One of the beautiful things about traveling is going to a place and realizing that life doesn't have to be the way you grew up to believe. By exposing yourself to different customs, you get the chance to reflect on and reevaluate yours.
So in an attempt to see which European 'lessons' stuck with Americans the most, Reddit user AppleberryJames asked them what culture shocks were the biggest they had in the Old Continent. From the prevalence of tourist scammers to hike-in restaurants, here are the answers.
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Was in Sweden a few years back when a kid in my charge broke his collarbone. Medics drove him to the hospital. Like two hours later, after X-rays, an exam, and getting set up in a fancy sling, he walked out of the hospital. Total cost: $0.
The colorful, cartoonish gravestones in north western Romania that depict how the person [passed away]
To learn more about going abroad, we contacted Lee Abbamonte, the youngest person to visit every country in the world plus the North & South Poles.
Abbamonte said that whether or not you should research the place you're traveling to depends on the country in terms of familiarity of culture. "If it's a similar culture then [simple] common sense and decency usually work," he told Bored Panda.
"If it's something totally different or if you're unfamiliar, then I think i'’s imperative to do some research to not offend or embarrass anyone including yourself without realizing it. A little research goes a long way and it shows. People appreciate the effort."
WTF in an awesome way are the stands and restaurants in Germany where you basically have to hike in. There's no casual foot traffic and it's not a simple drive. You are hiking and come to a beautiful view and there's a little restaurant or stand where you can get wine or beer and wurst and fries or whatever. Then you sit and enjoy the view you hiked to while enjoying your delicious food and excellent beverage. It's fantastic.
One of my favorite UK pubs is like this. Easy by canoe or foot or bike.
In Paris I saw a gang(10+) of police officers patrolling on rollerblades.. I heard them before I saw them. vrrrrrrr vrrrr vrrrrr
People that work 32 hours a week get over 30 days paid off every year no matter who they work for or more.
ehh this depends. The trend is to work 32-35 hours in our new hires, old contracts have 40 hours. I've 26 payed days off +overtime, my sister would not sign less than 30 days.
"Often times I see tourists on vacation in foreign countries blatantly taking photos of local people without their consent. This is so rude," Abbamonte said. "They’re not animals or tourist attractions-they’re people. Just ask, people will usually say yes and if it’s a no-then it’s good you asked!"
Of course, European culture can differ depending on the country you're visiting. "Most of Europe, even Eastern Europe is pretty liberal these days," the traveler explained. "But as you go around different European countries, especially with older people, they can be more buttoned-up and private."
"As you move further east in Europe you’ll see the older generations still hardened by the Cold War. So just be respectful to their privacy and potentially appearing rude or cold to you. You’ll also find less English spoken the further east you go in Europe so keep that in mind as well."
Not being harassed by police.
I did some dumb s**t on a scooter in Paris and instead of spending 20 minutes going through all the bull s**t and puffering cops usually do, he just wagged his french finger at me and message was recieved.
How it should be
Drinking a beer and noticed that the brewery was established in 1489, 3 years before “Columbus sailed the ocean blue”
there are breweries in Bavaria which were founded three hundred years before Columbus went on his journey...
I fell in love with Sweden. But every time I go and visit, I’m still shocked at how many people just lay out and tan. On the sidewalk. Next to this Fika shop. Next to a museum.
Literally, people lay out and tan ANYWHERE and EVERYWHERE in this country.
I’d be walking through Gamla Stan or Djurgården, then BAM out of nowhere, I nearly trip over a lady trying to tan. åh! jag är väldigt ledsen!
No gaps in the bathroom stalls. Felt like I was pooping in an exclusive club and it was nice not having to make eye contact with m**********r trying to go next
Whoever comes up that that idea, I hope your cookies fall into the milk
The two medications that are keeping me alive cost a whopping $300 a month per prescription, so $600/month or $7,200/year.
I moved to the UK and the same medications cost £9 apiece for a three month supply. Grand total is £72 a year.
I know the conversion rate isn't a perfect 1:1 but the fact my medicine here is literally a hundred times cheaper blew my mind.
yeah USA healthcare system is s**t. You're the only ones paying company prices, the rest of the world pays based on cost prices.
