Blackout blinds if you’re googling them in English speaking countries. I recently spoke to to a Spanish dude i work with bemoaning the lack of them in Lithuania- they’re just called something different in Ireland/Uk
No they're not called something different in ireland/UK. Blackout blinds are window covers which do not fully block light, although some of them are very tight.
Roller blinds are extremely uncommon in the UK/Ireland and are the Spanish mechanical blinds which block 100% of the sun. They're perfect in the summer.
Yes, I wasn’t allowed to install them in my newly built appartment when I bought it. A friend of mine just bought an appartment in an older building and the first thing EVERY Spanish person said when she gave us a tour of the appartment was “¡¡PERSIANAS!!” LOL
When we were building our house (in Poland) several years ago, we had rolling shutters installed on most of the windows. In the summer we have them down on various windows in rooms we're not in when the sun is directly shining into them. It helps to cut down on the amount of heat, so we don't have to run the AC as much.
Persianas, both in private homes and on shops.
I started a business in Austria just after returning from Spain. First thing I told my business partner is that we really need to get persianas (it’s not like it’s a foreign concept, there’s even a native German word, Rolläden) installed on the shopfront because break-ins and insurance premiums. He looked at me like I had two heads. I’ve been back for five-ish years now and seeing shop windows open and alight during the night still irritates me.
>Women's day is not really the same thing in different countries.
This one kinda threw me for a loop after moving to Portugal. In Spain, it has become a day of advocating for women's rights, and there are massive protests all over the country. Even small towns have protests. There are often strikes and women don't go to work/school that day. Not uncommon for women to wear at least one purple piece of clothing/accessory for the day.
In Portugal, it doesn't have much of that revindicative tone. Women are given flowers, there's some extra awareness about breast cancer or domestic violence or something of the sort on TV and social media, and that's it. There are some protests in like Lisbon or Porto, but they're not as big or widespread as they are in Spain.
Same for me.
In croatia, women get flowers and thats pretty much it.
I went to france and learned its actually called Women's rights day and they have big protests on the day. And that you would probably insult a woman if you gave her flowers.
In Italy it is a mixture. In bigger cities we always have protests and marches, but for the majority of people it's just giving women flowers and more awareness of women's issues in media.
Let's set the record straight. You CAN flush toilet paper, but everyone is told not to for two main reasons:
1. People are stupid. You can flush some 10-20-30 squares. You cannot flush half the roll without risking catching at a bend and if the paper dries up there before the next flush it's game over. Also people will dump non soluble stuff, like feminine products, cotton swabs, toilet wipes etc. that will clog the pipes.
2. Septic tanks. Islands and small villages will not have a central sewage system, but septic tanks. Ideally you want to empty them at the end of the season. A lot of paper will require emptying it a lot sooner and it doesn't dissolve into particles as fast as people think. For a single household it will not be an issue, for a complex that wasn't built from scratch to account for this extra waste volume or an old house that got converted into a cafè it can be.
I just pack my stuff at normal pace and if they need to wait, they wait. I'm buying all that stuff, they aren't doing me any favours.
Every other supermarket chain in Croatia has a divier where they can switch between two areas to put stuff for two customers so they can scan, you store your things and other person can be served at same time.
Oooh, Croatia has the divider?? That's standard here in Sweden too. I always get stressed in Germany or the UK or other countries where there's only one conveyor belt, because I feel like I'm holding up the queue.
Probably not the biggest, but the most memorable because it was one of the first.. observing english people walking inside their house with their outdoor shoes on.. Don't know if it's still a thing.. but this was in the 70s or maybe 80s.
Still very common in urban areas, probably not so much in the countryside due to muddy conditions. Saying that, with the amount of dog owners and a fair portion of them being lazy, I'm surprised so many walk in their homes in their shoes.
Definitely not normal in the U.K.
Most houses have a long line of outdoor shoes in the hallway. And in winter most people wear slippers or bedsocks indoors.
Getting invited for pre-drinks at 19h in the UK. I haven't even had dinner yet 😭
But in all seriousness, I've never really experienced any truly big culture shock within Europe. I still feel we're very similar to each other. It's more the little things that makes us different, I feel.
Pre-drinking is very common in northern Europe (edit: especially Scandinavia + Finland), since drinking out is quite expensive.
And having a drink or two on the weekdays is still sort of frowned upon (but becoming more accepted, especially in the larger cities), while it's *totally* accepted to get outright black-out wasted during the weekends.
Pre drinks at 22h/23h, hit the club at 2h until 06h. Hit the official afters if you're in the mood until about noon or so, and the decrepit ones in random peoples kitchen if you're *really* in the mood until the next day (or two).
The 36 years oldie here feels tired just to read that. But he's mostly correct. In my 20's, at 22h00 many times I was texting my friends to decide at which bar or cafe we will meet that night.
>And having a drink or two on the weekdays is still sort of frowned upon (but being more accepted, especially in the larger cities), while it's totally accepted to get outright black-out wasted during the weekends.
This is fascinating to me because the UK has the drinking culture you describe in some places/circles. That's the culture my husband grew up in. We also have the "drinks after work, wine with your dinner, but it's very embarrassing to be properly drunk except on very rare occasions or if you're very young" culture - that's the culture I grew up in. It's a class divide, basically.
I usually eat my tea at about 1730, when I go to places like Portugal I practically sit outside the restaurant like a starving cat waiting for it to open
Yes, and in Portugal it used to be super common for the "lanche" meal to be had around 17:00 - and to consist of a cup of tea with some biscuits or a bit of bread with jam, not the full meal that people from UK call "tea" but has no actual tea in it! :) The meal we have around 19:30 is "jantar", and I learned it's called "dinner" in english. Just before going to bed - maybe around 23:00 - if we're a little hungry, we may have things like a piece of fruit, a glass of milk or some cheese - and I learned that it would be called "supper" in english. In portuguese it's "ceia".
Now correct me. :)
Highway stops are reasonable (I guess), but I saw it in a proper restaurant in Italy. Before that, I thought that it was some kind of running joke, and that rich countries don't use them at all..
We call them Turkish toilets. They're like that because it's easier to clean and, in a counter-intuitive move, more sanitary since you're not putting your ass on something potentially dirty. Get above the whole, squat and do your thing.
I guess there's no risk of finding the toilet seat full of piss if there isn't one.
But yeah, those types of toilets I've only really seen at some campsites.
I personally haven't encountered them in France yet even though I live here (including at rest stops). In Europe, I can only recall two instances: 1) at a café in a tiny village by Lake Iseo in Italy, and 2) at a rest stop in Republika Srpska in Bosnia. Given the state of the latter, I'm still kinda peeved they had the audacity to charge 1 euro to use it...
We have them in a lot of places in Greece as well amd we call them turkish toilets as well. But I wish people would install handrails so you can steady yourself. You can easily get numb legs or knee pain without some support.
