A few months ago, we did a piece on a viral thread that had Europeans revealing their biggest WTF moments while traveling in the US. But since planes fly both ways across the Atlantic, let's turn the tables, shall we?
Turns out, Reddit user Cyber-Gon submitted a question to r/AskReddit, asking: "Americans who visited Europe, what was your biggest WTF moment?" and their answers are just as entertaining as the Europeans'.
From divine German tap water to the number of bicycles in the Netherlands, here are some of the most-upvoted replies!
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Y'all get how many days of paid vacation?! And sick leave? And public healthcare?! And you don't live in a socialist hellhole like I've been told? America, you lied to me!
Tripped on an escalator in England. Got stitches. Was laughed at when I offered to pay the bill. "What bill? This is the civilized world."
In Toulouse, France, I went to a nice restaurant and ordered dinner. When it arrived, I was like, 'Where's the rest of it?' The waitress laughed, as she grew up there and in Canada. (I'm from Brooklyn, New York, where portions are huge.) She calmly told me to eat it and if I was still hungry to order another one. By the last bite, I was stuffed. That was my WTF moment: when I realized how rich and high quality the food was over there.
I am always overwelled by American portions, and I was born and raised here. American portions are ridiculous. Where else in the whole world would you have contests to see who can eat a 2kg (72oz) stake the fastest?
It boggled my mind how old everything was and how it was still integrated into everyday life. Like in the UK, drinking in a pub that had been in the same spot since the 11th century or eating dinner at restaurant in an 18th-century cathedral. Or in Prague, staying in a hotel that had been operating since the 15th century
My biggest WTF was coming back to the States. Seemed like such a downgrade.
lol it kind of is... Ive always dreamed of going to Germany, but the cost of living there is a ton.
Not American, but Canadian.
First time I went to Ireland, I go through customs and the agent says to me...
"business or personal"
"personal"
"oh yeah, what's up?"
"Visiting the Inlaws."
"first time in Ireland?"
"Yes sir"
"feck*ng eh... Well, why ya standin around. go get pissed.
We were driving through Spain, and to the side of one of the roads, we noticed these MASSIVE bird nests in the high power electrical towers. They were at least twice the size of eagles nests that I had seen. And there were so many of them!
Then we saw these giant birds in them! We stopped by the side of the road and tried to take some pictures (didn’t have a great zoom lens, sadly). But no one else was stopping. It was so odd. We are accustomed to at least a few people stopping to watch the osprey, eagles, or other birds where I’m from.
So a few days later, we are chatting with a German tourist, and we bring up the birds...
I think she thought we were joking until we pulled out the pictures. Then she started laughing.
Storks. Those are storks. Of course, don’t you know that? They are everywhere and such a nuisance. Don’t you have storks in America?
Well...no?
Then she looked confused. Well, if you don’t have storks, who brings the babies in kids stories?
Storks.
Um...how does that work?
And that was when we realized that the story of the storks makes a whole lot more sense when storks are nesting on every chimney, tree, or tall place...
In Poland the storks are believed to be noble birds and are extremely regarded and respected. Some people would purposedly build starting of the nests for them just to have them in the neighbourhood.
French butter made me stop and reflect on the beauty of being alive. I didn't think butter could be improved upon, but holy sh*t. So creamy."
If something costs five euros, it's exactly that. Tax is included.
In Europe, wait staff are paid a living wage so they do not need tips. The eating experience is much more laid-back and slower in Europe, relative to America. It also seems like [European] wait staff is never trying to force you out of the restaurant once you are done eating.
Went to Dover England and saw a mother f*cking castle. The newest section was built like 300-400 years before my country was founded. Turned a corner and the next part was 200 years older than that. Ten minutes later walk up to a Roman light house built 2000 years ago. Daaaammmnnn
Edit: The best part was we arrived the night before we went to the castle. I didnt see it on the ride to the hotel. (We get inside and our room is the largest room we had seen at any of our hotels apparently the hotel was built by an American company so the rooms were built like they would be In the US.) I open the curtains to see what is out my window, usually a parking lot, another random building or something boring. Not today Yank, not today. CASTLE.
Love this. Lived in USA 21 years and laughed at how old Americans think is old.
I lived in Spain for 9 months at one point and was trying to get to the supermarket in the middle of a weekday and the entire city center was blocked off. I had to park and walk a ways and discovered that they were having a giant block party. Kegs and all. Around noon. Celebrating the towns new garbage trucks.
I love Spain.
