It’s no secret that when Americans hop across the pond to Europe, they are greeted by a countless amount of cultural differences, depending on the country they visit.

Having said that, visiting France for the Eiffel Tower or Rome for the Colosseum is an entirely different thing than spending more time in the old continent. Whether it’s the Americans starting a new job over there or moving into a new apartment, some things stand out more for them than others.

So this recent thread from Ask Reddit with someone asking “Americans, what do you think is the weirdest thing about Europe?” has turned into one hell of a read, shedding light on how insanely different the two cultures and their people can be.

Read on below through the most interesting responses, and after you’re done, be sure to check out Bored Panda’s previous features on things about Europe that Americans find weird and things common in America that Europeans find very weird.

#1

Otherwise healthy people smoking cigarettes

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#2

You have to pay to use public restrooms

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#3

OMG the toilets. In the US every toilet I’ve ever come across has a flush lever on the left of the tank or (in public restrooms) a sensor or a button on the top. In Europe every single toilet has a different flush mechanism. Every. Single. One. It’s like an escape room challenge. Foot pedals. Cranks. Pull knobs. Things attached to the sink. I was once stuck in a bathroom for 20 minutes trying to figure out how to flush the toilet, it turned out to be a pulley on the other side of the room.

Image credits: Yellowbug2001

#4

That you use the metric system.

That it totally makes sense and we don’t.

We probably don’t use it for spite.

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#5

“Americans don’t know what old is, Europeans don’t know what big means”

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#6

Trains go to every major city

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#7

No ac. Our hotels had ac but it was just room temp air. That heatwave must have been brutal i hate sleeping when it’s hot

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#8

Labor rights and public services.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for it. I wish we had all that here. But it’s deeply unfamiliar. I have European coworkers who *expect* vacation. We’ve got a British manager who *expects employees* to take vacation.

S**t is wild.

Image credits: NoMoreMonkeyBrain

#9

The oddest thing I found in Copenhagen was that when we tried to go get food around 9pm, nearly everywhere was closed. We were in a busy part of the city but it took us so incredibly long to find a place open late. I don’t live in a huge city but I can throw a rock from my house and it will bounce off half a dozen places open until midnight or later.

Edit: This is not a complaint, just an observation. I loved Denmark.

Image credits: Ginger_Chick

#10

All those damn trains, public transit, and walkable cities. I like being stuck in my gas guzzler and nearly dying anytime I use a sidewalk.

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#11

I’m not sure if it’s wired but it’s fascinating how so many cultures and languages came to exist over such a (comparatively) small continent as Europe.

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#12

It’s crazy that everyone doesn’t drive a huge empty truck 1 mile down the road, instead they walk. Crazy.

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#13

Whenever my wife tried to pay for things in Italy the Italian dudes all lost their minds. One guy even said, “check is for man!” We thought it was hilarious so I had her pay everywhere lol

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#14

The history. Can’t wrap my brain around that. I live in a farm house built in the 1920s and that is considered old.

Image credits: Necessary_Sir_5079

#15

The fact that you cross international borders like we cross state lines. The fact that you can wake up in Germany, drive all day, and go to sleep in Spain.

Image credits: Wonderful_Soup4873

#16

I’m a little surprised that after so much movement of peoples over thousands of years, there hasn’t been a greater homogenization of languages in Europe.

Image credits: boulomai_mathein

#17

Currently a Canadian in Croatia (first time in Europe) I can’t get over how old everything is and the lifestyle is so different here, speed limits, food, selling alcohol in grocery stores just like juice, very strange.

Image credits: Camadian-

#18

It seems that European countries try to make life easier for their citizens? That’s f*****g crazy to us in America.

In Spain and I think other European countries, there is a thing called a Siesta. Shops and businesses shut down in the middle of the day and people can relax and destress from work. In America, work culture is so toxic, people skip breakfast and only get 30 minutes at work to rush through a fast food meal. Crazy.

Public transportation is another one. I noticed how drastically better it is in Europe. People in northern European countries ride bikes, trains, etc. to work. And it all flows smoothly, on time for the most part, and is much more calming to sit in read in what would be considered a luxury train car in America, versus sitting for 40 minutes to an hour in bumper to bumper car traffic, with uglier views, mostly of concrete. It’s just better in Europe because it’s less car-centric. No traffic jams. People just walk to get groceries calmly in a few minutes. In America, you have to carve out time, and a separate day, because going to run errands is so stressful, from fighting through traffic to crowded spaces, etc. It’s just not designed to be a pleasant experience. It’s all just consumerism and how to squeeze more money out of people.

Education is another that should go without speaking. I will leave it alone because I could go on forever as a teacher in America, but I believe our citizens still rank near last across all subjects.

