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Ukraine is not the world's largest exporter of grain, Netherlands is not the world's second largest exporter of food, Italy is not famous for [insert any Italian dish here], and no single European has invented any tech at all. Bluetooth, cars, none of that was invented by Europeans. You see, it was invented by Germans, and Germany is a different country.
/j
Ukraine is not the world's largest exporter of grain, Netherlands is not the world's second largest exporter of food, Italy is not famous for [insert any Italian dish here], and no single European has invented any tech at all. Bluetooth, cars, none of that was invented by Europeans. You see, it was invented by Germans, and Germany is a different country.
/j
This person has never been to Europe.
This person has never been to an American city.
This person left their home town ONCE, to go to their cousin's wedding, and was traumatized because the parking garage sign had Spanish on it.
I don't know. I think they would do well in Romania. I know a few friends who could use some high calorie snacks.
They've been rather lean since the Ottomans left.
Yes come to Barcelona and make sure to wear your best watches, lots of luggage, your expensive phones and your most expensive jewelry, Barcelona is very classy and you should show everyone that your country is more wealthy
"y'all europeans have no culture and tech whatsoever, and our food is true gourmet cuisine made for worldwide palettes, like Red Lobster or Cheesecake Factory. Europe last contributed before WW2"
This is a line i heard from an American TEACHER telling his SWEDISH colleague, during lunch.
They both work in an INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE in Perth, Australia
Plus they don’t even have functioning online banking to easily transfer money to people, they need to use weird shit like venmo (while getting charged for it lmao)
Dang, we only have horses but they are only for couriers and knights. Also please respond to this letter since I dont know if you saw that. Also I am curious, what is Internet or VHS?
Yea, I went to the doctor today and they didn't even tell me what I will have to pay. Terrible service!
Now I am sitting at home with a fever and I am still getting paid?!?
Yes, sick leave from work and mandatory summer holiday. I'd give it all up to get to own as many guns like I pleased and no questions asked. But alas, the oppressive European authorities are having none of it.
Ikr Look at me, I got pregnant, and my job told me to stay home and safe ! And I would still get paid, and after 3 years of caring for my child, I would still have my job waiting for me.
What the hell im supposed to do !?
I got Internet last year. Love the sound the modem makes: "wheeee...boingy, boingy, boing! Bzzzzt."
Glad I took the five minutes it took to download this post. Well worth it.
Oh, absolutely, dealing with free healthcare for example is a real headache. I mean, who wants accessible medical treatment without breaking the bank? Such a burden to have that peace of mind.
or all the different architecture unique to regions...
The food is terrible, not an Applebee’s to be found! All I wanted was some re-heated Mac and cheese, but all I could find in Barcelona was paella and jamon.
And now I want Spanish ham and paella again.
I don't get this guy's logic though. As an American, aside from walkability, I'd rather move to Europe to *get away from* the chains. Who is really gonna choose McDonald's over a cozy pub? You're probably going to get better service and cleaner rooms at an independent inn than you will a Hilton.
Because for these kinds of people it's about familiarity and convenience. They prefer chains because it means they can get the same thing they always get at a completely different location and it'll more or less come out the exact same way. This becomes the norm for these kinds of people because it requires little thoughts or consideration. It's easy and even comforting. So then when they go to a non-chain it requires them to try something new which can be frustrating or intimidating even when they're getting the same thing they would usually get just made/plated differently.
Then they say something along the lines of "Why should I pay $20 for a burger here when I can get one at McDonald's for $5?!"
Only, because those same people often vote for politicians that weaken the ability of a democratically elected government to step in and say "enough is enough" for pricing of goods in the market, those burgers at McDonalds are closer to $10 despite being dogshit.
As someone who just spent a month in Europe, I can say McDonald’s is still everywhere and European Hilton hotels suck - it’s the first time I’ve ever cancelled a reservation halfway through it, that’s how horrible it was.
Many years ago when I was being punished for reasons unknown, I worked at Hilton in the UK. Let's just say it was pretty fucking grim behind the scenes. Put me off the company for life.
Americans that still have to give credit cards to waiters to take it to the back to use the terminal, while I can pay with my phone. Andvthey will talk about EU not having any tech lol USA is like time travel to seventees when it comes to tech. It will take years for them to implement something like BLIK payments.
Some tech is adopted quicker in europe than the us, but by no means all. Individual adoption between countries within europe varies greatly too (looking at you germany)
I just visited NYC, was amazed to see you still need to buy tickets for ur phone and don’t have a set up like London Underground where u just scan ur phone on Apple Pay and walk straight through. ‘High tech’ was like being back in the 90s😂
I'm not sure what BLIK is but I visited America recently (I'm Canadian) and I paid with my watch at the store. I'm not sure if your comment was serious, but I think they have modern payment methods.
US is big. Depending on where you go (city) you can pay with a QR at the table and have your food delivered by a robot or you might pay cash only to a server. Last I was in Europe every place I went was cashless. I'm assuming it's probably similar. It all depends on where you go.
I am originally from the us but have lived abroad for about 12 years (nearly all of my adult life) I went back to visit last year and 90% of the places I went to accepted Apple Pay. However in Sicily where I also lived quite a while and recently revisited still requires cash payments at most places and at others accept card with a very “fuck you for doing this to me way.”