Funny enough, my biggest WTF moment came from an American. We were at a restaurant in Cinque Terre, Italy called Trattoria Dal Billy. About halfway through our meal, I overheard a guy with a Tennessee/Arkansas accent say, verbatim, in a frustrated tone "you need to speak more American!" to his waiter. This isn't Rome. This isn't Venice. It's a small town called Manarola. The odds of finding someone fluent in your language are drastically lowered; however, this guy was pompous enough to not only continue to berate his waiter, but then tell the manager who came around that he needs to hire someone who can speak American...in a foreign country...of which he obviously speaks ZERO of their language. Seriously, WTF!
As a European I've been to plenty of countries where I didn't speak the language and let me tell you: you can still have a perfectly pleasant meal in a restaurant. In fact, it's part of the experience of being abroad. I once stayed in an Italian B&B whose owner didn't speak any English but he remembered my birthday from checking me in. On the day of he tried to wish me a happy one, and I'm embarrassed to say it took me about 5 minutes to connect the dots. But he was sincere, and I was touched, and it was an all aroud fun experience!
I always learn how to say hello, goodbye, please and thank you in the country I'm visiting, even though they can speak my language. This is common courtesy in my opinion.
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On behalf of all Americans, I apologize for the Ugly Americans. I was raised to believe one should know at least 20 essential phrases in any language dominant in any place I visit. It is called "courtesy". If you don't speak any of the language, make cards in the language that say "I only speak English, so sorry!" .... Or we do in my fam, anyway. Yes, we're weird.
The ignorant rube thinks English is “American” ? Angers me the beauty and class of Cinque Terre was wasted on this buffoon!
English is still the universal language. What a shame when I heard a French man get annoyed that the manager of the hostel did not speak French ... in the depths of Chile. WTF ?!
I was staying at a hotel in Turkey that had a marvellous restaurant, functioning as a separate part of the hotel and i encountered the rudest tourist i ever seen. He was an American, yelling at the poor TURKISH waiter, at a fancy TURKISH restaurant, in a TURKISH city trying to loudly enforce him to accept a payment in AMERICAN dollar! WTF? I was waiting behind the "murican" and as i was sorry for the poor waiter who was very polite and professional, i just kindly offered the "murican" an advice: "maybe you should try to pay in US dollars in USA sir?". And he was like "i travel a lot, every country take dollars, it's dollars!" like he was paying in gold and giving them a favor.
Actually lots of hotels and restaurants in high traffic tourist areas will take US dollars (and give you a really bad exchange rate, of course, it's the cost of convenience). But it's obviously not something that should be reasonably expected.
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This is my uncle in law. He speaks perfect English but always refused to speak it with me (when I was still learning Flemish) and used to lecture or yell at me because ‘this is Flanders and you need to speak Flemish’ (even thought we were speaking Flemish and I was going 4d a week to class). But he keeps travelling around and expects everybody to speak at least English and complains if they don’t. F****r I hate him.
My foreign language skills are shocking, but that's part of the experience! You are a guest in their country, show some respect.
I've many American friends and I understand that there's the first cringe moment when they hear another American getting angry they can't pay in dollars in a rural train station etc and feel 'oh', and the scales fall away from their eyes.
What part of - when in Manarola, do as the manarolans - didn't he understand.
stupid people sometimes. nothing wrong with travleing without speaking much of the language, but there is something wrong with demanding the people there learn your language
AMERICANS ARE RUDE AND STUPID, I AM ONE AND SEE WHAT MAKES ME WANT TO LEAVE HERE, I WILL NOT BE LABELED BY THE IGNORANT!!!!!!!!
The only proper response to that guy is, “Go back to America.” Although he’s not wanted by a majority of us, either.
It suprieses me that you do t know how obnoxious your fellow americans are. Not to be rude,but I really feel like out of all the developed countries you guys have the worst manners.
I think many Americans, who are too lazy to learn another language, have no understanding of how hard it is. It is just not changing one word for another. It is learning how to construct sentences and even learn the real meaning of some common phrases, that makes no sense if you just translate them word for word. It can require a lot of insigt into the culture of the country of the language too, in order to get the meaning through in the right way. I simply think that a lot of them underestimate the amount of work that goes into it, and how ridiculess their "just speak American" statement therefore is. Just because you don't remember learning your own language, does not mean that it is easy. They have no idea how much they are demanding of the person they are speaking to, because they could not themself be bothered to do the task of learning another language.
Totally beside the point, but Tennessee and Arkansas accents are quite different.
yea in america we expect everyone to speak English its sad, we don't even need to learn an other language in school!