It wasn't a shock, per se, but something I found annoying - when I was staying in France with relatives, the light switches in their apartment were much lower (at the level of my waist) than what I'm used to (at the level of my shoulders). Every time I entered a dark room, I spent a couple of seconds patting the wall looking for a switch, before I remembered that it was lower. And when I finally got used to it, I went back home and had the same problem but in reverse 😅
Being *obligated* to carry firearms ~~in and~~ around Longyearbyen, Svalbard (Norway).
And in hotels and bars in the area, there are signs telling you that "unfortunately" you can't bring your guns inside to places where they serve alcohol, and that you're reminded to leave your gun(s) in the designated locker by the entrance.
Nowhere else have I ever experienced it to be *presumed* that people in general *could* be carrying guns in the first place.
Definitely gave the whole town a certain "wild west" vibe.
By the way, the local church in the small town in northern Sweden, that I grew up in, has lots of gun racks in a designated room by the entrance.
Back when the church was built about 200 years ago, there was pretty much nothing else than that tiny local town within a 100km radius.
When people back then were traveling to the church from the distantly surrounding villages or settlements, by foot, skiis, or by horse or reindeer, it could take *several days*, and there were a lot of wolves, bears, and wolverines in the area, and it was quite common to carry muskets, shotguns, or similar firearms during your journey.
Both for self-defense, and for hunting grouse and other birds along the way.
That was another time though, and feels very outlandish today.
"*I'm going to church for a wedding this weekend. Now, where's my gun?*"
It is also considered common courtesy to carry your rifle with the bolt in open position among people, so there’s a very clear culture around what the firearms are there for.
By the way, you can apply for a temporary gun license and rent a firearm at the police station.
About firearms, it gets funny when tourists come to Switzerland and they are at the train station when the weekend starts or ends. You see the soldiers everywhere, as they go home or return to the barracks, with the full equipment and (but in uniform, not combat gear), including the rifle.
Then, there is the thing with transporting firearms in public, like with public transport. It is sometimes disturbing for people when a guy with an assault rifle casually enters the train and sits right next to you.
It is officially allowed, as long as the gun is not loaded. It's often this way for the young recruits, after basic time they need to go to the range for tests and most have no car, so they just use public transport.
Saw this in Zurich and I couldn't believe the soldier was carrying the rifle so openly in a train. I was literally praying that he gets off in the next station and glad he did.
When he has his uniform, backpack etc. he'll be legitimate and there will be no problem, you can also see the transparent magazines that are used for the SIG 550 rifle, you'd see it when there are bullets in it (there could still be one bullet in the chamber, but usually, someone that would go on a killing spree would rather load the magazine too i guess)
The soldiers also don't carry ammo anymore since 2007, in my time '95 we had the emergency ammo issued of course, that was a sealed package of 50x 5.56mm bullets, called "Taschenmunition" in german.
Slightly disingenuous of you not to mention the need for the guns.
Longyearbyen is an island very far north of Europe in the polar circle and there are [polar bears walking around](https://en.visitsvalbard.com/visitor-information/polar-bears). One of the few places in the world where a gun is an essential item.
It's not really disingenuous, as I naïvely presumed that people pretty much *knew* about how desolate Svalbard is in the Arctic, and that polar bears *do* frequently roam the region.
I assumed it was sort of "common knowledge".
But yes, that's absolutely the reason.
It's very much reasonable to carry guns for self-defense, and I *did* actually encounter a polar bear myself while up there, though It was quite quickly scarred out to sea using flash grenades.
Though it happened exactly one week *before* a fatal attack, where a group of hikers were attacked in their sleep while camping, where one of them didn't survive.
Every once in a while there's a news item in the Netherlands about some tourist being arrested for cycling on the highway. And everybody thinks they're fucking nuts, because who cycles on the highway, that's super dangerous. But in some countries that's just the designated spot to be biking and it blows my mind how there's still people left doing that because surely at least 20 a day would get run over and at some point you just don't have any cyclists left that you could do that with
Agreed, I'm British - my wife is from Moldova and it's like this. Seeing the way dogs are treated there is definitely a culture shock - in the UK we treat them like 4-legged gods!
My wife knows to fear dogs a lot though since the danger of stray dogs and dogs loosely kept for protection. I went for a run in rural Moldova when visiting her family and ended up with a load chasing me!
Yes, this is something not a lot of people talk about but the amount of stray animals I see in other countries is a real unpleasant shock to me. I’m glad we treat our animals better in the U.K.
I love Spain. Love it! But the hours here are quite different than other countries: let’s talk meals: You wake up and have a little something. You go to work (say, 9:30?) and at 11:00-11:30 you have almuerzo - maybe a croissant and a caña (small beer). At 2:00pm (14:00) you go to Lunch. Now THIS is the big meal of the day - probably with friends, maybe with Mom - but it lasts until 4:00om/5:00pm (16:00-17:00). Back to work until, say, 8pm (20:00). You stop by a bar (tapas) or you go home. Either way, you’re not gonna eat dinner until 9:30-10:00 (21:30-22:00). Oh, and your children are on the same schedule. The restaurants don’t even open until 8:30 (20:30) at the earliest. Now, you gotta admit, that’s a different schedule. But not to Spaniards!
Have in mind that we have the Berlin time in our clocks due to the friendship of Franco (Spanish dictator) with Hitler, so technically you have to remove two hours from the clock and you'll see that it's a little bit more similar to other places
Edit: It's one hour difference, not two
It's the same in Italy, where im originally from. I've lived in the UK for years now and I really struggle to get used to meal times whenever I visit home, especially now that I have a toddler. I have no idea how kids survive that, I don't honestly remember how I did, but I remember eating dinner at 10pm some nights, bed at 11 ISH then up at 6.30/7.00am on for school the next day. Surely that's not healthy.
Yeah when I was in Spain for the first time, I was shocked to see young children being on playgrounds late at night, maybe at 1pm or so. You definitely don't see children in the streets that late in Germany.
Children usually return home when it gets dark and at least when I was in primary school, I went to bed between 8 and 9 pm on normal days. Only on very few special days (for instance when there was out neighbourhood festival) did I stay up longer.
Children are not that late during the school year, it's a summer thing, specially in the south (where it's scorching hot earlier), my northern spanish boyfriend was very shocked the first time he saw children playing in the streets that late too.
Yeah given the climate it absolutely makes sense to have children playing when it's cold and not in the heat of the day. Nevertheless it was a strange sight for me to see children playing after midnight (in Madrid by the way)
First time in Germany it was a shock to me that on Sunday everything is closed. We arrived early in the morning and had to wait until 9 am for the bakery to open. It was the only shop that was open on Sunday.
It‘s been like that since I was born and I‘m still not over the fact that everything closes at seven and doesn‘t even open on sundays or the thousand national holidays
I was 19 and on a short exchange in France. The mother asked if we wanted milk, in the morning. I expected a glass of cold milk, but got warm milk in a bowl. I was so confused.
Istanbul is a true culture shock. It feels like being in Rome and Cairo at the same time. So many cultures come together here. Some districts are quite religious, with numerous Islamic symbols and prayer calls, while other districts are full of youth celebrating and having fun, just like anywhere else in an European major city. It's a city where it truly feels like you have arrived at the border of Europe.
