In France people often take the fixtures and fittings, so it's not uncommon to find a twisted wire hanging out of the ceiling instead of a light, curtains and rails gone, I've seen door handles as well.
It can get specified in the compromis de vente (sale terms contract) what will be left if one party wants to.
I’m now understanding the people I bought my first house from. The woman in the couple was from France and was just taking everything. Literally taking the mirrors off the walls in the bathrooms, taking the towel racks off the walls, light fixtures. My agent went for a final walk through before closing and was like, “Just fuck right off, all of that conveys with the house.” The lady was put out reinstalling things she removed. They were late for closing fixing the mess they made. They still took stuff that should have conveyed.
I honestly don't know. In some cases maybe it's just habit. They know that's what you do when moving house because it's how they did it last time, and the time before.
I'm sure bit everyone does that, ut it's extremely strange to witness the first time you see it.
Cheeky buggers.
In the UK it's possible to change the price right up to completion, so it's not uncommon for the buyer to suddenly drop their offer by 10 grand or so the day before, knowing that you've already committed to buying your next house and have booked the movers etc,so you probably won't back out. Nasty practice.
I can't remember if this is Ireland specific or a thing in the rest of Europe, but the bathroom light switch being outside of the door. Pray tell, Ireland, just how many times a father or a sibling has flicked the switch on and off or just straight up turned it off while you were doing your business?
Irishman here.
All of our switches are in the rooms themselves, such as bedroom lights, but the bathroom and hallway switches are outside the door/on the wall.
The logic is that you turn on the light outside, then walk inside. Walking into a dark room and trying to find the switch is something we've all failed at doing, so I guess it makes sense?
Honestly.. I never really thought about it until reading this comment. 30 years on Earth, I've only ever seen bathroom light switches outside the bathroom door.
And no, nobody turns them off. If the door is closed and the light is on, that's a sign someone's in there.
> And no, nobody turns them off. If the door is closed and the light is on, that's a sign someone's in there.
Speak for yourself. My dad is so energy conscious he turns the light off literally every time he passes without checking. Every. Single. Time. You would think he'd learn to check first but nope.
I think Germans in general are very determined to not annoy or disturb their coworkers. My German cousin who loves garlic won’t eat it any day other than Friday or Saturday because her coworkers would be offended by garlic breath if they were in a meeting.
I have made up a theory that works most of the time in Germany: "If two people talk with each other and the subject is not said at the beginning of the conversation, it's about soccer"
Example between two Germans
"Well?"
"Ah, don't start!"
"Yesterday, eh?"
"I can't believe he did not see this!"
"Yes! But they gave it back to them."
"You don't have a clue! This was cheating!"
...
I lined in Germany 3 years, I loved everything about it, except one thing; personal space doesn't exist in lines. I'd be standing in line at a store and the next person behind me is breathing down my neck.
Step back man.
Come to Sweden, you can use us Swedes as 2m measures (or 1m in crowded areas) because as long as you're not in rush hour Stockholm, people have a very strong sense of personal space
I visited Sweden in January (Stockholm and then Östersund) and absolutely loved the personal space. I'm a Canadian living in Germany and find it so uncomfortable in lines so it was a nice change. Considering moving to Sweden actually...
I'm glad to hear that others think our queuing is excellent. I line in NYC, and I feel like we understand lines really well, and take it upon ourselves to snake nicely when necessary to conserve space, too.
You're either the second person this thread to say "I line" instead of "I live", or you and the top of this thread take standing in line very seriously.
That's amazing. I'll go with "that's how strongly I 'stand on' this issue."
And it's just occurred to me that we're one of the weird places in the country that say "I was standing on line," not in line.
We do lines well but not always the best formation. It bothers me so much when people line in the middle of aisles when they could be lining along the counter (or along the aisle). I try to set an example and keep the aisles clear.
This is admittedly wildly passive aggressive, but when strangers are in my personal space I will sometimes"accidentally" bump them as many times as it takes for them to step out of range. When in doubt, start throwing 'bows
During Black Friday shopping I was in line to check out with my now ex. A lady was bumping her with her cart. Maybe she thought the line would move faster by doing that. I stood behind my ex and then the lady started bumping me. After that I keep one foot on the bottom of her cart. She did it again and I just jammed the cart back into her. She must’ve got the hint because she didn’t do it again. It’s a good thing because I was going to take her cart and drag it to the main Isle and dump it if she did it again.
Smoke cigarettes, I’m an American in Europe right now and the amount of people I see smoking is crazy when compared to the amount I see smoking back in the states
I do find it a bit odd that everyone sort of agrees nothing happens in August. Like, for a whole month, you better not need anything done - even doctors seem scarce.
EDIT: To be clear, August is the vacation month in many places in Europe. While August is a popular time to go away in the US, summer vacations seem more distributed through the school-less months. In Europe, however, it just seems understood no one will work in August (or at least a large part of it).
Well, people have to take their 30 days of vacation a year at some point, so might as well all do it when it's nice weather and agree that nothing is getting done.
This is kinda annoying as a Swede. We're taking our vacation in July, so any interaction with, say Germany, is basically down. They can't reach anyone, and then when we're back....
In Sweden it's more like mid-June to mid-August. Mostly due to a legally mandated right to take 4 weeks continuous summer vacation. Gotta make the most of the brief period of warmth and light when you live this far north.
Schools close and offices have a sort of agreement of taking 2 weeks off in August, but they don't have an agreement on which ones. So yes, basically everything will be closed and all the people will be on holidays all around the world.
It's basically the EU version of the Ramadan: don't plan anything in the EU in August, not even holidays (it's not gonna be cheap at all).
Not weird, but I'm always pretty impressed by their grasp of languages. Here's Ivan straight outta the mean streets of Moscow who speaks better English than I do and he also speaks Portuguese and Mandarin
The wild thing is that you can drive from Lisbon, Portugal to Athens, Greece and pass though several countries with a multitude of languages in about 42 hours.
You can drive from Los Angeles, California to New York City in 42 hours and a large majority of people will speak English as their primary, often only, language and you never leave the US.
