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One of the best things about traveling far and wide is becoming more open-minded to different cultures and backgrounds. You realize just how diverse the world is, and that there are many different ways of structuring everyday life, culture, and society.
Amateur adventurers went online to share the things that are generally considered normal in European countries that might be considered weird across the Atlantic, in the United States. Keep scrolling to read their insights.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Eggs that aren't refrigerated.
Asleep_Onion:
It's totally normal for Americans who have chickens, but yeah in the stores our eggs are always washed and refrigerated.
7148675309:
I grew up in the UK - my parents (my mum is American) - did wash and then put eggs in the fridge.
Anyway - always spooks me to see eggs out in the supermarkets there and not in the refridgerated section. And when the question comes up on UK subreddits they are so negative about any other perspective…
Zig Zag Wanderer 27 minutes ago
We have safer eggs elsewhere. You don't need to refrigerate eggs unless they are washed, because they have a protective barrier. Our chickens' eggs at home aren't refrigerated.
RELATED:
#2
The price on the tag is the price you pay, unlike the US where taxes are added when you check out.
Same thing for restaurants.
LePhattSquid:
Do americans just, like, have to calculate what the product is actually gonna cost?
In my student days id literally be going around the supermarket totting up my total because i knew i had €12 on my card. I can’t imagine having to do tax as well that’s such a pain.
twopurplecats:
Yup. Personally I grew up in Texas where the sales tax was 8.25%. My mom taught me how to estimate 10% when I was pretty young, so I could easily calculate the amount I’d need to cover tax as well (with a little room for error)
Ripley 23 minutes ago
In Australia (which is not Europe, obv) the law states that all prices must be the end price for the listed product. It used to be that buying a car would have registration and dealer charges added on, but now they must display a "drive away" price. Makes things much easier. Airlines still get away with add-ons, though.
#3
More than two political parties.
question12338338:
But Americans don’t think Europeans are "weird" for having more than 2 parties. In fact, I would imagine most Americans are jealous of such a system.
Giraffe Sitter 45 minutes ago
We’re more jealous of other aspects, such as an election season that only lasts a few weeks.
One of the pain points when comparing life in European countries and in the US is the difference in systems for parental leave. Broadly speaking, many countries in Europe offer great parental leave, while many American parents have to deal with a very barebones, unforgiving system at the federal level, with major variations at the state level.
For instance, in Sweden, as The Lactation Network notes, parents get 480 days of shared leave, with 90 days reserved exclusively for each parent. That way, both parents get time to bond with their child. Their parental leave is paid at 80% of their wages.
Meanwhile, in the US, the system is far less supportive.
#4
Walking. So many things can be done in Europe just by walking but in the USA it usually requires a car.
ThisIsMyCouchAccount:
Dude.
I live in a medium sized city in the middle of the US. And in the downtown area. I'm about 6 blocks away from all the stuff.
It's a 45 minute walk.
There are no sidewalks. So I have to walk over a bridge with no shoulder or an industrial area with lots of railroad crossing and no sidewalks.
The only safe way to get there is to take this paved walking trail that eventually meets up with the city sidewalks. And is the wrong direction if you're trying to get into the downtown.
Thankfully they are building a pedestrian bridge that is direct.
#5
Maternity leave of a couple months or years. Or split maternity/paternity leave.
ntcaudio:
We get 3 years here. However the money a parent receives as a substitute for salary from the state isn't great, so it's on the other parent to make money for the family for the most part. Ofc you can opt out and go back to work anytime if you feel like it.
edit: also, your employer is obliged to keep your job so that you can come back and they can't fire you during the period you're out.
mothramydear:
I got 16 weeks (4 were from my vacation/sick leave balance). My husband got 7 weeks. My mom called a week into my maternity leave and was like “[my husband] has already had more paternity leave than your dad got with both you and your brother combined” and I just about lost my mind. I don’t know how they did it. The fact that we continue to not have a national paid family leave policy is my villain origin story (or one of them, anyway).