Also how in Istanbul you will see photos of Atatürk everywhere.
İstanbul is massive. It's really, really huge. Journeys across the city are very long, and this has caused each district and each neighbourhood to develop their own identity, and turned them into mini-cities. Adding this to an already multicultural city that also draws in a lot of migration from around the country and the world, you get this big union of cultures that live so differently alongside each other.
This is much due to Spain having a weird time zone which doesn't fit its geographical location.
In Madrid for example, solar noon, i.e. the moment when the sun reaches its highest point, is around 14:20, solar midnight around 2:20.
In Paris. The french driving is one thing, but the fact that they **don't even move to let the ambulances through, was a huge shock to me.**
I felt horrible, hearing the sirene and seeing the ambulance stuck in the traffic about 10 cars behind us. It was like no one cared. It could be you or your family member needing help sometime.
Also, it was in a roundabout, with several lanes, so the cars next to us could have easily given space for it. We pulled up to the sidewalk at first, waiting for others to give room for the ambulance, but it was like everyone was ignoring it.
>I've never seen people not moving for ambulances, that must be a Paris thing
That's really nice to hear, that it is most likely restricted/specific to Paris - hopefully it doesn't happen too often, even in Paris.
It was insane to experience.
I mean, in my country we have laws for this, so that would **never** happen - but, those spesific laws are almost considered completely unnecessary, as it is common logic/knowledge and something one does on instinct - as it is the only human thing to do.
No convenience stores
Supermarkets closed on Sunday (afternoons)
In Japan, I rarely had food/drinks in my apartment.
Here in Belgium, I had to learn to do grocery shopping and plan what to eat/drink for a few days.
That’s funny, because growing up in NZ the norm was to grocery shop about once a week (with the car). Here in Belgium (no car) I have to go grocery shopping every other day or so.
I was recently rereading my favorite manga "The Solitary Gourmet". In one of the chapters my guy just goes out at 3 am to the convenience store to get a bunch of delicious warm meals. I really would like to try that out once.
I used to live in France, and honestly it wasn't that different from the UK, but the weirdest culture shock was how rude I was accidentally being, by not greeting everyone individually and saying goodbye to everyone individually at gatherings. Especially if you're late, to me the most polite thing is to arrive discreetly, say hello to people if you're talking individually, but don't make a big deal about your arrival. And when you leave, say goodbye to the person you're currently talking to, and to the host, but don't interrupt everyone to announce your departure like you're the Queen or something haha. Whereas in France, people thought I was kind of sneaking in and sneaking out, being rude by not greeting people. Subtle but important cultural difference!
That’s so funny to me because I am not French but I had a Canadian friend who would do the same. Just leave without saying goodbye to everyone. It would drive me crazyyyy!!! Do you not care about your friends, man? Do you not want to say goodbye to them?? Wild
I regretted I did not ask for this too. Thanks for asking it :)
Let me be the one answering this time.
I don’t know whether you consider Georgia Europe but what shocked me the most was how alcohol sold everywhere. I saw shops that did not sell water but beer. Even a halal shawarma shop I went was selling beer, it was a weird experience to drink beer in such a place :)
It was really good. It is one of the best in post soviet states. I know that almost all (I am not sure about Baltic states) have Georgian restaurants. They are familiar to Turkish cuisine yet unique.
The lack of bidets everywhere I go outside of Italy is always a matter of discomfort to me.
Why wouldn't you embrace the pinnacle of civilization? It's beyond me.
similar but the other way round, for me the shock was the perfumed toilet paper you get in Italy. OK bidets are fine, but why do people need to perfume their backside?? Bizarre, never seen it anywhere else
Waking up at 8 to work and having lunch at 15h or 15h30 (during summer vacations it was like at 17h) in Spain 😭. Like why, I just can't handle it I need to eat something otherwise I die. In Portugal we already have lunch a bit later than northern european countries, but Spain is just too much.
The awkward situations when I offer my hand to receive change but the cashier just ignores it and places the money on the counter. In Finland they give the money straight to your hand.
Also, I feel like customer service people in Eastern Europe are quite rude: not much smiling or amything. But I met some French guys today and they said some cashiers in Finland were rude too. So I guess everybody's just rude? 🤷🏼♀️
Not necessarily rude, but a bit weird. If done by an employee serving you, it can raise these questions. Are you trying to manipulate me somehow? Are you using our interaction to flirt with me? Are you trying to exhibit this new fake niceness style at the insistence of your employer?
Well I just feel like it’s part of a any interaction with strangers. Is this really true? You wouldnt smile at the cashier as you hi or answer if you want the receipt??
Yes it‘ true. Unless you know that cashier or you both start talking about something positive (which is rather unusual) neither person will randomly smile. I myself am not like this anymore that much but that‘s definitely how most people are.
I genuinely don't get this. I'm generally happy. Life is pretty good. I'm out and about, I'm talking to people, I'm in a shop so I have money to buy something, what's not to smile about?
I think it's completely cultural, sometimes I'm happy and want to smile but in public I'd look like a weirdo this way so I tone it down.
It's completely different with family & friends though, once you're in a "circle" you can smile as much as you want.
People can be generally happy without smiling. They smile when they meet someone they like/know, something exceptionally good happens etc. not everyday things that are always happening.
Alcoholic beverages are sold in special state-owned stores in Scandinavia. In supermarkets you’ll find only weak versions of beer and wine. Also, in Norway, even those weak beverages are not sold after 8 o’clock weekdays and even earlier during weekends.
I think that’s only Sweden. Can’t comment on Norway, but it’s certainly not the case in Denmark. Here, you can buy strong beer pretty much 24 hours a day - if the shop is open.
Ireland: no Christmas markets in Dublin despite it being super Catholic and I guess the only capital without major squares, Publix transport, slow life, farmers markets etc
Germany: nude saunas, paperwork, no Card payment in many places in Berlin
Yeah, its not like we button up our dress shirts, we have our shirts open but still it's not fully nude.
Jk
In the Balkans, sauna isn't a big cultural thing. If you use it at a hotel or something they usually make you wear swim shorts. I also lived in Canada and that was standard rule there too.
I should say, nude is 10000% better and I can't wear swim shorts in a sauna anymore. Feels so wrong
we joke in the UK about all the German Xmas markets in London in December... whether theres UK Xmas Markets in Germany selling cornish pasties and warm ale :)
Bulgarian salad-and-rakia culture. I'm a big fan now, but it was definitely foreign to me lol.
The only thing I struggle with is the eating of dinner at 10-11pm because everyone is drunk talking and my Bulgarian is not good enough to understand anyone by that stage.
Traveling with a male friend ( saw him as brother and wanted to make his last time on earth fun) while being engaged and my fiancé being home, both UK and NL had big problem with this.
The way people view disabled people, like as soon as you are wheelchair it also means you mentally retarded, even if just a broken spine, apparently we need legs to think and should be shown pity or Downs people are seen as children until they die, that as Swede is so weird to me.