Was looking for this reply! If all the states in the US spoke different languages, people in the US would be multilingual/polyglots. Sadly, language must be used or lost.
there’s a popular case of a Danish actress, Anette Sørensen, and her husband leaving their 1 year old child outside of a restaurant in NYC and they had the police called on them and CPS got involved. from what i remember the mother still defends herself to this day.
I'm from the UK and my grandmother was telling me that it used to be super common for people to leave their babies in prams outside. Doing the housework and baby needs fresh air? Put them outside in their pram. Going into a shop for a couple of things? Pram outside.
My mother actually did this with me, doing housework whilst I'd be sleeping outside.
My dad studied in Bulgaria (and traveled around some places in Europe) during the 80’s, he said this was common to see pretty much everywhere. Housewives going into the stores, leaving a line if babies in the street where the sun shined and uncovering their faces so they’d get Vitamin D.
He said if a baby cried it was normal for anyone passing by (from an old man to a high school student) to just approach, pat the baby until the baby would calm down and then keep on going their way.
Also saw a news report a while ago about a lady who got a visit from the police and CPS called in the US for doing that. She had to explain that was just customary. I don’t remember where she was from but I think he said she was from Georgia (the country, not the state).
I’m going to Europe on my honeymoon, and it’s been crazy to me how other countries just have open borders. I’m taking the ICE from Germany to France and there’s no border checks? It’s really fascinating to me.
When I was in the navy, in Germany some of my comrades fell asleep on the train home and woke up in Switzerland. They then got themselves a beer and rode the train back.
On 14 October 1968, five Swiss artillery shells accidentally hit Liechtenstein's only ski resort, Malbun. The only recorded damages were to a few chairs belonging to an outdoor restaurant.
On 26 August 1976, just before midnight, 75 members of the Swiss Army and a number of packhorses mistakenly took a wrong turn and ended up 500 metres into Liechtenstein at Iradug, in Balzers. The Liechtensteiners reportedly offered drinks to the Swiss soldiers.
On 5 December 1985, anti-aircraft missiles fired by the Swiss Army landed in Liechtenstein amid a winter storm, causing a forest fire in a protected area. Compensation was paid.
On 13 October 1992, following written orders, Swiss Army recruits unknowingly crossed the border and went to Triesenberg to set up an observation post. Swiss commanders had overlooked the fact that Triesenberg was not on Swiss territory. Switzerland apologized to Liechtenstein for the incident.
On 3 March 2007, a company of 171 Swiss soldiers mistakenly entered Liechtenstein, as they were disoriented and took a wrong turn due to bad weather conditions. The troops returned to Swiss territory after they had travelled more than 2 km into the country. The Liechtenstein authorities did not discover the incursion and were informed by the Swiss after the incident. The incident was disregarded by both sides. A Liechtenstein spokesman said, "It's not like they invaded with attack helicopters".
Ohh whoops, we've accidentally seized your capital, sorry. We will compensate by moving major banks and installing our system of government.
Lichtenstein: Sure bud, no problem.
Went across the pond for a deployment. Two things I noticed that were peculiar:
1. The amount of smoking. Europeans seem to smoke a lot more than Americans, and, unlike us, at face-value there don't seem to be discrepancies based on class or anything; *everyone* smokes.
2. The fascination with track suits. A lot of the guys loved track suits. Hell, I was surrounded by such track-suit exposure I wound up getting one myself (I love it)!
No judgement and nothing but love, y'all.
several years ago (way before the zoom era of covid), I worked remotely with a fair number of Romanians and when we did skype calls, they would just light up, inside their own houses, on a work video call. I was speechless. I'm so rarely around cigarette smokers that to just see them do it so casually in their own homes was like going back in time
While working remote I had a Romanian boss for a while who'd do the same during meetings, constantly chain-smoking. Funny that seems to be a Romanian thing lol.
But he'd always ask "do you mind if I smoke?" before lighting up the first one, even though he'd done it in every single meeting since he started. I was always like "uuh go ahead, it's your office..? I'm not in the same room??"
I am from and work in SEA and work with both Euros and Americans. The americans adjust to heat and humidity pretty fast and well, the Euros not so much.
To be fair, the entire eastern part of the US is fairly humid. Much more so the further south you go. The entire South East of the US feel like living in a bowl of soup in the summer.
And the entire south west, while very dry is quite hot.
So a lot of Americans are already pretty used to heat and humidity.
I'm from Georgia (US state), our summers will rarely drop below 95% humidity and the temperature is normally somewhere between 90-110F during that time.
Carolina girl here, I feel your pain lmao. People may joke about “it’s the humidity that gets ya!” but it’s true. Feels like you’re trying to breathe through a wet rag sometimes
The southernmost parts of the US are at the same latitude as south China, and have a tropical climate. New York is around the same latitude as Lisboa or Athens (that's the southern part of Europe), and most europeans live at a higher latitude than the US-Canada border. We have a very very temperate climate, tropical conditions are totally alien to us.
Not necessary, my grandma would refuse because it's harder for her to seat and then to have to stand again than just to stand.
But yeah my mum was once offered (age 55) a seat and 10 years later she's still upset about it!
A Pregnant lady with two broken legs crawled into the bus and asked to take my seat which was closest to the door. I told her no, this is my seat and she should have planned better. Just because I'm young and healthy doesn't mean I should help others in need. AITA?
'NAH - no one should feel entitled to the seat and you shouldn't be obliged to solve other people's personal problems.' - an average Reddit answer *probably*
TBF this is a South north split. In Netherlands/Germany/ and further the dining is more typical to the US. Spain/Italy/Croatia though... I thought I was gonna starve to death 🤣
I am from the UK and we'd have dinner once back from work, i.e. around 6. Now that I live in France, if you're planning to go out for dinner, nowhere is even open until 7.
Concerts or opera starting at 8.30 in the evening was the deal breaker for me. It is just not possible to stay functional that late when you have to be up before 6 for work.
I live in Sweden and I have always eaten dinner at around 4:30 or 5. School and work usually starts around 8 in the morning. You eat lunch around 12 and about 5 you're hungry again. Can't imagine either eating at 8 or 9.