#6
Paying to use the bathroom.
boulevardofdef:
America actually tried to introduce pay toilets in the '70s, but they failed for exactly this reason -- people were just so outraged that they would be expected to pay for that.
Zeeplankton:
This is something I think needs to be gotten rid of.. I can understand low traffic areas, actually, like maintaining a park or something. But what you mean I have to pay €1.10 to use a disaster of a bathroom, waiting for a train I've paid hundreds of € for? Looking at you Amsterdam Centraal.
Blackhawk23:
Got off the London tube after flying in to Heathrow and made the crucial error of not peeing in the airport before getting on the metro.
I ran up the stairs at a station in downtown London, only to see the pay-to-pee bathroom. I was contemplating just going in my pants, I had to go so bad. I didn’t even have the local currency yet and it was cash only.
Luckily a lovely British woman saw my dilemma and offered to pay for me to use the restroom. A kind gesture but incredibly dystopian, IMO. Europeans clown the US as hyper capitalistic. Making people pay to do a normal bodily function is so alien to me. Still is.
Zig Zag Wanderer 23 minutes ago
Pay toilets are a thing of the past, except for some service stations on motorways. I don't know what decade OP is in.
“In the U.S., parents often face an uphill battle when it comes to balancing the demands of family and work, especially during the crucial early months of a child’s life. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act allows new parents to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave,” The Lactation Network explains.
This puts a lot of financial pressure on new parents and gives them fewer opportunities to bond with their children.
The average maternity leave in the US is around 10 weeks, while the average paternity leave is just 17 days.
That being said, depending on which US state you live in, you might get access to better opportunities. For example, Europe HR Solutions points out that new parents in California get access to 8 weeks of paid parental leave, equal to 60%-70% of weekly wages. In Colorado, you have a state-funded program of 12 weeks of paid leave, where your funds depend on your income.
#7
Not paying to go to the hospital.
Senior-Book-6729:
Can we not lie? Maybe in some countries, but in Poland we have separate public and private healthcare. The thing is, public healthcare is mostly useless (and has very long wait times), so if you want to be actually treated you have to pay anyway. And even then, to use public healthcare you need insurance, which is expensive. Also, it kind of sucks how me who makes very little money (contract work) has to pay almost 40% of my salary for the healthcare fund…
#8
Toilet doors that go all the way up/down. For some reason, Europeans don’t like people watching them poop.
RangerDanger246:
Cheaper and easier is the reason. Think about how much more effort and time it takes to have really small clesrances for the parts and the walls they fit between.
Having a 1/4" gap leaves wigglw room for the stall doors and barriers in case walls are out lol.
Sloppy and cheap, that's why.
Several_Hospital_129:
I'm American, but my husband is English. Oh my goodness, I hate bathroom doors here in America. I bet I could make a ton of money by starting a business with European bathrooms, especially for the women.
Future-Outcome9210:
A large US company I worked for in Denmark, they did a office redecoration. Also new toilets. They installed these cardboard like walls and doors into the toilets. But closed all the way up. Few months after they changed it with real walls with tiling floor to ceiling and real solid doors. Nobody wanted to use the toilets with cheap cardboard walls.
#9
No tipping.
Stoltlallare:
They really pushing tipping in Sweden, every place has that stupid iPad with 15% 20% 30% bs now and if you pay by card they will ask you to type the number you wanna pay yourself. And they will stand there next to you as do it. It’s so awkward.
Tipping has been a thing for a very long time in sit down restaurants, but only as a way to round of the bill, but nothing more than that so like ”286 turn into 300” but that was common in a lot of countries I would sssume when you paid by cash, but it did translate into paying by card as well, but now they want MORE.
IrishFlukey:
Yes, we have this radical idea of having the hospitality industry pay their staff a decent wage and for any tips they do get to be completely for themselves with no impact on how much their employer has to pay them.
What have you found to be the biggest differences between life in European countries and in the United States, Pandas? Which side of the Atlantic do you prefer and why? What are some of the biggest cultural quirks of your home country? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
#10
Hanging your clothes out to dry.