I mean, technically American applies to all languages from Greenland to Argentina...so...
Americans act like the are the richest ones on the planet and everyone else is dying to get five cents from them. No sir, I earn just about enough to be happy and you being rude to me will only get you less service in europe.
I feel sad for Cinque Terre. Only 20 years ago it was a genuinely nice and charming place, already with tourists of course, but not so much and mainly Italians, because it was not very famous and the secret of its tremendous beauty was preserved somehow. Now it's been advertised worldwide by travel agencies, social media and influencers, so it's all crowded and f****d up. Mass tourism is a plague.
I once experienced the other way around: an American who thought no-one would understand what he was saying while being quite rude.
This is just a really rude customer that thinks staff has to speak their language! I've dealt with too many as a hotel worker that I'm fed up! When I go to Russia I will demand they speak to me in Greek😅😅😅( mentioned Russia only cause i dealt mainly with Russians but i had these with other nationalities also)
And that’s when I turn bright red and try to keep my accent to a touch English because that is for real super embarrassing
Well i live in Europe by try finding someone able and willing to speak anything else that French... Communication there is a bit tricky
I think if I went to Europe, I'd spend half the time apologizing for all the Americans that came through before me.
Honesty, the majority of us in Europe do know that most Americans aren't like that. Yes, I have met some who are but most are really friendly and perfectly pleasant.
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People do speak English (ok, talking about 'American' does make it sound dumb, I agree) in Italy. And the fact that they didn't in a restaurant, well, it is a problem. Yes, even in a small town. We've been having English classes in schools since late '80s now, at least, it's unbelieveable that we're still justifying this - writing from a small Italian town.
If you don't want to face a little language issues in foreign travel, maybe go take a walk around your block and be happy to consider this the travel of your life
Had a similar experience in Spain in line for a museum experience. I was behind the Americans, I can't remember what they did, but it was directed at the museum staff at the head of the line, and it was annoying. When they moved on I said to the staff person "Americans" and rolled my eyes. They laughed and said, "where are you from?" I said, "America."
Da Billy is an amazing place. funny thing is that normally tourists regard us ligurians as non welcoming people who tend to treat customers poorly because we are annoyed by their very existence, not to mention the fact that we have to deal with them. that is partly true and we love to make jokes on this - but for once the customer wasn't right...
Its such a mistake to piss off an italian waiter or manager. I found out that if you try to speak their language or be very nice and laid back, they let you know they like you in form of offering coffee or drinks on the house. This also seems to work with greeks.
oh, yes, the rubes who think we have our own language or that we invented it.
That is not how most of us act. Not only that , but we do learn foreign languages in public schools . Your hillbilly story seems a little contrived
I was doing a study abroad program in the UK but also had to take monthly blood tests for a medication I had been put on before I flew over. I was fully prepared for a laundry list of paperwork and fees to deal with the tests as well as getting these results to my doctor back in the states.
After the first blood test I went up to the receptionist and asked what I owed. She looked at me with a bit of confusion and said, "Oh, no, you're fine you can just go." My doctor doctor also got my blood results in less time than they did when I got them in the states. Screw our broken healthcare system.
Went to Denmark on a whim with some friends. The biggest surprise was when I realized that I had met a ton of strangers over the course of a week and I had no idea what they did for a living. Never once did we talk about work or school.
Amazing insight I'm going to screen cap this and repost to instagram. Americans are so brainwashed they don't know how hard they're being screwed.
Every night in Spain, around 3 a.m. this MASSIVE fleet of street scrubbers, vacuum-mobiles, and water hoses appeared and cleaned the entire city for about an hour. It was like ~100 people every night just cleaning the city. The following morning, all of Salamanca was spotless. That sh*t was magical.
My biggest WTF moment was when I visited England and people respected me a lot more when I told them I was canadian and not american (I'm actually canadian)
Now that America is untrumped you might get some of that luv for being American too
When I️ visited the hospital and had X-rays done, spoke with two doctors, and was triaged by a nurse, all with no health insurance, and my total bill was 24 euros. Then I️ had to pay 10 additional euros for some painkillers, again with no insurance or anything.
I believe it is called basic human rights. Something about the right to live and have health taken care of.
In my early twenties, on my first trip to Europe, I took an Italian ocean liner, New York to Genoa. My WTF moment was going out on the deck on morning six for the foggy passage through the Straits of Gibraltar. Europe emerging through the mist on my left and North Africa on my right, coupled with the awareness of how many voyagers throughout history had sailed through that passage (including my Italian grandparents traveling in the other direction), gave me chills.