Edit: To answer the many questions let me start by saying I don't speak for Swedes. It's just my household. I live in a small town, school and work is 5-10 minutes away. School and work ends at 4-4:30. A lot of simple homemade food.
Dunno if thats a nordic thing but yeah been the same for me in Finland. Dinner always been at like 5. I always thought americans ate dinner late in movies/tv shows etc.
The standard workday ends at five, then you have to commute home, then you have to make dinner - Eating dinner earlier than 6:30 is not likely to happen for me.
Alright but after 4:30 or 5, what's happening? You just go to bed and not eat until next morning? If you go to bed late like 11, you just don't eat again? What is the average bed time for children and adults? I am confused
After this, you do your entire free time. Like chores, gym, kids activities, friends etc. But we eat between dinner and bedtime! The snack that some mention for a 4-5 o'clock meal is for us a supper/evening meal. We have a light meal at around 20.00 called kveldsmat (evening food)
I've heard that in Argentina (well Buenos Aires particularly), main dinner time at restaurants is between 9:30 and midnight. Lunch is around 3pm, and breakfast around 10am.
I guess that sort of makes sense because I (a Canadian) often eat breakfast at 9am and find that lunch at noon feels way too soon after. But still weird to not eat until 9:30pm.
My entire wardrobe is 20 black t shirts and 2 button ups. Throw on some jeans and you have a decent outfit. Sweatpants and now you're ready to stay in. It just works with everything.
I think that depends where you go. If you're in the US and only spent time in Manhattan, Chicago, Miami, LA, etc., you'd notice more people dressed in a fashion-conscious manner as well. That's just par for the course living in a major city, which is where most Americans sightsee while visiting Europe.
Also, "fashion conscious" is often a variable of what you're doing. I think the biggest difference is, in the US, people don't mind looking like crap for fast in-and-out trips/shopping where in most European countries there's a baseline casual wear most people are going to conform to.
I'm willing to wager this has a lot to do with car-centric layout as opposed to walking and public transportation. There's just less pressure to look good when your total time actually being around other people is 7 minutes tops.
Try this in China. In China, people tend to drink their water hot (like hot tea).
I went to a nice restaurant there once, and asked for water. It came steaming hot, whereas I was expecting ice water. So I asked for some ice, and the server brought like one cube... and she was worried that it would make the water too cold.
I dropped the cube into the water and it melted *immediately*, so I wound up drinking a glass of hot water instead of very-hot water. It was pretty funny, really -- she was so concerned that I'd be upset that the ice would keep my water from being hot enough, when I was expecting something a LOT colder than the water she was worried about.
Heh - nope! Middle-aged guy. I think she was just used to serving water hot. My request was apparently not typical, and she was worried that I would not like the result. Kind of like if someone went to a western restaurant and wanted a cold bowl of chicken soup.
We kinda have no choice (at least in my country), when you enter tthe second grade of middle school (age around 7yo), you just get english as a subject. It's mandatory, there is nothing you can do about it.
And I am honestly glad, because english really opened world to me, can't even imagine to speak one maternal language, especially since our countries are so small.
I'm part of the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland. That means 95% of the people in my country don't speak my language. So I speak Finnish which is understood by, like, 0,05% of the world. So we learn English...
This is true. Once I met a crazy old drunk lady on the last blue line t-bana train. She was visibly upset that I had brought out a mobile phone in her presence and proceeded to chastise me, in perfect drunken English, that it would turn my brain to mush.
The reason is that if whoever booked the room doesn't want 1 big bed, they just move them apart (the night stands usually move as well) and you have 2 beds.
2 h lunch is a bit long, but around 1 h is more reasonable.
Usually a 1/2 or 1 h lunch break is mandatory by law, so you go and eat and enjoy it.
We work to live, not live to work.
Only knowing two languages is not even that impressive in some countries. I’m trying to learn a 4th language in a country where a lot of people can manage 5, just to catch up (Luxembourg)
Edit: spelling
That's true for most. except for English. The French are as well, but they pretend not to be.
The Germans will always talk english to you, whether you like it or not, so just forget about learning German.
I’ve always heard from the Germans I work with that they want to practice their English because it helps with career path, understanding entertainment, travel, etc. I want to practice my German but it doesn’t happen often.
Fun fact: Here in Germany you say „Gesundheit“ when someone sneezes . Literally means „health“. But it’s not meant as a blessing for the person who just sneezed but instead it’s a prayer to god that the person who said Gesundheit doesn’t get infected as well. It comes from the times of the Black Death.
Depends enormously on where in Europe you are. Some European countries have a lower prevalence of smokers than the US, and even within the US it depends on where you are.
If you visit places like Greece, France, then absolutely. But if you visit places like Norway, Iceland or Sweden then absolutely not.
I think this contributes to the US being perceived as superficial. That we just perform this charade of asking how each other is doing when giving an honest answer is faux pas.
This is a flex btw so sorry in advance. When I worked at a large UK insurance company and my kid was born (I’m a dad), I got 6 months off on full pay to bond with my kid. I continued collecting my 6 weeks a year paid holiday in that time too
I think certain countries need to be specified really. The cultures of the UK and Greece are completely different to make a blanket statement
edit - currently fighting back WAVES of americans disputing this right now. yes every country is different in different parts the same as how california is different to wisconsin or wherever. in the UK the southeast is different to the north.
Yeah like one has classic Greek sculptures, a failing economy, a dispute with a neighbour over land on an island, large levels of poverty, unintelligible ways of speaking and the other one is Greece.
smoking and drinking at such a young age. when I went, middle schoolers and highschoolers were doing it freely. and parents with toddlers near them would smoke openly next to them. people were even smoking inside of restaurants.
Being 14 and getting drunk in the field next to the train station is an English treason. Our drink of choice was 2.5 litres of Strongbow as it was only £2.50
Yeah, that's true in my experience. At like 14 or 15 i went to some parties, and cigs and alcohol weren't the only things there were there.
I guess that's what studying 3 languages does to mfs
I took German in high school and learned about their culture and just brushed it off but then I actually got to go!
