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Comment by paganel | Hacker News Reader

Anyone care to recommend some specialty coffee-shops in Tehran? Or in Iran, more generally? That's the one thing I'm searching for when going to a new (big-ish) city, I've honestly stopped caring about museums, archaeological places or the like, I just want to go to the same specialty coffee shops to which I go here in Bucharest, to be surrounded by the same people I'm surrounded here in Bucharest while reading a book or a magazine.

And to give something in return, for Athens I can heartily recommend Taf Coffee [1], and also MOTIV [2] just across the small street, and in Vienna I have a soft spot for CoffeePirates [3]

[1] https://www.google.com/maps/place/Taf+Coffee/@37.9834313,23....

[2] https://www.google.com/maps/place/MOTIV/@37.9835867,23.73117...

[3] https://www.google.com/maps/place/CoffeePirates/@48.2173765,...

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Why do you prefer to spend time in the same setting with the same people when you are in a new place? Why not stay home?

OP does not literally mean the same people but the same type of people.

Having a familiar group with something in common is a great conversation starter and way to make new friends. This is similar to how you can visit a new area and stop by a brewery (if you like beer), a sports game (if you like sports), etc.

> OP does not literally mean the same people but the same type of people.

Same question really - aren't you most likely to find the same type of people at home?

No.

Liking coffee is only one aspect of a person. Once you're talking you can learn more, make connections, and potentially have a friend who you keep talking to even after you return home.

To give a more HN-specific example: If you work at a software company in the US and go to a software company in India/Poland/etc. aren't you going to find the same people at home? Of course not, their job is only one small part of who they are.

> If you work at a software company in the US and go to a software company in India/Poland/etc. aren't you going to find the same people at home? Of course not, their job is only one small part of who they are.

Yes, and (back to the original point) despite cultural differences, you will have something in common to connect with one another! (complaining about software)

Sure, but sometimes you also want to travel. I find myself doing this a lot when I'm on a trip - you want to dive into a new culture or location, do things you wouldn't do, but you also need time to recharge and feel something a bit more normal.

Coffee shop or brewery or dive bar culture can vary some place to place, but there's usually core elements of the sort of social contract that are core to it and can provide a sense of routine or homely comfort even when you're staying at a hotel in another country. Having an experience that's 80% the same as the one you'd have back home can make it easier for you to recognize and appreciate that 20% difference sometimes and learn about a new culture.

I didn't think they meant literally the same. That would either be called a group trip, or a coincidence!

Liking beer doesn't really make people the same 'type'. Going to local bars to strike up conversations is great (one of my go-tos!), but those are not the 'same type of people' IMO.

I interpreted OP as a poorly veiled comment about wanting to avoid locals and local culture, instead preferring to beeline for a Starbucks or Gucci in a new city when 'traveling'. Or perhaps some snobbiness about what people like to do when travelling. Both of which are cringe.

Maybe I misinterpreted OP's preferences, though. My opinion is if you're going to use the resources to travel somewhere new, you should enjoy what is there, not seek copies of what you have at home.

I find the world pretty chaotic as it is right now, and pretty split up, seeing and directly experimenting an international informal community that ignores borders somehow makes me more relaxed, gives purpose to a place/city I'm in at a certain moment in time.

Later edit: I'm over-reaching/exaggerating to make a point, but what I'm doing it's similar in spirit to how back in the European Middle Ages many foreign merchants were seeking accommodation at places very similar to what they had back home, think of the Hanseatic League and of all the Hanseatic Houses spread throughout the merchant cities from the Baltic or the North Sea. This one was for London: The German Hanse in London and the Steelyard [1]

[1] https://www.thehistoryoflondon.co.uk/the-german-hanse-in-lon...

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