There have been many instances since I moved to Belgium last year which have yet kept me in the culture shock process.

1. Being naked is normal: I still remember the day when I went to the gym locker room. There were around 10 people changing clothes. I was shocked to see two naked guys talking to each other confidently in the middle of the room. A similar instance happened the very next day as well. A few days later, I went to the university sports complex and there it happened again: footballers were naked in the changing room and I was the only one there with clothes on. A few of my Belgian friends told me that it's normal to be naked in the change room if you are into sports.

2. Ketchup: My housemates find it weird to see me using ketchup with instant ramen noodles or pizza. Belgians prefer to use ketchup only for eating fries and nuggets as far as I know.

3. Salt is no sugar: I noticed that the regular salt used in Belgium(or in Europe) looks similar to the coarse sugar(large crystals) which is sold in India. The typical salt consumed in India looks like tiny particles(finer than sugar). One day, I was having lunch with my office colleagues and one of them asked me to pass the salt. I immediately replied, with confidence, that it's sugar, not salt. Everyone seemed to laugh at me and I realized what just happened right now. Later, I also wondered why the hell would there be a sugar bottle instead of salt. This is what salt looks like:

4. Relationships: Europeans are liberal-minded towards relationships. There was an Australian guy with whom I shared an apartment after I arrived in Belgium. He was regularly visited by a kid and his mother. After a few days, I came to know that she was his ex-girlfriend with whom he never got married and they are still great friends raising a kid together.

5. Not dependent anymore: I know a few Belgian guys who stay at their parents' house and paid their room rent.

6. People strictly follow rules and regulations: They are ashamed if they don't do so. Here, almost everyone follows the traffic rules even at late night when there isn't a single car on the road. In Europe, priority is always given to pedestrians, as opposed to in India, where the vehicles(who do not want to stop) are allowed to pass before we even think of crossing the road. Also, there is almost no honking of the car horns.

Random internal dialogues of an American in Europe:

• “What? What do you mean I have to pay for water with my meal? No, I didn’t need a bottle! Just the free stuff that comes out of the tap. And where’s my ice? Why is this water warm?!”
• “And, by the way, why the hell is it cheaper to buy a beer than it is to buy a bottle of water?”
• “You only have one kind of diet soda? Where’s my Diet Dr. Pepper? Diet Mountain Dew? Coke Zero is all you have?”
• “Why are these napkins so damn small?!”
• “OMG…I feel so weird and uncomfortable leaving that table without tipping at least 10%.”
• “Why is that woman showing off her armpit hair and unshaved legs? Gross!”
• “You don’t have a driver’s license? How do you survive?”
• “Why do you look so grumpy! Did I offend you?”
• “Why does it seem like nobody is wearing deodorant?” (Applies only to Prague.)
• “Whoa! My grocery bill came to exactly the sum of what I bought! Cool!”
• “Why is everyone so thin here? Do they get free gym memberships? Can they not afford food? What’s going on?”
• “You’re just going to smoke, in the middle of the bar? They allow that? Ew!”
• “This bus/train/metro said it leaves at 5:00. Why wasn’t it still there at 5:02? You mean it leaves on time? What is this?!”
• “This hotel room is making me claustrophobic!”
• “You have to pay to use the restroom?! Hmm…that must be why some parts of the city smell funky.”
• “5 kilometers? What does that mean? How far is it really?”

Some of this is just me being facetious. I enjoy my time in Europe whenever I go.

October 2016

I had just moved to France from India, and I went for a walk with my flatmates, one of whom was Argentinian and the other Austrian. While waiting to cross the road, my Austrian flatmate went ahead, and I saw a car coming towards him. I panicked and shouted, “ Be careful “. He stopped, in the middle of the road, looked at me nonplussed, and crossed the road. When both of us met him on the other side, he asked me the reason of my shouting, to which I replied that there was a car on the road and it was dangerous. He was really confused by my answer, and told me that it was our right, the pedestrians’ right to the road. And then it was my turn to be confused.