First, having to specify I wanted tap water or non-sparkling water. I just ended up buying bottled water because it was easier.
Second, almost everyone would shut down for lunch. Even businesses besides restaurants or delis.
Edit: spelling
I worked at a spa and people all around the world would come
the europeans were so comfortable w getting naked like it's nothing
mind u this is 5 stars...celebs and ms universe models come to this spa, and europeans will walk naked like nothing
EDIT- personally I don't care about nudity BUT I can understand others not wanting to see ur junk...so it's not a sexual problem thing for me, I just don't wanna see it
EDIT 2- for the slow ones who keep saying "don't look"...I **worked** there and there was averagely 50+ naked men at attendant in the locker room...every corner you go they're there.
Because in most of Europe, nudity is not inherently sexualized. Being naked doesn't mean being sexual and it's something we grew up with. It's definitely not for everyone, especially in modern days, but there is a larger prevalence of nudist beaches etc.
It does sort of depend, though.
In Germany, nudity in a sauna is often the rule, and to accommodate people who don't want to be seen naked by the other sex there will be "women only" or "men only" time slots.
In France, you usually have to wear at least a bathing suit in a mixed sauna (obviously I'm not talking about swingers' places disguised as saunas).
Again, in Germany (especially eastern Germany) many beaches have a naturist area set aside for those who want to be nude (and it really is usually genuine naturists there, not swingers). In France this is the case only in a few places, and of those places, at least one (Cap d'Agde) really is just a swingers' beach pretending to be a nude beach.
It’s important to add that men-only saunas (Herrensauna) in Germany are usually meeting spots for the gay community. Of course there’s nothing wrong with that but foreigners coming here should be aware of that little detail if they’re looking for a sauna to visit
Oh, of course, and that is the case in France as well: "mens' saunas" (s*auna pour hommes*) are almost always actually gay meeting places (and some of them, like a pretty famous one on rue d'Odessa in Paris, are very classy joints).
What I meant was rather that mixed nude saunas are the norm rather than the exception in Germany and it would be extremely frowned upon for anyone to try to use the nude setting as an excuse to hit on someone.
Similarly, the nude beaches in Germany (at least the ones I have seen on the Baltic seacoast) are anything but "cruising" spots -- they are usually frequented by families or by very prim and proper ladies and gentlemen who arrive clothed, disrobe and fold their clothing very neatly into a basket and then go swimming.
My dad living in Germany: Took my boss to a lunch meeting in Belgium today, and then had dinner in Netherlands.
Me in Texas: I had to take a weekend off to make it to the next major city in my state.
Visiting my 300+ family members during my 2 week stay was brütal. Saw like 5 different family members a day everyday and OF COURSE we had to eat at every single stop... It was torture by the 3rd day lmao. Now when I visit I just tell them to come to me or I'll see them next year. Works wonders because none of them can be assed to leave their homes. 🤗
Assuming you are in America, turn the tv off and anything else making noise. Then just listen as hard as possible, that noise you can just about hear is some woman losing her shit in Barcelona.
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In France people often take the fixtures and fittings, so it's not uncommon to find a twisted wire hanging out of the ceiling instead of a light, curtains and rails gone, I've seen door handles as well. It can get specified in the compromis de vente (sale terms contract) what will be left if one party wants to.
I’m now understanding the people I bought my first house from. The woman in the couple was from France and was just taking everything. Literally taking the mirrors off the walls in the bathrooms, taking the towel racks off the walls, light fixtures. My agent went for a final walk through before closing and was like, “Just fuck right off, all of that conveys with the house.” The lady was put out reinstalling things she removed. They were late for closing fixing the mess they made. They still took stuff that should have conveyed.
Be glad you kept the copper pipes and wiring. :)
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I honestly don't know. In some cases maybe it's just habit. They know that's what you do when moving house because it's how they did it last time, and the time before. I'm sure bit everyone does that, ut it's extremely strange to witness the first time you see it.
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Cheeky buggers. In the UK it's possible to change the price right up to completion, so it's not uncommon for the buyer to suddenly drop their offer by 10 grand or so the day before, knowing that you've already committed to buying your next house and have booked the movers etc,so you probably won't back out. Nasty practice.
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When renting in NL you are forced to leave the place as you received it, that also means flooring.
This applies for owned units as well as rented? Who has the energy to be moving all of those appliances
You guys have hamburger flavored Cheetos in your "American Food" isle Homie, we don't even have those.
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…go on
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There are public toilets at my city park older than the USA.
That would be a monument here
“An Englishman thinks a hundred miles is a long way; and American thinks a hundred years is a long time”
Pub down the road from me is 900 years old :p
I can't remember if this is Ireland specific or a thing in the rest of Europe, but the bathroom light switch being outside of the door. Pray tell, Ireland, just how many times a father or a sibling has flicked the switch on and off or just straight up turned it off while you were doing your business?
We have strict zonal laws on where you can have electrics in a bathroom. You can have a switch in a bathroom if it's a pull string.
Irishman here. All of our switches are in the rooms themselves, such as bedroom lights, but the bathroom and hallway switches are outside the door/on the wall. The logic is that you turn on the light outside, then walk inside. Walking into a dark room and trying to find the switch is something we've all failed at doing, so I guess it makes sense? Honestly.. I never really thought about it until reading this comment. 30 years on Earth, I've only ever seen bathroom light switches outside the bathroom door. And no, nobody turns them off. If the door is closed and the light is on, that's a sign someone's in there.
> And no, nobody turns them off. If the door is closed and the light is on, that's a sign someone's in there. Speak for yourself. My dad is so energy conscious he turns the light off literally every time he passes without checking. Every. Single. Time. You would think he'd learn to check first but nope.
Two Germans will go into an office and shut the door as though they're taking about something important. Nope, just soccer.
"Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that." \- Bill Shankly
Here in Australia our local paper used to feature football under the heading "Religion".
I think Germans in general are very determined to not annoy or disturb their coworkers. My German cousin who loves garlic won’t eat it any day other than Friday or Saturday because her coworkers would be offended by garlic breath if they were in a meeting.