I lived in Holland for five years. I could say something about the bikes or beer, but the only thing that stopped me in my tracks was a Sesame Street sign. It turns out Big Bird is *blue* in the Netherlands!
I mean I know they say he’s Pino, Big Bird’s cousin, but I’m not fooled. You know Big Bird just moved over there to seek an alternative lifestyle.
This picture is not completely accurate: Pino has a bright orange beak instead of a blue one
Not an American, but a Bulgarian.
My family had a relative from America who came back with his child who all luve has been in America.
(Somewhere in Detroit, but I am not sure where.)
When we were walking around the streets he had a look of shock on his face when he saw the papers with people pictures put on trees, bus stops, street lambs etc.
He thought they were wanted posters of criminals and was impress with how many crime we had.
I explained to him that those things are called nechrologs and are essentially posters of [passed away] people that family members put around to spread the news and pay respect to the death.
He was even more shocked after that.
The sheer amount of scammers in tourist areas.
Like, American tourist areas have some, but it's no where near egregious as Europe.
Even at the Vatican it's unbearable. Fake petitions, friendship bracelets, guys wearing vests telling gullible visitors they bought the wrong tickets. It definitely put a damper the experience.
A positive WTF moment was realizing how awesome people generally were in Paris. I can't tell you how many times I heard the rude Parsian cliche, but every interaction I had was genuinely pleasant. What I picked up fast was that people in France in general expect some form of respect. It's amazing how a small amount of politeness can go a long way with strangers.
I'm from Norway, but moved to America.
My husband and I recently came back from a vacation visiting family in Norway. During the visit we went to a supermarket where you have to put a coin (roughly 1 dollar) into the shopping cart to loosen it from the rack. When your done you reattach the cart and your coin gets returned.
I had never thought twice about it but for him it was amazing.
In Spain, you have to sorta wave and call for service, especially for the final check.
They will literally leave you at a table with empty glasses for hours unless you ask. They consider it rude to intrude. and it makes Americans feel pushy to ask or wave our hand for attention.
It's pretty easy to do if you watch the locals...a little wave, a smile and a nod, etc and they come right over.
But if felt intrusive on our part at first for sure.
In Myanmar, the way to signal the waiter is to make a double "kiss" sound with your lips... Like "psssk psssk". Very awkward at first for a european... Calling them or waving at them may work if they happen to look right at you. But a simple "tsssk tsssk" and a waiter beelines to your table in a few seconds.
The absence of obese people was shocking.
Robust public transit systems (relative to the major city I live in in the US).
Yep, I’d get rid of my car in a heartbeat if we have as good public transportation. Here we have to wait 30+ minutes and sometimes hours for a bus. I was amazed to see buses every 8 minutes in London.
Studied in France and I was shocked to see the Cafés turn into bars at night.
They just switched out the menu and it went from selling hot cocoa to whiskey on the rocks!
Well why would you have a business which only operates for half a day, when you could be open from morning-ish until late at night? And as a patron I appreciate not having to wonder which nice place is open when - I just go and see what they are serving at this hour.
I wouldn't say this was a "WTF" moment so much as just a bit funny and embarrassing on my part.
I was visiting a friend in the Netherlands. I had just gotten back from a year abroad in Asia, so I was not accustomed to anyone being able to speak English.
I went to purchase a train ticket in.... Amsterdam, I think, though it may have been Utrecht. At any rate, I approached the counter and asked, "Excuse me, do you speak English?"
The bemused counter clerk laughed and said, "Of course. Do you?"
I turned beet red. It's very silly looking back on it.
Also, same trip, but in Brussels, I asked a local store clerk where to find a particular bar I was searching for. She gave remarkably detailed directions, and listed off many other recommendations for places. I was a little bit surprised at the level of detail, and I guess she noticed that because she laughed and said, "I like to drink. A LOT."
In America we work ourselves to the bones.
Hell, the fact I’m now working what’s called a “straight 8” shift is boggling to me.
