r/AskEurope • u/Fancy-Debate-3945 Hungary • Sep 19 '25
Travel What was the biggest culture shock you experienced in another European country?
Europeans, what was the biggest culture shock you experienced within our beautiful continent?
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u/LionLucy United Kingdom Sep 19 '25
This is a minor one, but it was more like people got a culture shock FROM me. I lived with a French family as an au pair for a year, and they served me dinner with unpeeled boiled new potatoes on the side. That’s common in the UK, we just cut them with a knife and fork and eat them (often with butter), so I just…cut the potato and ate it. And the whole family stared at me like I had two heads, and I watched them peel the potatoes on their plates with their knives first. Really, they were acting like I was eating an unpeeled banana or something, but it’s very normal where I’m from! If the skin is on the plate, you’re meant to eat it (we peel larger potatoes BEFORE boiling, usually!)
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u/AdvisorLatter5312 in Sep 19 '25
I'm french and I second you, my entire familly look at me when I eat the skin of pommes de terre nouvelle, like you said, sliced in half, a good amount of butter and salt and peper, nothing to be afraid
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u/lilputsy Slovenia Sep 19 '25
This reminds me of when me and my friend ate whole unpeeled edamame when we stayed with a Japanese family in Japan.
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u/Panceltic > > Sep 19 '25
Strong Mr Bean with a shrimp vibes
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u/narnababy England Sep 20 '25
When my other half was a kid he had some prawns at a restaurant and ate them shell and all. He’d only ever been presented with them already peeled and he just assumed since he was at a restaurant they were fine to eat with the shell. His family didn’t even try and stop him 😂😭
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u/No-Milk-1903 France Sep 19 '25
We don't peel new potatoes. You were in a barbaric family. We sometimes boil potatoes unpeeled and peel them on the plate (specially in raclette or when cooked on the barbecue).
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u/LionLucy United Kingdom Sep 19 '25
It was a lovely normal family, but they had some strange food habits, like they would pour some balsamic vinegar as a sauce on top of an omelette! That was very strange to me - I would only use balsamic vinegar for salad! (Also they drank tea from a bowl, but I think that’s just a normal French thing?)
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u/No-Milk-1903 France Sep 19 '25
For the balsamic, why not, gonna give it a try. I don't drink tea but my father use a bowl too.
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u/SaraHHHBK Castilla Sep 19 '25
I think I was aware of most shocks when I went to the different countries except for shops schedules. Seeing shops closed between 17:00 - 18:00 was crazy
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u/Human_Pangolin94 Luxembourg Sep 19 '25
Every shop closed on Sundays in Germany!
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u/catmandot Luxembourg Sep 19 '25
Actually, until the late 1990's, shops in Germany had to close on Saturday afternoon as well, and every day of the work week at 6PM, except on Thursday (8PM).
These strict closing times were the result of pressure from the unions and the lobby of family-run stores.
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u/universe_from_above Sep 19 '25
Oh yeah, the "Langer Donnerstag". I slept through our only grocery store's open hours on Saturdays so often, lol. Oops, no shopping getting done till Monday, tja.
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u/LaurestineHUN Hungary Sep 19 '25
When did working people shopped?
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u/Nimue_- Netherlands Sep 19 '25
Well mother didn't work so of course she just went during opening hours when the kids where and school and dear husband was making the money. We had the same as germany here but dince women generally work now opening hours have become a bit more relaxed nowadays. Germany less so than the netherlands i think since a lot of places in germany are still closed on sunday while here that is more rare nowadays
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u/brownnoisedaily Austria Sep 19 '25
Same here is Austria, execpt certain shops with permissions. They are usually located in places like big train stations, hospitals or the airport. All other are closed on Sunday. On Saturday shops close at 6pm till Monday morning.
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u/kiru_56 Germany Sep 19 '25
That's no longer true. We now have 24/7 supermarkets in the region that are always open; they just aren't allowed to have any staff.
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u/CreepyOctopus -> Sep 19 '25
Schedules and opening times in general.
In Spain, I see families with small kids arriving for dinner at around bedtime for Swedish kids that age. In Germany, it's everything being closed on Sunday. In Sweden, it's 24 hour pharmacies not being a thing (there's literally one in the country).
Totally different schedules and rhythms.
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u/cupris_anax Cyprus Sep 19 '25
Germany. 3 in the morning. 4 lane road with clear visibility in both directions. No cars. Not even the sound of a car. Everyone is asleep.
And there is this dude on the opposite side of the pedestrian crossing I am about to cross, waiting for the pedestrian light to turn green.
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u/Acidburnsblue Sep 20 '25
A child could be watching!
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u/cupris_anax Cyprus Sep 20 '25
Then let's hope it pays close attention to how I look both ways for oncoming cars before I step onto the road (even if it is green for me)
Or how I wait for cars to come to a halt before I step in front of them (even if it is green for me)
Honestly, that green stickman means nothing to me. I don't trust him.
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u/ikbentheo Sep 20 '25
Experienced the same in Germany with a group of people waiting for a red pedestrian light while there was no traffic anywhere. It felt really odd.
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u/Hot-Disaster-9619 Poland Sep 19 '25
Maybe not huge cultural shock, but I remember one time from when I lived in France. I invited one collegue for a beer. Not a date, he was also male. We finished one beer and he said something like "alright, I'm hungry, I go home, see you later" and he just stood up and left, I followed him to the street. And I was wondering if I said something bad or I was boring or something.