Not paying for a gynecological exam. I developed an ovarian cyst while in England that was causing some pain. I made an appointment at a health clinic and was examined. Afterwards, I expected to pay because A) that's always the first thing that happens in US healthcare and B) I was a foreigner who had never paid into the UK National Health Service. They just laughed and said, "We don't take money for services and we'd have no idea what to charge you".
Mind blown. God save the NHS.
You're our guest. We don't bankrupt you just because you got ill while you visited.
In Amsterdam, the number of bicycles outside the central station. How the F do people find their bikes once they park them?! Also, the Dutch are easily the most graceful cyclists. The way you guys can weave through dumb folks standing in the bike paths is outstanding.
You know your bike (type, colour, etc) and then you recognise it. So simple... 😂
In Spain, the siesta is real. I just thought that it was an archaic thing that some people did. Nope. Everything shuts down for an hour or two. Even in super-touristy places, 99% of shops and businesses shut down.
This has to do more with extended working hours rather than actual siesta. Shops are open from 9-10 am to 8-9pm, so in order to not make more than 8 hours a day they have an unnecessarily long lunch break, but workers in big cities rarely get to have lunch at home, let alone take a nap.
Blatant nudity everywhere. Porn mags just sitting at the front of newsstands in the middle of the city. A giant graffiti penis and nobody cared. Made me realize how prudish we are in the US
Americans have the right to bare arms. Europeans have the right to bare their entire body
This was a few years ago before "chip" credit/bank cards were like "a thing" in the States. But when I stopped in Amsterdam, and hoped over to Latvia, I discovered that in both countries, my DEBIT card that needed to be swiped to buy anything, was like a weird old relic. Every cashier everywhere gave me a confused look when I handed them my card and they saw it didn't have a chip. They would, after I politely mentioned it had to be swiped, question whether or not that was even possible with their register. They always looked shocked to discover that the little slat along the side of their credit card thing was to be used to slide a card through. And when it actually worked, they always looked even MORE shocked. That's the first time I learned "Oh damn. Maybe America is behind in a lot of ways." Because everyone looked at my card as if it were carved out of stone and would pay them in some Flinstones-style currency that they were convinced they couldn't actually accept. By Day 2 of the trip, even I was like... "You f*cking American assh*le with your ancient technology."
How easy and unencumbered by useless bullsh*t most things are.
Getting on a 5:30 train from Burssels to Berlin? Show up at 5:20. And get laughed at by the Germans who will finish their beer at exactly 5:28 because they know the walk from the bar to the platform is 1 minute and 57 seconds.
In the states that would require showing up at 3:15 because of at least 4 security checkpoints and 8 lines of people who can't figure out how an escalator works.
Not to mention in many places in the US you don't know if it will be late or early or whatever. From what I understand, things run more on time in a lot, if not most, of Europe
How to party like a German: pre-party on Friday at 11 p.m., get into club at 2 a.m., leave club on Sunday at 6 a.m. Germans are nuts, in a good way.
The quality of the fast food surprised me. Everything from the street vendors to chains like McDonald's was better quality then anything I'd gotten at home.
Late to the thread but here goes... Went to Sweden on a vacation package. Stayed at a wonderful historic hotel for part of the trip that had a restaurant inside of it. Part of our package called for a free dinner at the hotel and we had asked that it be the night we arrived.
We arrived and got settled in our room and then went to check out the restaurant. As soon as we walked in, there was no one there, only a hostess. She immediately said they were expecting us and we could sit anywhere. There was no one else in this gorgeous, ornate restaurant. A waiter came out and said they had prepared a special meal for us. We asked why it was so empty and he said the restaurant was closed one day a week and today was that day.
We were shocked, we apologized profusely and told them that we had booked through another company and would have just scheduled it for another day. He said it was no problem and we had some free extras such as wine and dessert. The main course ended up being a huge piece of meat, which we jokingly said must have been because we were big fat Americans. No one rushed us, we had a great time, and after we left they closed the restaurant for the night.
It was a total WTF moment because if you booked something like this in America, they'd either force you to reschedule or just have the restaurant closed with no explanation.
In Spain, everyone appears to be very thin yet I swear eats a loaf of bread a day.
That their standard of living was just as high as ours, but everything was smaller. Smaller apartments, smaller cars, smaller grocery stores, and fewer jars of peanut butter in the smaller grocery stores.
I've never known standards of living to be measured in quantities of peanut butter 🤔
Orange Fanta ACTUALLY tasted like oranges.