Healthcare is another. U.S.A. is the only developed country that does not provide healthcare to its citizens without some wealthy company making a profit first.

Everything about America makes life miserable. No wonder people are suicidal and we have a lot of suicide mass shootings. Most Americans would be shocked if they traveled to Europe and paid attention to how things worked there and how much better life can be by doing things that way.

Idiots will probably comment that America is great because we have freedom. Dumbasses don’t realize that people have that in other places too and Americans are being scammed into living suboptimal lives.

Image credits: Enlightened_Ghost_

#19

that health care thing. i want that

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#20

I’m surprised nobody has said ‘the price you see in the shop is actually the price you pay’, because as a Brit the idea of taxes not being included in the displayed price is absolutely mind-boggling to me.

Edit: after some good back and forth in several threads I’ve softened my stance on this – I can see how when the next town might have different tax rules, it would make it easier to tell when you’re being ripped off etc. But it still feels weird after 30+ years of just seeing the price you pay.

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#21

Maybe things are different now, but everything is completely closed on Sundays if you’re not in a major city.

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#22

The sheer grasp of language I’ve seen from some Europeans is wild.

Back in the early days of minecraft I used to play on a server with an English kid and a German Kid. The English kid would randomly speak Welsh and the German could jump between German, French, and English all the time and I was there like “Guys, I can barely English, can we dumb it down for the yankee.”

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#23

High quality food at low prices. You can eat great, healthy food for cheap in many European countries. In the US, the healthier, higher quality food is often the most expensive.

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#24

FUNCTIONING PUBLIC TRANSIT

I thought it would be horrible needing to wait and wait and wait only for a crowded and smelly bus or train to take me somewhere only for it to arrive on time, relatively sanitary, and in cities or towns of less then 8,000 people. In the U.S. a city will have well over a million people and lack any metro line, period. Just a bus that’s always late and comes one every hour and a half

#25

Guys, how did so many of you miss that Russia never stopped being crazy. What the hell, man. Thank God the easterners kept their wits about them.

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#26

alot of people use public transport, like the kids, teenagers, old people .etc use the bus and train so commonly, in america basically everyone has a car or gets driven by a car

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#27

That some stone roads that were built like 600 years ago are holding themselves together better than the paved roads.

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#28

How much pda there is and how common smoking cigarettes is

#29

How few fat people there are. It’s awesome, but your food culture is different enough to lead to a significant difference in obesity in the general populace

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#30

I don’t know if this applies everywhere in Europe, but the lack of window screens in French homes was an adjustment for me. Every evening was a decision between leaving the windows open and being constantly harassed by flies and mosquitoes or closing them and suffocating in hot, stuffy air. I get that they’re not aesthetically attractive, but I’m more than happy to accept that tradeoff if it means I can breathe fresh air without bugs landing on me every 30 seconds.

Image credits: Adorable-Breakfast

#31

Not American, but Canadian.

How close everything is.

Went to Germany recently and was looking st thr map figuring things out.

I can drive for a whole day without stopping and sti be in Ontario, in that same time I woukd of crossed numerous countries.

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#32

Well, you can walk into a movie theater in Amsterdam and buy a beer. And I don’t mean just like in no paper cup, I’m talking about a glass of beer.

And in Paris, you can buy a beer at McDonald’s. And you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?
They got the metric system. They wouldn’t know what the f**k a Quarter Pounder is. They call it a “Royale with Cheese.”
A Big Mac’s a Big Mac, but they call it “Le Big Mac”. What do they call a Whopper? I dunno, I didn’t go into Burger King.

But, you know what they put on French fries in Holland instead of ketchup? Mayonnaise. God damn! I seen them do it, man, they f*****g drown them in that s**t.

Image credits: Ghostofbillhicks

#33

The way people drive. The laws don’t seem to matter at all in Italy, only a little in France- then the Germans are a completely different story

#34

## Rental apartments in Germany often come without a furnished kitchen.

Edit: I’m stunned and amused how much attention this has gotten.

There’s been some confusion by my use of “furnished”, which is kind of vague. I meant sink, refrigerator, stove and cabinets. Because these are almost always provided in rental apartments in the US, it was shocking to me as an American looking at rentals in Germany that I would have to buy and install those things.

Having read so many interesting comments about kitchen expectations in different parts of the world, let me ask this question. Do any of you know of places where rentals don’t come with bathroom equipment either, and it’s expected the tenant will purchase and install their own toilet and sink?