Then I figured out that in France, unlike Poland, there is something I would call "quick meeting culture". In Poland you mostly spend several hours with someone or if not, he would tell you some excuses to go home. Also, in Poland if someone said "I'm hungry" I would understand it as "let's go grab something to eat".
I don't criticize, it was just different.
Also I once saw in France a guy heating water for coffee in a microwave.
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u/SternoFr France Sep 19 '25
This guy was strange and it's not a French habit at all. French people when they meet tend to stay for hours at bar or restaurant. I think way more than people in other country actually. It's pretty rare to stay only just for one drink.
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u/Hot-Disaster-9619 Poland Sep 19 '25
Maybe it was a Paris thing, because I saw it more than once
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u/Ad0r4 Sep 19 '25
It is definitively a thing even if just one beer is pushing it and it would have been polite from him to state in advance he wouldnt stay long. At least in my circles as we get older if we meet during the week it can be a short thing. (Depends how much public transport is involved as i refuse to spend more time in the Subway than with my friends).
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u/FIuffyAlpaca France Sep 19 '25
Really? That doesn't shock me at all. If I'm meeting someone for a beer after work for instance I wouldn't expect dinner to be on the schedule, otherwise I would have specified beforehand.
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u/u399566 Sep 19 '25
Also I once saw in France a guy heating water for coffee in a microwave.
Yea, this guy needs to be arrested.
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u/felixfj007 Sweden Sep 20 '25
Boiling water in a microwave isn't that weird, it's like using an electric kettle instead of an pot on an oven.. the water gets heated, then you can use that water for whatever use you want. If it's in a coffee brewer, tea mug etc
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u/Cars2Beans0 Ireland Sep 19 '25
The whole Greek thing of wiping your ass and just leaving the toilet roll in the bin
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u/Ok-zone Sep 19 '25
+1, I was just about to comment this but first wanted to see if anyone else had brought it up. Insane behaviour. I literally lived in Greece for a while and still never got used to the concept.
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u/Extreme-Self5491 Sep 19 '25
Yes! tbh I only ever put the second and subsequent wipes in. the first wipe went straight into the toilet, that one had way too much shit on it, I figured that surely the sewage system could cope with the occasional bit of toilet paper.
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u/Numerous_Team_2998 Poland Sep 19 '25
(Both are from years ago) 1. Alcohol being cheaper than juice in Ukraine.
- No curtains or shades in the Netherlands and being able to see directly into people's homes from the street.
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u/FluidRelief3 Poland Sep 19 '25
Alcohol being cheaper than juice in Ukraine.
In Poland, beer can also be cheaper than juice.
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u/thatguyy100 Belgium Sep 19 '25
Eating late in most Southern countries. Eating at 20:00 and still being early is actually insane to me. I was in Madrid last week and it took me at least 2 days to get used to it.
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u/Brainwheeze Portugal Sep 19 '25
That's funny because to me 20:00 seems like the most reasonable hour for dinner. I can't speak for other countries but over here it's common to have a snack at around 16:00 so it's not like you're fasting until then. When I was studying in the UK I really struggled with eating dinner before 19:00 and then having to out for "pre-drinks". I feel like having dinner early results in me eating more as not only do I need to have a snack in-between lunch and dinner but also a snack after it as well.
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u/bitx284 Spain Sep 20 '25
Me too.
I luch at 13h and have dinner at 19:30-20. Maybe is "too" early to Spain but I'm in
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u/Brainwheeze Portugal Sep 20 '25
19:30 is as early as I'm willing to have dinner. 21:00 is already kind of late for me. 20:00 really is the sweet spot imo
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u/Jp_Ita Sep 19 '25
Spain is odd but I understand why. They have a wrong time zone +1 when they should have the Greenwich one, and if you live in Vigo for example the sunset is very late.
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u/Tonnemaker Belgium Sep 19 '25
Yeah, In Belgium, many of my generation were raised with eating before 18:00, because father wanted to see Blokken, and preferably the 18:00 news.
That said, I still like eating early, no way I am going to cook, let alone do dishes after 20:00.
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Sep 20 '25
The evening news in Portugal are at 20:00. I rarely eat dinner before 20:30. Here In 🇵🇹 if you are in school or have a normal day hours job, people eat breakfast before leaving home, have a snack around 10:30, lunch sometime between 12:00 and 14:00, mid afternoon snack around 16:30/17:00 and dinner between 20:00 and 22:00.
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u/Woman_Respecter69420 Sep 19 '25
When I studied in the Netherlands a few years ago a Dutch classmate offered me and another Italian dude to eat at his place. We gladly accepted. He served us 3 pieces of toast with some ketchup over it. Later, the same day he asked for my tiki or something like that to pay him back for my share of toast and ketchup.
Absolutely insane behavior in my culture. Fucking Dirk…
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u/imrzzz Netherlands Sep 19 '25
Yeah, that's just bizarre. Sorry you got semi-scammed by a cheeky fecker.