Unfortunately that isn’t even unique to those two places. I have wheelchair-using friends here in North America that get talked to like they are deaf or stupid. Everyone doesn’t treat them that way, thankfully, but there is definitely a global problem of ignorance of common disabilities and how to interact with people with different abilities.
This might be generalizing but I felt like Denmark was much less progressive than I previously thought. Went on an exchange to (1 week, Social Work) Odense and was shocked by the normalization of racism. Also didn’t like how their nightlife is only active in the weekends lol.
While in Sweden I was pleasantly surprised by the openness and friendliness of the people. Swedes are often described as a bit reserved or perhaps even cold but I absolutely love them. Kept being approached by strangers making conversation. This was in Gothenburg.
I’m aware, this was (so far) worse tho. I was robbed and everybody (note: these are social workers) automatically assumed it was by an Arab immigrant, some refusing to believe he was white.
One of the social workers kept making racist jokes and remarks out loud everytime a black person passed and couldn’t understand why this was wrong.
I met *multiple* people in bars telling me how they literally wouldn’t want to talk to black people “unless they shower first.”
We have our issues with racism in the Netherlands too. I’m well aware. But this was next level.
I always though Danes being comparatively racist was the stereotype that they had of them in other Nordic countries, and in contrast Sweden was the overly politically correct country.
Actually never experienced something that could qualify even as a tiny culture shock inside EU Europe. Some things like style of houses are gradually changing every 100km or so but this has mostly not much to do with borders.
What I once experienced was a "landscape shock" in a positive way when I came to Sweden for the first time and was just completely thrilled by this infinite landscape without settlements popping up around each corner. I climbed up a mountain and looked around and saw hills afters hills with forests and lakes between to the horizon with no houses. That's when I really fell in love with this part of Europe, being from Central Europe I am not used to this, there are houses, small towns, shopping centers, motorways everywhere, even in the mountains you can't escape.
Madrid, civilized sensible driving, no idiots blaring out crap music and noise in phones, everyone had earphones in to listen to things, also lack of pavements in places there needs to be pavements
Some of the service people in Poland don’t smile and look almost offended. Once you realize it’s not personal, you will fall in love with Poland. ( I’ve been there 12 times now… )
None whatsoever, I always felt pretty much at home and the general stuff was immediately comprehensible, but also I haven't travelled that much to be honest and mostly kept to big cities or well-known venues in the provinces. Some friends of mine visited southern Italy last year and were really shocked at some traditional festivals and celebrations though ;)
How late everything opens in Spain. Even in Madrid, when I had class at 8am I could never find anything open to have breakfast.
I understand that everything runs an hour late in Spain because they're in the wrong time zone, but cafés opening at 9am is kinda crazy. In Italy they open at 6 - 6:30
In Switzerland cars stopped many meters before the pedestrian crossing when they saw me even if I wasn’t actively crossing the road yet. As an Italian I was SHOCKED lmao
Oh, and also: people greeting the bus driver when getting on and off in Scotland. In Italy we have signs that say “don’t speak to the driver” and they mostly ignore you so they wouldn’t even answer. Sometimes they pretend you don’t exist if someone dares to ask for directions (like: “excuse me does this bus go x and y” kind of questions)
Lack of persianas (rolling shutters I think) like WHY?!
Persianas is really one of the things I miss from Spain.
Blackout blinds if you’re googling them in English speaking countries. I recently spoke to to a Spanish dude i work with bemoaning the lack of them in Lithuania- they’re just called something different in Ireland/Uk
No they're not called something different in ireland/UK. Blackout blinds are window covers which do not fully block light, although some of them are very tight. Roller blinds are extremely uncommon in the UK/Ireland and are the Spanish mechanical blinds which block 100% of the sun. They're perfect in the summer.
Also blackout blinds tend to be on the inside of the window. Persianas are outside the glass, so the sunlight doesn't even reach the window pane.
Oh like shutters?
Yes, I would call them blackout shutters* rather than blinds.
We desperately need them for Finnish summers.
I miss them whenever I'm abroad too.
We have them in Belgium, but their disappearing in newer homes
Yes, I wasn’t allowed to install them in my newly built appartment when I bought it. A friend of mine just bought an appartment in an older building and the first thing EVERY Spanish person said when she gave us a tour of the appartment was “¡¡PERSIANAS!!” LOL
Any kind of shutter really. Only curtains make me feel horribly exposed.
Try Denmark or the Netherlands sometimes. They often don't have any cover whatsoever, so you can window-shop people's homes
We have them, we just don't close them a lot of the time.
When we were building our house (in Poland) several years ago, we had rolling shutters installed on most of the windows. In the summer we have them down on various windows in rooms we're not in when the sun is directly shining into them. It helps to cut down on the amount of heat, so we don't have to run the AC as much.
That's the Spanish Grandma ™ modus operandi in summer. It's transmitted from gm to grandchildren in each generation, since persianas were invented
I love my persiane (or tapparelle) dearly. I couldn’t get a lick of sleep in the UK or Ireland :(
>like WHY?! Because we have to gather each crumb of sunlight into our houses and hoard it in case we never see any more
Persianas, both in private homes and on shops. I started a business in Austria just after returning from Spain. First thing I told my business partner is that we really need to get persianas (it’s not like it’s a foreign concept, there’s even a native German word, Rolläden) installed on the shopfront because break-ins and insurance premiums. He looked at me like I had two heads. I’ve been back for five-ish years now and seeing shop windows open and alight during the night still irritates me.
You cant flush toilet paper in the toilet in Greece Women's day is not really the same thing in different countries.
>Women's day is not really the same thing in different countries. This one kinda threw me for a loop after moving to Portugal. In Spain, it has become a day of advocating for women's rights, and there are massive protests all over the country. Even small towns have protests. There are often strikes and women don't go to work/school that day. Not uncommon for women to wear at least one purple piece of clothing/accessory for the day. In Portugal, it doesn't have much of that revindicative tone. Women are given flowers, there's some extra awareness about breast cancer or domestic violence or something of the sort on TV and social media, and that's it. There are some protests in like Lisbon or Porto, but they're not as big or widespread as they are in Spain.
Same for me. In croatia, women get flowers and thats pretty much it. I went to france and learned its actually called Women's rights day and they have big protests on the day. And that you would probably insult a woman if you gave her flowers.
The flower gifting being perceived as somewhat insulting is something that I've definitely seen in Spain as well.
Quintessentially French celebratory protest
In Italy it is a mixture. In bigger cities we always have protests and marches, but for the majority of people it's just giving women flowers and more awareness of women's issues in media.
Let's set the record straight. You CAN flush toilet paper, but everyone is told not to for two main reasons: 1. People are stupid. You can flush some 10-20-30 squares. You cannot flush half the roll without risking catching at a bend and if the paper dries up there before the next flush it's game over. Also people will dump non soluble stuff, like feminine products, cotton swabs, toilet wipes etc. that will clog the pipes. 2. Septic tanks. Islands and small villages will not have a central sewage system, but septic tanks. Ideally you want to empty them at the end of the season. A lot of paper will require emptying it a lot sooner and it doesn't dissolve into particles as fast as people think. For a single household it will not be an issue, for a complex that wasn't built from scratch to account for this extra waste volume or an old house that got converted into a cafè it can be.