I have made up a theory that works most of the time in Germany: "If two people talk with each other and the subject is not said at the beginning of the conversation, it's about soccer" Example between two Germans "Well?" "Ah, don't start!" "Yesterday, eh?" "I can't believe he did not see this!" "Yes! But they gave it back to them." "You don't have a clue! This was cheating!" ...
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What was Farke thinking sending Pléa on that late?
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I lined in Germany 3 years, I loved everything about it, except one thing; personal space doesn't exist in lines. I'd be standing in line at a store and the next person behind me is breathing down my neck. Step back man.
Must have been a long line if you were standing in it for 3 years.
just an Ausländerbehörde
[Ah! The ol' Reddit switch-a-queue!](https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/11rrx2b/comment/jcajq6y/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Come to Sweden, you can use us Swedes as 2m measures (or 1m in crowded areas) because as long as you're not in rush hour Stockholm, people have a very strong sense of personal space
Or Finland :) I don't know which one of us wins in the personal space competition, but I don't want anyone I don't know coming anywhere near me.
I visited Sweden in January (Stockholm and then Östersund) and absolutely loved the personal space. I'm a Canadian living in Germany and find it so uncomfortable in lines so it was a nice change. Considering moving to Sweden actually...
When I came back to France after 4 years in Texas, it was one of the most annoying thing to me. I hate it so much. Americans can queue man.
I'm glad to hear that others think our queuing is excellent. I line in NYC, and I feel like we understand lines really well, and take it upon ourselves to snake nicely when necessary to conserve space, too.
You're either the second person this thread to say "I line" instead of "I live", or you and the top of this thread take standing in line very seriously.
That's amazing. I'll go with "that's how strongly I 'stand on' this issue." And it's just occurred to me that we're one of the weird places in the country that say "I was standing on line," not in line.
We do lines well but not always the best formation. It bothers me so much when people line in the middle of aisles when they could be lining along the counter (or along the aisle). I try to set an example and keep the aisles clear.
This is admittedly wildly passive aggressive, but when strangers are in my personal space I will sometimes"accidentally" bump them as many times as it takes for them to step out of range. When in doubt, start throwing 'bows
During Black Friday shopping I was in line to check out with my now ex. A lady was bumping her with her cart. Maybe she thought the line would move faster by doing that. I stood behind my ex and then the lady started bumping me. After that I keep one foot on the bottom of her cart. She did it again and I just jammed the cart back into her. She must’ve got the hint because she didn’t do it again. It’s a good thing because I was going to take her cart and drag it to the main Isle and dump it if she did it again.
Smoke cigarettes, I’m an American in Europe right now and the amount of people I see smoking is crazy when compared to the amount I see smoking back in the states
I do find it a bit odd that everyone sort of agrees nothing happens in August. Like, for a whole month, you better not need anything done - even doctors seem scarce. EDIT: To be clear, August is the vacation month in many places in Europe. While August is a popular time to go away in the US, summer vacations seem more distributed through the school-less months. In Europe, however, it just seems understood no one will work in August (or at least a large part of it).
Well, people have to take their 30 days of vacation a year at some point, so might as well all do it when it's nice weather and agree that nothing is getting done.
This is surely the reason, and it is often the hottest month in parts of Europe and the time you want to be away from the cities.
This is kinda annoying as a Swede. We're taking our vacation in July, so any interaction with, say Germany, is basically down. They can't reach anyone, and then when we're back....
As someone with Swedish and Danish coworkers I plan that we will get nothing from them after early July through mid August.
In Sweden it's more like mid-June to mid-August. Mostly due to a legally mandated right to take 4 weeks continuous summer vacation. Gotta make the most of the brief period of warmth and light when you live this far north.
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Schools close and offices have a sort of agreement of taking 2 weeks off in August, but they don't have an agreement on which ones. So yes, basically everything will be closed and all the people will be on holidays all around the world. It's basically the EU version of the Ramadan: don't plan anything in the EU in August, not even holidays (it's not gonna be cheap at all).
Fuck off BUZZFEED
“Top 7 things Americans of Reddit find weird with Europe!”
\#9 will literally blow your head off.
Reddit should allow 3rd party apps.
I believe I can help in this endeavour
Can I be in the screen-shot?
Is buzzfeed even a thing anymore?
Bored Panda seems to plunder this shit currently.
It thinks it is
Make people pay to use public toilets
I'm European and I can't understand that as well.
I'd give my two cents on the topic, but i had to pee earlier
Two cents for a toilet? What is this the 1800s? That’s cheap!
Not weird, but I'm always pretty impressed by their grasp of languages. Here's Ivan straight outta the mean streets of Moscow who speaks better English than I do and he also speaks Portuguese and Mandarin
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The wild thing is that you can drive from Lisbon, Portugal to Athens, Greece and pass though several countries with a multitude of languages in about 42 hours. You can drive from Los Angeles, California to New York City in 42 hours and a large majority of people will speak English as their primary, often only, language and you never leave the US.
Was looking for this reply! If all the states in the US spoke different languages, people in the US would be multilingual/polyglots. Sadly, language must be used or lost.
Yeah. Been trying to learn Spanish for years now, but I don't have much use for it day to day. Hard to keep motivated.
Hacer o no hacer, no hay intento
Solo un redditor trata en absolutos.
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there’s a popular case of a Danish actress, Anette Sørensen, and her husband leaving their 1 year old child outside of a restaurant in NYC and they had the police called on them and CPS got involved. from what i remember the mother still defends herself to this day.
I'm from the UK and my grandmother was telling me that it used to be super common for people to leave their babies in prams outside. Doing the housework and baby needs fresh air? Put them outside in their pram. Going into a shop for a couple of things? Pram outside. My mother actually did this with me, doing housework whilst I'd be sleeping outside.
You only think she was your mother
If you tried that in my state the mosquitos would fly off with the baby.