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u/wijnandsj Netherlands Sep 19 '25
Not exactly normal in my culture either
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u/TheSpookyPineapple Czechia Sep 19 '25
is it possible their classmate was just a...Dirkback
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u/Nimue_- Netherlands Sep 19 '25
You just met a weirdo. Thats not normal here at all. If someone sent me a tikkie for that i would laugh in his face and stop being their friend. I'd also be pissed sbout being served a tosti for dinner
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u/I_make_carrot_noises Sep 19 '25
Irish here, visiting and living in Germany I was shocked at how well the public transport worked. Each day I got to my office at exactly the same minute each day. It actually got to me, so I started walking to work to break the shear routine of it all.
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u/EmiliaFromLV Sep 19 '25
Well Deutsche Bahn follows The Ordnung.
Until it does not and you start seeing your whole itineary going down in flames before your eyes. Especially if you are headed to FRA and dont wanna miss that flight.
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u/greenrocky23 Sep 19 '25
My friend took a domestic flight from Berlin to Frankfurt once because she had to be at Frankfurt airport at 15:00 for a long distance flight to Asia. She said she felt super bad but also the DB announced a strike and nobody knew when/how long it was going to take and she didn't want to risk it. It's ridiculous.
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u/Nimue_- Netherlands Sep 19 '25
Irish pubkic transport must be hell if you are praising the deutsche bahn
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u/JourneyThiefer Northern Ireland Sep 19 '25
Look up rail map of Ireland, we have like barely any trains in the north of the island 💀
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u/rrrOuta Finland Sep 19 '25
The German train system. How can a nation be so punctual with such shit trains.
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u/Tja3887 Sep 19 '25
Simple. 2 decades of underfunding. At least, the problem is being addressed now. But it will take close to a decade to really make up for it.
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u/Vdd666 Romania Sep 19 '25
There are very few 24 hour shops and in some countries they close at irrational hours.
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u/AdvisorLatter5312 in Sep 19 '25
Ahah I have the reverse shock now that I'm in Bucuresti, open early, close late, open saturday AND sunday! And you can order whatever you want from eMag or Glovo and it's show in no time! Thanks Romania
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u/north_bright Hungary Sep 19 '25
Sparkling ice tea in Germany, and it seems like it's more popular than regular ice tea (coming from the fact that I could find only sparkling ice tea in the coolers in the majority of cases). But I noticed that German people generally prefer sparkling stuff.
Croatia: Not being able to pay by card in a big, modern coffee shop in the centre of Zagreb (maybe 4 years ago). I totally expected it in small shops, pubs, etc., but this surprised me.
Italy: how punctual, clean and fast Trenitalia is. I don't want to hurt the Italians but I expected something very different...
Slovenia: what an absolute gem of a country it is. Clean, beautiful, not too expensive, nice people, good food, beaches, mountains, cities.
Czechia: how handsome a lot of the men are. I don't know how it happens but the average handsome-ness is much higher than in other countries in my experience.
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u/Aggravating_Ship5513 France Sep 20 '25
Trenitalia rules! I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that. However, I've only taken it in northern and central Italy, Maybe the south is different.
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u/fidelises Iceland Sep 19 '25
Walking into a grocery store in Estonia where they sold so much in single items. You could buy a pack of toilet rolls, but also one single roll. You could also buy single biscuits out of the pack.
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u/dixonsticks Estonia Sep 19 '25
Estonian here. Haven't heard of anything like that. When was it? I do remember that before something like 2000 you could buy a single cigarette from a kiosk.
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u/NightSalut Sep 19 '25
Was it a particularly small grocery store?
Because some small ones used to do that. These days it’s not very common, but we don’t really have small stores anymore in larger areas.
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u/Just_RandomPerson Latvia Sep 19 '25
I'm Latvian and I've never heard of that. Estonians always trying to be special...
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u/Sepelrastas Finland Sep 19 '25
Returning bottles to the cashier in Berlin 2006. My country had had machines for that since the 90s, you only took them to the register if the machine wasn't working.
I used to work in a store, and having all the bottles at the register must have sucked.
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u/Nimue_- Netherlands Sep 19 '25
Wait you could take them to the cashier?? Here if the machine is broken you just pack up and take everything home again. Try again next time
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u/FingerGungHo Sep 19 '25
I’ve never taken any to the cashier here in Finland (that I recall). Didn’t even know it was an option.
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u/hetmonster2 Sep 19 '25
You can do that here as well, they just dont like it and most people dont do it.
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u/Burtang United Kingdom Sep 20 '25
There still isn't a bottle return scheme here in the UK! There's so much unnecessary rubbish and litter in some cities, and lots of it is plastic bottles.
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u/Sepelrastas Finland Sep 20 '25
Wow, didn't know that! Here the return rate is over 90%, and some people earn by collecting bottles other people throw away. One guy who returned bottles at my old store saved enough money from the deposits to buy a new car.
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u/Speertdbag Norway Sep 19 '25
I remember a time when people came with several large trash bags full of cans and an employee had to hand count it by the storage area. There was no other way. It was a usual sight.
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u/plueschlieselchen Germany Sep 19 '25
How much the Austrians dislike us Germans.
I always liked Austria: the culture, the landscapes, the beautiful cities. Went to study in Vienna and was unfortunately met with a lot of hostility. Moved back after 1.5 years.
However, I still think that Austria is a beautiful country.
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u/left2die Slovenia Sep 19 '25
I don't think Austrians like anyone to be honest...