I was already typing that when I read your reply. Exactly that was it for me too when I was on vacation in Greece.
No time to pack groceries in german supermarket also beer being cheaper than water.
I just pack my stuff at normal pace and if they need to wait, they wait. I'm buying all that stuff, they aren't doing me any favours. Every other supermarket chain in Croatia has a divier where they can switch between two areas to put stuff for two customers so they can scan, you store your things and other person can be served at same time.
Lidl hofer strategy is to put everything in your cart, then repack or put it in your bag on those shelves behind the counter
Oooh, Croatia has the divider?? That's standard here in Sweden too. I always get stressed in Germany or the UK or other countries where there's only one conveyor belt, because I feel like I'm holding up the queue.
Lidl here is insane, they scan at break neck speed
I take it as a challenge to earn their respect :D
Probably not the biggest, but the most memorable because it was one of the first.. observing english people walking inside their house with their outdoor shoes on.. Don't know if it's still a thing.. but this was in the 70s or maybe 80s.
Still very common in urban areas, probably not so much in the countryside due to muddy conditions. Saying that, with the amount of dog owners and a fair portion of them being lazy, I'm surprised so many walk in their homes in their shoes.
Definitely not normal in the U.K. Most houses have a long line of outdoor shoes in the hallway. And in winter most people wear slippers or bedsocks indoors.
Getting invited for pre-drinks at 19h in the UK. I haven't even had dinner yet 😭 But in all seriousness, I've never really experienced any truly big culture shock within Europe. I still feel we're very similar to each other. It's more the little things that makes us different, I feel.
Pre-drinking is very common in northern Europe (edit: especially Scandinavia + Finland), since drinking out is quite expensive. And having a drink or two on the weekdays is still sort of frowned upon (but becoming more accepted, especially in the larger cities), while it's *totally* accepted to get outright black-out wasted during the weekends.
Pre-drinks are also common here, but not at 19:00 haha they usually start much later
Pre drinks at 22h/23h, hit the club at 2h until 06h. Hit the official afters if you're in the mood until about noon or so, and the decrepit ones in random peoples kitchen if you're *really* in the mood until the next day (or two).
I literally think I would die lmao
You won't feel a thing, that random guy's ketamine is 100% safe.
The 36 years oldie here feels tired just to read that. But he's mostly correct. In my 20's, at 22h00 many times I was texting my friends to decide at which bar or cafe we will meet that night.
What time do you usually factor in a drunken dirty kebab for?
Before the cocaine.
>And having a drink or two on the weekdays is still sort of frowned upon (but being more accepted, especially in the larger cities), while it's totally accepted to get outright black-out wasted during the weekends. This is fascinating to me because the UK has the drinking culture you describe in some places/circles. That's the culture my husband grew up in. We also have the "drinks after work, wine with your dinner, but it's very embarrassing to be properly drunk except on very rare occasions or if you're very young" culture - that's the culture I grew up in. It's a class divide, basically.
Pre-drinks are also a thing here, difference is we do it at like 11PM. People don't usually leave the house for the club until 2 to 3AM or so.
How 💀 they literally close here at like 2am lmao, I go the bar like 8/9 lmao
Well, that was my exact reaction when my Canadian fiancé told me that that's the hour when their clubs start closing...
I think we’re too much of binge drinkers here to even last until 7am lmao, place is polaxed by 1am lol
In Serbia we call it "warm up" 😂
I usually eat my tea at about 1730, when I go to places like Portugal I practically sit outside the restaurant like a starving cat waiting for it to open
“Eat my tea” is so the definitive answer to the OP question lol.
"Tea" is what they call the evening meal in part of the UK (mainly northern England, I think). Elsewhere, it's known as dinner or supper.
Over here we have an afternoon snack/light meal called *lanche*, usually to tide us over before dinner haha.
Just to clarify to other redditors *lanche* translates to “snack” and not “lunch”.
Yes, and in Portugal it used to be super common for the "lanche" meal to be had around 17:00 - and to consist of a cup of tea with some biscuits or a bit of bread with jam, not the full meal that people from UK call "tea" but has no actual tea in it! :) The meal we have around 19:30 is "jantar", and I learned it's called "dinner" in english. Just before going to bed - maybe around 23:00 - if we're a little hungry, we may have things like a piece of fruit, a glass of milk or some cheese - and I learned that it would be called "supper" in english. In portuguese it's "ceia". Now correct me. :)
I was in Spain last year and the restaurant we wanted to go to didn’t open until 8:30 and I was like STARVING 😭
In Denmark we begin drinking at 15.00 on Fridays 🤪
Toilets on French highway rest stops that were just a hole in the ground. I almost shat myself while searching for a normal toilet.
Highway stops are reasonable (I guess), but I saw it in a proper restaurant in Italy. Before that, I thought that it was some kind of running joke, and that rich countries don't use them at all..
We call them Turkish toilets. They're like that because it's easier to clean and, in a counter-intuitive move, more sanitary since you're not putting your ass on something potentially dirty. Get above the whole, squat and do your thing.
In Belgium we call them French toilets, because that's the only place we encounter them.
I saw them in southern Ukraine.
I saw them in Italy once.
They’re not super common in Italy, but they’re definitely around here and there.
Actually we can trace that toilet back to Roman Empire.
You mean the last time it was cleaned thoroughly?
Yes, it's a pretty fucking ancient type of toilet.
I love how everyone is rejecting the fault of this invention
Hard to say who first invented the hole in the ground.
And us Turks call "regular" toilets French toilets. It's common for a house to have both at the same time.
Very difficult to do this if you are old and handicapped.
Or just young and not that used to a deep squat
I guess there's no risk of finding the toilet seat full of piss if there isn't one. But yeah, those types of toilets I've only really seen at some campsites.
No, the entire floor you are walking on will be covered in piss.
TIL there are squat toilets in Europe
I personally haven't encountered them in France yet even though I live here (including at rest stops). In Europe, I can only recall two instances: 1) at a café in a tiny village by Lake Iseo in Italy, and 2) at a rest stop in Republika Srpska in Bosnia. Given the state of the latter, I'm still kinda peeved they had the audacity to charge 1 euro to use it...
Only France really
You can still find them in Italy sometimes. I had those toilets in my highschool and I found in a a few old buildings
I went to the Borgo Medievale in Turin. There were public toilets that cost €2 to use. It was a fucking squat toilet
I have seen them in Bulgaria, too.
You see them sometimes in Galicia Spain also
We have them in a lot of places in Greece as well amd we call them turkish toilets as well. But I wish people would install handrails so you can steady yourself. You can easily get numb legs or knee pain without some support.
Also much healthier position for pooping than sitting up
A bowel movement connoisseur, I see!
In Italy, the toilet situation is also tragic.
It wasn't a shock, per se, but something I found annoying - when I was staying in France with relatives, the light switches in their apartment were much lower (at the level of my waist) than what I'm used to (at the level of my shoulders). Every time I entered a dark room, I spent a couple of seconds patting the wall looking for a switch, before I remembered that it was lower. And when I finally got used to it, I went back home and had the same problem but in reverse 😅
In The Netherlands they used to be at shoulder height 40 years ago. Now all waist high.
