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It's always interesting to travel around the world and experience different cultures and traditions that may differ from what you believe to be the "norm". And even though most of the time these cultural differences spark nothing more but a delightful surprise, there are some characteristics that are difficult for people to wrap their heads around.

Have you ever thought that there are things that only your country does but seems that everybody else doesn't really understand it at all? Well, according to this askredit thread, those living in America definitely have this problem. After getting asked "What is something you didn't realize was typical American stereotype until you went abroad?", people flooded the post with an endless list of customs that only in America are considered to be normal. From garbage disposals and free public bathrooms to extreme portion sizes, there are some strictly American things.

Scroll down to read these answers and funny stereotypes, and don't forget to share your delightful cultural differences in the comments!

#1

The prices abroad don't add tax after the fact. You pay what the price shows. No need to figure the tax. Dumb that we do that here.

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#2

Being "friendly" to an extent. I checked in at a hostel and walked into the lounge area where people from all over the world were just chilling. I kinda introduced myself to the whole room, and someone goes, "you're from the states, yeah?" And I'm like, "yeah howd you know?" They said, "only an American will walk into a room of strangers and introduce themselves to everybody."

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#3

When I went to Australia I found out very quickly that no one down there "roots" for a team - they "go for" a team. So when I said I root for the Red Sox I got a lot of weird looks

(Rooting means fucking in Australian)

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#4

Sugar. When I visited Japan, even some of their sweetest desserts pale in comparison to how much sugar is in American food.

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M O'Connell
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I absolutely hate how sweet things are here. EVERYTHING could do with at least 50% less.

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#5

How fat we are. Like, I know we are when compared to the rest of the world. But it made me realize what I think is fat in the US, is grossly obese in Europe. And what's not-fit, but not-fat in the US, is fat is Europe.

There are some hamhogs over there but my god, returning home was an eye opener.

At least we don't smoke as much, I guess.

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#6

The stereotype about us being loud is true. I never thought of myself as being loud until I went abroad and would hang up the phone after speaking in what I thought was appropriate volume to find everyone around me was staring at me, and realized how much more quiet they were lol whoops

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María Hermida
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Everything is relative. Come to Spain and you will start to think that, in comparison, you are as quiet as a mouse. It doesn't matter how loud you are, the average Spaniard is even louder. The level of tolerance to noise here is unbelievable.

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#7

Measuring walking/driving distance in blocks.



It's the unit of measure I use most frequently when giving directions - the restaurant is 3 blocks away, go south one block and then two blocks west, I live six blocks from the grocery store...



It wasn't until I studied abroad in England and got a complete blank look when I asked someone how many blocks away the library was that I realized using "block" as a measurement only makes sense in cities that were largely pre-planned and built on grid system. AKA: not many places outside the US.

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Eunice Probert
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You have to remember that many town in Europe are actually quite ancient, far older than the USA.

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#8

Red plastic cups for parties. So much so that people outside US use them as an accessory to American themed parties.

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M O'Connell
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I would be so uncomfortable at an "American-Themed" party. I'm American, but I have absolutely no idea what the expectations would be.

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#9

Ok, so, this one is probably pretty obvious, and looking back on it it’s really embarrassing. My family took a European vacation when I was 17. For some reason, we decided to get KFC in the UK. (Because ‘Murica.)

My friend who came with us went with me to order and pick up our order. We ordered a family size bucket of chicken, and they asked us what kinds of side dishes we wanted. We said “Biscuits.” And the employees looked at us with the strangest look.

UK KFC: “You want . . . biscuits with your chicken?” Me: “Yes. Biscuits.” UK KFC: “We don’t sell those.” Me: “What do you mean you don’t sell biscuits. What are your sides?” UK KFC: “Chips?” Me: “You mean French fries? Ok fine. That’ll do.”

I was worldly enough to know that “chips” meant “French fries”, but “biscuits” in the UK are cookies. My fat ass tried to order fried chicken and cookies. I am positive someone over in the UK is still telling this story at parties as an example of how disgusting Americans are.