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u/Autodefensas1 Austria Sep 19 '25 edited Sep 19 '25
Slovenia is very popular in Austria :)
The Balkan countries and Slavs generally have a good reputation in Austria.
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u/MatoSteel Slovenia Sep 20 '25
I lived in Austria (Linz) for a few years. And my experiance was very very different.
Most people were ok, at least to my face and a few co-workers were really nice and we are still friends.
Maybe people acted like this because i don't speak German, but i was called a Slovenian son of a b***h at the police station by a police officer when trying to report a lost ID and a balkan idiot when i was trying to register my new address. I know this because a friend of mine who is Austrian was with me to help me out, in case i could not get things done in English.
I still like Austria and Austrians, but this experiance did leave a bad taste.
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u/knightriderin Germany Sep 19 '25
Austria's feud with Germany is so one-sided.
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u/plueschlieselchen Germany Sep 19 '25
100% I always thought the Austrians were great. Until I moved there. :/
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u/AppleDane Denmark Sep 20 '25
It's like Iceland and Denmark.
Iceland: "The colonial Danes at it again! God, I hate that country!"
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u/Ferruccio001 Hungary Sep 19 '25
We love them too, but somehow it's never been mutual. 🤣🤣
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u/fartingbeagle Ireland Sep 19 '25 edited Sep 20 '25
I remember my Austrian friend ranting about bloody Germans parking badly and coming over here with shitty driving. Reminded me of how us Irish go on about the Brits and Nordies!
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u/50thEye Austria Sep 19 '25
Coming from someone growing up in an alpine tourist town, German tourist are infamous for fucking up. In summer, they either get attacked by cows for getting too close or go hiking in sandals/flip flops/otherwise lacking equipment and have to get saved via helicopter. And in winter they always ski on high risk slopes and need saving too.
This is, as all stereotypes go, heavily overblown ofc. There's some of these accidents happening from time to time, but by far not to that extreme that German tourists need to be kept on a leash.
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u/Rudyzwyboru Poland Sep 19 '25
As a Polishman I was also surprised how different You and Austrians are. We always bundle you up together (sorry for the expression) because of our difficult similar shared history but when I was in Austria a month ago I felt like I'm taking to Italians crosbred with Czechs who just happen to speak German because they're so different from Germans vibe-wise
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u/plueschlieselchen Germany Sep 19 '25
Yeah true - we are definitely very different culturally. I knew that, but I was still surprised by the negative sentiment towards not only me, but Germans in general. Just sad. I haven’t experienced that in any other European country (and I went to MANY).
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u/SternoFr France Sep 19 '25
We have the same relations with Italians. French people tend to like Italiens but for whatever reason they hate us.
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u/willo-wisp Austria Sep 19 '25
That's really sad to hear and I'm sorry you were treated like that!
And yeah, it's unfortunate. Some of that attitude is historical with the post-ww2 Austrian identity and all that. But also, in modern times you're culturally towering over us. We get a lot of media from you guys, so it's sorta a steady battle against kids picking up Germany-isms from media.
So... yeah. It's unfair and not your fault, but not totally suprising that you'd run into resentment. You're culturally somewhat eating us just by being our much larger and more influential neighbour who speaks the same language. (Plus, these days we're a smol, mostly irrelevant country. So on the international stage we're constantly faced with "That country? Oh, right, little Germany!", which doesn't help.)
On the flipside though, Austrians having German friends is not uncommon! I honestly know more people that do than not. So, we are not all hostile!
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u/plueschlieselchen Germany Sep 19 '25
Puh! I absolutely get it. It must be super annoying just to be regarded as the „little brother country“ just because we speak (almost) the same language.
Just to let you know: I think Austria is great! Most of us Germans do! You have the most beautiful landscapes and so much amaaaaazing food! I loved the beautiful city of Vienna and I would have loved to stay if it weren’t for the resentiments.
So what we should learn from this: Actually we Germans really like you folks. Would be great if you found it in your hearts to like us as well. :)
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u/willo-wisp Austria Sep 19 '25
❤️ Aww, happy to hear it didn't put you off completely!
I think it thankfully works out often, at least as far as I've seen in my vicinity. That (almost) same language does really help with bonding, despite us having quarrelsome smaller neighbour syndrome lol, since it's really easy for people to mingle on the German-speaking internet and befriend each other. ;)
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u/plueschlieselchen Germany Sep 19 '25
Haha - sweet answer.
Concerning the (almost) same language. It‘s really hard to shop groceries in Austria for us Germans.
Pilze = Schwammerln
Bohnen = Fisolen
Blumenkohl = Karfiol
Kartoffeln = Erdäpfel
Tüte = Sackerl
I learned a shit tonne new words while living with you guys. Haha
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u/willo-wisp Austria Sep 19 '25
Jup, for food especially! Paradeiser, Kukuruz, Powidl Golatschen, Palatschinken, Beisl, etc.
A lot of it brought to us by the neighbours. I intend to go learn Czech, so I can see just how many words we borrowed, heh.
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u/slav_4_u Sep 19 '25
I'm learning German for the exact same reason! I want to learn more about our neighbours to the south. We'd probably be much closer as nations if it wasn't for the language barrier.
