50 Weird European Habits That Americans Can’t Get Over

You guys just,, have doctors

I fell incredibly ill in Germany and walked into a pharmacy. Was immediately met by a doctor who prescribed me medication and did not bill me for the 'appointment' and the meds were super cheap and 100x better than anything available in the US.

You want to know what's weird? Americans referring to Europe as one country.

How well connected and on-time train system is.

The number of people who sit outside eating or having a coffee in France and Germany, even if the weather wasn’t the greatest. I’ve been the only person indoors plenty of times.

The driving. I lived in Italy for three years, and I had never seen worse driving than before moving to Italy. Speed limits were all but ignored, and nearly every road was a free for all battle to the death.

Turbo-charged cashiers at Aldi.

Not necessarily weird, but I was in Switzerland for my senior trip and the gas stations we stopped at are the highest quality facilities I've ever been in for gas. I would eat off the floor.

I lived in Europe for several years (specifically The Netherlands) and there was only one thing that literally made me stop in my tracks, and it was a Sesame Street Live poster. Turns out Big Bird is blue there!

When I told all my Dutch friends of my surprise they were all like yeah that’s Pino, why wouldn’t he be blue? They say he’s Big Bird’s cousin but I was never fooled. It was obviously Big Bird who left America to move to Holland seeking an alternative lifestyle.

People are way more direct, especially in Eastern Europe. Like one time, I was staying in Serbia for a while and had to get my blood drawn to do some tests (which is also done at a public lab that kind of looks like a store and is independent form hospitals?? Kinda weird too). I don’t do great with blood and have passed out during blood draws before, so I tell the lady drawing my blood this just in case and she tells me “If this is what you’re afraid of, you’re gonna have a rough life”. (Vs the American nurse who will lay you down and be very calm and talk to you and tell you to not be scared lol)

Also again in the Balkans, what you wear outside is super important and people are way more judgmental about appearances. It’s a big part of the culture to look presentable and put together.

How little space there is. Everything is close together. Quite the culture shock to me, from rural Pennsylvania.

Sitting down at a restaurant and not getting any service for 15 minutes, then waiting half an hour for the check to come at the end. I get that it's more relaxed, but don't people ever have somewhere to be?

I went to a small town in Italy a few years ago and stayed with a host family. They slept with their huge windows wide open and the windows didn't have screens. I found this weird because 1. People could literally just climb through the windows in to their house and 2. Random street cats would be walking around their house. This would never happen in my neighborhood in Pennsylvania because people would get robbed left and right.

Beer is cheaper than water in Germany

not complaining; just saying.

There is a plastic electric tea pot in every hotel/motel room in England.

Been living in Germany awhile:
* Most stuff is closed on Sunday (similarly don't plan anything critical during siesta in parts of Spain)
* Holy c**p people complain a bunch about the excellent and comprehensive train service (though there can be consistent problems about rural service)
* You have to declare your faith on tax paperwork. If it's certain Christian churches you pay extra tax that goes to them.
* Probably the largest concentration of people who learned Latin. If you say "that's weird" they'll fall all over themselves to explain the one useless way that it's useful. Personally between this and the last point I think they're just planning to bring back the Holy Roman Empire.
* They're reaaaallyy proud of their hard bread.

I'm from Spain. Groceries in Switzerland are 5x as expensive as they're here.

Just moved to Germany and the biggest thing about my house here is the windows are so weird and different.
I'll definitely be installing them when I buy a new house back stateside.

Lack of personal space. In Germany, people tend to get right up on you in shops or step really close to talk to you.

Paying to use a public bathroom. We were traveling in Germany, stopped at a roadside gas station/restaurant area, ran inside to use the facilities and had to fumble around looking for money just to go to the bathroom.

Been to Portugal, Spain, Romania, Hungary, UK, and Iceland on a trip a two years back.

Didn't really notice anything *weird* about any of it. Nothing any weirder than me going to any random places in my own country anyway.

I guess the weirdest thing I can think of is how everyone over the age of 35 in Romania seemed to be able to speak 4-5 different languages. Made for some super interesting group chats with 4 languages rotating between 5 folks. A friend (romanian/english speaker) invited me over to dinner and her family just happens to randomly speak a language I can communicate in (spanish). not sure if this is romania or eastern europe in general.

in western europe, *in my experience*, mostly we're looking at just the native language and maybe sometimes a bit of english.