Also on this same trip my father asked why our waitress kept saying “cheese”, when she was saying “cheers”. We really left a good impression across the pond.

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Dani
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Haha! This reminds me of a time when my family was visiting relatives in Japan and because we were from America, my great-aunt decided to take us to an "American restaurant." I loved it because their interpretation of American food was about equivalent in accuracy to our interpretation of Japanese and Chinese cuisine.

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#10

Small avocados.

Went to puerto rico. Was like, ‘yo ill have like 6 of those stuffed avocados’. Buddy was like, ‘yo gringo, i think you underestimate the size of our avocados here. Just have one and ill being you more if you want after’.

I had half of one. It was like a football.

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#11

Here in the States, pregnancy announcements/reveals/baby showers are mainstream but it's generally a BIG no-no to bring it up in Kenya. My mom found out the hard way. Essentially, asking someone when the baby is due is the equivalent of asking the person "when did you and your husband fuck?" which is considered EXTREMELY rude. The lady my mom asked was gracious about it but said "If we were not such good friends I would have slapped you!"

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Crouching_Penn_Hidden_Teller@yahoo.com
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A guy from Pakistan I had just met asked me why I wasn't married. I told him in the US that's a rude question. His immediate response was to ask me again!

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#12

Garbage disposals in sinks.

When I moved to the UK, my flatmates asked how in movies people would stick their hands in the sink drain and it be ripped apart. I told them about garbage disposals and they were very weirded out.

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Blakkur Sverrir
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In most parts of Germany they are forbidden. The reason is that the scraps would feed the rat population under ground

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#13

Having your drink constantly refilled at restaurants. I just wanna drink a ton of water alright?

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Julia Christina Eneroth
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Here in Sweden many restaurants let customers get a bottle of water to the table. Then we can chose ourselves when we want to refill.

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#14

Buying stuff and the cashier putting your items in a plastic or paper bag. Went to Germany, and found it strange they don't bag your items. Everyone just brings their own bag or dumps their stuff in a back pack.

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Eunice Probert
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's because we're trying to save the planet, one unused plastic bag at a time. Having to pay 10p for plastic bags in supermarkets cut bag use by 80% in Wales in one year.

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#15

Root beer is apparently disgusting and an offense to most of the worlds palate.

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#16

I moved to England from Texas about six years ago. One of the major things that I noticed was that smiling and being friendly towards strangers was considered bizarre. This is a bit true in any metropolitan area, but especially in the UK. In Texas I was used to smiling at people, asking for directions if I needed them, and being friendly towards strangers. I learned very quickly that smiling at someone on the tube, or asking someone for directions on the street immediately makes someone think you’re trying to scam/rob them or you’re crazy.

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#17

Ranch flavor Doritos in the Netherlands are called "Cool American" flavor.

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#18

Keeping AC on 100% of the time in the summer.

Visited Madrid for about a month to see the exchange student we housed, and found that they typically only turn on AC at Night to sleep or when it reaches a damned 105 deg F.

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anisub
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

in Switzerland no one has an ac in their house but our houses are also better built than your wood houses haha^^ that's something i don't get, you have these hurricanes and storms and everything but your houses are so poorly built..

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#19

Massively wide roads/lanes. The whole of Ireland made me feel claustrophobic, but when I got back home the roads felt like way too much wasted space.

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#20

Going out to a restaurant. In America, you are seated ASAP, and then they bring you drinks, appetizers, entree, desert and then check as quick as they possibly can (if it's good service) for a total time of 45 minutes to an hour and a halfish. Staying past this time is seen as a bit rude. In Europe, going out to eat seemed to be more of an event that you slowly enjoyed for a longer period of time. First, they you bring you drinks and an appetizer for the first hour. Then the second hour is the entree and desert. Then it's more drinks for another half hour or so. I don't know if it's because we were American but it seemed like the wait staff everywhere we went was annoyed that we were rushing them, when we just thought it was bad service and didn't understand the routine.

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Monika Soffronow
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sorry, but Europe is not a country. There are 50 countries if you include the ones that are partly in Europe, partly in Asia so talking about the customs of eating out in Europe mean nothing at all unless you include where you actually were. Different countries, different languages, different cuisines, different cultures and different customs.