In Lisbon, feeling proud of myself for eating late like a local at 9 p.m....only to walk into an empty restaurant. By the time I’d finished eating at 10 p.m., the place was full.
In Italy, when buying a soccer ticket, they needed to know which team I was rooting for to determine where I could sit. Then, during the game, people were setting things on fire.
Aaaah, the tradition of stadium bonfires. Amazing how destructive people get and how quickly they get back in the prehistoric "wolfpack" mode when in an uncontrolled crowd.
Had a positive what the f*ck moment in Greece in the eastern Peloponnese where I saw a guy walk down to the end of a pier and throw an actual f*cking trident into the Aegean and pull out a wriggling octopus. Dude walked up the beach and handed it over the deck railing to a chef.
I lived in Germany for 8 years from 1992-2000 (Ages 4-12). I didn't realize it until I moved back to the states but there were recycling bins on EVERY street corner. It wasn't just a green bin then a trash can, it was a giant blue bin. One section for green glass, one for brown glass, one for clear glass, one for plastic, and one for paper.
Oh and going to a German school, students took public transit. There wasn't such a thing as a school bus.
I saw kids with their school packs riding public transit to school in Germany and didn't think of no school bus until I read your post.
Most stores are not open on Sundays. Not even grocery stores.
This one would depend on the country, in the UK shops are open on Sundays, although for a more limited time. (UK still being in Europe, if not the EU)
In Germany, they had the cleanest, safest, and best-tasting tap water, but nobody drank it and they called it toilet water.
I am German and I can tell you: only beer and wine fanatics call it toilet water. In fact, Germans drink gallons of tap water.
When I visited Prague, water cost two crowns and beer cost one.
Just to make it clearer - approximately 22 crowns is one dollar. And the prices are exaggerated of course :) Beer is ~30 crowns (~$1.4) and water... it depends. But I seen it for as much as 60 crowns (~$2) per litre in some restaurants. It's because there is (or maybe was) law, that at least one non-alcoholic beverage has to be cheaper than beer, so most of the restaurants put tap water for such ridiculous price on menu, just to comply.
British food. I went there expecting chip shops and roast dinner, but instead was amazed by every variety of tikka sauce that could possibly exist.
I was 16 years old, ordering a beer at McDonald's.
Our school trip to Paris had wine and beer available at every meal. We were instructed in no uncertain terms we weren't to have it even though our meal tickets would cover it. Absolutely none of it smuggled up to the rooms noooo..
Note: this post originally had 87 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
First of all,Europe consists of many countries,it is a continent,don't look on it like a country.The differences between countries are huge.Second,this isn't a "this are my wtf moments from Europe",this is more like a "USA sucks" article.And we see such articles 1-2 time in a week.Yaaawn
Yeah. We all know we suck. We get s**t on all the time... We are TRYING (Damn you republican party) to fix it.
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Could there for just once be a post that involves countries that are not the United States? Every single thread turns into people bashing the US, even if the thread is supposed to be focused on a different country. I’d love to read “Poles go to Korea and here’s what surprised them”, but based off of the 3 posts a week talking about how much the US sucks that seems like a pipe dream.
I’d love that! I’m not even American but I agree that these articles are getting really repetitive.
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I have to say this: I am Portuguese and I had my big shock moment when I have decided to move to The Netherlands(I can imagine coming from a place like USA, with such a different culture and mentality). The most wow was that everybody was taken a bike to work, shop or to school. That things really work over here concerning papers and doens't take ages to have what you ask(even the Dutch complaint about the burocracy, my dear ones you don't know what is burocracy for real lol),How earlier the restaurants are closed(I was used to be able to restaurants open pass midnight and still serving food), how green this country is(sooooooooo in love with the landscape after all this years), that we have 26 working paid days of holliday even if you are unemployed, because the govermment thinks that you need to have to relax and enjoy your life even if you don't have a job...that you are entitled to have subsidies to pay your rent because of your low income...
