Turkish McDonalds.JPG
When you travel, there's something innately comforting about McDonald's restaurants. People assume it's because the menu is the same throughout the world, or the free wifi, or the clean bathrooms, or the familiarity of the décor, or the coffee, but from personal experience, I know that those things all vary in some degree or another depending on where you are. Even the Kid's Meals have different toys, and while I was in a McDonald's in Turkey, the coffee tasted strange; it reminded me of Turkish coffee... And the McDonald's in Bucharest had delicious gyro-like wraps. No, the real reason McDonald's causes me to smile when I see the Golden Arches is for the base nationalism it makes me feel: McDonald's is American and so am I.Hungarian McDonalds.jpg
I'm tempted to plot a round-the-world travel route with McDonald's as my destination in each country: no McDonald's and you won't get my tourism dollars. I don't usually eat at McDonald's when I'm home but I do go every day no matter where I am but I do eat at foreign McDonald's to compare the taste: Big Macs are the same everywhere. I know the Elites and status-conscious will find the idea abhorrent but when they have over 100 countries on 7 continents then they can have an opinion.