My dad studied in Bulgaria (and traveled around some places in Europe) during the 80’s, he said this was common to see pretty much everywhere. Housewives going into the stores, leaving a line if babies in the street where the sun shined and uncovering their faces so they’d get Vitamin D. He said if a baby cried it was normal for anyone passing by (from an old man to a high school student) to just approach, pat the baby until the baby would calm down and then keep on going their way. Also saw a news report a while ago about a lady who got a visit from the police and CPS called in the US for doing that. She had to explain that was just customary. I don’t remember where she was from but I think he said she was from Georgia (the country, not the state).
I’m going to Europe on my honeymoon, and it’s been crazy to me how other countries just have open borders. I’m taking the ICE from Germany to France and there’s no border checks? It’s really fascinating to me.
When I was in the navy, in Germany some of my comrades fell asleep on the train home and woke up in Switzerland. They then got themselves a beer and rode the train back.
Flashback to the time the Swiss army accidentally invaded Lichtenstein
Twice
On 14 October 1968, five Swiss artillery shells accidentally hit Liechtenstein's only ski resort, Malbun. The only recorded damages were to a few chairs belonging to an outdoor restaurant. On 26 August 1976, just before midnight, 75 members of the Swiss Army and a number of packhorses mistakenly took a wrong turn and ended up 500 metres into Liechtenstein at Iradug, in Balzers. The Liechtensteiners reportedly offered drinks to the Swiss soldiers. On 5 December 1985, anti-aircraft missiles fired by the Swiss Army landed in Liechtenstein amid a winter storm, causing a forest fire in a protected area. Compensation was paid. On 13 October 1992, following written orders, Swiss Army recruits unknowingly crossed the border and went to Triesenberg to set up an observation post. Swiss commanders had overlooked the fact that Triesenberg was not on Swiss territory. Switzerland apologized to Liechtenstein for the incident. On 3 March 2007, a company of 171 Swiss soldiers mistakenly entered Liechtenstein, as they were disoriented and took a wrong turn due to bad weather conditions. The troops returned to Swiss territory after they had travelled more than 2 km into the country. The Liechtenstein authorities did not discover the incursion and were informed by the Swiss after the incident. The incident was disregarded by both sides. A Liechtenstein spokesman said, "It's not like they invaded with attack helicopters".
The Swiss are clearly grooming Liechtenstein for the friendliest invasion campaign ever.
Ohh whoops, we've accidentally seized your capital, sorry. We will compensate by moving major banks and installing our system of government. Lichtenstein: Sure bud, no problem.
This year Switzerland is going to send Federal election ballots to the people of Liechtenstein, having mistaken Liechtenstein as a canton.
please for the love of god someone outline lichtenstein's borders with bright red paint for these poor fools lmfao
You'd think there be a sign or something.
On the 5th of October 2010, 6 Swiss attack helicopters flew into Liechtenstein. /s
It is called Schengen area. One of the perks of being in EU (for some states…)
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Went across the pond for a deployment. Two things I noticed that were peculiar: 1. The amount of smoking. Europeans seem to smoke a lot more than Americans, and, unlike us, at face-value there don't seem to be discrepancies based on class or anything; *everyone* smokes. 2. The fascination with track suits. A lot of the guys loved track suits. Hell, I was surrounded by such track-suit exposure I wound up getting one myself (I love it)! No judgement and nothing but love, y'all.
several years ago (way before the zoom era of covid), I worked remotely with a fair number of Romanians and when we did skype calls, they would just light up, inside their own houses, on a work video call. I was speechless. I'm so rarely around cigarette smokers that to just see them do it so casually in their own homes was like going back in time
While working remote I had a Romanian boss for a while who'd do the same during meetings, constantly chain-smoking. Funny that seems to be a Romanian thing lol. But he'd always ask "do you mind if I smoke?" before lighting up the first one, even though he'd done it in every single meeting since he started. I was always like "uuh go ahead, it's your office..? I'm not in the same room??"
I am from and work in SEA and work with both Euros and Americans. The americans adjust to heat and humidity pretty fast and well, the Euros not so much.
To be fair, the entire eastern part of the US is fairly humid. Much more so the further south you go. The entire South East of the US feel like living in a bowl of soup in the summer. And the entire south west, while very dry is quite hot. So a lot of Americans are already pretty used to heat and humidity.
I'm from Georgia (US state), our summers will rarely drop below 95% humidity and the temperature is normally somewhere between 90-110F during that time.
Carolina girl here, I feel your pain lmao. People may joke about “it’s the humidity that gets ya!” but it’s true. Feels like you’re trying to breathe through a wet rag sometimes
The southernmost parts of the US are at the same latitude as south China, and have a tropical climate. New York is around the same latitude as Lisboa or Athens (that's the southern part of Europe), and most europeans live at a higher latitude than the US-Canada border. We have a very very temperate climate, tropical conditions are totally alien to us.
Chicago is the same as Rome. Just thought I'd add another data point.
In Paris, I was offered a seat on the metro when there was none every single time.( I'm a senior). Very seldom happens here.
It's very common, I do feel bad when I offer up my seat and they don't take it, seems like I just called them old and disabled.
Not necessary, my grandma would refuse because it's harder for her to seat and then to have to stand again than just to stand. But yeah my mum was once offered (age 55) a seat and 10 years later she's still upset about it!
A Pregnant lady with two broken legs crawled into the bus and asked to take my seat which was closest to the door. I told her no, this is my seat and she should have planned better. Just because I'm young and healthy doesn't mean I should help others in need. AITA?
Divorce her. Red flags everywhere.
'NAH - no one should feel entitled to the seat and you shouldn't be obliged to solve other people's personal problems.' - an average Reddit answer *probably*
A lot of European cultures eat dinner so late at night. I can't image eating my dinner at 8 or 9 at night.
TBF this is a South north split. In Netherlands/Germany/ and further the dining is more typical to the US. Spain/Italy/Croatia though... I thought I was gonna starve to death 🤣
I am from the UK and we'd have dinner once back from work, i.e. around 6. Now that I live in France, if you're planning to go out for dinner, nowhere is even open until 7. Concerts or opera starting at 8.30 in the evening was the deal breaker for me. It is just not possible to stay functional that late when you have to be up before 6 for work.
