One of the more frustrating things about traveling in Europe is the small differences that inexplicably seem to make a huge difference. Take the bastion of American commercial imperialism that is Coca Cola, which, despite all of the possibilities of Amsterdam, remains my preferred drug of choice.
Back in the States, you can consume Coke in convenient 12oz cans or 20oz bottles. But here on the continent, the metric system rears its ugly head. Instead, one must choos between 0,33L cans or 0,5L bottles. A quick calculation on Google shows that this corresponds to 11,2oz and 16,9oz. Clearly, I am being cheated every time I drink.
For some strange reason, Americans do seem comfortable buying larger quantities of soda in litres, with 1L and 2L bottles readily available. As far as I can tell, here one must be content with the more modest 1,5L size, which still looks absolutely enormous on the shelf in comparison to the other options.
And these drinks are not cheap. Typical venues frequented by tourists can often command 2 euros or more a 0,5L bottle. I found a take out restaurant that will sell bottles for a slightly more affordable 1,60 euros, but even that is still too high. The local grocery store will sell a single bottle for 1,15 euros. Finally, I just broke down and bought a six-pack of bottles from the store for about 4,50 euros, which finally becomes competitive with convenience store prices.
But is it made with sugar or corn syrup?
The sugar is worth the extra cost.