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#21

Road trips...at least just jumping in the car and driving a few hours without giving it much thought. I live in a large western state and it seems at least every other weekend my family and I were in the car traveling for a few hours to see some site, go into Mexico or another state.

I have relatives in Switzerland and they were going to drive us to the Frankfurt airport and I was blown away how big of a deal it was to them. My uncle had the car inspected, shopped around for gas, and printed off travel and weather reports. All for a trip my dad would have said "hey lets do this this weekend, in the car kids!"

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Bruce Robb
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In the US, 100 years is a long time. In Europe, 100 miles is a long distance.

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#22

Having plenty of *FREE* bathrooms around for the public to use.

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Eunice Probert
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5 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh good lord yes. If a county council tries to close one, there is a heck of a protest. We demand plenty of public loos.

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#23

I doubt this is restricted to America in any way, but when I studied abroad in the UK, the lack of public drinking laws was a bit of a culture shock. Being able to walk outside with a bottle of beer was very freeing

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Bored Fox
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If anyone visits Finland the alcohol laws here are very confusing - also for us Finns. You can visit a store that is open 24hours but you can't buy alcohol drinks between 9 pm and 9 am. If you want alcohol drinks that have over 5,5% volume of alcohol (like vodka that often has 40%) then you have to buy them from a separate store called Alko that is not open 24/7 and is often closed on sundays and holidays. It is also not a good idea to drink alcohol on a public place because police may confiscate your drinks. Also alcohol is really expensive here so many Finnish people buy alcohol from Estonia or Russia. But at least you can buy alcohol and visit bars when you are 18 years old.

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A.Armos
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes in Europe people find buying machine guns in supermarkets bizarre but they are not fazed by a guy walking down the street holding a can of beer in hand. Is that strange?

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Ozacoter
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Also why in USA you can vote, drive, work and go to war at 18 but you cannot drink until 21? I always found it weird.

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Lord Vader
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I was in the military and thought the same thing. I can dir for my country but cant buy a bottle of vodka ?

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The dude
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Damn straight. Lived there a few years. About the only city in the us where you can be walking to the trolley with a beer at 8am on a Tuesday and nobody judges you.

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HoffLensMetalHedLovesAnimalsUK
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5 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah most cities have their own rules but generally you can drink anywhere except city centres because that's where the alcoholics will gather and cause trouble but yeah the police won't have a problem with a group of lads walking down the street swigging a beer as long as you aren't behaving like an a*s you will be fine, at worst they would make you pour it away, you can buy beer and crack one open directly outside the shop if you want. Americans find this strange?, i find being able to walk into a gun shop and buying a machine gun at 16 to be even stranger but you know, it's the little differences.

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A.Armos
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Europeans find buying machine guns in supermarkets a bit of a culture shock. Someone walking down the street with a beer can in hand is somewhat easier to stomach.

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Ryo Bakura
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We also only have to be 18 to drink legally. Partaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, bitches!

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Janine B.
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't think it's that much freeing. Here in Berlin tourists and the young folks think it's such a cool thing to do. So we end up having a lot of halfway drunken people in the streets every night of the week. People who misbehave and throw their garbage everywhere. Not a very pleasant sight at all.

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Themis
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Soft cultural chock compared to ours when we see you can buy guns like we buy beer and cigarettes.

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Darryl Kerrigan
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4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah. When in New York we used to buy mcdonald's drinks and top them up with vodka...

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Julien Hu
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5 years ago

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Julien Hu
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5 years ago

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Catherine Spencer-Mills
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I grew up in Arizona. They have drive through liquor stores - seriously. But, you cannot buy liquor or beer or wine from 6 am until noon on Sundays. That may have changed since I was a kid. You cannot purchase a drink in a bar (pub) after 2 am. I have lived in Kansas. Now, there is strange laws. You have different licenses for 3.2% beer only, bring your own liquor and buy the set up, or purchase tickets from a club supply and the bartender will make your drink. It varies by county in Kansas. Some counties are still completely dry and only 3.2% beer sales are allowed. Oregon is strange, where I now live. You can buy beer and wine at the grocery stores. You can order any drink at a bar. But, if you want to purchase a bottle of liquor, you have to go to one of the state run liquor stores. Makes no sense to me as you can be an alcoholic if you drink nothing but beer or wine. Someone tried to explain to me that it had something to do with taxes and the revenue from sales for the state.