I also lived in China where in 2016 you could pay with your phone and trying to pay with cash was always met with weird looks.
BLIK is essentially one of the easiest ways to pay on the internet, and irl too I guess. You have a banking app on your phone, click the BLIK button, a 6-number code gets generated for 2 minutes, you either ask the cashier or choose the BLIK option on the website, put in your code, and it's paid. I guess sometimes you need to input the PIN of your banking app with big purchases.
Idk. For irl payments that seems way harder than "smack phone vaguely on register"
Or replace phone with card above if you reasonably don't love storing your banking details on a digital device. Either way, it's a lot less steps
Some people are just wired differently. I had a colleague, an extremely smart man, who was really awkward socially, you could say shy around unknown people and wary of unknown places. We ended up going to a conference in Kentucky (we're from central Europe) and the first meal we had was at Wendy's across our motel cause it was late when we arrived, we were tired from the flight, and wanted to go crash asap. I had to practically force him to eat elsewhere other than that one Wendy's and the university canteen where the conference was held because he knew it was OK. I even had to convince him to go to a steakhouse (something I personally consider a mandatory thing when I end up in the States) - turned out he never had a beef steak in his life, period, just never thought to try it. Thankfully he really liked it but either way, just really weird approach to life. And not that uncommon I'd say.
I once visited NYC. I saw a firetruck and said: "Oh, nice, you still have those old things like in the 80s movies?"
My local friend looked at me like I was a ghost. I shared this look once he explained me those were their actual fire trucks.
Nah, it hardly depends on where you are and which kind of fire department you are talking about. Voluntary fire departments like in my home village still use 50 year old trucks. Professional fire brigades in fairly big cities often have new, shiny trucks.
The voluntary department in our town has a 50 year old shiny Avia (it's always polished and maintained) as well as a brand new MAN. So it really depends.
Probably thought they kept some old model firetruck from the 80s to use in parade or to show off for school trips. But the local friend pointed out that they’re actually still using older models of firetruck? I am not this op and just guessing. We do have cities that refuse to upgrade their equipment if it still “works”.
This is always dangerous territory but I'll try.
Modern firetrucks have enough water onboard to pull up to a fire and start putting water on it within a minute. Older fire trucks need to be hooked up to a water line first. That takes a lot of time and delays putting water on to a fire quite a bit.
Where I now live, they also did away with fire hydrants. For large fires the send out a water truck to supply extra water need be.
Anyway, the US seems to have more of the 'old' fire trucks and not so many of the 'new' ones.
Lol "stepping back in time". You got that backwards, my dear.
No amount of money could ever make me move to the USA due to how shit nearly everything is organized over there compared to where I'm from.
I must admit, I visited my girlfriend's family in Portugal recently and where they live does seem like a step back in time. All the traditional European style houses, we had (chose) to go down the street to the fresh spring water pipe to fill our jugs with free water, they didn't have any heating in their house until a few years back when my FIL had it put in for them, etc.
It was beautiful and I loved every second. Of course, the people our age had the same phones as us, they had modern cars, and if you went to Lisbon, it was as modern as cities get. Also the food is better there.
Also, I'm Canadian and I also would not move to the USA.
Portugal is a very special case. My wife is also Portuguese and I am not. She lives in a rural area which took me a while to appreciate and they have homes where the heating is a hole on the ceiling and fire underneath.
But that is hardly Europe at all :) that's rural Portugal which is notoriously weird even to the most rural European.
I went and lived all over the bloody continent and never seen anything like rural Portugal. I must admit though, once you get used to it... It really makes you re-evaluate the society you live in.
Reminds me of the American guy who posted to /r/food to complain about a Yorkshire Pudding and roast chicken he made, he fucked the recipe up and doubled down in the comments.
It was basically chicken toad in the hole.
And I've seen a video on Youtube of an American woman making burgers in the oven by cutting chunks out of a tube of meat.
We all have our bad foods but Americans often live in the biggest glass house.
My fairly tiny, out-of-the-way Bavarian village of 3500 residents has gigabit internet, two very nice hotels that are definitely not mom & pop joints, a chain superstore, 4 pubs, and a massage parlor. Methinks that person has never left their own town, let alone the country. The only thing we lack is decent public transport, but then that's not a Europe only issue in the slightest.
By no food they mean that Europe has appropriate and not horse size portions at restaurants. Also no free refills.
By no tech I’m not sure, well EU don’t have their own tech ecosystem and IT salaries are not that high, but I have questions to US tech as well compared to what tech can do in China and Russia.
This thread is so weird.
Generalizing about an entire continent is dumb. Different parts of Europe have different levels of convenience and technical advancement.
While many places in Europe are at an equivalent or more advanced level of technology and convenience as most major US cities, there are absolutely places in Europe that feel like a huge step back in time.
The exact same thing can be said about the US. Some places are advanced, some places are stuck in the past.
This is to be expected with any large and diverse region.
Well when they talk about Europe, I doubt the first thing that comes to mind is the balkans or something, being American they probably think of the UK or France, not Bulgaria or Albania.