NomadGabz:
Europeans and South Americans have more in common than South Americans and the US. We also hang our clothes to dry in the sun.
tm3_to_ev6:
I'm in Canada, I've lived in the US before, and I've always done that. I don't stick a pole out of my window (it's not even allowed by my condo) but I have a folding rack where I hang clothes after removing them from the washing machine.
It helps my clothes last longer before holes and ripped seams appear, and as a bonus my power bill goes down a little.
I only use the dryer for bedding (the size makes it take forever to air-dry), or if I need a specific garment to be ready ASAP.
Julie Rogers 1 hour ago (edited)
Many people still use clotheslines in the US. Nineteen states event have right-to-dry laws prohibiting towns and neighborhoods from outlawing clotheslines.
#11
The right to roam and public pathways through private lands. That freedom to transit through different kinds of land ownership and explore nature.
proscriptus:
We actually have a right to roam in our Vermont Constitution, I think a lot like England, there's a lot of tension around it, but unless you specifically exclude people (in a specific, legally acceptable way) your land is open to public use, including hunting.
#12
Affordable healthcare.
JasonDomber:
Would you rather pay nearly $1,000 a month just to be insured?
Because that’s where we’re at here. My medical premiums are $953.55 as of 2026 and dental is $39.14
Imagine paying £750 a month just to be insured….
rolph4:
I pay 1.6k month for me, my wife and kinds just to be insured and wait weeks and months for doctors appointments. In Germany as a low-medium income husband with a stay at home wife.
#13
Seeing little kids being sent out alone on various errands.
Young people sitting at sidewalk tables drinking beer, smoking and chatting quietly amongst themselves and cleaning up when they're done.
Excellent food at reasonable prices, especially bread!
People of all income brackets using public transit.
Hearing half a dozen languages before lunch and being able to conduct basic pleasantries in all of them.
Disabled people in public, because almost everything that is necessary to conduct one's life is accessible.
Drinking a beer or wine with lunch.
And just to be contrarian, there are zero big pickup trucks around, trucks are smaller and are never driven by people not actively engaged in trades.
Tao_of_Ludd:
Accessibility is quite variable in Europe. Worked for a while early in my career with a wheelchair company - some parts of Southern / Eastern Europe can be quite challenging.
#14
Being able to walk around the street with a beer in your hand. I miss it.
cpMetis:
It's mostly a roundabout way to keep the rowdy confined to expected areas. A pretty natural consequence of the drinking to the point of drunk cultural standard.
Nobody is gonna get mad at you for having a beer outside a bar. But that doesn't mean the rest of society has to put up with drunks bumbling around disrupting parks and neighborhoods.
So it's basically a much easier to enforce take on public nuisance laws.
Just...
Amplified by 10x back when prohibition was a thing.
#15
Drinking at 16.
Constant_Cultural:
We Germans already get sober at 16😁
couchcaptain:
In Hungary, the drinking age is whatever age you are when you can reach the top of the bar table to order a drink.
Zig Zag Wanderer 20 minutes ago
There is no actual legal drinking age in most of Europe. The restrictions are only for buying alcohol, and possibly consuming it in public venues.
#17
Paid parental leave.
leobutters:
12 months in Serbia for women, with the possibilty to extend it by additional 3-6 months. Full salary all the time paid by the state (average of last 18 salaries). Employers can't fire them while on maternity leave, their jobs are there when they're back.
One of the rare things we are really doing right.
pineconeminecone:
We have a 12 month and an 18 month parental leave here in Canada with similar protections, but only at 55% or 33% of your income, respectively depending on the option you choose, and that gets taxed.
Also in every province except Quebec, the parental leave benefits are under the same program as the unemployment benefits, and that can create a real mess with things like minimum accrued hours between claims if you’ve been laid off shortly before or after your leave or want to have your kids close together in age, regardless of if you’ve paid into the program for decades without any prior claims.