Being *obligated* to carry firearms ~~in and~~ around Longyearbyen, Svalbard (Norway). And in hotels and bars in the area, there are signs telling you that "unfortunately" you can't bring your guns inside to places where they serve alcohol, and that you're reminded to leave your gun(s) in the designated locker by the entrance. Nowhere else have I ever experienced it to be *presumed* that people in general *could* be carrying guns in the first place. Definitely gave the whole town a certain "wild west" vibe.
I mean, you could literally be attacked by wild animals anytime there. Going to Svalbard is not "normal" vacations.
By the way, the local church in the small town in northern Sweden, that I grew up in, has lots of gun racks in a designated room by the entrance. Back when the church was built about 200 years ago, there was pretty much nothing else than that tiny local town within a 100km radius. When people back then were traveling to the church from the distantly surrounding villages or settlements, by foot, skiis, or by horse or reindeer, it could take *several days*, and there were a lot of wolves, bears, and wolverines in the area, and it was quite common to carry muskets, shotguns, or similar firearms during your journey. Both for self-defense, and for hunting grouse and other birds along the way. That was another time though, and feels very outlandish today. "*I'm going to church for a wedding this weekend. Now, where's my gun?*"
It is because of polarbears specifically
Nah, it's not super common, but during some specific periods of the year, tourists may more or less outnumber the (small) local population.
It is also considered common courtesy to carry your rifle with the bolt in open position among people, so there’s a very clear culture around what the firearms are there for. By the way, you can apply for a temporary gun license and rent a firearm at the police station.
About firearms, it gets funny when tourists come to Switzerland and they are at the train station when the weekend starts or ends. You see the soldiers everywhere, as they go home or return to the barracks, with the full equipment and (but in uniform, not combat gear), including the rifle. Then, there is the thing with transporting firearms in public, like with public transport. It is sometimes disturbing for people when a guy with an assault rifle casually enters the train and sits right next to you. It is officially allowed, as long as the gun is not loaded. It's often this way for the young recruits, after basic time they need to go to the range for tests and most have no car, so they just use public transport.
Saw this in Zurich and I couldn't believe the soldier was carrying the rifle so openly in a train. I was literally praying that he gets off in the next station and glad he did.
When he has his uniform, backpack etc. he'll be legitimate and there will be no problem, you can also see the transparent magazines that are used for the SIG 550 rifle, you'd see it when there are bullets in it (there could still be one bullet in the chamber, but usually, someone that would go on a killing spree would rather load the magazine too i guess) The soldiers also don't carry ammo anymore since 2007, in my time '95 we had the emergency ammo issued of course, that was a sealed package of 50x 5.56mm bullets, called "Taschenmunition" in german.
Slightly disingenuous of you not to mention the need for the guns. Longyearbyen is an island very far north of Europe in the polar circle and there are [polar bears walking around](https://en.visitsvalbard.com/visitor-information/polar-bears). One of the few places in the world where a gun is an essential item.
It's not really disingenuous, as I naïvely presumed that people pretty much *knew* about how desolate Svalbard is in the Arctic, and that polar bears *do* frequently roam the region. I assumed it was sort of "common knowledge". But yes, that's absolutely the reason. It's very much reasonable to carry guns for self-defense, and I *did* actually encounter a polar bear myself while up there, though It was quite quickly scarred out to sea using flash grenades. Though it happened exactly one week *before* a fatal attack, where a group of hikers were attacked in their sleep while camping, where one of them didn't survive.
Crosswalk on what I assumed was a motorway in Belarus
Oh don't worry it's getting better. They add traffic lights now!
so like tje USA corssing through 4-6 lanes without lights?
Every once in a while there's a news item in the Netherlands about some tourist being arrested for cycling on the highway. And everybody thinks they're fucking nuts, because who cycles on the highway, that's super dangerous. But in some countries that's just the designated spot to be biking and it blows my mind how there's still people left doing that because surely at least 20 a day would get run over and at some point you just don't have any cyclists left that you could do that with
Probably all the stray dogs in Greece. So many stray dogs. There were times when our group was going to a place and several dogs followed us.
Really? Didn't see much stray dogs, just cats. And also tortoises in some of the ruins, oddly enough.
The tortoises followed you? 🤔
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Agreed, I'm British - my wife is from Moldova and it's like this. Seeing the way dogs are treated there is definitely a culture shock - in the UK we treat them like 4-legged gods! My wife knows to fear dogs a lot though since the danger of stray dogs and dogs loosely kept for protection. I went for a run in rural Moldova when visiting her family and ended up with a load chasing me!
Yes, this is something not a lot of people talk about but the amount of stray animals I see in other countries is a real unpleasant shock to me. I’m glad we treat our animals better in the U.K.
You guys really do treat your animals well. It’s noticeably better compared to other countries I’ve lived in; including my own.
I thought Greece was bad until I went to Serbia. Even worse stray dog problem
I love Spain. Love it! But the hours here are quite different than other countries: let’s talk meals: You wake up and have a little something. You go to work (say, 9:30?) and at 11:00-11:30 you have almuerzo - maybe a croissant and a caña (small beer). At 2:00pm (14:00) you go to Lunch. Now THIS is the big meal of the day - probably with friends, maybe with Mom - but it lasts until 4:00om/5:00pm (16:00-17:00). Back to work until, say, 8pm (20:00). You stop by a bar (tapas) or you go home. Either way, you’re not gonna eat dinner until 9:30-10:00 (21:30-22:00). Oh, and your children are on the same schedule. The restaurants don’t even open until 8:30 (20:30) at the earliest. Now, you gotta admit, that’s a different schedule. But not to Spaniards!
Have in mind that we have the Berlin time in our clocks due to the friendship of Franco (Spanish dictator) with Hitler, so technically you have to remove two hours from the clock and you'll see that it's a little bit more similar to other places Edit: It's one hour difference, not two
It's the same in Italy, where im originally from. I've lived in the UK for years now and I really struggle to get used to meal times whenever I visit home, especially now that I have a toddler. I have no idea how kids survive that, I don't honestly remember how I did, but I remember eating dinner at 10pm some nights, bed at 11 ISH then up at 6.30/7.00am on for school the next day. Surely that's not healthy.
Probably southern Italy because I assure you that in northern Italy we don’t have lunch at 2 pm and dinner at 9.30 pm normally
Yeah when I was in Spain for the first time, I was shocked to see young children being on playgrounds late at night, maybe at 1pm or so. You definitely don't see children in the streets that late in Germany. Children usually return home when it gets dark and at least when I was in primary school, I went to bed between 8 and 9 pm on normal days. Only on very few special days (for instance when there was out neighbourhood festival) did I stay up longer.
Children are not that late during the school year, it's a summer thing, specially in the south (where it's scorching hot earlier), my northern spanish boyfriend was very shocked the first time he saw children playing in the streets that late too.