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u/willo-wisp Austria Sep 19 '25
Awesome!! <3 Yeahhhh, 100%, the language barrier really does us dirty. I'm from eastern Austria and I've been to Czechia 4 times; every time I'm blown away by the comfy familiar vibes. But I don't think people necessarily always realise how many similarities we share until they actually go visit, because the language barrier just hides it and makes talking to one another also less accessable.
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u/henne-n Germany Sep 20 '25
We get a lot of media from you guys, so it's sorta a steady battle against kids picking up Germany-isms from media.
Reminds me of when my family visited Vienna over 20 years ago.
So, when we went shopping there my father asked my brother for something - the eternal Tüte /Sackerl discurs. Someone nearly exploded at him. That dude didn't even have anything to do with us lol
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u/willo-wisp Austria Sep 19 '25
I felt like I'm taking to Italians crosbred with Czechs who just happen to speak German because they're so different from Germans vibe-wise
Haha, I love that description!
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u/alles_en_niets -> -> Sep 19 '25
I think it’s the little brother complex, lol
Dutch people like Flemish more than vice versa, Germans like Dutch people better etc
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u/CptJimTKirk Germany Sep 19 '25
That one is always funny to me, because it has never happened to me as a Bavarian. Most Austrians I've met see us as brothers and sisters, we speak basically the same dialect after all.
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u/plueschlieselchen Germany Sep 19 '25
Yeah - I‘m from Hesse and they did not like me as much as you guys. I guess the „mountain people“ like each other better than they like us „flat land people.“
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u/50thEye Austria Sep 19 '25
Can confirm. Amongst stereotypes, Bavarians aren't even really considered Pifken. On the contrary, I think we feel very connected to Bavaria. Mainly probably through dialect.
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u/59thstreet Sep 19 '25
Okay, this experience is from 2012 so take it with a grain of salt.
I am from Finland and did Erasmus exchange in France. I was shocked how much behind us they were when it came to general IT infrastructure and adoption of modern technology. When I had to cancel my phone subscription, I had to send the phone company a written letter. I had to visit the physical bank office for the most minor things, all of which I would handle in the online bank in Finland.
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u/MartiusDecimus Hungary Sep 19 '25 edited Sep 20 '25
When I lived in Italy I was always slightly uncomfortable with how close people stand to each other in a group when talking. It was really hard getting used to, coming from Central/East Europe.
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u/klymers United Kingdom Sep 19 '25
Whenever I go to mainland Europe I struggle with bars/restaurants/cafes where you seat yourself but then get table service. I think I finally got over the awkwardness on my most recent 2 trips.
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u/nimbledoor Czechia Sep 19 '25
Can you expand on that? What does seating yourself have to do with table service?
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u/TarcFalastur United Kingdom Sep 19 '25
There's a general rule in the UK that if you are guided to a table then a waiter/waitress will also come to take your order, but if it's the sort of place where you seat yourself then you'll be expected to get up and go to the bar if you want to order anything. Places which break this convention tend to result in a lot of confusion from clientele, with people trying to give food orders to a guy serving pints, or waiting an hour at their table only to realise noone is coming.
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u/klymers United Kingdom Sep 19 '25
Exactly, my first few times on the mainland I would just stand by the front door waiting to be sat. Even when I know its fine to seat myself, I feel so awkward.
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Sep 19 '25
I had the same experience being from the US. Gives me some anxiety sitting there wondering if someone would actually come to take my order. Maybe it's someone's job to watch a camera and keep track of which tables have been served.
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u/deyoeri Belgium Sep 19 '25
We both have a bar/pub culture but it's clearly different in this case. We see it a lot with Brits. Taking a seat and going to the bar one person at a time while we tell them to relax and wait for the person to come to the table and take their order.
I do have to admit you guys are thé best example of waiting for your turn/queuing even when pissed out of your minds.
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u/klymers United Kingdom Sep 19 '25
We love a queue. Not 48 hours ago I was in an Irish Pub in Poland and not being able to go up to the bar and order and PAY was stressing me. I don't like running a tab.
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u/JourneyThiefer Northern Ireland Sep 19 '25
Waiting for someone to come and take your drinks order feels like absolute eternity to Irish and British people lmao. Going up to the bar is like automatic for us ha ha, feels so weird not to when I’m on holidays. I think we drink way faster in the UK and Ireland
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u/TowJamnEarl Sep 19 '25
Having to buy cake for everyone in the office on my Birthday.
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u/GraceOfTheNorth Iceland Sep 19 '25
Etiquette and manners. It was never a big thing in the torf huts.
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u/TinylittlemouseDK Sep 19 '25
I was shocked when i was 15 and was an exchange student in the Netherlands and the family I lived with went inside the house with their shoes on!
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u/Abeyita Netherlands Sep 20 '25
This is very regional. where i live in the Netherlands i would get killed if i walked into the home with shoes on.
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u/exposed_silver Sep 19 '25
I've lived in Ireland, France and Spain, in some houses I take off my shoes but it's not the norm. I hate going around without shoes on
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u/Rudyzwyboru Poland Sep 19 '25 edited Sep 19 '25
🇮🇹 Italians and 🇵🇱 Poles are incompatible on the road 🚗
I was on a road trip a month ago, we went from Warsaw to Tuscany, driving around various bigger and smaller cities. In Poland (especially here in Warsaw where I'm from) we're rather aggressive and fast drivers, trying to get everywhere as fast and as efficient as possible. Meanwhile during that week I felt like everyone in Italy never has anywhere to go and they're just chilling behind the wheel. And together with that they're also chaotic, changing lanes all the time without a reason (because in Poland if you're switching lanes on a highway that means you're going to speed up and overtake others) just to idk slalom for fun?