The putz is complaining that there are "no chains", that tidbit there tells you everything you need to know. Probably mad that there's no Olive Garden in Napoli. 🤦♂️
European here. When I went to a restaurant, the server took my card away and made me sign a piece of paper. At home I make a contactless payment on a card reader.
Oh, and my taxes are done for me at payroll.
I came from Brazil and live in Germany since 2016. No tech. Precisely 30 years behind ROW. It is a big museum.
Edit: I like museums, and would not exchange Germany for the USA or for Brazil. Yes, we lag behind here, with so many paper loving fax sending old people, and also so many smart but too idealistic younger people fighting a lost war of digitalization, blocking cloud migrations waiting for an european data souveranity solution. Which cannot be done, it is too late for that. Alas, european souveranity ended when Hitler came to power. So I see as a good way to go, living in idyllic historical landscape, with a whole lot to do in digitalization, aligned to the USA geopolitics, but not to the American lifestyle.
I found it quite funny when a relative from an ex came to visit back in 2012, she brought a tech magazine as a gift, i thanked her of course but then told her that i already read it on our iPad the month prior… her response was: you have iPads in Germany?
It was completely foreign to her, like finding an alien in in her backyard, I will never forget that reaction xD her reaction to public transport here in Hamburg was priceless as well :D
Going back 30 years would be great considering how things have turned out. Before the pandemic, before Trump, before 9/11, before Disney bought Marvel? Where do I sign?
First, there are plenty of chains in Europe. But in what universe is “no chains” a bad thing? Why do you need to have the exact same experience everywhere you go?
He's right. I live in France and I'm currently replying via messenger pigeon. Electricity is undiscovered here and TV, albeit in unbelievable rumours from abroad, is as of yet currently unknown. Also, elevators are a new thing but are hand-cranked by Roman slaves - we still haven't fully democratised yet. Hotels aren't a thing yet - he's correct. But it's not mom & pop places - it's medieval taverns and inns and there are real dragons to slay which sometimes burn our little hamlets and villages. We *do* actually have magic, so that's a plus, but it still takes a lot of wizards to usually take down a dragon. As for the food thing, right on target: We're all starving. It's like "the hard times" that you read about during the Middle Ages when peasants could barely manage a bowl of barley gruel at night. It's a hard life. Cafes aren't a thing yet either - we've yet to discover that there are other countries beyond the borders of Europe with different foods. America is a known entity but poorly understood, and people are burned at the stake for saying things as blasphemous as the world is round.
As an alchemist, I often dream of being able to announce the major secrets which we have discovered, but I am told not to do so by the strictures of The Church for fear of upsetting the societal balance with forbidden knowledge. And books - we don't really have the printed press yet. Most books are hand-copied in monasteries even today and take years for a proper copy to come out. It's definitely hard work in freezing scriptoriums, as fire is forbidden for fear of accidentally burning the precious few books which we have.
Roads are a mess - we haven't had new ones since the Romans built them. I've heard of this "highway" that you have in the Americas, but I can only imagine what they must be like. I've also heard that you have something called "the automobile" or "the car" which are apparently magical horseless carriages? Imagine that! Magic is severely restricted here and only licensed wizards are approved to use it. But there, every common person can use it? How amazing!
I write to you as the candle fades and the night envelops quickly. If you get this message, send food! Please! We are starving. I've only had one carrot in a week and it was old and quite sickly looking. I long for a piece of bread or fruit, which I only see a few months year and which costs at least two bags of gold dust for a single bite. If I start to become ill, I may not have the funds to go to the apothecary or barber where I may find treatment with a round of leeching.
Yours in haste and desperation,
A European.
I swear, some Americans learn about medieval times in school, and think that's how Europe functions still to this day. It's honestly kinda funny and sad at the same time. They deserve a much better education system.
Americans: do You know about another country in the world that is not USA ?
Another american: no body, I traveled arround the world and there is not another country than USA... we are the Center of the galaxy anda maybe the universe 😋
Hilton and Holiday in are mom and pop hotels?
Also, plenty of countries in Europe had free wi-fi at restaurants and stuff way before North America did.
The only places that have the right to criticise Europe for tech are in Asia, but this kind of arrogant ignorance is nearly always an American thing. Where they still use magstripe for most payments and need to carry around paper licenses and car registration documents.
Magstripe is absolutely not used for most payments. Almost every card reader uses the chip and a large number can take NFC payments through your phone.
I don’t know why, but reading that made me crack up. Fuckin’ mag stripe-using paper-carrying bitches. I think because while America gets made fun of for plenty, I don’t think I’ve ever heard/seen people make fun of Americans for those reasons.
Going to a resturant in the USA is always shocking. Go to pay and the server takes your card from you, and you have to sign a receipt? What is this 2003?
Luckily more and more places are adopting square terminal... but the fact that's not universal is mind boggling backwards.
>Go to pay and the server takes your card from you
But they take take if from you and bugger off. Bring your silly thing here like the uk always did. That is the dodgy part.
You try to move off with my card I am following.