But as back as I can remember, working 8-12 hour shifts with a 30 minute lunch is pretty much the norm.
So when my current boss was sent to France for a couple of weeks and the fact that in an 8 hour day, you got 90 minutes for lunch and a 20 minute break for cigarettes and coffee he couldn’t comprehend it.
That and wine while at lunch for work was mind blowing to him.
Seeing women walk into the men's room when the ladies' is full (Paris).
That's one of the reasons the toilets are fully enclosed. They're starting to do that in Canada - the newer 'washrooms' in some places are non-gendered.
Yeah in norway most newer public buildings, malls, etc, have non-gendered toilets.
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I'm a male and I've never understood why women will stand in a long line when the men's room is practically empty. There are stalls with doors in men's rooms too.
I'd never be sure that a guy would be comfortable with a woman randomly walking in.
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I live in the US, and sometimes I’ll do this, but only if it’s the individual bathrooms. I would never do it in a bathroom with multiple stalls.
I do this in America lol. The other day both were occupied, so I waited. A dude came out of the women's. Sometimes you don't have a choice
I do this at concert venues/stadiums. Seriously, why are there lines for the ladies restrooms?
I use the men's too. I'm not waiting 20 minutes to use the toilet when the men's is empty.
Well it’s just plain stupid not to. It’s not like you’ll get fined for using mens toilet.
I'm American and I do this all the time, especially if there's a line for the ladies' and none for the men's.
I will and have done this many times here in Australia. I give any men inside fair warning that I’m coming in
Probably a much bigger deal in the US because our bathroom stalls are so "cracked," and because historically, when our cultural expectations were really being formed about these things, they were even more open (as in...well...the toilet stalls at my old high school didn't even have doors on them!)
In Germany having the woman restroom attendant open you your locked stall for the fee. It freaked me out at first. I was back in Germany in 2000 & my unit was showering at 9 in the morning after working all night. The women cleaning staff just walked in on us & told us to leave. Everybody was covering up & upset. I calmly stood there drying off, talking with the ladies. This is normal. America was damaged by the Puritans.
And if it was the other way round, how long before you were behind bars, I wonder...
Being in Taiwan where it's coed. Men at urinal (maybe) women/men in stalls with doors, everyone using the same bank of sinks all in the same large room, plus several attendants keeping everything spotless... Just all made sense to me.
Again, this isn't unusual in the US. I use the mens room regularly. It's cleaner than the women's room and rarely has anyone in it.
As a pre-school kid I was often mistaken for a boy, so I was ushered into the men's, I was fine with that. Had an encounter of sorts: Heard some grunting and moaning from a few stalls down. When I was finished, I dallied washing my hands and two men exited the mentioned stall. "One man helped the other man go poop" I thought. Innocent me :-)
We have unisex toilet areas in the hospital i work at. We're all grown-ups.
Done it before, will do it again. Ideally, have another woman guard the door to tell blokes someone is in there. I take a medication that makes me have to go URGENTLY. A loo is a loo!
ohhh done it so maaany times, especially after concerts. and not in France.
You've apparently never been to a really crowded concert or festival in the US......plenty of women use the mens.
That also happens in germany when special events like "Karneval" are around. And nobody really cares because most men are only need urinals and don't use the toilets.
I do that in South Africa, after checking of course. Mixed bathrooms are also quite common here
Really?- as a woman who uses men's room often as women are disgustingly slow, I have never seen men's room as only standing, I have successfully completed my mission when entering men's room. Also some places don't even identify men's or woman's, even changing rooms for aquparks/gym/sauna/spa mixed. Nudity and toilet business are not considered rude or taboo in the areas where some is expected.
Load More Replies... There is a faction in the US that believes it's a very dangerous thing for people without penises to use the same bathroom as people with penises. To hear them tell it, the people with penises lose all control when in the same bathroom as people without penises and they will attack them.
I've known people who were assaulted in public bathrooms. I wouldn't be comfortable with both sexes using the type of stalled, peakaboo bathrooms we have in most places in the US. Individual bathrooms, I couldn't care less who uses them, but not multi- stalled bathrooms. I don't think men lose control because a woman is peeing in the next stall, I just think it provides another opportunity for predators who are looking for a victim to easily find one, especially if the bathroom isn't heavily used.
