7 Public Spaces Abroad That Define My Idea Of Freedom! Why America Gets It So Wrong…

Where Freedom Actually Lives And Why America Keeps Missing It!

Not all chains are legal… some are paved, fenced, or require a receipt. These places showed me what liberty can really look like.

In Strasbourg, I sat on a park bench for two hours without buying a coffee, fending off a security guard, or needing a “reason” to be there. 

No one stared. No one moved me along. No laminated sign reminded me of the 30-minute seating limit. 

And shockingly… no one tried to sell me anything. I just sat. Did nothing. 

Watched the world stroll by. 

And in that nothingness, it hit me:

This is freedom.

Not the bumper-sticker version wrapped in red, white, and blue cable news.

Not the “freedom” that comes with a co-working space, a receipt, a lease agreement, or a subscription plan.

But a quieter, deeper kind… one built into the spaces we all share, or should share.

See, I grew up thinking freedom meant options.

• Big box stores open 24/7.
• Drive-thrus for coffee, bank deposits, and pharmacy pickups.
•  The “freedom” to choose from 96 types of toothpaste, 6,000 podcasts, or 14 political opinions… on one network alone.

But after living and traveling across places like Ukraine, France, Georgia, Albania, Spain, and more, I’ve started to think we’ve got it backwards.

Maybe real freedom isn’t the ability to buy more stuff faster… it’s the ability to exist in a space without having to earn your place there first.

From car-free plazas in Tirana to playgrounds in Madrid where no one checks wristbands or waivers, I kept bumping into these little pockets of public life that made me question everything I thought I knew about liberty.

So here are 7 public spaces that flipped my idea of what freedom really looks like… and why, despite all our patriotic slogans back home, we just might be doing it all wrong.

The Car-Free City Center in Strasbourg, France 

The first time I got stranded in Strasbourg, I wasn’t panicked. I was annoyed.

My train from Strasbourg to Frankfurt had been delayed thanks to a convention or some European Parliament session, that had the whole city booked solid.

So I did what any semi-jetlagged traveler would do…

I wandered.

No agenda, no Uber, no panic… just me and my stubborn rolling suitcase clacking on cobblestone streets and along the canal.

What I discovered instead?

Actual peace and contentment.

The streets in that part of town were closed to cars but open to everything else: street performers, couples holding hands, kids chasing pigeons, and cafés that spilled into the street like they owned the place (because they kinda did).

And for the first time in a long while, I didn’t feel like I was in the way.

I felt part of it.

Liberty Lesson: Freedom isn’t a fast lane. Sometimes it’s a closed-off road that gives you back your place in the world.

2. Free Public Healthcare Clinics in Tbilisi, Georgia 

I woke up in Tbilisi with a throat that felt like I had swallowed sandpaper dipped in battery acid.

Back in the States, that would’ve meant an hour of Googling in-network providers, calling three clinics, and eventually deciding the copay wasn’t worth it.

But in Georgia? I asked a local friend where to go, walked into a neighborhood clinic, saw a doctor, got a diagnosis, walked out with prescription meds to take to the pharmacy next door…

And as a non-citizen I did pay, but no, I didn’t have to sell a kidney to finance it.

There were no platinum-level insurance tiers, no mysterious billing codes, and no lecture about deductibles. Just care.

Liberty Lesson: When healthcare is a right, not a business model, it stops feeling like a gamble.

3. Open Playgrounds and Childcare Spaces in Spain

In Barcelona, I found myself watching a local playground like it was performance art.

• No wristbands.
• No admission fees.

Just kids being kids. Laughing. Screaming. Negotiating swings like tiny diplomats.

What really got me, though, were the parents.

They weren’t helicoptering. They were relaxing. Chatting. Sipping espresso like it was normal to trust your environment.

Back in the U.S., childcare often feels like a private luxury.

You either pay for safety or cross your fingers.

In Spain, it felt like the city itself co-parented.

Liberty Lesson: If kids are only safe when money changes hands, maybe freedom’s already been sold.

4. Neighborhood Parks Without Gates in Poland and North Macedonia 

I remember walking through a leafy neighborhood park in Skopje and thinking: “Why does this feel… weird?”

It took me a second to realize, it was open.

No gates. No signs threatening fines or reminding me the park “closes at dusk.”

I wasn’t breaking any rules. There were no rules.

Just grass, benches, grandmothers with shopping bags, and teens playing guitar badly, but confidently wooing the girls nearby.

In Krakow, same deal. Parks didn’t feel like something you entered.

They were just there, part of the neighborhood like sidewalks or air.

Liberty Lesson: Freedom isn’t just about access, it’s about not being told when to leave.

5. Pedestrian Zones in Tirana, Albania

In Tirana, what started as a post-COVID experiment, “temporary” car bans, turned out to be permanent and became the soul of the city.

I walked down boulevards where cars once roared and found musicians, families, couples arm in arm.

People weren’t rushing, they were being.

A friend who’d lived there for years told me the vibe shift was real. People started staying out later, walking more, knowing their streets belonged to them, not some angry guy in a Mercedes.

Liberty Lesson: Take away the traffic, and sometimes you rediscover your neighbors.

6. Public Transit Systems in Ukraine and Bulgaria

Kyiv’s metro system is like stepping into a Cold War time capsule, except it still works better than most modern setups I’ve seen.

Built during the Soviet era with the kind of paranoid precision only the Cold War could inspire, these underground stations were designed to double as bomb shelters.

And now, thanks to history’s cruel sense of irony, they’re doing exactly that as civilians use them for refuge during Russian attacks.

Prophetic planning or just really thorough paranoia? 

Either way, those Communist-era engineers did not mess around.

Escalators so deep you could finish a Dostoevsky novel.

And trains? So punctual, you could set your watch to them.

Coming from the land of car culture and eternal traffic jams, stepping into Kyiv’s metro felt like entering an alternate universe… one where public transit actually works.

In Sofia, same deal. I paid less than a cup of coffee and got more dignity than any U.S. Greyhound, I’ve ever taken.

And don’t get me started on New York City’s overpriced nightmare they try to call a Subway…

Liberty Lesson: Freedom isn’t owning a car, it’s not needing one.

7. Community Markets in Romania and Mexico

In Cluj and in Oaxaca, I found the same thing: markets that didn’t just sell goods… they sold connection.

You could wander for hours, chat with vendors, sample cheese, sniff unfamiliar herbs, and no one gave you the side-eye if you didn’t buy.

No pressure. No neon SALE signs.

Just humans being human.

A fellow traveler I met in Oaxaca once told me, “I come here just to feel like I exist.” I knew exactly what she meant.

I found the same community markets in Italy, from the smallest of villages to neighborhoods in its biggest cities.

Liberty Lesson: When markets serve people, not profits, you don’t need to buy to belong.

Rethinking Freedom 

I used to think freedom meant choices. As many sugary cereal brands as I could cram into a cart.

The “right” to sit in traffic in my own personal metal cage.

But now?

I think freedom means access.

To exist without being monitored. To rest without buying something. To move without swiping a card or signing a waiver.

Where in the world did you feel the most free, and why? 

It’s time to rethink freedom together.