Why I Always Eat McDonald's When I Travel

"What’s wrong with McDonald’s?...You know how many people McDonald’s feeds every day? You know how many people it employs around the world? Plus, they make an incredible product, okay? It tastes tremendous, it’s affordable, it’s consistent. I can walk into a McDonald’s in Nigeria, order chicken McNuggets and when I bite into it, you know what it’s gonna taste like? It’s gonna taste like home.”

- Ray from HBO's Girls sharing his opinion on McDonald's. You can find this monologue on Youtube.

I grew up in the early 90s. My Dad would always take my sibling and I to McDonald's on the weekend if we were good. Over the years, we accumulated many McDonalds's toys at the height of the Beanie Baby craze in the late 90s.

As I spent a couple years doing the Open University I learnt to work in strange places on an almost remote basis.

When  you travel, there are two things you need- internet connection and food.

When my flight was cancelled in January 2025 late at night I found a McDonald's in central Prague a good place to get something to eat late at night and arrange a hotel/flight home.

McDonald's differs in every city. Below is the McDonalds I had in Berlin in January 2025. 

Curry sauce is typical of Berlin. I was interested to try the different food on the menu. I was surprised that they had the McRib on the German McDonald's menu. You can see more about the products they offer on their website here; Burger | Produkte | McDonald's Deutschland

This year McDonalds' introduced a new 'McDonald's Around the World - 'Mecca um die Welt' as it is known in German. Above is an advert for this I took in Berlin.

Below are two items from the Around the World Menu I sampled in Scotland this year;

Black Pepper and Garlic McNuggets 'Stolen from the Japan' menu.

McShaker Sour Cream and Black Pepper Fries, typical from the Polish McDonald's menu.

Squishmallows, have become a popular toy/craze at McDonald's in recent years. Pictured below is 'Rossi' who I got with a Happy meal on a trip when I was starved for food!

He will shortly be on his way to the charity shop to make a young child happy :)

Although I hate how unhealthy McDonald's is, I am yet to find anything else where I have cheap food and a consistent internet connection in the digital age across the world.