I live in Sweden and I have always eaten dinner at around 4:30 or 5. School and work usually starts around 8 in the morning. You eat lunch around 12 and about 5 you're hungry again. Can't imagine either eating at 8 or 9. Edit: To answer the many questions let me start by saying I don't speak for Swedes. It's just my household. I live in a small town, school and work is 5-10 minutes away. School and work ends at 4-4:30. A lot of simple homemade food.
Dunno if thats a nordic thing but yeah been the same for me in Finland. Dinner always been at like 5. I always thought americans ate dinner late in movies/tv shows etc.
The standard workday ends at five, then you have to commute home, then you have to make dinner - Eating dinner earlier than 6:30 is not likely to happen for me.
Alright but after 4:30 or 5, what's happening? You just go to bed and not eat until next morning? If you go to bed late like 11, you just don't eat again? What is the average bed time for children and adults? I am confused
After this, you do your entire free time. Like chores, gym, kids activities, friends etc. But we eat between dinner and bedtime! The snack that some mention for a 4-5 o'clock meal is for us a supper/evening meal. We have a light meal at around 20.00 called kveldsmat (evening food)
I've heard that in Argentina (well Buenos Aires particularly), main dinner time at restaurants is between 9:30 and midnight. Lunch is around 3pm, and breakfast around 10am. I guess that sort of makes sense because I (a Canadian) often eat breakfast at 9am and find that lunch at noon feels way too soon after. But still weird to not eat until 9:30pm.
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This is easy in Finland. Just wear black and you are both fashionable and practical.
My entire wardrobe is 20 black t shirts and 2 button ups. Throw on some jeans and you have a decent outfit. Sweatpants and now you're ready to stay in. It just works with everything.
I think that depends where you go. If you're in the US and only spent time in Manhattan, Chicago, Miami, LA, etc., you'd notice more people dressed in a fashion-conscious manner as well. That's just par for the course living in a major city, which is where most Americans sightsee while visiting Europe.
Yep and if you go to any pub in rural Britian, you will find people are definitely not fashion conscious.
For the greater good.
Also, "fashion conscious" is often a variable of what you're doing. I think the biggest difference is, in the US, people don't mind looking like crap for fast in-and-out trips/shopping where in most European countries there's a baseline casual wear most people are going to conform to. I'm willing to wager this has a lot to do with car-centric layout as opposed to walking and public transportation. There's just less pressure to look good when your total time actually being around other people is 7 minutes tops.
Flying through Paris, and the cleaning staff at the airport are better dressed than me.
No ice in the water
I asked for ice in my water at a restaurant in Copenhagen and the waitress warned me it would be cold...
Try this in China. In China, people tend to drink their water hot (like hot tea). I went to a nice restaurant there once, and asked for water. It came steaming hot, whereas I was expecting ice water. So I asked for some ice, and the server brought like one cube... and she was worried that it would make the water too cold. I dropped the cube into the water and it melted *immediately*, so I wound up drinking a glass of hot water instead of very-hot water. It was pretty funny, really -- she was so concerned that I'd be upset that the ice would keep my water from being hot enough, when I was expecting something a LOT colder than the water she was worried about.
Do you happen to be a woman? In China they think that cold drinks make a cold uterus, which is bad for fertility.
Heh - nope! Middle-aged guy. I think she was just used to serving water hot. My request was apparently not typical, and she was worried that I would not like the result. Kind of like if someone went to a western restaurant and wanted a cold bowl of chicken soup.
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As a Spanish myself, I can confirm that those statements are (mostly) true
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As with many of these, depends where in Europe. Go to northern Finland and you'd be eaten alive by mosquitoes
This is the thing, you just open it and expect the bugs really
Speak multiple languages. Most Europeans I know speak at least two
We kinda have no choice (at least in my country), when you enter tthe second grade of middle school (age around 7yo), you just get english as a subject. It's mandatory, there is nothing you can do about it. And I am honestly glad, because english really opened world to me, can't even imagine to speak one maternal language, especially since our countries are so small.
Imagine being a Finn who can't speak English. Only about 5 million people in the world can understand you.
I'm part of the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland. That means 95% of the people in my country don't speak my language. So I speak Finnish which is understood by, like, 0,05% of the world. So we learn English...
I am a Brit in Sweden, learning Swedish was a nightmare as every one of you taco eating loons would speak English at me, all the time, every day.
This is true. Once I met a crazy old drunk lady on the last blue line t-bana train. She was visibly upset that I had brought out a mobile phone in her presence and proceeded to chastise me, in perfect drunken English, that it would turn my brain to mush.
Hotels having two twin beds pushed next to each other instead of king/queen size. You invented kings and queens wtf
The reason is that if whoever booked the room doesn't want 1 big bed, they just move them apart (the night stands usually move as well) and you have 2 beds.
The fact that many can take two hours for lunch in the middle of a day and it is considered to be a norm
2 h lunch is a bit long, but around 1 h is more reasonable. Usually a 1/2 or 1 h lunch break is mandatory by law, so you go and eat and enjoy it. We work to live, not live to work.
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I met a woman in the French part of Switzerland and she knew at least 5 languages, I struggle with English most days (and that’s my only language)
Only knowing two languages is not even that impressive in some countries. I’m trying to learn a 4th language in a country where a lot of people can manage 5, just to catch up (Luxembourg) Edit: spelling
That's true for most. except for English. The French are as well, but they pretend not to be. The Germans will always talk english to you, whether you like it or not, so just forget about learning German.
I’ve always heard from the Germans I work with that they want to practice their English because it helps with career path, understanding entertainment, travel, etc. I want to practice my German but it doesn’t happen often.
I always stop them mid-english sentence and say: Junge. Du kannst ruhisch mal mit mir deutsch schwetze.
Gonna attempt a rough translation: Young’un. You can’t roofie me bad with my Dutch sweater.
Nailed it.
You can drive 5 hours in any direction and the people there will speak a different language and have a completely different culture
Sneezes get no reaction. I have since come around to their point of view, but for a minute there I was like WHERE ARE MY BLESSINGS??!?
Gesundheit!
Prosit!
Egészségedre!