#18
The rate of cigarette smoking, especially among youth. I couldn’t believe how many people are still smoking cigarettes, and how many teenagers were, when I went to a few European countries.
mr-fiend:
Was in Central Europe a few months ago and the rate that they smoke is absolutely insane. The vast majority at all the clubs/pubs had a drink and a cig in hand.
#19
Workers Rights.
Mission_Bottle3636:
Yeah but depends how your work contract is, I have heard of people working in part time agency's and they essentially are being treated as cheap human capital always being moved from one work place to the next without much job security and never being able to even take a sick leave otherwise their hours will be cut to zero.
Multa Nocte 36 minutes ago
We have a lot of strikes in France, but we support workers' rights, so we live with it and try to support them.
#20
No free refills.
Jabbles22:
I am Canadian free refills are quite common but the Americans go the extra mile. Up here when you are done your meal in a sit down restaurant that's it. In the US not only do you get free refills but in some places they offer you one last refill in a to go cup.
flashdman:
Yes...in Louisiana, "to go" cups are common for beverages. Also helps servers as a last minute chance to boost a tip....
Zig Zag Wanderer 19 minutes ago
Yes. We tend to find that one cup is enough. Incredible, isn't it?
#21
Waiters that don’t constantly bother you when you’re trying to have a relaxing meal.
Catinkah:
A relaxing meal taking 1-2 hours. So you have time to digest between courses and... like.. take the time to have a conversation with your table mates and not having courses served back to back without a break.
palenuetral:
Most people from US would assume rudeness, laziness or forgetfulness from the waiter because they never bring over the check. The US is a pressure cooker and always trying to speed things along more than they need to.
In the US, the waiter is trying to find that exact moment to bring the check over when the patrons are settling to move on. The check is like part of the meal they are waiting for.
Outside of the US, I've usually had to ask for the check because the waiters are patiently waiting till I'm ready to move on.
Multa Nocte 32 minutes ago
This took some getting used to when we moved to France because we weren't sure how to proceed. After a few months we settled in and got used to it and how to find the server and proceed. Interestingly, you rarely hear of anyone in this area doing a "dine and dash" like we used to see on occasion in the US.
#22
Having a work life balance.
PiccoloAwkward465:
It was great to work for an Australian company and they just offered 4 weeks PTO, I didn't need to negotiate for it. I didn't feel like I had to hoard my time off and plan my vacations down to the day.
Home_Improvers:
Having a life in general.
#23
Air kissing cheek to cheek to say hello.
I went to France for a few weeks when I was 14 in 1992 (American, male) and got used to just the custom. Towards the end of my trip a couple British girls were there with the family and I could tell they were odd with the greeting, as they thought I was French and vis a vis, the same.
We laughed it off later as we snuck extra glasses of wine when dinner was served at like 10PM.
kitsurage:
In Finland it's already unthinkable to my dad's generation that people (mostly men) would even hug each other as a greeting/goodbye. Cheek kisses would still absolutely be an immense violation for most people.
Multa Nocte 30 minutes ago
I am so used to cheek kissing as a "hello" and "goodbye" after 4 years in France that it feels "natural" now. I can see how people would be wary of it if it's not something that is culturally normative to them, however.
#24
Small fridge. We have giant ones in the US by comparison.
Home_Improvers:
They don’t need giant refrigerators because fresh food is readily available for everyone (not just people who can afford to pay a premium for real food), people have time to cook, and they walk more so they aren’t hauling a trunk load of food home.
#25
Washing machine in the kitchen.
Im_Not_A_Plant:
This is only really the case in the UK. in bathrooms, or dedicated washing room is more common on the continent.
#26
Not replying to work emails outside of office hours (i.e. having weekends and time off).
NunYaBeezWax79:
I wish it wasn’t so expected to be available ALL the time to your employers in the US, even though we’re only paid for the 8-5.
Zig Zag Wanderer 14 minutes ago
I mean, not having to work outside of work hours. How incredible is that?