You know it is green because of all the rain right? You should see what's west of the small stream (better known as the North Sea): England. Gues what? More rain and also greener. We all flee to Portugal in the summer just to be stared at that we want to have diner at 6pm. At least the chance of rain is less then 5% in Portugal in july instead of 75% so we can leave the anorak at home. Love me some complaining about the weather, good times
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For all those people who go and visit another country: prepare yourself and look up their customs before you leave. It prevents a lot of WTF's, and embarrassment. Or even legal problems. Americans are used to leave a tip in a bar or restaurant. In Iceland leaving a tip is considered an insult. In Italy in a bar (were you first pay for your consumption at the cashier) you usually put a small tip on your receipt, like 10 or 20 cents. The bartender will help you right away. That is what TIP stands for: To Insure Promptness. In quite a few countries it is illegal to make pictures of military people and objects. You might end up in jail. Even inadvertently having a military in the picture. In Switzerland you can get a fine (a fixed percentage of your income, or a very high "caution" of SFR1000) for having an app or POI installed on your navigation system that tells you where speeding cameras are
That's not what TIP stands for, otherwise it would be TEP, because it'd be 'ensure', not 'insure'.
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Seeing these comments about medicine: If only the United States could learn from countries who actually have a functioning cost-effective/efficient healthcare system, that would be great. But no, instead they choose to make it a complicated maze and have the patients worry about endless payments until death.
Medicare costs more than commercial insurance. I'm on disability and my medications with Medicare were limited, expensive, and I was unable to use discount programs for the medications. Now I'm on my husband's insurance as primary and it boggles me to find a medication that cost $500 for 60 pills a month on Medicare is now $30 for 90 pills and they give me 3 months of pills at a time. Our healthcare is a joke.
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I think it’s nice that most of the Americans thought of something kind to say about the differences in Europe. When this question is reversed, it seems like most of the comments are very negative about the USA.
I agree with the comments pointing out that Europe is a continent, so this is like saying 'My WTF moments from Mexico!' Is it really a surprise that so many different COUNTRIES have so many different cultures? The UK is a lot like the US in some ways, we have shops open on a Sunday, we eat out around 7pm, we don't have long lunch breaks... but we have free healthcare. The rest of Europe do not have free healthcare but yeah, it's not as expensive. There are differences, but please don't equate Europe to a single country. It's a tapestry of culture, languages, traditions, history and politics.
Bored Panda really is just a one trick pony. Can anybody tell me a better site or app? Please?! Seriously!
Suuuuuuuper clever. A title that makes (no one) us think this ISN'T actually an "America is stupid" post. Yet... it is!! YAY!!! We hardly EVER get to see THOSE on BP!!! <>
the one thing Europe doesn't have on us is good Mexican food. Nothing beats a San Francisco burrito. And Arizona mexican is just a whole other thing.
Please...we're already down....please stop kicking us bp...we know america sucks I'm sorry...
All countries have bits that suck and people that suck. I'm in the UK - we have Boris. Most people are perfectly decent human beings. I love reading about cultural differences but wish it wasn't always the same, tired criticisms. Why can't Bored Panda change the focus to what we LOVE about each others differences? Also why not focus on other countries? It always Europe v US. With people getting more bitter each time and making sniping remarks at each other. Great move Bored Panda - why don't you create more division? Oh... you already have! I came to this post because I genuinely thought it wasn't going to be a 'bash the US' weekly special. Sorry US. Love from a sympathetic Brit.
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my family will make food from other countries (we're american) and it's always SO good and absolutely filling. i would love to go to europe if for no other reason than to try food
I really want a post about Australia because cmon guys, don't you wanna hear all about that one time at 2 am when I went to get cereal I saw a spider on the fridge and ran away and the next night it was near the device chargers so I had to drop a towel one it to get it to move? or that other time- ill stop now
Now I really appreciate that I live here. So much things taken as normal and for so many people it's something special. And now I really want to get to know America. Just not get sick over there.
#38 - thats either 60 years ago or lie. In Prague, at the tourist locations, beer is 100 crowns (about 4 dollars), everywhere else 20-50 (1-2 $), specials can get pricier. Water about 30 crowns. Thats pubs prises.
My WTF while visiting family in Spain was them wanting to show us an "American" themed restaurant. It was essentially a western movie set. The folks really love the movies that were translated for tv apparently. A lot of the older generation anyway. But that was Spain's version of an "American Restaurant". My aunts & uncles had been to America a few times, so had a few of my cousins so they knew that was nothing like living in CT but they figured we'd think it was hilarious. They were correct!
I was born and raised in South Africa, but left in 1998. I lived in the Netherlands for 12 years (2000-2012) we had free WiFi everywhere, (even on the beach, and trains), proper banking system, everyone carried ID... Arrived in the UK, it was a culture shock. Still using bank cheques, no-one wants to carry ID, you need references and credit checks... 9 years later we have WiFi on the bus, excellent public transport, I'm very grateful that I live in a country that takes care of me as I am now disabled and chronically ill, not able to work. Especially since Covid, I count my blessings twice.
