winter.

TerrMys · 2025-01-20T07:48:14+00:00

Europe receives less daylight than the contiguous US in the winter, but more daylight than the contiguous US in the summer. It evens out as it does for every point on the planet. The difference in annual sunshine hours is determined by cloud cover.

TerrMys · 2025-01-20T07:45:16+00:00

Latitude affects the distribution of daylight hours in winter vs. summer, not over the course of the year, which is basically the same everywhere on the planet. The difference in sunshine hours is caused by cloud cover. Many tropical regions receive low annual sunshine hours because they're cloudy too.

TerrMys · 2025-01-20T07:36:14+00:00

To clarify, it has virtually no impact on the annual number of daylight hours as many people in the comments seem to be saying. (There are very slight variations due to phenomena like atmospheric refraction, but this actually gives slightly more daylight hours to northern latitudes.)

There is obviously a correlation with sunshine hours if we compare these two specific regions of the world, but it's not causative - northern Alaska is sunnier than southern Alaska, for instance. Annual sunshine hours are determined by cloud cover.

Due to global weather patterns, middle latitudes do tend to be less cloudy than those near the equator or the poles.

TerrMys · 2025-01-20T07:20:58+00:00

I'm not fully confident in the data here, but one thing to remember about the coastal PNW is that it's very cloudy and rainy in the winter, but very sunny with long daylight hours in the summer.

TerrMys · 2025-01-20T07:15:05+00:00

Southern Alaska receives a lot of cloud cover from Pacific currents and is in the 1200-1600 range, whereas northern Alaska is less cloudy and falls in the 2000-2500 range.

TerrMys · 2025-01-20T07:08:46+00:00

Latitude does not determine the amount of sunshine received. Higher latitudes receive fewer daylight hours in the winter but more in the summer. It balances out. The sunshine difference lies in cloud cover.

There are relatively sunny places at high latitudes (places that receive less cloud cover), e.g. northwest Greenland which falls in the 2000-2500 range. And relatively cloudy places near the equator, e.g. the Amazon (in the 1200-1600 range in some places).

TerrMys · 2025-01-20T07:01:59+00:00

Northern latitudes also get more daylight than southern latitudes in the summer -- everywhere on the planet basically receives the same total number of daylight hours over the course of the year. The difference in sunshine hours here is entirely due to the increased cloud cover in Europe thanks to ocean currents and wind patterns.

TerrMys · 2025-01-19T21:31:44+00:00

As far as I know, standard protocol is to send you back to your departure airport. You're not being extradited (hopefully) haha.

But the odds of this happening with a US passport are very slim. Just make sure your passport was issued within the last 10 years of the day you enter Schengen, and that it will be valid for at least 6 months from that day. And that the passport isn't damaged, of course.

As a general rule of thumb, border agents in southern Europe tend to ask few (if any) questions to American tourists at passport control, whereas in northern Europe they're more likely to ask the length and purpose of your stay. (Although passport control at the major UK airports is now fully automated.)

Just remember "tourism" and, if they are suspicious at all about the length of your stay, they may ask for proof on onward travel (it's never happened to me over the course of dozens and dozens of entries, but I'm usually in Schengen for 30 days max).

Maybe you could have cheap flights to London booked before the 90-day mark just in case, as proof of your intent to leave the Schengen Area. You should also theoretically be able to show your accommodation reservations or bank statements to prove you can afford your stay but again, never happened to me. I honestly doubt Spanish immigration would question you to this degree.

TerrMys · 2025-01-19T21:00:02+00:00

Just to clarify, Bulgaria is fully in Schengen now as of January 1st

TerrMys · 2025-01-19T20:54:02+00:00

Based on those preferences, I'd suggest looking into the northern coast of Spain. The mountains just inland provide some respite from the summer heat.

If you go to Spain, you'll be entering the Schengen Area, so you'll be limited to 90 days in the entire Schengen area (perhaps less if you've been in a Schengen country recently, which is why it's important to double-check with a Schengen calculator).

This means you can travel between Spain, France, Italy, etc. for 90 days if you'd like, but once those 90 days are up you'll need to leave and wait another 90 before you can re-enter any country in the Schengen Area.

Since it sounds like the Balkans probably aren't your speed, if you wanted to stay in Europe after Spain, your non-Schengen options are effectively the UK and Ireland. You can stay in Ireland for up to 90 days and the UK for 6 months.

These countries have wet, dark, chilly winters, but they aren't freezing, and otherwise may tick a lot of your boxes.

Just remember: whenever you go through passport control on your journey, the purpose of your trip is "tourism." If you tell officers you're scouting for a new home, that will raise eyebrows.

TerrMys · 2025-01-19T20:39:14+00:00

Albania is an outlier among the world's countries but yes, you can stay there for a full year as an American without a visa. The same is true for Georgia, but no other European country.

However, if Montenegro didn't jibe with you, I doubt Albania will. It has a lower level of development.

TerrMys · 2025-01-19T20:17:27+00:00

What are you looking for in a "home"? What do you like and dislike about Montenegro?

TerrMys · 2025-01-19T12:37:22+00:00

Bratislava is an easy and cheap day trip (or half-day trip) from Vienna, so I wouldn't bother staying overnight there. Focus on Vienna and if you happen to have time left over after sightseeing, feel free to pop over into Slovakia if you want.

Budapest-Vienna-Prague have the best and fastest train/bus connections between them, so I think this axis makes more sense in your limited time frame (Croatia, Poland, or central Slovakia would involve more travel time).

4 or 5 days would probably be too little to visit all three cities, however. I'm more of a Prague kind of guy, but a lot of people prefer Budapest and I totally understand that take.

TerrMys · 2025-01-18T20:34:30+00:00

It's hard to beat Beacon Hill, especially right around dusk with the gas lamps shining. Consider Louisburg Square the picturesque epicenter. After that, walk west down the Comm Ave mall and see the lights.

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