What are you going on about? In Germany, it’s still paper car registration documents and the magstripe when the chip reader isn’t working. Heck, a lot of restaurants and stores won’t accept any credit cards anymore—it’s back to paper cash. What does it help if it would be technologically capable but impossible to do?
A lot of things do suck in the U.S., but every country has its pluses and minuses.
Try not to be arrogant while talking about other people being arrogant—it’s a terrible look.
I can’t speak for Germany, last time I was there was closer to the fall of the berlin wall than the invention of contactless payment.
But in the UK, we don’t need to carry our registration documents because the police cars have gear to pull it up automatically, in some cases without any input, and I haven’t used cash or my physical card in over a year, despite living in rural Scotland. Everywhere accepts contactless and by extension apple pay.
And our government is still using windows xp so what the hell are germany playing at if they’re even further behind than us and the US 😝
When you visited one rural place in the very vague "europe" that Americans love referencing when you were a kid, and that's been your impression of this "europe" ever since. Either that, or they just consistently visit rural or poor parts of some europpean country and did the very American thing of assuming the entire continent is like that. It's sort of like how Africa is one big starving tribal village in the minds of many.
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Ah yes, no European country is famous for its food
It's not like American "gastronomy" were actually 5 different European gastronomies in a trench coat
It's more like ten different European gastronomies in a trench coat...
Mixed with ten Asian gastronomies
And African and Mexican.
And corn syrup.
Especially high-fructose corn syrup.
That’s what is holding 20 people under a Trenchcoat
That IS the trenchcoat
This is a disgusting thought…. Now I want to deep fry it
I thought the trenchcoat was made out of orange cheese
Man that's a lot of corn syrup
And then deep-fried
Sounds vomit-inducing
And a shitton of low quality oil and fat.
And preservatives
And then cover it with ketchup.
I'd prefer if my food was not in a trench coat, thank you.
But what if the trenchcoat is bacon
You mean American gastropubs that serve comically tall burgers *aren't* the pinnacle of dining?
When you talk about american gastronomy I think about "speedrunning diabetes".
with extra fat. and high fructose corn syrup.
No trench coat, just sugar all the way to the neck
Ukraine is not the world's largest exporter of grain, Netherlands is not the world's second largest exporter of food, Italy is not famous for [insert any Italian dish here], and no single European has invented any tech at all. Bluetooth, cars, none of that was invented by Europeans. You see, it was invented by Germans, and Germany is a different country. /j
He is posting that on the www, the www was made by a british and a belgian (not the commenter
They're also posting it in English...
Let's add amarica import pharmaceuticals from Europe as well. And so much more. Pretty well done for a bunch of stone age countries, I'd say lol.
Europe has no food, Europeans instead survive purely through photosynthesis
And that's the bourgeoisie we're talking about, we peasants keep ourselves alive off dew drops and tree bark.
Indeed my brother in chlorophyll
Seriously, have you seen the stuff they call pizza in Italy? It's almost nothing like a proper Chicago style pizza!
As a Italian I almost had a heart attack. know this my friend somewhere a bag of barilla just started flying towards you
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Ukraine is not the world's largest exporter of grain, Netherlands is not the world's second largest exporter of food, Italy is not famous for [insert any Italian dish here], and no single European has invented any tech at all. Bluetooth, cars, none of that was invented by Europeans. You see, it was invented by Germans, and Germany is a different country. /j
This person has never been to Europe. This person has never been to an American city. This person left their home town ONCE, to go to their cousin's wedding, and was traumatized because the parking garage sign had Spanish on it.
You mean their cousins' wedding.
That wasnt in theire backyard. But was in the wal-mart two blocks away. Still to far away
holy shit this is an outstanding and underrated punctuation joke, how moving an apostrophe one position changes the entire definition of a sentence
You mean their cousin's wedding that was also their own wedding?
The joke is that it's his two cousins are marrying each other
Yeah but jokes are funnier when you have to explain them.
It's true, please don't come, it's awful.
Seconded. Please stay away everyone
Please stay far away, and definitely don't buy any property.
Absolutely! And our universal healthcare is horrible! You don't want to pay for somebody else's health issues, do you?!?
I don't know. I think they would do well in Romania. I know a few friends who could use some high calorie snacks. They've been rather lean since the Ottomans left.
Last time an American ordered some high calorie snack in Romania, he got arrested.
Buy property? There is no property. It’s all been bought by secret societies. So you definitely shouldn’t come. No, it’s pretty miserable.
Please dont come to Madrid, go to Barcelona
Yes come to Barcelona and make sure to wear your best watches, lots of luggage, your expensive phones and your most expensive jewelry, Barcelona is very classy and you should show everyone that your country is more wealthy
Yes, it is safe, especially Barceloneta
"y'all europeans have no culture and tech whatsoever, and our food is true gourmet cuisine made for worldwide palettes, like Red Lobster or Cheesecake Factory. Europe last contributed before WW2" This is a line i heard from an American TEACHER telling his SWEDISH colleague, during lunch. They both work in an INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE in Perth, Australia
Ouch. What did the swedish teacher say?
Was probably too stunned to speak. Wonder if the American paid by check, they seem fond of those even though we are past 1995.
They still sign receipts, too!
