Aside from getting to cuddle cute cats and eat delicious food, travel is one of the best things about being a human being. Travel expands our minds, exposes us to new ideas, and shows us just how different some corners of the planet can truly be, compared to back home. There’s nothing like going on an adventure to make your heart sing!

Redditor u/scoopy-frog sparked a wholesome and interesting discussion after asking internet users to share some of the things that are pretty much mundane in their countries, but foreigners think are utterly amazing. We’ve collected some of the best insights to share with you, Pandas, and a lot of them are related to wildlife, not just culture and customs!

We got in touch with the author of the awesome thread, and they were happy to tell us all about their travel philosophy. You’ll find Bored Panda’s full interview with u/scoopy-frog below, so be sure not to miss it.

• Read More: “Red Solo Party Cups”: 40 Things Locals Don’t Think Twice About That Foreigners Find Incredible

#1

Oh man, one of the absolute cutest things I’ve ever seen was a work friend of mine at the time who was visiting from Australia. He came into work that day totally beaming because he had seen a squirrel on his way there. I was very confused until he told me they don’t have squirrels in Australia. He went on and on about how cute they were and I told him I had a surprise for him when we went to lunch. I walked him a few blocks up the road to a local college campus where the squirrels are so fearless they will literally come and take food out of your hands. They’ll even sit on your shoulders so long as you sit still and feed them. This man was absolutely *geeked* when I called over a group of squirrels with some crackers from my lunch. I thought his head was going to explode when I told him to stand still and sat a cracker on his shoulder which a squirrel happily climbed up him to get. He legit froze and started tearing up. I was worried he was afraid or something and I asked him if he was okay, this man looks at me with the biggest smile on his face and says in the most adorable, quietest little voice as to not scare the squirrel on his shoulder away, “This is the single best day of my life!” Squirrels, of all things. Lmao.

Image credits: ButteredBisctits

#2

Humming birds. I live in Palm Springs, CA and was visiting the Moorten Botanical Gardens when I overheard someone with a British accent say, “OMG is that a HUMMINGBIRD?” I wasn’t aware they don’t have hummingbirds where they live. They were just astounded and amazed watching it flit around, stop and hover, then move on.

Image credits: ElectricalEffort3814

#3

Opossums. In America they’re big, light colored, and pink nosed, with a hairless skinny tail. The Indian workers saw one and ran over with their arms wide exclaiming, “I just saw a mouse and it was **this big**!”

Image credits: ikonet

#4

Castles, castles everywhere. Wales had the most castles per square mile of any country. Just on the Gower peninsular (which is about 70 square miles) there are 6 castles (or castle ruins). They’re just part of the landscape here, some are in city centres, overlooking marshes or beaches or up on top of hillsides. I find them both endlessly fascinating and simultaneously just part of the backdrop.

Image credits: welshcake82

#5

Raccoons. Some of my co-workers are from Japan, and one was quizzing me about the best way for his sons to get to see a raccoon when they got there.
“Visit a restaurant dumpster just before dawn? Tear open a box of kitten chow on the back patio?”
“They like cat food?”
“Yes, the like cat food and if you actually do that you will see 6 raccoons the following evening…”

I understand that Japan later developed an invasive raccoon problem….so not quite the novelty.

Six months later my co-worker asked “where do skunks live?”
“In the woods.”
“Exactly where in the woods?”
“I think they dig burrows at the base of….wait a minute, are you going to take your sons skunk-watching?”

Image credits: Wendybird13

#6

Nightless nights, reindeer, some people really like our metal music.

Image credits: Top_Manufacturer8946

#7

Our enormous parking lots.

Americans don’t even blink at a 3 acre parking lot. The Europeans are astonished, every time.

Image credits: AdWonderful5920

#8

Baguette vending machines

Image credits: BITE_AU_CHOCOLAT

#9

A Coca-Cola delivery truck was in the parking lot where I was working. There was a couple from the UK that was very excited about it. They took selfies next to the truck and the driver let them sit in the driver’s seat for more pictures. Seemed like a real treat for them.

Image credits: andsusie

#10

Old buildings. 50% of the people in my city live in buildings build before 1800.

Image credits: spastikatenpraedikat

#11

I asked a colleague from India what he found most interesting since moving to the US and he said the orderly traffic. He did a mind blown motion and everything.

Image credits: Smartestwaters

#12

When I went to Japan, all the rain gutters had aggressive crabs living in them. I thought that was the coolest thing ever!

Image credits: rahyveshachr

#13

Ibis. You can always tell the tourists by the way they take photos of them. The rest of us denigrate them (the birds, not the tourists!) as ‘bin chickens’ 

Image credits: Pavlover2022

#14

I’ve lived in Florida my entire life, so alligators are just a thing that you see in the water and occasionally crossing the road. Well, today my wife and I went to the Alligator Farm zoo in St Augustine (it’s accredited, I checked) just to see what it’s like, and boy were there a lot of international travelers from Europe having their minds blown. Y’all really do act like a 7 year old seeing a real life dinosaur for the first time lol.

Image credits: bradland

#15

My husband is from Brazil and saw capybaras and golden tamarins regularly (apparently tamarins like chips), and it was so funny to him that I grew up seeing them as exotic and cool. On the flipside, he’s taken pictures of things like Starbucks to send to his friends back in Brazil.

Image credits: scoopy-frog

#16

Phone boxes and double decker buses…

Image credits: bubkuss

#17

This is really for Americans from different states. In Ohio we have drive throughs where you can buy a six pack of beer without getting out of the car. My friend from Pennsylvania finds this utterly amazing

Image credits: 100proofattitudepowe

#18

As a foreigner in SE Asia, I’m always very excited to see monitor lizards, much to the amusement of locals. In the UK, I kinda love how excited tourists get about Gregg’s.

Image credits: dirtymartiniii

#19

Temples in Taiwan. Every backroad has one. There’s probably 6 or 8 within a 5 minutes walk from building. An American friend visited, and he was mind blown that one of my windows looks over some back alley temple.

I’ll see if I can find a pic.

Image credits: UndocumentedSailor

#20

Red Solo Party Cups

Image credits: Brightstarr

from Bored Panda https://ift.tt/LPiS9ch
via IFTTT source site : boredpanda