But after my eight month stay there, I realised what he was talking about. You place one foot on the road and all the cars will stop for you. Coming from India, this was the most pleasant culture shock I got in France.

Amsterdam:

RLD:

I visited the red light district and what I saw startled me, we have a house with a red window ( Sex worker on display) on the ground floor and a family living on the first floor of the same house with no qualms

A woman who works as a sex worker in the Red Light district finishes her work and walks out like a normal woman without anyone giving her a stare or people passing on lewd comments. She is respected for what she is. These things can never happen in my country. People will be judged.

Switzerland:

Basel:

A good looking 20 year old girl who works as a Janitor came to clean my room. I struck a conversation with her and she told me that she works as a Janitor part time while majoring in arts at college and she even told me she had to take up this job since she stays alone whereas her parents were wealthy enough to take care of her financial needs if she asks. A few College students in my country will take up odd jobs but only if they are financially downtrodden and students who study in college will never take up a job of a janitor as they find it as a blot on their prestige.

Greece:

Crete:

Crete is a famous holiday destination and you will find the most warm people in Greece if you visit Crete. Men and Women lie naked on the beaches of Crete to get an even tan and no one cares a damn about it. I imagined the same thing happening in my country, I remembered myself being sent back from a stadium for wearing a sleeveless tshirt as they considered it be uncultured.

Switzerland:

Zurich:

Rented a car for 4 days and at the end of the fourth day when I returned the car they asked me to park the car at the same place and leave. I parked the car, went back to the person incharge if anyone is going to check the car for damages and he replied “ No, we go by what people tell us. We trust our people as well as tourist”. I love you Switzerland.

Engelberg:

Forgot my expensive Ray Ban sunglasses (100 Euros) at a cafe and left to climb the mountain. Came back after 6 hrs to the same cafe in search of the glasses to find it at the same table without even being moved an inch. I offered the waiter 5 Euros as a token of thanks out of excitement to which he politely refused. I still love you Switzerland.

Overall, Europe shocked me in a very beautiful way which makes me wanting for more.

I lived in Italy. We had those toilets where everything but the bowl is in the wall. My toilet stopped flushing. The mechanism that connected the flush button (a 12inx 8in plastic thing also attached to the wall) had become disconnected. In the US, would lift the tank lid and fix it. This is not the US, I had to call a plumber.

The plumber came, smashed out the wall, replaced the part (it didn't need a new part, it just needed to be reattached) and charged me €200. I asked him when he would fix the wall. He said in broken English “I fix toilet, not walls. Call the wall fixer.’ He handed me a card. They had the same last name.

I called the wall fixer. He fixed the hole in the wall. It was was a plaster and wood thing. €200. “When will you be back to paint?” I foolishly asked. “No no. Painter.” He handed me a card for a painter. Same last name.

I decided to paint it myself. Do you know how hard it is to find paint in Italy? Screw it. I called the painter. “Da Vinci” shows up. I have an area to be painted about 3ft X 3ft. An hour later, I check on him. He has painted the entire bathroom. My Italian and his English combined take for a solid line of communication. He painted the hole, it didn't look good, so he painted the wall. This also seemed less than proper to his refined eye. So he did the whole damn thing. €200.

This whole process took over a week. When I complained of this silliness to my Italian coworkers, they asked how I got such a good deal on all that work. This was the first and only time I felt like an outsider.

I was waiting for my bus at a bus stop in Brussels, Belgium.

Traffic was normal as usual, however, just in front of me I saw two cars bump into each other. Though no one got hurt but the cars did suffer some damage.

Goody goody goody, I thought to myself, I’ll see a street fight European style.

However, to my utter shock, the two drivers got out of the vehicles, took out their phones and started taking pictures of the incident. Not a word was said to the other. Then they calmly drove their cars to the side and waited patiently for the authorities to come. Again to my bewilderment none of the cars behind the incident honked for them to do all of this quickly. They all waited patiently.

