European Netizens Correct 41 Commonly Mistaken “Facts” People Always Get Wrong About Their Countries

A few days ago, a thread appeared in the AskEurope community on Reddit, the author of which, the user u/gurke0123, admitted that despite the fact that Europeans sometimes laugh at Americans who know nothing about Europe and the countries there, Europeans cannot necessarily boast of extensive knowledge either.

No, almost any European knows the history of their country quite well, various interesting facts about it, too - but how well does, let’s say, the average Portuguese person know the climate of Poland or the literature of Romania? Most likely, not very well. So, the topic starter asked netizens: "What basic knowledge should everyone have about your country?" and has already collected more than 1.2K various comments.

In fact, in just about every European country there are various, and sometimes widely known misconceptions and stereotypes throughout the world that many natives of these countries are happy to refute (and travel companies, on the contrary, actively exploit).

For example, not every federal state of Germany looks like Bavaria, but the stereotypical image of a German in leather pants holding a beer mug is still very popular all over the world.

Some funny facts and misconceptions about foreigners are also a great reason to release additional merch for tourists. For example, the joke that the names of Austria and Australia are rather similar is as old as the world, and the Austrians willingly sell tourists signs saying, "There are no kangaroos in Austria." By the way, in fact, there are kangaroos in Austria - for example, in private zoos.

Sometimes they escape, and then videos of kangaroos proudly jumping across Austrian meadows and fields go viral. For example, this happened about 7 years ago - one of the residents of the city of Kirchschlag in northern Austria met a kangaroo (or perhaps it was a wallaby) - but, curiously, none of the owners of the surrounding zoos reported the marsupial missing.

Many tourists who visit Greece are sincerely surprised that the locals don’t wear white tunics with amphorae of wine and don’t dance sirtaki at every intersection. Well, firstly, the ancient Greeks, known to us by mythology and Hollywood, lived two and a half thousand years ago, and they are completely different people than modern Greeks.

As for sirtaki, which is now firmly associated with Greece all over the world, it was actually invented by an American born in Mexico. Yes, the famous actor Anthony Quinn, who in 1964 starred in the film "Zorba the Greek," broke his leg on the eve of filming a scene of the national dance, so the only thing he could do was to depict some movements of the ancient warrior dance ‘hasapiko,’ dragging his leg along the sand.

However, resourceful Greeks picked up the idea of ​​​​sirtaki, and today, this dance is really considered one of the main symbols of the country—along with Metaxa... but we'll probably talk about that another time, and in another article.

In fact, Europe is a huge mix of cultures, traditions, and unique history, comparable to the United States in territory, and significantly larger in population. So we're pretty sure you'll find this collection of facts interesting to read - even if you live in one of the European countries yourself.

By the way, if you want to share some interesting information about your country as well, please visit the comments below, and share your facts and stories there. After all, the more diverse the information, the more interesting it is, isn’t it?