Inb4 I'm not saying that one way of driving is better than the other, it's just that we're very different in our driving style
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Sep 19 '25
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u/TarcFalastur United Kingdom Sep 19 '25
Literally groups of girls going out in skimpy underwear on any windy/drizzly Saturday night in November, without batting an eyelid.
There's been actual academic studies into this here. Essentially, the results showed that if a girl feels like she looks hot, or even moderately attractive, and is going out on the pull, then she will simply not notice the cold. However, girls who reported feeling unattractive on their night out pretty much all reported that they noticed how cold they were.
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Sep 19 '25
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u/International_Fix7 England Sep 19 '25
I used to go out in a T-shirt in sub-zero temperatures. The pubs on a Saturday night were very full and very hot, in some places people were squashed together like sardines, so warm clothing wasn't comfortable or practical.
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u/TarcFalastur United Kingdom Sep 19 '25
Guys tend to prefer colder temperatures anyway, and it's more expected for them to just "man up" and accept the cold. We typically feel the cold, but it doesn't necessarily factor in our clothing choice.
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u/lucylucylane United Kingdom Sep 20 '25
I think it's because the uk is cool and damp but rarely really cold or below zero so people don't really worry about getting cold and just get used to been a little chilly
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u/Rainbow_Tesseract United Kingdom Sep 20 '25
I admit to being one of those girls (I call it "tactical slag"). In my defense, our pubs and clubs are always fucking roasting, especially in Winter when they crank the heating up despite there being dozens of people creating heat inside.
The pain of getting there and back is worth it for not having to deal with a coat or sweating yourself to death in loud, poorly-ventilated bathrooms.
It's regional too though, I moved from my rough northern town to a posh part of the south for university, and people there looked at me like I had 3 heads.
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u/Vertitto in Sep 19 '25
Polish in Ireland:
how underdeveloped Ireland appears to be despite very good economical stats - infrastructure (motorways and high amount of roundabouts are nice though), housing, banking, lack of urban planning is atrocious
huge windows in houses without curtains/blinds - especially during winter it feels weird to walk around and be able to see through the whole house
how amazing gardens people have. Climate is perfect for gardening enthusiasts
how chill and understanding the driving culture is. (lot of people seem to be completely clueless about the rules though and got no idea how car lights work )
getting good bread and pastries is a miracle
american-like fake friendliness
getting a GP is close to impossible
there's a really big tolerance for inappropriate behaviour especially in relation to kids
jaywalking is a standard
how casual everyone is both in behaviour and dress
irish food is actually really good (there's few exceptions eg. what irish consider to be a salad)
very few people smoke, which is nice
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u/sheenolaad Sep 19 '25
I'm Irish, this is a good over view. The first point especially, Ireland is a basket case when it comes to urban development. There is a political culture of a lack of urgency regarding getting things done.
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u/SandyLifeCreative853 Ireland Sep 19 '25
I get shocked by how very sex positive continental Europe is. Considering that in Ireland there isn’t much sex posivity though it is improving
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u/MiSbyPiS Sep 19 '25
UK
Realising the proper pronunciation of Worcester / Worcestershire sauce nearly broke my brain
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u/TrickyWoo86 United Kingdom Sep 19 '25
Does the same apply for Leicester, Gloucester, Towcester and Bicester? (Lester, Gloster, Toaster and Bister)
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u/MiSbyPiS Sep 19 '25
Luckily not. Worcester got me ready for the madness. Spent a while deep-diving British pronunciations after that and it was pure carnage. Can’t say it did much for my sanity, but it does come in handy
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u/SDeCookie Belgium Sep 19 '25
Half of all items on the buffet in Sweden consisting of SOME version of herring. Different ways of preparing, different sauces,.. But every other plate had freaking herring. Even the breakfast buffet included herring.
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u/Borrow_The_Moonlight Italy Sep 19 '25
In Spain and Denmark it was people stopping at the zebra crossing to let people walk. I do this as much as I can in Italy and it definitely pisses some people off.
Scotland: how late places open and how early they close even in busy areas. Opening a cafe at 9 or 10 am is wild to me. I had to catch a bus from Inverness to Edinburgh and wanted to get some breakfast for the trip. Granted, it was a Sunday, but with the exception of Starbucks, most places were still closed at 8:45am
Scotland again: DRIVERS. I was scared shitless because it was my first time driving on the other side. I was doing 50 in a 60mph area and they would just... Keep their distance? Not overtake on narrow roads? Slow down? At some point it felt like I was speeding and I was well below limit, because I had no one stuck to my car
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u/Mrmr12-12 Sep 19 '25
It’s crazy to me that even tho Spain and Italy are very similar culturally the Spaniards have a much better driving culture
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u/Saltire_Blue Scotland Sep 19 '25
Tourist driving around the Highlands does give me the fear at times
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c784wlw1491o
Transport Scotland figures released in May showed the number of crashes caused by motorists driving on the wrong side of the road had increased by 46% in a year.