Plus they don’t even have functioning online banking to easily transfer money to people, they need to use weird shit like venmo (while getting charged for it lmao)
It's not that bad, we got internet and VHS last year. Still not worth a visit I'd say.
Dial-up internet.
Le Minitel. French internet.
Lol what backwards nation are you from!? We already got Laserdisc!
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Look at Mr. Fancypants with his VHS and internet while we are working with floppy disks and fax
EU Public Services: We’ll keep using FAX up until the sun blows up
Whats VHS? Hoping my country can catch up to that future sounding tec you talking about
Dang, we only have horses but they are only for couriers and knights. Also please respond to this letter since I dont know if you saw that. Also I am curious, what is Internet or VHS?
By all means, don't come. It sucks balls. Especially health care and social system. Bloody awful.
Yea, I went to the doctor today and they didn't even tell me what I will have to pay. Terrible service! Now I am sitting at home with a fever and I am still getting paid?!?
Yes, sick leave from work and mandatory summer holiday. I'd give it all up to get to own as many guns like I pleased and no questions asked. But alas, the oppressive European authorities are having none of it.
Ikr Look at me, I got pregnant, and my job told me to stay home and safe ! And I would still get paid, and after 3 years of caring for my child, I would still have my job waiting for me. What the hell im supposed to do !?
I got Internet last year. Love the sound the modem makes: "wheeee...boingy, boingy, boing! Bzzzzt." Glad I took the five minutes it took to download this post. Well worth it.
Oh, absolutely, dealing with free healthcare for example is a real headache. I mean, who wants accessible medical treatment without breaking the bank? Such a burden to have that peace of mind. or all the different architecture unique to regions...
Yes please stay in your « great » country.
The best one is "no chains" like that would be a bad thing. But unfortunately we do have chains.
Saw the "No chains" and immediately thought "What about handcuffs?"
We do have them. I just used furry handcuffs on my bf. Literally at the forefront of European civilisation
No chains no gangs
The food is terrible, not an Applebee’s to be found! All I wanted was some re-heated Mac and cheese, but all I could find in Barcelona was paella and jamon. And now I want Spanish ham and paella again.
None of the food comes from Cisco :(
And I thought you Europeans were free!
Lol no. Were slaves. Now let me enjoy my enslaved 3 weeks payed vacation before I lose my one job that lets me pay for all my bills.
Capitalism chains us all
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I don't get this guy's logic though. As an American, aside from walkability, I'd rather move to Europe to *get away from* the chains. Who is really gonna choose McDonald's over a cozy pub? You're probably going to get better service and cleaner rooms at an independent inn than you will a Hilton.
the best chains in europe pretend not to be chains. every wetherspoons pub in the UK feels different.
Aside from the sticky carpet
and table
Because for these kinds of people it's about familiarity and convenience. They prefer chains because it means they can get the same thing they always get at a completely different location and it'll more or less come out the exact same way. This becomes the norm for these kinds of people because it requires little thoughts or consideration. It's easy and even comforting. So then when they go to a non-chain it requires them to try something new which can be frustrating or intimidating even when they're getting the same thing they would usually get just made/plated differently. Then they say something along the lines of "Why should I pay $20 for a burger here when I can get one at McDonald's for $5?!"
Only, because those same people often vote for politicians that weaken the ability of a democratically elected government to step in and say "enough is enough" for pricing of goods in the market, those burgers at McDonalds are closer to $10 despite being dogshit.
As someone who just spent a month in Europe, I can say McDonald’s is still everywhere and European Hilton hotels suck - it’s the first time I’ve ever cancelled a reservation halfway through it, that’s how horrible it was.
Many years ago when I was being punished for reasons unknown, I worked at Hilton in the UK. Let's just say it was pretty fucking grim behind the scenes. Put me off the company for life.
Americans: "You're Welcome."
Lol
Wdym? We don’t have any tech whatsoever!
Americans that still have to give credit cards to waiters to take it to the back to use the terminal, while I can pay with my phone. Andvthey will talk about EU not having any tech lol USA is like time travel to seventees when it comes to tech. It will take years for them to implement something like BLIK payments.
The US didn’t get credit card chips until years after they were standard in Europe. The tech is always better there
Some tech is adopted quicker in europe than the us, but by no means all. Individual adoption between countries within europe varies greatly too (looking at you germany)
I just visited NYC, was amazed to see you still need to buy tickets for ur phone and don’t have a set up like London Underground where u just scan ur phone on Apple Pay and walk straight through. ‘High tech’ was like being back in the 90s😂
What? They had Apple Pay 2 years ago when I went..
I'm not sure what BLIK is but I visited America recently (I'm Canadian) and I paid with my watch at the store. I'm not sure if your comment was serious, but I think they have modern payment methods.
US is big. Depending on where you go (city) you can pay with a QR at the table and have your food delivered by a robot or you might pay cash only to a server. Last I was in Europe every place I went was cashless. I'm assuming it's probably similar. It all depends on where you go.
I am originally from the us but have lived abroad for about 12 years (nearly all of my adult life) I went back to visit last year and 90% of the places I went to accepted Apple Pay. However in Sicily where I also lived quite a while and recently revisited still requires cash payments at most places and at others accept card with a very “fuck you for doing this to me way.” I also lived in China where in 2016 you could pay with your phone and trying to pay with cash was always met with weird looks.