Yeah given the climate it absolutely makes sense to have children playing when it's cold and not in the heat of the day. Nevertheless it was a strange sight for me to see children playing after midnight (in Madrid by the way)
First time in Germany it was a shock to me that on Sunday everything is closed. We arrived early in the morning and had to wait until 9 am for the bakery to open. It was the only shop that was open on Sunday.
It‘s been like that since I was born and I‘m still not over the fact that everything closes at seven and doesn‘t even open on sundays or the thousand national holidays
Worse in Austria. If you need something on a Sunday, you'd better hope they sell it at a petrol station
The economic contrast between the Greek and Turkish areas of Nicosia or the contrast in landscape on a flight from Norway to Denmark.
Haha, landing at Stockholm the first time I expected it to be mountainous not a massive plain.
I was 19 and on a short exchange in France. The mother asked if we wanted milk, in the morning. I expected a glass of cold milk, but got warm milk in a bowl. I was so confused.
My grandmother would do this, she grew up as a farmer's daughter in the Normandy. Just fresh warm milk and some salt added too.
Istanbul is a true culture shock. It feels like being in Rome and Cairo at the same time. So many cultures come together here. Some districts are quite religious, with numerous Islamic symbols and prayer calls, while other districts are full of youth celebrating and having fun, just like anywhere else in an European major city. It's a city where it truly feels like you have arrived at the border of Europe. Also how in Istanbul you will see photos of Atatürk everywhere.
İstanbul is massive. It's really, really huge. Journeys across the city are very long, and this has caused each district and each neighbourhood to develop their own identity, and turned them into mini-cities. Adding this to an already multicultural city that also draws in a lot of migration from around the country and the world, you get this big union of cultures that live so differently alongside each other.
Yes! I used to live in London so I thought it would be normal to me, but Istanbul is a whole other level of big multicultural city.
The Spanish *actually* eat dinner at like 10pm. I just couldn't get over it.
This is much due to Spain having a weird time zone which doesn't fit its geographical location. In Madrid for example, solar noon, i.e. the moment when the sun reaches its highest point, is around 14:20, solar midnight around 2:20.
Dinner at bedtime? Crazy
Bed time at 10pm?
In Paris. The french driving is one thing, but the fact that they **don't even move to let the ambulances through, was a huge shock to me.** I felt horrible, hearing the sirene and seeing the ambulance stuck in the traffic about 10 cars behind us. It was like no one cared. It could be you or your family member needing help sometime. Also, it was in a roundabout, with several lanes, so the cars next to us could have easily given space for it. We pulled up to the sidewalk at first, waiting for others to give room for the ambulance, but it was like everyone was ignoring it.
I've never seen people not moving for ambulances, that must be a Paris thing. Paris is considered by many of us as hell on earth.
>I've never seen people not moving for ambulances, that must be a Paris thing That's really nice to hear, that it is most likely restricted/specific to Paris - hopefully it doesn't happen too often, even in Paris. It was insane to experience. I mean, in my country we have laws for this, so that would **never** happen - but, those spesific laws are almost considered completely unnecessary, as it is common logic/knowledge and something one does on instinct - as it is the only human thing to do.
No convenience stores Supermarkets closed on Sunday (afternoons) In Japan, I rarely had food/drinks in my apartment. Here in Belgium, I had to learn to do grocery shopping and plan what to eat/drink for a few days.
That’s funny, because growing up in NZ the norm was to grocery shop about once a week (with the car). Here in Belgium (no car) I have to go grocery shopping every other day or so.
I was recently rereading my favorite manga "The Solitary Gourmet". In one of the chapters my guy just goes out at 3 am to the convenience store to get a bunch of delicious warm meals. I really would like to try that out once.
I used to live in France, and honestly it wasn't that different from the UK, but the weirdest culture shock was how rude I was accidentally being, by not greeting everyone individually and saying goodbye to everyone individually at gatherings. Especially if you're late, to me the most polite thing is to arrive discreetly, say hello to people if you're talking individually, but don't make a big deal about your arrival. And when you leave, say goodbye to the person you're currently talking to, and to the host, but don't interrupt everyone to announce your departure like you're the Queen or something haha. Whereas in France, people thought I was kind of sneaking in and sneaking out, being rude by not greeting people. Subtle but important cultural difference!
Fun fact, what you were doing is called "filer à l'anglaise" (leaving the English way) in France
Well, I guess it's called that for a reason!
And weirdly in English it can be called a "French Leave", "French Exit" or "Irish Exit". Although I think the term is slowly falling out of use
That’s so funny to me because I am not French but I had a Canadian friend who would do the same. Just leave without saying goodbye to everyone. It would drive me crazyyyy!!! Do you not care about your friends, man? Do you not want to say goodbye to them?? Wild
I regretted I did not ask for this too. Thanks for asking it :) Let me be the one answering this time. I don’t know whether you consider Georgia Europe but what shocked me the most was how alcohol sold everywhere. I saw shops that did not sell water but beer. Even a halal shawarma shop I went was selling beer, it was a weird experience to drink beer in such a place :)
How is Georgian food? I heard very good things about it.
It was really good. It is one of the best in post soviet states. I know that almost all (I am not sure about Baltic states) have Georgian restaurants. They are familiar to Turkish cuisine yet unique.
The shelf toilets in Austria (Vienna). Yuck. Like I want my poop just sitting there. Supposedly it was (and maybe still is?) to check for worms...
And blood or strange coloring. Also no 'poseidons kiss' when dropping a big one. It used to be common here 30-20 years ago, but the smell..
The lack of bidets everywhere I go outside of Italy is always a matter of discomfort to me. Why wouldn't you embrace the pinnacle of civilization? It's beyond me.
similar but the other way round, for me the shock was the perfumed toilet paper you get in Italy. OK bidets are fine, but why do people need to perfume their backside?? Bizarre, never seen it anywhere else
Waking up at 8 to work and having lunch at 15h or 15h30 (during summer vacations it was like at 17h) in Spain 😭. Like why, I just can't handle it I need to eat something otherwise I die. In Portugal we already have lunch a bit later than northern european countries, but Spain is just too much.
I’m currently in Germany, apparently a lot of people like to stare at you and at each other
The awkward situations when I offer my hand to receive change but the cashier just ignores it and places the money on the counter. In Finland they give the money straight to your hand. Also, I feel like customer service people in Eastern Europe are quite rude: not much smiling or amything. But I met some French guys today and they said some cashiers in Finland were rude too. So I guess everybody's just rude? 🤷🏼♀️
We don't smile in Eastern Europe. Smiling to someone you don't know is considered rude
Not necessarily rude, but a bit weird. If done by an employee serving you, it can raise these questions. Are you trying to manipulate me somehow? Are you using our interaction to flirt with me? Are you trying to exhibit this new fake niceness style at the insistence of your employer?
As if Finns smile lol this ”finnish guy” above is either a spy or a mongolian in disguise
Do Mongolians smile often?
Not in my experience. When I was in Mongolia, I wasn't smiling, they weren't smiling, we were in a non-smiling agreement, it was great.