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Chris Miilu
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You can't walk down the street in the U.S. drinking from an open bottle, unless you are in a festival venue. You can't have open liquor bottles in your car, a heads up for visitors. It is part of the drunk driving laws.

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Carol Emory
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When my husband lived in Kyoto for 4 months, he said it wasn't uncommon to find vending machines with whiskey in them.

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Steve Haigh
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Unfortunately they are turned off around 11pm :( I used to love grabbing a cold beer from a vending machine when I lived in Japan, though.

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Nancy Jeckells
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I am Canadian and when I moved to England in 1987 I was shocked to see someone drinking a can of beer on the tube (subway).

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Josurf
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

always thought those brown paper bags around a bottle of alcohol was kind of hypocritical. Very much like the "bleeping out of curse words" ...

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HoffLensMetalHedLovesAnimalsUK
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5 years ago

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Joseph Petkovich
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's even more relaxed than New Orleans. Here, you can drink on the street as much as you want, but don't you dare bring a glass bottle out there. ....well I guess it's not that bad, I think the cop would just make you throw it away.

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Red
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In Australia we have night lockdown laws so after a certain time at night you aren’t served alcohol anymore

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Alissa Merstrand
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In denmark, you can buy soft liqour at 16 (beer and the like) and hard liqour at 18 (like vodka) and drinking is allowed at any age with the parents consent. Public drinking (in the streets or at work) but im unsure whether theres a law prohibiting it.

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Noez 🇸🇪
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Depends on where you are! Within city limits: generally no but there are exceptions. Outside city limits: go nuts.

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Enuya
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In Poland we cannot drink alcohol beverages in public places, except designated areas (and, of course, in pubs etc.). You can buy alcohol at every time, but public drinking is generally forbidden. It's not like everybody obeys this law (I'd say people in my country are rather indulgent to drinking alcohol) - but it exists.

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Angela Giacomelli
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5 years ago

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Tara B
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I went to the UK when I was 20 I felt weird getting booze underage..

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Uwe Theiss
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You were not underage there. For example 21 is in germany irrelevant. Beer is legal from 16, everything else from 18. "Underage" is only a defintion made by a law from a country.

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#24

I was struck by the extent to which nobody talks to strangers in northern Europe ... Even in big cities in the US, people will talk to each other sometimes in line, on the subway, etc. Not deep conversations, but it isn't weird to make casual conversation.

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C Bragg
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Maybe I was born in the wrong country, I hate small talk and I don't smile at strangers.

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#25

How large grocery stores are here. My wife is not american and we lived in China and were in HK all the time... they had large international stores that were great and she didnt really grasp the size of american grocery stores till our first week in the USA and there's 150 feet of cereals on one aisle

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#26

S’mores. I was in New Zealand having a bonfire on the beach and someone went and grabbed a bag of marshmallows and then everyone just ate them??! By themselves?! And someone from Sweden asked me if s’mores were a real thing or only on tv. I was flabbergasted.

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#27

My British friend makes fun of me for how much cheese I use in my cooking.

Doesn't stop her from inhaling my potato casseroles, but there you go.

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KarmaQueen
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My husband would be in heaven. He always says "the more cheese the better."

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#28

I am not American but visit the U.S alot and I tell you,almost all Americans has this habit of giving the 'half smile look' to anyone,that is not just normal anywhere else

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KarmaQueen
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5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not sure what this means? Half smile look when confronting someone as they walk past you, to be nice?

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#29

24 hour stores.

It's weird not being able to buy random sh*t at 4am...

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#30

At a buffet in Germany, I had to pay for ketchup

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Bored Fox
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5 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's strange. Here in Finland ketchup and mustard are usually free part of the buffet food.

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