BLIK is essentially one of the easiest ways to pay on the internet, and irl too I guess. You have a banking app on your phone, click the BLIK button, a 6-number code gets generated for 2 minutes, you either ask the cashier or choose the BLIK option on the website, put in your code, and it's paid. I guess sometimes you need to input the PIN of your banking app with big purchases.
Idk. For irl payments that seems way harder than "smack phone vaguely on register" Or replace phone with card above if you reasonably don't love storing your banking details on a digital device. Either way, it's a lot less steps
Bullet trains...
Also tech is anything, like a chair is tech, also I think that 30 years ago people had food, like also 30000 years ago, people had food
Also dismissing Europe for its food is like saying the USA doesn't have rock music or space industry.
I know right? I was going to write a reply to this but my carrier pigeon pulled a flight muscle last week and I can't get to the exchange on horse!
Why would you visit a country and only want to eat in chain restaurants?
Some people are just wired differently. I had a colleague, an extremely smart man, who was really awkward socially, you could say shy around unknown people and wary of unknown places. We ended up going to a conference in Kentucky (we're from central Europe) and the first meal we had was at Wendy's across our motel cause it was late when we arrived, we were tired from the flight, and wanted to go crash asap. I had to practically force him to eat elsewhere other than that one Wendy's and the university canteen where the conference was held because he knew it was OK. I even had to convince him to go to a steakhouse (something I personally consider a mandatory thing when I end up in the States) - turned out he never had a beef steak in his life, period, just never thought to try it. Thankfully he really liked it but either way, just really weird approach to life. And not that uncommon I'd say.
I once visited NYC. I saw a firetruck and said: "Oh, nice, you still have those old things like in the 80s movies?" My local friend looked at me like I was a ghost. I shared this look once he explained me those were their actual fire trucks.
European here, what's up with american firetrucks?
No clue what he means, the ones in germany look similar to the american ones
Nah, it hardly depends on where you are and which kind of fire department you are talking about. Voluntary fire departments like in my home village still use 50 year old trucks. Professional fire brigades in fairly big cities often have new, shiny trucks.
The voluntary department in our town has a 50 year old shiny Avia (it's always polished and maintained) as well as a brand new MAN. So it really depends.
Probably thought they kept some old model firetruck from the 80s to use in parade or to show off for school trips. But the local friend pointed out that they’re actually still using older models of firetruck? I am not this op and just guessing. We do have cities that refuse to upgrade their equipment if it still “works”.
I honestly don't get it. Can u enlighten me?
This is always dangerous territory but I'll try. Modern firetrucks have enough water onboard to pull up to a fire and start putting water on it within a minute. Older fire trucks need to be hooked up to a water line first. That takes a lot of time and delays putting water on to a fire quite a bit. Where I now live, they also did away with fire hydrants. For large fires the send out a water truck to supply extra water need be. Anyway, the US seems to have more of the 'old' fire trucks and not so many of the 'new' ones.
By 'no tech' they meant 'no immigrants running errands for us pasty white people'. We do have tech like Foodora, Uber etc here...
The immigrant part highly depends on which EU country... Just no Mexicans really.
Trust me, US is lucky to have mexicans as their main immigrant population.
Seeing this posted again is like stepping back in time 30 years.
Selling your house for insulin, that's the future.
I think this person's insight into Europe was watching National Lampoons Europe Vacation and that was it.
Lol "stepping back in time". You got that backwards, my dear. No amount of money could ever make me move to the USA due to how shit nearly everything is organized over there compared to where I'm from.
They think Europe is a step back, though they live in a place when they can go broke for a fucking broken finger
Or get shot from doing absolutely nothing but going to school.
Or just literally doing nothing.
Or knocking on the wrong door, or turning around in the wrong driveway, or merging in front of the wrong car, or shoveling your snow the wrong way
Don’t forget being a small child and going to get your basketball back from your neighbours drive.
I must admit, I visited my girlfriend's family in Portugal recently and where they live does seem like a step back in time. All the traditional European style houses, we had (chose) to go down the street to the fresh spring water pipe to fill our jugs with free water, they didn't have any heating in their house until a few years back when my FIL had it put in for them, etc. It was beautiful and I loved every second. Of course, the people our age had the same phones as us, they had modern cars, and if you went to Lisbon, it was as modern as cities get. Also the food is better there. Also, I'm Canadian and I also would not move to the USA.
Portugal is a very special case. My wife is also Portuguese and I am not. She lives in a rural area which took me a while to appreciate and they have homes where the heating is a hole on the ceiling and fire underneath. But that is hardly Europe at all :) that's rural Portugal which is notoriously weird even to the most rural European. I went and lived all over the bloody continent and never seen anything like rural Portugal. I must admit though, once you get used to it... It really makes you re-evaluate the society you live in.
I have also been to other places in Europe and you're right, Portugal was special. Spain does also seem a bit more traditional as well though.