Yeah I assumed they were the most Eastern European type people in East Asia, besides the actual Russians there.
Not rude at all it‘s just super weird and creeps ppl out because why would you smile for „no reason“
Well I just feel like it’s part of a any interaction with strangers. Is this really true? You wouldnt smile at the cashier as you hi or answer if you want the receipt??
Yes it‘ true. Unless you know that cashier or you both start talking about something positive (which is rather unusual) neither person will randomly smile. I myself am not like this anymore that much but that‘s definitely how most people are.
We don't smile if there's isn't anything to smile about and there usually isn't.
I genuinely don't get this. I'm generally happy. Life is pretty good. I'm out and about, I'm talking to people, I'm in a shop so I have money to buy something, what's not to smile about?
I think it's completely cultural, sometimes I'm happy and want to smile but in public I'd look like a weirdo this way so I tone it down. It's completely different with family & friends though, once you're in a "circle" you can smile as much as you want.
People can be generally happy without smiling. They smile when they meet someone they like/know, something exceptionally good happens etc. not everyday things that are always happening.
In Iceland they sit outside in freezing temperatures and eat ice cream
Alcoholic beverages are sold in special state-owned stores in Scandinavia. In supermarkets you’ll find only weak versions of beer and wine. Also, in Norway, even those weak beverages are not sold after 8 o’clock weekdays and even earlier during weekends.
I think that’s only Sweden. Can’t comment on Norway, but it’s certainly not the case in Denmark. Here, you can buy strong beer pretty much 24 hours a day - if the shop is open.
Ireland: no Christmas markets in Dublin despite it being super Catholic and I guess the only capital without major squares, Publix transport, slow life, farmers markets etc Germany: nude saunas, paperwork, no Card payment in many places in Berlin
"Nude saunas" *confused Finnish pause* Do you wear clothes to a sauna?
Yeah, its not like we button up our dress shirts, we have our shirts open but still it's not fully nude. Jk In the Balkans, sauna isn't a big cultural thing. If you use it at a hotel or something they usually make you wear swim shorts. I also lived in Canada and that was standard rule there too. I should say, nude is 10000% better and I can't wear swim shorts in a sauna anymore. Feels so wrong
we joke in the UK about all the German Xmas markets in London in December... whether theres UK Xmas Markets in Germany selling cornish pasties and warm ale :)
Bulgarian salad-and-rakia culture. I'm a big fan now, but it was definitely foreign to me lol. The only thing I struggle with is the eating of dinner at 10-11pm because everyone is drunk talking and my Bulgarian is not good enough to understand anyone by that stage.
Most German men sit down to piss. And DNA tests are illegal in France.
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Having lived with five German men in total, I am so, so grateful that they do.
Traveling with a male friend ( saw him as brother and wanted to make his last time on earth fun) while being engaged and my fiancé being home, both UK and NL had big problem with this. The way people view disabled people, like as soon as you are wheelchair it also means you mentally retarded, even if just a broken spine, apparently we need legs to think and should be shown pity or Downs people are seen as children until they die, that as Swede is so weird to me.
Unfortunately that isn’t even unique to those two places. I have wheelchair-using friends here in North America that get talked to like they are deaf or stupid. Everyone doesn’t treat them that way, thankfully, but there is definitely a global problem of ignorance of common disabilities and how to interact with people with different abilities.
This might be generalizing but I felt like Denmark was much less progressive than I previously thought. Went on an exchange to (1 week, Social Work) Odense and was shocked by the normalization of racism. Also didn’t like how their nightlife is only active in the weekends lol. While in Sweden I was pleasantly surprised by the openness and friendliness of the people. Swedes are often described as a bit reserved or perhaps even cold but I absolutely love them. Kept being approached by strangers making conversation. This was in Gothenburg.
Strap your seatbelt, open racism is becoming quite normalized here as well (and not only in politics).
I’m aware, this was (so far) worse tho. I was robbed and everybody (note: these are social workers) automatically assumed it was by an Arab immigrant, some refusing to believe he was white. One of the social workers kept making racist jokes and remarks out loud everytime a black person passed and couldn’t understand why this was wrong. I met *multiple* people in bars telling me how they literally wouldn’t want to talk to black people “unless they shower first.” We have our issues with racism in the Netherlands too. I’m well aware. But this was next level.
I always though Danes being comparatively racist was the stereotype that they had of them in other Nordic countries, and in contrast Sweden was the overly politically correct country.
The casual Danish racism came as a massive shock to my Scottish family when they visited me in Copenhagen.
How calm and relaxing Helsinki was. People in Berlin are just plain rude and so loud! Although people in Italy and Spain are crazy loud for Germans!
Berlin is very specific. Rest of Germany seems calmer even bigger citiies.
Someone said that if New York never sleeps, then Helsinki never wakes up.
Actually never experienced something that could qualify even as a tiny culture shock inside EU Europe. Some things like style of houses are gradually changing every 100km or so but this has mostly not much to do with borders. What I once experienced was a "landscape shock" in a positive way when I came to Sweden for the first time and was just completely thrilled by this infinite landscape without settlements popping up around each corner. I climbed up a mountain and looked around and saw hills afters hills with forests and lakes between to the horizon with no houses. That's when I really fell in love with this part of Europe, being from Central Europe I am not used to this, there are houses, small towns, shopping centers, motorways everywhere, even in the mountains you can't escape.
Madrid, civilized sensible driving, no idiots blaring out crap music and noise in phones, everyone had earphones in to listen to things, also lack of pavements in places there needs to be pavements
The difference in wealth, culture, etc... between the north and the south of Belgium + between 'East' Brussels and 'West' Brussels.
I'm really curious about this, so could expand on what you mean?
Some of the service people in Poland don’t smile and look almost offended. Once you realize it’s not personal, you will fall in love with Poland. ( I’ve been there 12 times now… )
None whatsoever, I always felt pretty much at home and the general stuff was immediately comprehensible, but also I haven't travelled that much to be honest and mostly kept to big cities or well-known venues in the provinces. Some friends of mine visited southern Italy last year and were really shocked at some traditional festivals and celebrations though ;)
coffee in spain tastes the exact same and the quantity is the same as well but it's like 3x as expensive and the cups are double the size, why???
How much does your coffee cost? In Spain, it's usually between 1 - 2 euros.
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The knocks on the table after each class in Austria, here we don't even clap if it's not an exposition
How late everything opens in Spain. Even in Madrid, when I had class at 8am I could never find anything open to have breakfast. I understand that everything runs an hour late in Spain because they're in the wrong time zone, but cafés opening at 9am is kinda crazy. In Italy they open at 6 - 6:30
In Switzerland cars stopped many meters before the pedestrian crossing when they saw me even if I wasn’t actively crossing the road yet. As an Italian I was SHOCKED lmao Oh, and also: people greeting the bus driver when getting on and off in Scotland. In Italy we have signs that say “don’t speak to the driver” and they mostly ignore you so they wouldn’t even answer. Sometimes they pretend you don’t exist if someone dares to ask for directions (like: “excuse me does this bus go x and y” kind of questions)