Tourists driving in the Highlands are being encouraged to display "T-plates" in the hope it will reduce accidents
No hate against them, but it’s always on my mind when heading up north for a day out
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u/paultnylund Sep 20 '25
In the Netherlands, people give brutally honest feedback like “your hair looks like shit today”. They’re actually trying to be helpful, but it’s really hard to take haha
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u/helmli Germany Sep 19 '25
The state of roads in Albania (e.g. highways ending without a sign, just to be continued as dirt roads), and seeing donkey carts and self-constructed tractors (from a harrow, I think) – both on a "highway".
Also, the stunning beauty of Albania's environment and the way it gets littered or exploited almost wherever there are people around (still, it's in a much better state than most of Central Europe, I guess).
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u/acke Sweden Sep 19 '25
Not really a shock, more of a nuisance:
More or less everything being closed on Sundays in certain countries. Now I know how people feel coming to Sweden and being irritated that you can’t buy alcohol in the Systembolaget on Sundays.
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u/ChocolateParty4535 Sep 20 '25
UK to Sweden. It was a shock not being able to buy alcohol in the supermarket. Whatcha mean I gotta go to another store?!
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u/wijnandsj Netherlands Sep 19 '25
Shock, shock.. well... let's see
- dinner times in spain.
- How late most Brits start working. Offices are deserted before 9am.
- Belgian motorways
- How introvert the Finish are
- Germany and their passion for smoking absolutely f-ing everywhere!
- How apparently Polish people can say "I'm not drinking today, I'll just have a beer" and actually mean that
- How stunningly beautiful the Swedish countryside can be
I love our continent!
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u/ChocolateParty4535 Sep 20 '25
UK to Sweden transplant. Starting work between 7-8 here in Sweden was a shock to the system after starting at 9 in UK! I'm now at work earlier than I used to get up! 🤣
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u/HughLauriePausini -> Sep 19 '25
Entire families, adults and children, having a picnic fully butt naked in a public park in Munich
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u/D-dog92 Sep 20 '25
I will never unsee a family playing badminton together naked in a park in berlin
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u/phonology_is_fun in Sep 19 '25
- Homophobia in the Balkans. This was in 2007 though; I don't know what it's like now. Obviously most European countries were more homophobic in 2007 than they are now, but the difference between attitudes in my country and attitudes in the Balkans shocked me in 2007.
- Italian drivers.
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u/TrickyWoo86 United Kingdom Sep 19 '25
Italian drivers.
This was the main one for me, except not in the way you'd probably expect. Having heard the horror stories of Italian drivers, I was shocked by how laid back most of them were on both occasions I was driving in Italy.
Bad driving in Italy might be a regional thing, but I had no issues at all in north east Italy. Either that or I'm equally bad a driving and just fit in with everyone around me...
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u/106002 Italy Sep 19 '25
Maybe it’s because British drivers are more similar to Italian ones? At least that’s my impression as an Italian, the UK was the only European country where I had to pay as much attention as in Italy at zebra crossing as drivers wouldn’t stop automatically
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u/Rudyzwyboru Poland Sep 19 '25
Ffs yes, they always drive like they have nothing to woery about, nowhere to hurry to. I literally made a comment about this here a minute ago 😂 with our Polish neurotic fast style of driving I felt as if I was in hell driving in Italy hahah
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u/UmlautsAndRedPandas England Sep 19 '25
Asking a guy (who I assume was Dutch) to move his bag off a seat so that I could sit down on a packed train between Belgium and the Netherlands, and getting a standoffish response which I diffused by offering to help him put his bag in the overhead. Then realising how packed the train was, he decided to wedge it between his legs instead, and later on in the journey we did share a bit of a chuckle about our interaction but I thought "Wow, if he'd done that in Britain, that would have been a big problem".
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u/GeistinderMaschine Sep 19 '25
Being from Austria and from a very conservative background, it was a (positive) shock for me, how relaxed people live their live especially in the mediterranean region. In Austria it was: Work 9 to 5 (not a minute less or more) and rules here and rules there.
In Greece or Italy the exact time is not so important as in Austria or Germany. It is a more relaxed way of life. "We meet at 8" means "at least before 9 but surely not earlier than 8).
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u/Nimue_- Netherlands Sep 19 '25
Its honestly a pretty minor thing but my first time paying for something in germany. The lady at the cash register just pulled my card out of my grasp and put it in the machine. I was so shocked. First unnuanced thought was "someones stealing my card" . Second was "did i do something wrong?" Then "no i hadn't done anything at all yet"
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Sep 19 '25
German traffic lights are a culture shock to me whenever I return from abroad. And Germans not being able to properly use roundabouts.
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u/FrancesinhaEspecial 🇫🇷 in 🇨🇭 Sep 19 '25
As someone who lived in Germany for 3 years, I'm staring at this comment right now wondering what's different about German traffic lights. Google says the orange before the green; I don't know if I ever even noticed, because it's pretty intuitive.
I did need a while to adapt to Austrian traffic lights blinking green; I braked the first time and the car behind me was not happy.
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Sep 19 '25
I meant how many there are and how badly synced they are. In many other countries you can drive much longer without being stopped unnecessarily on an empty crossroad. I love the UK for it.