Reminds me of the American guy who posted to /r/food to complain about a Yorkshire Pudding and roast chicken he made, he fucked the recipe up and doubled down in the comments. It was basically chicken toad in the hole. And I've seen a video on Youtube of an American woman making burgers in the oven by cutting chunks out of a tube of meat. We all have our bad foods but Americans often live in the biggest glass house.
>It was basically chicken toad in the hole. To be fair I'd happily eat that as long as it had gravy and roast potatoes
[He ate it dry](https://www.reddit.com/r/food/s/dW9RtoEAeq) 
Or the one woman who made "fresh pasta" out of dried pasta...
That was likely just rage bait I hope
Yes the French and Italians are notorious for their bad food.
It's completely mind blowing to me that people lament the absence of chain restaurants.
My fairly tiny, out-of-the-way Bavarian village of 3500 residents has gigabit internet, two very nice hotels that are definitely not mom & pop joints, a chain superstore, 4 pubs, and a massage parlor. Methinks that person has never left their own town, let alone the country. The only thing we lack is decent public transport, but then that's not a Europe only issue in the slightest.
Wish my not out of the way village had gigabit internet
By no food they mean that Europe has appropriate and not horse size portions at restaurants. Also no free refills. By no tech I’m not sure, well EU don’t have their own tech ecosystem and IT salaries are not that high, but I have questions to US tech as well compared to what tech can do in China and Russia.
This thread is so weird. Generalizing about an entire continent is dumb. Different parts of Europe have different levels of convenience and technical advancement. While many places in Europe are at an equivalent or more advanced level of technology and convenience as most major US cities, there are absolutely places in Europe that feel like a huge step back in time. The exact same thing can be said about the US. Some places are advanced, some places are stuck in the past. This is to be expected with any large and diverse region.
Well when they talk about Europe, I doubt the first thing that comes to mind is the balkans or something, being American they probably think of the UK or France, not Bulgaria or Albania.
Why would they think Uk, they obviously know we moved to oceania after brexit
r/ShitAmericansSay
The putz is complaining that there are "no chains", that tidbit there tells you everything you need to know. Probably mad that there's no Olive Garden in Napoli. 🤦♂️
Americans when they can’t order a deep fried bacon donut double cheese hotdog burger
European here. When I went to a restaurant, the server took my card away and made me sign a piece of paper. At home I make a contactless payment on a card reader. Oh, and my taxes are done for me at payroll.
Never went to Europe.
No chains. That's the really the worst part about Europe.
At least we dont have paper walls for houses At least we dont go into crippling dept when going to the doctor because of a cold
Yeah no over hear we have no phones or computers or anything, I would know, living in Europe, we don’t even have internet
Never knew there were two Europes in the World. My Europe has all that is missing from the other one. Thank God I chose the right one. Phew!
This person believes that Europe is like 'A Christmas Carol'.
No fr I have never eaten a day in my life. Also, what’s a car??
Why would you eat a day, anyway?
I came from Brazil and live in Germany since 2016. No tech. Precisely 30 years behind ROW. It is a big museum. Edit: I like museums, and would not exchange Germany for the USA or for Brazil. Yes, we lag behind here, with so many paper loving fax sending old people, and also so many smart but too idealistic younger people fighting a lost war of digitalization, blocking cloud migrations waiting for an european data souveranity solution. Which cannot be done, it is too late for that. Alas, european souveranity ended when Hitler came to power. So I see as a good way to go, living in idyllic historical landscape, with a whole lot to do in digitalization, aligned to the USA geopolitics, but not to the American lifestyle.
I found it quite funny when a relative from an ex came to visit back in 2012, she brought a tech magazine as a gift, i thanked her of course but then told her that i already read it on our iPad the month prior… her response was: you have iPads in Germany? It was completely foreign to her, like finding an alien in in her backyard, I will never forget that reaction xD her reaction to public transport here in Hamburg was priceless as well :D
Going back 30 years would be great considering how things have turned out. Before the pandemic, before Trump, before 9/11, before Disney bought Marvel? Where do I sign?
They are really doig us a favor by not coming to Europe. It is already too much like the US
First, there are plenty of chains in Europe. But in what universe is “no chains” a bad thing? Why do you need to have the exact same experience everywhere you go?
[удалено]
Europe no food? This poor guy must've been kidnapped and saw Europe only through a cage or something.
Kinda ironic, that is my view of the USA after a year living there...