What an anti climax, instead of seeing a fist fight I got to see two humans calmly resolving a situation.

Back home, in India, I could guarantee that not only the drivers but even the passers by would have come to blows and a fracas would have ensued.

I visited my boyfriend and his parents in Germany ( 7 cities) and went sightseeing in Finland (Helsinki) alone this month ( July 2018).

That was my second time to travel abroad. Before that, I'd only been to Russia (Moscow and St. Petersburg) , and I'm from China.

My biggest culture shocks in Europe:

1.The punctuality of buses. In both Germany and Finland, buses usually arrive at each stop according to the timetable.

(Bus timetable in Hamburg, Germany)

(Bus timetable in Helsinki, Finland)

Meanwhile, the trains in Germany sometimes delay. The contrast between buses and trains is really confusing. Because generally speaking, buses are probably more difficult to arrive on time due to the traffic lights and unexpected passengers' getting on and off, but the fact is that the busses there do appear at every stop according to the timetable, while train delay seems to be the norm. In China, the situation is the opposite. Busses often show up unpredictably unless you check them on the APP, while fast trains are usually very punctual.

2. The compensation of train delay. Even though trains in Germany often delay, the passengers will get 25% of the ticket price as a compensation if the train delays for one hour and more. 50%, if two hours and more.

We paid 300 euros for two tickets from Leonberg to Berlin, and later got 75 euros as the compensation. However, the reservation for seats was not included, and the price of reservation wasn't shown on the ticket.

On the way back to Leonberg from Hamburg, the train delayed again for about 50 minutes. To escape from the compensation, the train decided not to stop at some stations. The passengers who should have got off at those stations had to leave before arriving their destination and change to another train in advance.

3. The price of manufactured FMCG. Most countries in Europe are developed countries so I thought the price of every product and service was very high. However, in Germany I only spent less than 1 euro on an ordinary lip balm. A box of tasty cookies is 1~2 euros. A box of chocolates is like 3~6 euros. Even in Finland, a big cup of vanilla yogurt is only 0.98 euro.

(In Helsinki, a sandwich is 1.99 euro, yogurt 0.98, blueberries 1.75)

But I don't know why some products like cups, brooms and curling irons are so expensive. Sometimes I can buy 10 and even 100 in China with the same price.

4. Birds are everywhere. Trees and flowers are everywhere.

Pigeons, sparrows, crows and seagulls can be seen even in cities.

(Berlin)

(Leonberg)

(Schwerin)

Nature is so near that it seems people are living in a park.

(Leonberg)

(Leonberg)

My boyfriend has a lovely garden, where there is even an apple tree! I enjoyed cutting grass at it.

5. Except plants, churches are also everywhere. I don't remember how many churches I've been to.

(Leonburg)

(Stuttgart)

(Berlin)

(Schwerin)

(Bremen)

(Lübeck)

(Hamburg)

(Helsinki)

(Helsinki)

6. The portion of food is big. A meal in Germany often can be two meals for me.

The kebab I bought in Leonberg was literally my lunch and my dinner that day.

I could only finish 2/3 of the ice cream bought in Bremen.

The food in Lübeck was very delicious, especially the salad. However, the portion was so big that it became embarrassing, because I couldn't finish the meat even after trying and my boyfriend's father had to help me. Also, a glass of sparkling water served in the restaurant was too much. I guess I'd never drunk so much water during a meal.

One pizza for one person? From the picture, you can see half of my pizza still remained while my boyfriend almost finished his. And that was my first time to have a pizza with a knife and a fork. Later I realised it seemed most people outside Germany don't eat in that way.

Besides, the Russian way of holding a fork is different from the German one. That's quite interesting, because as far as I know, there's only one way to hold chopsticks.

The portion of these two foods was suitable for me. The first one was in Berlin and the other was in Hamburg.