#35

Not weird but great. Maternity leave. When my sister-in-law in Ukraine gave birth to her daughter, she got a year off at 100% pay and could stay on leave for up to 3 years at half-pay. Meanwhile, businesses are able to hire a temp worker for that time, and it’s perfectly normal. Meanwhile, my wife here only got 6 weeks, and it was for medical recovery. Although someone else misread the company rules and got an inexperienced HR person to approve 6 months of paid maternity leave. By the time they figured it out, 5 months had passed. When they said she had to get back to work, she told them it was their screw-up and she didn’t have daycare lined up. So they kept paying her for the rest of that time… Then she found a better job

#36

All of the vehicles are small. Even the trucks seem smaller.

#37

When I went to Bad Kissingen, Germany I almost fell over. If you get diagnosed with certain aliments your doctor can write a prescription for you to go to the spas—FOR SIX WEEKS. Then once you are there you drink water from the ground that helps you heal! And you bathe in pools that look like Versailles and take leisurely strolls around the grounds to soothe your stomach. And here’s the best part—your employer has to keep paying you while you are there! What the hell kind of a deal is this?!

In America they throw some Robitussin on you, take your pay and tell you to get your a*s back to work!

Germany was the f****n coolest place!

#38

As a European, I can tell you that the cultures, customs, languages, weather, food, and everything else can vary as drastically from country to country as it does from America.

I live in Ireland, and pretty much any other EU country is pretty alien to me. And they probably think Ireland is weird af too.

#39

This question has taught me that Americans don’t know anything about any country in Europe and think it’s all the same place without any nuance.

#40

It’s so weird how civilized y’all are over there (minus that whole Russia-Ukraine thing as of late, but that’s not the Europe I know and have visited.)

But yeah generally you guys have these *crazy ideas* about what constitutes the “good life.”

Jobs that don’t treat you like slaves and work you into an early death; subsidized, single-payer heath care so that you could hypothetically lose your job and not your *health* or *life*; 6 weeks of mandatory paid vacation a year whether you want to go someplace or not; decent, healthy, affordable food; subsidized housing that doesn’t look like a war zone; clean, modern public transportation that alleviates the need to own a vehicle in a lot of places; high-quality education instead of schools that increasing resemble more of those war zones we seem to love (we know better in the US, where the mantra is that violence belongs everywhere); clean water; freedom *from* religion in public policy; public toilets; functional democracy…

Yeah y’all are some *WEIRD* people…

#41

In Italy 3/4 of the toilets we’ve encountered don’t have seats. The women (and men who sit) apparently just sit directly on the porcelain bowl.

I’ve encountered several hotels where you book a double room and turns out the bed is just two twin beds pushed together? Because that’s what I wanted a bed I’m not allowed to sleep towards the middle of….

Currywurst is just like a bland sausage with bad ketchup and curry powder. Thought it would be tastier given how popular it is but man that’s the lamest popular street food I think I’ve ever tried. Still ate it lol

Fridges where “cold” beer and water are stored are never sufficiently cold. Every drink tastes like you put a warm beer in the fridge for 10 mins before taking out to drink.

#42

i dont mean this in a bad way but how close together everything is, a small roadtrip to yall is probably a good 30 minute drive but you can drive for 5 hours straight in my home state (Texas) and barely make any progress.

#43

Either paying for the bathroom or not refrigerating your eggs

#44

If you’re talking about a whole continent, there’s bound to be some weird things about it, and that also means that people from certain European countries will find other European countries weird in certain ways.

Like I’m British, and I find the French incredibly weird.

#45

How the cities just end. Like one block, you’re in the middle of everything, skyscrapers etc, and the next block it’s woods

#46

How OLD everything is. Old buildings, cars that look old but are probably brand new. Houses in England being directly connected to each other, no space in between. Madness!

#47

Vacation/Holiday. Yeah we don’t get any of that.

#48

Depends which countries. I’ve always found it weird that a lot of them think hugging is more intimate than kissing someone on the cheek.

Edit: I know it isn’t actually “kissing” someone on the cheek most of the time. I’m referring to how someone touches your face with their face that is extremely intimate.

#49

Airports constructed in an IKEA-style maze taking you through *all* the duty-free shopping areas before reaching any gates.

Big airports like Heathrow, Frankfurt or Copenhagen don’t do this, but the more touristy airports like Ibiza and Malta sure do. After clearing security in Malta I had to meander a W-shaped path through all the obnoxiously-decored shops selling makeup, liquor, suitcases, clothes, and knickknacks on both sides of the main aisle before I could reach any of the gates. I had a 6.05 flight, so I was doing this while sleep-deprived at about 05.15.

American airports are never constructed/remodeled like this. Sure there are meandering paths sometimes, but like a shopping mall there will always be a clear divide between the walking spaces and the shops, as opposed to the captive exit-through-the-gift-shop experience.

#50

The beauty of their cities

#51

That as opposed to nationalism Europeans are, how football can turn into WWIII is beyond me. Pick your champions and we’ll put them up against our Eagles NFL fans.

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