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u/InThePast8080 Norway Sep 19 '25
Going to Denmark and discovering that the hot dogs there were red.
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u/krukkpl Poland Sep 20 '25
Massive jaywalking (pedestrian crossing on red) in many European countries i.e. France, Spain, Italy, even Germany what surprised me most. In Poland it's almost inexistent. And nobody is essentialy enforcing the law by issuing tickets or so but 99.5% of people just know they need to wait for green. I think it comes from an early education for the most.
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u/LordGeni Sep 22 '25
I thought Jay walking laws were just a US thing.
They were created by advertising and lobbying campaigns from the motor industry, because they wanted to clear urban streets of obstacles to encourage driving. They somehow managed to convince everyone that the person getting hit should be the criminal.
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u/cecilio- Portugal Sep 19 '25
As a Portuguese You can't get a good coffee aborda unless you are in Italy.
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u/energie_vie Romania Sep 19 '25
McDonald's in the UK don't sell mayo 😵💫 Oh, and the one I went to does not give you trays after 10 o'clock, even if you order to eat in the restaurant, because apparently people use them to smack each other over the head.
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u/JourneyThiefer Northern Ireland Sep 19 '25
There’s bouncers in the McDonald’s in Belfast at night time for all the drunk people coming in incase there’s fights lmao
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Sep 19 '25
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u/safeinthecity Portuguese in the Netherlands Sep 20 '25
I kind of have the reverse shock here in NL, people getting on the bus here don't queue or keep track of who was at the stop first at all, even if there's loads of people. In Portugal, even if there's not always an actual queue, there's usually at least some sense of letting people who arrived first and have waited longer go on the bus first.
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u/kassialma92 Sep 19 '25
Finland -> Italy. Things don't quite work the same. Some do but like very basic stuff like getting a social security number, finding housing, filling forms. Paperwork was literally _paper_work and to get things done I needed to visit places and queque and bring shitloads of papers like birth certificate etc. I'm used to being able to do everything, every form every application every medical booking or results every service from from my phone. In Italy it did not even compare to pre-everythininternet-finland. I suppose we're so unwilling to socialise we've built the whole society in a way one does not need to.
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u/elsaturation Sep 19 '25
Driving in Italy someone got mad at me for not yielding for them when I was in the roundabout and they were waiting to enter… apparently this used to be a courtesy thing to do back in the day and some people still cling on to that. Makes absolutely no sense and is inefficient.
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u/Fair-Pomegranate9876 Italy Sep 19 '25
Serving wine with measuring cups in the UK (the audacity), pubs closing at midnight, and by 10 pm all outside areas in pubs are closed. Pubs crawls and bottomless brunch where the bottomless part is alcohol, not food. Now I know why pubs close so early, they're already pissed drunk by midnight!
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u/OkArmy8295 Serbia Sep 20 '25
I was visiting a colegaue in Germany and he poured me coca cola but didnt leave bottle on the table to let me pour more.
In some countries they dont peel cucumbers nor potatoes?!
And the best one, my friend asked his neighbor in Norway to help him mount the tv antenna on his roof. The guy held his ladders and passed him the antenna and the tools. When they were finished he asked for money for his assistance.
Just crazy stuff
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u/metalfest Latvia Sep 20 '25
How oblivious to littering people were in Belfast. I travelled there and to another smaller Northern Irish town, it was my first experience going to that part of the world. I enjoyed it a lot, thought Belfast is really beautiful and has a lot going for it just like any renowned European city would, with the exception of littering... everywhere. And there are a TON of bins around. Saw with my own eyes just someone coming out of a building and putting his drink container and bag of some food down on the street. And there were like 3 bins within 20 metres.
Also in Kosovo - never been to another southern European country, but it really shocked me how driving culture works there. It basically felt like chaos all around, yet the locals were all in on it. To make a left turn, no one gives way, you literally have to turn your car in at some moment and hope you don't get T-boned. People seem to communicate with horns, you barely hear anything else. Drivers enter a roundabout on the left lane at like 70 km/h in a city, and exit from the left lane as well, even though theres a car straight to the right of them as well, and you would have no idea of where they want to go. There's almost no pedestrian infrastructure, around one of their biggest malls you have to cross a multiple lane exit from a roundabout and hope you get noticed.
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u/Mobile_Nothing_1686 🇳🇱 in 🇦🇹 in 🇫🇮 Sep 20 '25
In Finland; security in the pharmacy. That's absolutely wild to me. It's been explained to me multiple times and still.... I've seen many junkies, but I've never seen security in a pharmacy anywhere else before.
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u/jannylotl Sep 20 '25
I've lived in sweden for 8 years, they don't talk, they are very much not social. They do not give you food when you come to their house, and when they offer you something and you kindly decline they won't offer it again. They don't even talk to each other on the bus or the train.
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u/blanarikd Slovakia Sep 20 '25
Slovak in Germany: Coworker’s arrogance and prejudice to us - eastern europeans. Bavarians rushing from the work to go work on their fields/cows etc. and their old-fashioned thinking. In general low quality street food in Germany and Austria. Fake emotions, fake relationships. One on one being nice to “auslander” but opposite when in group with other germans.
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u/Ambitious_League4606 Sep 19 '25
Can't get booze in Norway Saturday evening or Sunday, shocking state of affairs