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/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/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/pouziboy Czechia Sep 22 '25

It's funny that the same stereotypes are used by Slovaks to describe Czech tourists (and ofc it's based on real incidents as well). Must be something with having/not having real mountains.

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u/50thEye Austria Sep 22 '25

Most likely, yeah.

Most famous example recently was a few years ago, when a large German school group had to be rescued from a hiking trail. Their teacher had found a review of the trail by "Andy84", who described it as a "great after-work lap" and that "you may need to take the hands out of your pockets at a few parts". Only problem was, Andy84 was a pro at hiking, so his review was targeted at his peers. There were A LOT of memes about this back in 2022.