#28
Moved from Canada to Belgium. First trip to the grocery store had some surprises. I couldn’t find milk. They don’t keep it in the refrigerated section. It is on the shelves in tetra packs. I couldn’t find sliced bread, but I saw it in other people’s carts. Apparently you pick up a loaf of unsliced bread and put it in the slicer machine. (Me in my high school French: excuse moi. Can I watch you slice your bread?). Eggs - not refrigerated.
Also - Saturday morning at the big box Home Depot equivalent: I’m wearing torn jeans with paint splatters, work boots and an old hockey jersey with holes in it. All the other gentlemen have suede blazers, ascots (scarves), dress pants, dress shoes. They are in the paint aisle too. They get dressed nicely to go to the stores!
#29
Being safe in a theatre, at a parade, in school, at the park, at work, on public transport, at a club, at an outdoor concert, at the grocery store, at the church, at the synagogue, at the temple, at the mosque, at a sporting event, at the pub, at home, and most recently safe pulling away from a curb after dropping someone off.
Zig Zag Wanderer 11 minutes ago
Safety, what a foreign concept! Better than FREEDOM any day....
#32
WhatsApp
The only reason I’ve seen people use it here in the states is to talk to people internationally.
FarIndication311:
In the UK no one uses SMS any more, it's all Facebook Messenger or whatsapp.
The only SMS on my phone from the last few years are old one time pass codes, deleted spam or notifications from businesses.
Zig Zag Wanderer 15 minutes ago
Can't stand it, myself. Why let another greedy technology company have access to all your communications? WhatsApp refuses to let you start a conversation unless you give it access to ALL your contacts. Think about that....
#33
Respecting your allies.
84theone:
I’m pretty sure on the grand scale that is not the norm in Europe either, you know, given European history.
Also the ongoing war on the continent.
2fast4blue:
Russia and Ukraine were anything but allies before the war...
Multa Nocte 24 minutes ago
How about "not arbitrarily invading other countries because the oil you want is under their soil"?
#34
Having promotion/relegation in sports leagues. Although I can only imagine the chaos if like the Pirates or White Sox got kicked out of MLB lol.
#35
Lack of AC.
CoolBeansHotDamn:
Moving from Florida to New England was a shock for me. Central AC is VERY uncommon here, whereas it's basically unheard of to not have central AC in Florida.
Zig Zag Wanderer 16 minutes ago
Yeah, but Florida is insanely humid as well as hotter than most of Europe. I would have expected that to be obvious. I have plenty of A/C in my flat in southern Italy, anyway. It's quite normal.
#37
Healthcare that doesn’t bankrupt you.
G*n control.
Education at all levels being broadly available.
Zig Zag Wanderer 6 minutes ago
Yeah, let's censor the word 'gun'. In case it triggers (he he) someone. But you can buy one of course....
#38
Been able to cross the road when you think it is safe to do so.
Zig Zag Wanderer 13 minutes ago
We're adults. We're allowed to cross the road without government permission. Amazing, really....
#39
Electric kettles.
Gibby1293:
American here. I just bought mine a week ago and i love it! I can’t believe I never had one before. We are seriously missing out.
WeeDramm:
You don't even know how badly you are still missing out. Kitchens in Ireland and the UK are wired for a much greater power-output because we need that kettle to boil right now. Because we need our tea.
Tea is Very Serious Business.
Julie Rogers 1 hour ago
I've had an electric kettle for years, and I'm in the US. They're not commonly purchased but are widely available in the US.
#40
Bidets.
Zig Zag Wanderer 7 minutes ago
In Italy, people would be disgusted if they thought that you hadn't washed your behind after taking a dump. Even the smallest bathroom seems to have one. (a real separate one, not integrated like this one).
#41
No ice in your drinks.
Zig Zag Wanderer 5 minutes ago
Why would I want to water down my drink, which is already cool enough?
#42
Paying for bathroom use.
Zig Zag Wanderer 10 minutes ago
No. We don't, at least I never have outside of motorway services occasionally.
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