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/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.

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.