7. It seems Europeans are quite playful.

Questions about maths and physics left on a book by visitors in a Stuttgart museum.

Trash bins in Berlin:

Trash bin in Hamburg:

It says black hole looks for rest material.

A billboard outside a pub in Hamburg:

Some scribbles in a train station of Hamburg:

The first person wrote ' the Bible is a book of fairy tales', and then another person added 'k' in front of 'ein', so the sentence becomes ' the Bible is not a book of fairy tales'.

What does the famous cat in Bremen read? 'NO. NO. NO. ':

In Helsinki, a message in Russian probably for Putin:

'Mr. President, welcome to the land of free press. '

This one in English is about Trump:

'Trump cabinet selects appropriate reporters.'

All in all, the living environment is very comfortable in Europe. I hope more and more people can enjoy that kind of life.

Me in France:

Incident #1

(At Bank A): “ Can I open an account?”
Bank Staff: “Can you go to another branch two blocks away?. There are only 3 of us staff here in this branch.”
Me: ??

(At Bank B): “Can I open an account?”
Bank Staff: “Sure, please come on next Monday”
Me: ?? (It’s only Tuesday today)
Next Monday (after about 30 minutes of form-filling)
Me: “Where is the debit card?”
Bank Staff: “You’ll receive it by post in a week.”
Me: ??

Here in Thailand, bank staff will be delighted to open an account for you within 20 minutes, together with a debit card/ATM, regardless of how few of them are working in the branch. This included a proper compliance procedure of Know your Customer verification.

Incident #2

(At a cafe): “Do you have wifi?”
Staff: “Yes, but not on weekends”
Me : ??

See this?

That is the infamous Dutch toilet.

Notice anything weird or uncommon?

Two words: inspection shelf.

When you go for number 2, your poo will not directly fall into the watery bowl of the toilet which is connected to the sewer system, but it will land on a nearly-flat area with a small volume of water under your butt. So, you are given the opportunity to see, examine, and “appreciate the beauty” of your poo before flushing it away.

On my first day in The Netherlands, I immediately got the key to my room in a former-asylum building which has been turned into a housing for international students. The housing company installed this kind of toilet in the building. I joked with my fellow international students that this is a “welcome gift”, a “small cultural introduction lesson” from the country.

There are small issues. First, obviously the smell. In “common” toilet, your poo falls into watery abyss, so it will not be so smelly. In Dutch toilet, well… you know. Gross! Ew! >.<

Second, flushing. It requires massive force of water to remove the poo from the shelf to the sewer system. If your poo is stubborn, well… Ew! >.<

However, most toilets in The Netherlands do not have inspection shelf; it seems like they have switched to “common” or “normal” toilets.

I also encountered a few of this when I visited Vienna (in Austria). A friend of mine informed me that it is actually not just “Dutch toilet”, but “European”. If any of you know more about it, feel free to clarify or correct me.

Edit:

Thanks for the upvotes and sharing your experience! Dealing with this kind of toilet (some people even call it “abomination”, lmao) is certainly a unique and hilarious experience :p

I was an exchange student in Czech republic so that was the first time i went to Europe. Biggest shock for me was my classes in a bar. Yes, for one of our class we went to a bar every friday at 10 am and all the students would sit around the professor who would teach us the subject. Later we would present our presentations and then class would be over.

While all this happened, the waiter used to take order and half of the students would order a beer and the other half would order coffee. During the class our professor would light his pipe after filling it with tobacco. During our first class, i was unsure if students will also smoke in front of the professor but then i saw other students taking their packs of cigerettes out.

You could smoke, drink and study at the same time which was super surprising for me but at the same time a new experience.

It looked like this -

From an Indian’s perspective,

Eating out

People eat out at restaurants to have some quality time with friends and family. They will order a drink and sit for hours and talk to each other and after sometime they will order a meal. A family dinner on a weekend may last up to 3 hours easily.