Sweden is my 6th home and I lived in the states for 10 years. I forgot what it feels like to live in a country where you don't just bump into homeless people daily. The system is so good here that peopel are taken care of! I've seen ONE homeless person here. ONE. I feel so bad for the homeless people or those living in their cars in the USA. What the actual F?? And you know what? People here arent always furious and hateful because there are are ways out of poverty
My nephew is a chef. He took his family and slowly ate their way through France and Italy. His photos were delightful, pure joy.
"slowly ate their way" is the best way to travel. I travel for food too and choose my place to stay based on food. Antics?nope Museums?nope Beaches? nope i just want to taste your food and steal it! I'm joking i do go to museums too but basically i'm just here for the food. And in some countries i drink some clay in the morning so i can eat everything without fearing tourista.
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I feel so bad for anyone that lives outside the UK, you’re missing out on some of the best Scottish food ever invented. Tunnocks Teacakes, Irn-Bru, and the Cadbury here is a whole l better than other countries.
You mean the famous Scottish cuisine, that came up with such delightful dishes such as the inner bits of a sheep stuffed into that sheep's stomach and brewed?
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Lots of thin-skinned Americans in the comments section. The truth hurts, eh?
First of all,Europe consists of many countries,it is a continent,don't look on it like a country.The differences between countries are huge.Second,this isn't a "this are my wtf moments from Europe",this is more like a "USA sucks" article.And we see such articles 1-2 time in a week.Yaaawn
Yeah. We all know we suck. We get s**t on all the time... We are TRYING (Damn you republican party) to fix it.
Load More Replies... Could there for just once be a post that involves countries that are not the United States? Every single thread turns into people bashing the US, even if the thread is supposed to be focused on a different country. I’d love to read “Poles go to Korea and here’s what surprised them”, but based off of the 3 posts a week talking about how much the US sucks that seems like a pipe dream.
I’d love that! I’m not even American but I agree that these articles are getting really repetitive.
Load More Replies... I have to say this: I am Portuguese and I had my big shock moment when I have decided to move to The Netherlands(I can imagine coming from a place like USA, with such a different culture and mentality). The most wow was that everybody was taken a bike to work, shop or to school. That things really work over here concerning papers and doens't take ages to have what you ask(even the Dutch complaint about the burocracy, my dear ones you don't know what is burocracy for real lol),How earlier the restaurants are closed(I was used to be able to restaurants open pass midnight and still serving food), how green this country is(sooooooooo in love with the landscape after all this years), that we have 26 working paid days of holliday even if you are unemployed, because the govermment thinks that you need to have to relax and enjoy your life even if you don't have a job...that you are entitled to have subsidies to pay your rent because of your low income...
You know it is green because of all the rain right? You should see what's west of the small stream (better known as the North Sea): England. Gues what? More rain and also greener. We all flee to Portugal in the summer just to be stared at that we want to have diner at 6pm. At least the chance of rain is less then 5% in Portugal in july instead of 75% so we can leave the anorak at home. Love me some complaining about the weather, good times
Load More Replies... For all those people who go and visit another country: prepare yourself and look up their customs before you leave. It prevents a lot of WTF's, and embarrassment. Or even legal problems. Americans are used to leave a tip in a bar or restaurant. In Iceland leaving a tip is considered an insult. In Italy in a bar (were you first pay for your consumption at the cashier) you usually put a small tip on your receipt, like 10 or 20 cents. The bartender will help you right away. That is what TIP stands for: To Insure Promptness. In quite a few countries it is illegal to make pictures of military people and objects. You might end up in jail. Even inadvertently having a military in the picture. In Switzerland you can get a fine (a fixed percentage of your income, or a very high "caution" of SFR1000) for having an app or POI installed on your navigation system that tells you where speeding cameras are
That's not what TIP stands for, otherwise it would be TEP, because it'd be 'ensure', not 'insure'.
Load More Replies... Seeing these comments about medicine: If only the United States could learn from countries who actually have a functioning cost-effective/efficient healthcare system, that would be great. But no, instead they choose to make it a complicated maze and have the patients worry about endless payments until death.
Medicare costs more than commercial insurance. I'm on disability and my medications with Medicare were limited, expensive, and I was unable to use discount programs for the medications. Now I'm on my husband's insurance as primary and it boggles me to find a medication that cost $500 for 60 pills a month on Medicare is now $30 for 90 pills and they give me 3 months of pills at a time. Our healthcare is a joke.
Load More Replies... I think it’s nice that most of the Americans thought of something kind to say about the differences in Europe. When this question is reversed, it seems like most of the comments are very negative about the USA.
