39 Cultural Things People Thought Were Completely Normal Until They Visited Other Countries

Australia: Honestly, noisy birds. Going overseas and standing in nature/quiet suburban street and NOT hearing a constant white noise of bird calls feels very weird.

Canada: Not mocking physical differences to your face.

Visit India or Korea and strangers will tell you exactly what is physically unappealing about you.

Netherlands: When it's somebody's birthday, you don't just congratulate the person who's birthday it is.

Everyone kisses *each other* while saying something like "congratulations with X's birthday!".

So when I visited Mexico I kissed my mother in law on a family member's birthday, while saying "felicidades!!". She froze, blushed and said: "ehm ,thanks, but... it's not my birthday today".

Short awkward moment. Luckily my wife stepped in to explain that Dutch people are just weird.

China: Cook Chinese food in my apartment without setting off the smoke alarm.

Walk the streets at midnight without worrying about safety.

A farmers' market with more than 30 kinds of vegetables.

Free public toilets on the street.

Food delivery arriving in 20 mins.

A park with old ladies dancing all night.

A national football team that loses all the time.

Italy: I thought social distance and respect of personal space were a thing all around the world. Then I went to India and China.

Philippines: Priority lines for the elderly, people with disability (all kinds), and pregnant women in all establishments. We have a separate line for them and they're the ones only allowed to use them. This includes exclusive counters/cashiers, grocery line, and train cabin, and all. Haven't seen one in any other countries Ive visited.

Ghana: Greeting everyone you meet on the street including strangers. That's not normal in Germany.

New Zealand: I couldn't believe it when I went to the USA and Europe in summer and didn't get sunburnt after 10 minutes.

United Kingdom: Clean drinking water from the tap and being able to flush tp.

France: Price tag being always full taxes. When I went to San Francisco I was surprised and embarrassed to leave things I wanted to buy because the taxes made my cart over budget.

Finland: Drying cabinet above your skink for dishes.

Turkey: There is some but the most obvious one is this:

We Turks grow up with street cats. As kids, we play with them outside and we’re used to seeing them everywhere, every day. And honestly, at first, most of us don’t really get why street cats in Turkey are such a “thing” globally, until we realize other countries don’t have nearly as many as we do.

In Denmark, we leave our babies outside on the streets in the cold, when we want to have a cup of coffee in a café or going to the cinema. This is the most respectful thing to do, but other countries don’t do it..

Belgium: I was pleasantly surprised when I went to New York last year and never had to pay to use a public toilet. You could just walk into a public building and use the restroom.

Jordan: Having woman's only/men's only gyms. I just thought that was the norm, the way public bathrooms are. It didn't occur to me that it's because we're more conservative.

Iceland: Stale fruits and vegetables. I still remember the shock of tasting an orange that was sweet rather than sour and slightly bitter and a fresh corncob rather than one from a can or a frozen bag.

Most typical spanish tourist mistake it's thinking everybody share the shame schedule as us, here normal business are open until 20:00 and most bars and restaurants until 00:00.

So going out for dinner at 22:00 and finding everything closed it's one of our cultural shocks in many places.

Canada: I didn't realize how abnormal it is to leave your doors unlocked until I started making international friends.

Ireland: Drinkable tap water and not bothering with bottled.

Hanging around outside without being eaten by bugs.

Not owning an umbrella. Ignoring the wet and wind.

Small talk and making jokes with literally anyone.

Respecting the queue.

Loose fruit and veg without packaging.

South Africa: High fences with barbed wire. Didn't see it once when i was in England.