In India, people go out to eat, just eat. They sit in a restaurant, order food, food arrives, 20 minutes and dinner is over. In that 20 minutes, everybody concentrates on eating, they barely talk.

In Europe, even after finishing your meal and paying bill, you can sit and talk, nobody bothers you. In India we always have waiting lines outside good restaurants.

Daylight savings time

Daylight saving time (DST) or summer time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer. So, all of a sudden in summer your clock jumps an hour. In winter it goes back 1 hour. Never heard of that in India.

Small Areas

Some European countries are very small in area.

For example,

Switzerland (41,285 km2) is not even as big as Haryana (44,212 km²) (a fairly small state of India).
Don’t even compare it to the biggest state of India, Rajasthan (342,239 km2).

Public transport is very efficient and and punctual, drivers have stop watches inside the buses, and they have to reach each bus stops on a dedicated time.

In India, well, let’s not talk about it.

In some countries of Europe, such as Czech republic, Germany, etc., you don’t have to scan or show your tickets in order to get into the metro or a bus. You just buy a ticket and use public transport, and there are no turnstiles to scan your passes.

Public transport is sometimes even more expensive than to travel to another country.

For example, I went to Zurich from Milan in a bus, it cost me 10 Euros.

Inside Zurich, my public transport cost was more than 20 Euros (in a single day).

In Paris, I spent 10 Euros in a day on public transport and after a week I took a bus to Amsterdam for 8 Euros.

In India it’s totally opposite, which is more sensible.

Public transport is accessible for differently abled people

Buses, trams, metros, trains are built in such way that differently abled people can use them on their own, without anybody’s help.

Seats can be folded up for parking wheel chairs,

Everyone follows traffic rules

I am sure each and every Indian who wrote an answer to this question must have written this. There is a thing called traffic sense, which India lacks.

People with cars, respect people who are walking or using bikes (bicycles). In India if you’re walking or cycling, you’re cheap, uneducated, and lower class shit.

A zebra crossing/ pedestrian crossing is really for pedestrians in Europe.

Smoking is very common

In Europe men smoke, women smoke, no big deal. Nobody judges.

In India, if men smoke, they’re cool. If women smoke, they’re not cool.

I am not encouraging women in India to smoke, but if somebody does, they shouldn’t be frowned upon or judged.

Please, thank you and sorry

People use these 3 words abundantly.

At restaurants, waiters are asked like this, “can you get me a pizza, please?” They’re thanked when they bring something. This is also applicable to any laborers.

Sorry, is used whenever needed.

Indians use these words like they have to pay for using them.

Moving out of parents home

In Europe, if someone moves out of their parents home, to become independent or to start their own family after marriage, it is celebrated. Parents are supportive and proud of their children.

On the contrary, in India you can’t just move out of your parents home unless your work place changes to a different city. If you do, “there must have been some problems in their house due to his marriage”, and people start talking.

What will people say?

This is a very common sentence in Indian household. People are afraid of neighbors, close relatives and even distant relatives. No matter what happens in their lives, they’re more worried about what others will think of it.

In Europe, nobody gives a shit about what the next door neighbors think of them.

Working while studying

Many students work part-time while studying, and it is encouraged.

In India, if you’re studying, you can’t work, not even part-time, not even in your vacations. Most parents say this to their children,

• What will neighbors think? Don’t we have money to feed you?
• Society will think that you’re not good at studies, so you started working at random places at an early age.
• You are going to become an engineer/doctor, why would you want work part-time at any other place?

Toilets are locked in some famous fast food chains

We also have pay and use toilets in India, so I wasn’t as shocked as Americans, but at least McDonald’s doesn’t have locks on their toilets in India.

In order to use their toilets, you need to show your receipt to the cashier to get a token to use the toilets.

Sometimes they don’t have locks, but they keep an eye on who is using the toilets. If they suspect you’re not a customer, they will ask you to show a receipt of whatever you’ve bought.