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Paris is FILTHY. The architecture was gorgeous, the food was excellent, but the smell of cigarettes and urine is everywhere. I felt like I needed a shower every time I left the hotel.
Amsterdam on the other hand is the cleanest and most well organized city I've ever been to.
Amsterdam and Paris don't really compare, Paris is easily 10x the size...
Constantly having to remember to carry around change to use the bathroom in Germany.
That's a good point. I don't mind terribly that we have to pay for them, but they should all accept cards at this point, not just a bunch of select few at a train station.
I was on a trip that went from Italy, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Every city we were in at least one bar played country road take me home by John Denver and the locals went crazy for it. Knew every word
Also
In a Oktoberfest tent in Munich Germany. Waiting in line for a stall(terrible choice but when nature calls) guy walks past the line and try to just cut everyone. Front man prolly 6-2” German man goes in after the guy who tried to sneakily take the stall. It was like a cartoon of fighting noises in the stall and everyone was so casual. It only made me love that county more lmao
How drinking out in public is no problem. Especially in balkans and Germany
I would not say no problem. It is legal in most places unless city goverment decides to ban it at special places. The drunken people trashing glass bottles on the street or fighting are an issue depending where you live.
In Europe, when you order orange juice, they take fresh oranges and squeeze them in to a glass. I've never seen that recipe in the states.
Not really WTF, just amusement, but when I went to Prague, there were a number of chocolate shops that had large, chocolate penises prominently on display. I remember one that had melted white chocolate drizzled down from the tip.
Switzerland. How safe it is to walk across the street. Probably has something to do with the whole "the vehicle is always at fault" thing that would probably never fly here. Cars would slow significantly if I was sort of within the vicinity of a zebra crossing. Made it sort of awkward for me even if I was actually intending to cross there.
Also Switzerland. Hearing all of the cars at a red light start up again when the light turns green.
Granted, this was Wil. I'm not sure if the size of the city has anything to do with it.
There was a day care or kindergarten located directly above the [call girl] display booths. Amsterdam, 2007.
So many pharmacies in Spain.
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It's quite funny how half of these posts do not mention which country they are talking about because I guess they think Europe is more or less a single cultural entity? If there is one thing my friends/colleagues from the US consistently state as a huge cultural shock in Europe, it is how diverse the cultures, customs, tastes and everyday life in general are across different european countries. There are distinct differences between nations as close as the French and Germans. Now imagine say Bosnia and Finland. :D
The overwhelming majority of BP comments about the US apparently believe the entirety of my gigantic country is exactly the same, and populated by 330 million people who are all alike. As someone from Massachusetts, I've experienced culture shock in my own country. Perhaps we all should refrain from believing ridiculous stereotypes.
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Ummm.... Wow. It's a different country. Of course things are... wait for it... *different*. The US isn't England or Germany or Romania or Italy or (fill in many many EU blanks). Canada isn't. Mexico isn't. Uruguay isn't. That said, many US citizens don't travel outside a country that is larger than the EU, so that does shape the perspective on these things. It's pretty similar over 4,000 km coast to coast *here*. (Pretty similar. Cajun country vs New England, don't even try. Those *are* different countries, LOL.)
I'm a New Englander, and I've experienced culture shock in my own country. Specifically, in the Deep South and in the Southwest. They might as well be different countries.
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a lot of tightminded visitors commented here. Why have expectations that things will be the same when you visit a whole other continent with millennia more worth of culture and history than the average white American experience?
It depends what's normal for you and which country you visit. Europe isn't a generic concept - More than 30 countries each with their own individual cultures and practises. And just because you see something happening doesn't mean it happens all the time or happens everywhere in Europe either..
When I read what surprises american people when they come to Europe, makes me feel more and more that life in USA is hell.
