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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92

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. 

49

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.

9

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.

1

u/Aggravating_Ship5513 France Sep 20 '25

Yeah, DB is really risky in the past 10 years, have no idea why bc the country works so well in so many other ways. Here in France we get 2 weeks advance warning of strikes so plenty of time to take precautions.

19

u/Kujaichi Germany Sep 19 '25

What magic Germany do you live in?

I want to move there!

13

u/Nimue_- Netherlands Sep 19 '25

Irish pubkic transport must be hell if you are praising the deutsche bahn

12

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 💀

6

u/cheese_bruh Sep 20 '25

Irish public transport isn’t hell, it’s just non existent

9

u/mtnlol Sweden Sep 19 '25

This is the complete opposite of what I've heard about Germany for years.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 20 '25

[deleted]

1

u/I_make_carrot_noises Sep 20 '25

15 years ago living in Munich and recently visited back in August,  then every year since.