I agree with the comments pointing out that Europe is a continent, so this is like saying 'My WTF moments from Mexico!' Is it really a surprise that so many different COUNTRIES have so many different cultures? The UK is a lot like the US in some ways, we have shops open on a Sunday, we eat out around 7pm, we don't have long lunch breaks... but we have free healthcare. The rest of Europe do not have free healthcare but yeah, it's not as expensive. There are differences, but please don't equate Europe to a single country. It's a tapestry of culture, languages, traditions, history and politics.
Bored Panda really is just a one trick pony. Can anybody tell me a better site or app? Please?! Seriously!
Suuuuuuuper clever. A title that makes (no one) us think this ISN'T actually an "America is stupid" post. Yet... it is!! YAY!!! We hardly EVER get to see THOSE on BP!!! <>
the one thing Europe doesn't have on us is good Mexican food. Nothing beats a San Francisco burrito. And Arizona mexican is just a whole other thing.
Please...we're already down....please stop kicking us bp...we know america sucks I'm sorry...
All countries have bits that suck and people that suck. I'm in the UK - we have Boris. Most people are perfectly decent human beings. I love reading about cultural differences but wish it wasn't always the same, tired criticisms. Why can't Bored Panda change the focus to what we LOVE about each others differences? Also why not focus on other countries? It always Europe v US. With people getting more bitter each time and making sniping remarks at each other. Great move Bored Panda - why don't you create more division? Oh... you already have! I came to this post because I genuinely thought it wasn't going to be a 'bash the US' weekly special. Sorry US. Love from a sympathetic Brit.
Load More Replies... my family will make food from other countries (we're american) and it's always SO good and absolutely filling. i would love to go to europe if for no other reason than to try food
I really want a post about Australia because cmon guys, don't you wanna hear all about that one time at 2 am when I went to get cereal I saw a spider on the fridge and ran away and the next night it was near the device chargers so I had to drop a towel one it to get it to move? or that other time- ill stop now
Now I really appreciate that I live here. So much things taken as normal and for so many people it's something special. And now I really want to get to know America. Just not get sick over there.
#38 - thats either 60 years ago or lie. In Prague, at the tourist locations, beer is 100 crowns (about 4 dollars), everywhere else 20-50 (1-2 $), specials can get pricier. Water about 30 crowns. Thats pubs prises.
My WTF while visiting family in Spain was them wanting to show us an "American" themed restaurant. It was essentially a western movie set. The folks really love the movies that were translated for tv apparently. A lot of the older generation anyway. But that was Spain's version of an "American Restaurant". My aunts & uncles had been to America a few times, so had a few of my cousins so they knew that was nothing like living in CT but they figured we'd think it was hilarious. They were correct!
I was born and raised in South Africa, but left in 1998. I lived in the Netherlands for 12 years (2000-2012) we had free WiFi everywhere, (even on the beach, and trains), proper banking system, everyone carried ID... Arrived in the UK, it was a culture shock. Still using bank cheques, no-one wants to carry ID, you need references and credit checks... 9 years later we have WiFi on the bus, excellent public transport, I'm very grateful that I live in a country that takes care of me as I am now disabled and chronically ill, not able to work. Especially since Covid, I count my blessings twice.
Sweden is my 6th home and I lived in the states for 10 years. I forgot what it feels like to live in a country where you don't just bump into homeless people daily. The system is so good here that peopel are taken care of! I've seen ONE homeless person here. ONE. I feel so bad for the homeless people or those living in their cars in the USA. What the actual F?? And you know what? People here arent always furious and hateful because there are are ways out of poverty
My nephew is a chef. He took his family and slowly ate their way through France and Italy. His photos were delightful, pure joy.
"slowly ate their way" is the best way to travel. I travel for food too and choose my place to stay based on food. Antics?nope Museums?nope Beaches? nope i just want to taste your food and steal it! I'm joking i do go to museums too but basically i'm just here for the food. And in some countries i drink some clay in the morning so i can eat everything without fearing tourista.
Load More Replies... I feel so bad for anyone that lives outside the UK, you’re missing out on some of the best Scottish food ever invented. Tunnocks Teacakes, Irn-Bru, and the Cadbury here is a whole l better than other countries.
You mean the famous Scottish cuisine, that came up with such delightful dishes such as the inner bits of a sheep stuffed into that sheep's stomach and brewed?
Load More Replies... Lots of thin-skinned Americans in the comments section. The truth hurts, eh?