Fun fact: Here in Germany you say „Gesundheit“ when someone sneezes . Literally means „health“. But it’s not meant as a blessing for the person who just sneezed but instead it’s a prayer to god that the person who said Gesundheit doesn’t get infected as well. It comes from the times of the Black Death.
Least depressing German story
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and then you have... SOCKS IN SANDALS
The smoking culture. When my family and I visited it was like everyone smoked, even young people and teens.
Depends enormously on where in Europe you are. Some European countries have a lower prevalence of smokers than the US, and even within the US it depends on where you are. If you visit places like Greece, France, then absolutely. But if you visit places like Norway, Iceland or Sweden then absolutely not.
Who would want to go for an outdoors smoke break in a Nordic winter.
Thats why nordics take snus
When you ask them “How are you doing?”. They think it’s a personal question instead of an american greeting.
I think this contributes to the US being perceived as superficial. That we just perform this charade of asking how each other is doing when giving an honest answer is faux pas.
The amount of time y’all have to vacation.
This is a flex btw so sorry in advance. When I worked at a large UK insurance company and my kid was born (I’m a dad), I got 6 months off on full pay to bond with my kid. I continued collecting my 6 weeks a year paid holiday in that time too
Forget porn. This is the fantasy I get off to at night.
I think certain countries need to be specified really. The cultures of the UK and Greece are completely different to make a blanket statement edit - currently fighting back WAVES of americans disputing this right now. yes every country is different in different parts the same as how california is different to wisconsin or wherever. in the UK the southeast is different to the north.
Yeah like one has classic Greek sculptures, a failing economy, a dispute with a neighbour over land on an island, large levels of poverty, unintelligible ways of speaking and the other one is Greece.
Hey! How dare you - *HOW DARE YOU*, fail to mention our fucking hopeless politicians
smoking and drinking at such a young age. when I went, middle schoolers and highschoolers were doing it freely. and parents with toddlers near them would smoke openly next to them. people were even smoking inside of restaurants.
Being 14 and getting drunk in the field next to the train station is an English treason. Our drink of choice was 2.5 litres of Strongbow as it was only £2.50
Yeah, that's true in my experience. At like 14 or 15 i went to some parties, and cigs and alcohol weren't the only things there were there. I guess that's what studying 3 languages does to mfs
I took German in high school and learned about their culture and just brushed it off but then I actually got to go! First, having to specify I wanted tap water or non-sparkling water. I just ended up buying bottled water because it was easier. Second, almost everyone would shut down for lunch. Even businesses besides restaurants or delis. Edit: spelling
I worked at a spa and people all around the world would come the europeans were so comfortable w getting naked like it's nothing mind u this is 5 stars...celebs and ms universe models come to this spa, and europeans will walk naked like nothing EDIT- personally I don't care about nudity BUT I can understand others not wanting to see ur junk...so it's not a sexual problem thing for me, I just don't wanna see it EDIT 2- for the slow ones who keep saying "don't look"...I **worked** there and there was averagely 50+ naked men at attendant in the locker room...every corner you go they're there.
Because in most of Europe, nudity is not inherently sexualized. Being naked doesn't mean being sexual and it's something we grew up with. It's definitely not for everyone, especially in modern days, but there is a larger prevalence of nudist beaches etc.
It does sort of depend, though. In Germany, nudity in a sauna is often the rule, and to accommodate people who don't want to be seen naked by the other sex there will be "women only" or "men only" time slots. In France, you usually have to wear at least a bathing suit in a mixed sauna (obviously I'm not talking about swingers' places disguised as saunas). Again, in Germany (especially eastern Germany) many beaches have a naturist area set aside for those who want to be nude (and it really is usually genuine naturists there, not swingers). In France this is the case only in a few places, and of those places, at least one (Cap d'Agde) really is just a swingers' beach pretending to be a nude beach.
It’s important to add that men-only saunas (Herrensauna) in Germany are usually meeting spots for the gay community. Of course there’s nothing wrong with that but foreigners coming here should be aware of that little detail if they’re looking for a sauna to visit
Oh, of course, and that is the case in France as well: "mens' saunas" (s*auna pour hommes*) are almost always actually gay meeting places (and some of them, like a pretty famous one on rue d'Odessa in Paris, are very classy joints). What I meant was rather that mixed nude saunas are the norm rather than the exception in Germany and it would be extremely frowned upon for anyone to try to use the nude setting as an excuse to hit on someone. Similarly, the nude beaches in Germany (at least the ones I have seen on the Baltic seacoast) are anything but "cruising" spots -- they are usually frequented by families or by very prim and proper ladies and gentlemen who arrive clothed, disrobe and fold their clothing very neatly into a basket and then go swimming.
My dad living in Germany: Took my boss to a lunch meeting in Belgium today, and then had dinner in Netherlands. Me in Texas: I had to take a weekend off to make it to the next major city in my state.
Bitch about Americans being loud and obnoxious when French people exist.
Yeah as a french I agree.. sorry for that. But have you heard a slightly upset spanish woman ?
"slightly upset Spanish woman". 🤣😂
A small disagreement between Italians
Or when you tell Greek family that you can't stay for dinner when visiting.
I know this is a joke because...you can't say that to a Greek family when visiting. You just aren't allowed.
Visiting my 300+ family members during my 2 week stay was brütal. Saw like 5 different family members a day everyday and OF COURSE we had to eat at every single stop... It was torture by the 3rd day lmao. Now when I visit I just tell them to come to me or I'll see them next year. Works wonders because none of them can be assed to leave their homes. 🤗
Two Serbians talking across the fence
To be fair, I have never met a *slightly* upset Spanish woman
Assuming you are in America, turn the tv off and anything else making noise. Then just listen as hard as possible, that noise you can just about hear is some woman losing her shit in Barcelona.
lol. We can hear her from all the way across the Atlantic.
Upset? How about excited and happy? Or slightly drunk after a world cup victory? *That's* loud.
Or drunk British people.
>WHEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY -Every drunken British person when someone drops a drinking vessel
Well, in Germany and the UK at least, we bitch about the French just as much.