4. Cynar. Go into any bar in Italy. Ask for a Cynar (Chee-nar). Drink it. As you feel your insides spasm in disgust, you will understand. That elusive taste, as you may guess, is a distilled extract of the vegetable pictured on the label.

5. The Vienna train station shuffle. Vienna has two major train stations, and if you are passing through the city you often have to stop, get out, and take a bus or tram to the other station. This is not only irritating, but for some reason, there are no directions in either station. Every time I’ve passed through the city it has been a combination fire drill and wrestling match with my map as I frantically try to figure out how to get from one station to the other and then get there in time for my next train.

6. Avignon TGV station. Somebody made a fortune building this white elephant: a sterile, grossly over-designed glass-and-chrome nightmare fifteen minutes by (expensive) bus or (more expensive) taxi from the center of Avignon. The place handles roughly five percent of the trains that visit Avignon; it’s freezing in the winter, a roasting greenhouse in the summer, and is far too “modern” to bother with luxuries like benches for those who might be waiting for a train. To top it all off, the regular station is perfectly able to handle TGVs.