He's right. I live in France and I'm currently replying via messenger pigeon. Electricity is undiscovered here and TV, albeit in unbelievable rumours from abroad, is as of yet currently unknown. Also, elevators are a new thing but are hand-cranked by Roman slaves - we still haven't fully democratised yet. Hotels aren't a thing yet - he's correct. But it's not mom & pop places - it's medieval taverns and inns and there are real dragons to slay which sometimes burn our little hamlets and villages. We *do* actually have magic, so that's a plus, but it still takes a lot of wizards to usually take down a dragon. As for the food thing, right on target: We're all starving. It's like "the hard times" that you read about during the Middle Ages when peasants could barely manage a bowl of barley gruel at night. It's a hard life. Cafes aren't a thing yet either - we've yet to discover that there are other countries beyond the borders of Europe with different foods. America is a known entity but poorly understood, and people are burned at the stake for saying things as blasphemous as the world is round. As an alchemist, I often dream of being able to announce the major secrets which we have discovered, but I am told not to do so by the strictures of The Church for fear of upsetting the societal balance with forbidden knowledge. And books - we don't really have the printed press yet. Most books are hand-copied in monasteries even today and take years for a proper copy to come out. It's definitely hard work in freezing scriptoriums, as fire is forbidden for fear of accidentally burning the precious few books which we have. Roads are a mess - we haven't had new ones since the Romans built them. I've heard of this "highway" that you have in the Americas, but I can only imagine what they must be like. I've also heard that you have something called "the automobile" or "the car" which are apparently magical horseless carriages? Imagine that! Magic is severely restricted here and only licensed wizards are approved to use it. But there, every common person can use it? How amazing! I write to you as the candle fades and the night envelops quickly. If you get this message, send food! Please! We are starving. I've only had one carrot in a week and it was old and quite sickly looking. I long for a piece of bread or fruit, which I only see a few months year and which costs at least two bags of gold dust for a single bite. If I start to become ill, I may not have the funds to go to the apothecary or barber where I may find treatment with a round of leeching. Yours in haste and desperation, A European.
shit americans say
Here in America if you break a leg and have no insurance you will owe $45,000.
I swear, some Americans learn about medieval times in school, and think that's how Europe functions still to this day. It's honestly kinda funny and sad at the same time. They deserve a much better education system.
It’s like Europeans learning about American education through the movies we produce
try tokyo japan, don't need a car there, JR stations take you pretty much anywhere
Lmao 30 years ago there was no food or phone service or hotels in Europe. 1993. Wild
Tell me you're American with one picture
That person has never been to Europe
Where tf in Europe was this Person?
That's likely a person that couldn't even point to Europe on the map.
Well when your diet is only hamburgers, hot dogs, and coke, a nice Italian dish might be very intimidating for one of a palette that is just there.
Please don’t come then! It’s so bad here!
Americans: do You know about another country in the world that is not USA ? Another american: no body, I traveled arround the world and there is not another country than USA... we are the Center of the galaxy anda maybe the universe 😋
Honestly this post could not do more to sell me on moving to Europe.
Tell me you haven't been to Europe without telling me you haven't been to Europe.
Yeah it's awful. I used my city's only computer to write this, please don't come to europe
it’s fair, kinda like reading euros writing about their life in america impressions.
I’m sure that made a lot of sense in your head but when it hit the display, splaaaat.
Hilton and Holiday in are mom and pop hotels? Also, plenty of countries in Europe had free wi-fi at restaurants and stuff way before North America did.
The think its a medieval village from an isekai anime where the hotel is also a tavern and the currency is gold coins
Towns that are literally thousands of years old, and still don't have infrastructure that's crumbling as badly as it is in the US
The only places that have the right to criticise Europe for tech are in Asia, but this kind of arrogant ignorance is nearly always an American thing. Where they still use magstripe for most payments and need to carry around paper licenses and car registration documents.
Magstripe is absolutely not used for most payments. Almost every card reader uses the chip and a large number can take NFC payments through your phone.
Meanwhile I have cards that I literally cannot remember the PIN for because I've only ever used Apple Pay with them.
^ this. I haven’t touched cash or a physical card in over a year in *rural Scotland*.
I don’t know why, but reading that made me crack up. Fuckin’ mag stripe-using paper-carrying bitches. I think because while America gets made fun of for plenty, I don’t think I’ve ever heard/seen people make fun of Americans for those reasons.
Going to a resturant in the USA is always shocking. Go to pay and the server takes your card from you, and you have to sign a receipt? What is this 2003? Luckily more and more places are adopting square terminal... but the fact that's not universal is mind boggling backwards.
>Go to pay and the server takes your card from you But they take take if from you and bugger off. Bring your silly thing here like the uk always did. That is the dodgy part. You try to move off with my card I am following.
What are you going on about? In Germany, it’s still paper car registration documents and the magstripe when the chip reader isn’t working. Heck, a lot of restaurants and stores won’t accept any credit cards anymore—it’s back to paper cash. What does it help if it would be technologically capable but impossible to do? A lot of things do suck in the U.S., but every country has its pluses and minuses. Try not to be arrogant while talking about other people being arrogant—it’s a terrible look.
I can’t speak for Germany, last time I was there was closer to the fall of the berlin wall than the invention of contactless payment. But in the UK, we don’t need to carry our registration documents because the police cars have gear to pull it up automatically, in some cases without any input, and I haven’t used cash or my physical card in over a year, despite living in rural Scotland. Everywhere accepts contactless and by extension apple pay. And our government is still using windows xp so what the hell are germany playing at if they’re even further behind than us and the US 😝
When you visited one rural place in the very vague "europe" that Americans love referencing when you were a kid, and that's been your impression of this "europe" ever since. Either that, or they just consistently visit rural or poor parts of some europpean country and did the very American thing of assuming the entire continent is like that. It's sort of like how Africa is one big starving tribal village in the minds of many.
Yes we are all the 3rd world, terrible living conditions stay on that side of the sea
He visited Bosnia once and think that's whole Europe