This is Sweden in a nutshell. I came back 2019 to my job as a public school teacher after I took a sabatical to study Japanese in Tokyo. I have yet to touch cash and havent had any need to. A friend came to visit could pay for a public toilet in the tourist district with her credit card. We even have a system where we can transfer small amounts of money to each other or pay for in a store that everyone uses. So splitting the bill is sooo easy to do now.
For all you Americans offended that we Europeans are offended that you don't mention which country you went to: Europe is not one country, just like Asia, or Africa! On the other hand, the USA ~IS~ one country!! You like to remind us of all the time: "one people under God" etc. And you all SPEAK THE SAME LANGUAGE, HAVE THE SAME PRESIDENT- I could go on. So for you doing that comparison might be a hint of why we have certain options about you.
I’ve lived in the Netherlands for about 4 years. I had a nasty cough that lasted a couple weeks, so we went to the doctor. They prescribed a specific brand of liquorice that was particularly bitter. It was nasty! I still think it was hilarious that liquorice was a legitimate cure (I did get better very quickly!). I love it here and I don’t intend to go back to the States anytime soon.
It’s common for Americans to think you would be speaking German in every country if it wasn’t for them. Oops they’re right!
OK, now explain and I'll explain why you're wrong in return.
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It's quite funny how half of these posts do not mention which country they are talking about because I guess they think Europe is more or less a single cultural entity? If there is one thing my friends/colleagues from the US consistently state as a huge cultural shock in Europe, it is how diverse the cultures, customs, tastes and everyday life in general are across different european countries. There are distinct differences between nations as close as the French and Germans. Now imagine say Bosnia and Finland. :D
The overwhelming majority of BP comments about the US apparently believe the entirety of my gigantic country is exactly the same, and populated by 330 million people who are all alike. As someone from Massachusetts, I've experienced culture shock in my own country. Perhaps we all should refrain from believing ridiculous stereotypes.
Load More Replies... Ummm.... Wow. It's a different country. Of course things are... wait for it... *different*. The US isn't England or Germany or Romania or Italy or (fill in many many EU blanks). Canada isn't. Mexico isn't. Uruguay isn't. That said, many US citizens don't travel outside a country that is larger than the EU, so that does shape the perspective on these things. It's pretty similar over 4,000 km coast to coast *here*. (Pretty similar. Cajun country vs New England, don't even try. Those *are* different countries, LOL.)
I'm a New Englander, and I've experienced culture shock in my own country. Specifically, in the Deep South and in the Southwest. They might as well be different countries.
Load More Replies... a lot of tightminded visitors commented here. Why have expectations that things will be the same when you visit a whole other continent with millennia more worth of culture and history than the average white American experience?
It depends what's normal for you and which country you visit. Europe isn't a generic concept - More than 30 countries each with their own individual cultures and practises. And just because you see something happening doesn't mean it happens all the time or happens everywhere in Europe either..
When I read what surprises american people when they come to Europe, makes me feel more and more that life in USA is hell.
This is Sweden in a nutshell. I came back 2019 to my job as a public school teacher after I took a sabatical to study Japanese in Tokyo. I have yet to touch cash and havent had any need to. A friend came to visit could pay for a public toilet in the tourist district with her credit card. We even have a system where we can transfer small amounts of money to each other or pay for in a store that everyone uses. So splitting the bill is sooo easy to do now.
For all you Americans offended that we Europeans are offended that you don't mention which country you went to: Europe is not one country, just like Asia, or Africa! On the other hand, the USA ~IS~ one country!! You like to remind us of all the time: "one people under God" etc. And you all SPEAK THE SAME LANGUAGE, HAVE THE SAME PRESIDENT- I could go on. So for you doing that comparison might be a hint of why we have certain options about you.
I’ve lived in the Netherlands for about 4 years. I had a nasty cough that lasted a couple weeks, so we went to the doctor. They prescribed a specific brand of liquorice that was particularly bitter. It was nasty! I still think it was hilarious that liquorice was a legitimate cure (I did get better very quickly!). I love it here and I don’t intend to go back to the States anytime soon.
It’s common for Americans to think you would be speaking German in every country if it wasn’t for them. Oops they’re right!
OK, now explain and I'll explain why you're wrong in return.
Load More Replies...