People don’t talk to strangers

In Europe people don’t talk much to strangers, unless it’s necessary.

In India, If you’re traveling somewhere in a bus/train, the conversation starts,

A: So, where are you going?

B: Mumbai

C: Oh, my wife’s cousin’s daughter’s husband’s ex wife lives there, so now let’s talk for hours, and give me your bank details.

English is a language, not knowledge

In Europe, if you don’t speak English, it’s totally fine.

In India, if you don’t know English, you’re dumb.

Ambulances are given way

As soon as an ambulance comes, everybody just stops on the sides of the roads to give way in Europe.

This shouldn’t be a shock, but unfortunately it is,

Meanwhile in India

Shops close early

Most shops close at 5 or 6 pm, but there are 24 hours shops for emergencies.

In India, they close very late, mostly at 8 pm, some are open till 11–11.30 pm.

You can drink alcohol on streets

In most European countries, you can drink on the streets.

In India, you can’t. In my state (Gujarat), alcohol is prohibited, so you can not buy it to even drink it in your home.

Beer at McDonald's in Germany

It was quite surprising for me when I first found out that you can get beers in McDonald’s.

Several countries in Europe have dedicated bins for different kinds of waste

In India, we have huge bins. They’re called “the streets”.

Long queues everywhere, especially in banks

Even if the population is tiny compared to India, you can finish work in Indian banks faster than you can in Europe. Employees in Indian banks are crazy fast if you compare them to European bank employees.

Maximum retail price (MRP)

In India, we have a system of printing prices for each and everything on the box/packet of that thing. This includes everything from a tiny pack of gums to a giant refrigerator. Vendors can not charge more than the MRP, and they can charge less than that. Most of the big supermarkets and malls usually charge less than the MRP. However, in Europe, I’ve never seen this. Anyone can charge any price for anything. I’ve seen a pack of milk can being sold at four different prices in my nearby stores. In India, if the owner charges more than the MRP, the consumer can lodge a complaint against them, and they can face serious consequences.

(MRP on a pack of butter)

(MRP on a beer)

Power sockets without switches

In Europe, sockets are always on. You just plug whatever you want, and it starts working.

(A French socket)

In India, we have separate switches for all the sockets. If there are two sockets there will be two switches. You can’t just plug something and leave; you need to turn on the switch.

(Indian sockets)

We Indians love switches, and there are separate switches for each and every light fittings, fans, sockets, etc.

No ceiling fans

In India ceiling fans are common in each and every household whereas in Europe, they’re not. It’s not like they don’t have summers, but they just don’t use ceiling fans. They use a pedestal fan or air conditioner in summers.

I visited Amsterdam, Netherlands with friends some time back for the first time. As soon as we arrived at Schiphol airport, we needed to get direction to reach our hotel. We were searching for help outside airport, where we encountered this guy,

A police officer. We asked him about directions to our hotel. He gave elaborate step-by-step procedure to that.

Officer -> Go downstairs, take a metro, get down at Waterlooplein station, walk about a mile and you will find RLD(red light district).

Confused us -> But We need to go to hotel.

Officer(Smiling) -> Oh, tourist generally go to RLD first, and then hotel.

It cracked us real hard. It was cultural shock to know the open mindedness of Europeans, or rather to be in Sin-City.

So, having lived in Netherlands, and travelled around a bit of Western Europe for the past one and a half years, I have experienced a wide variety of culture shocks, ranging from minor to intensely surprising. However, this is the one which shocked me the most, and still confuses me sometimes:

Long days during summer and short days during winter

As someone from India, a country close to the equator, the sun sets at around 18:30–19:00 in the summer, and at around 17:30–18:00 in the winters, so there is very little noticeable difference in the length of the day. Here in Europe however, especially further north, in the summers, the sun sometimes sets at 22:00, or even at 23:00 or later! It’s even later in the northern regions of the Scandinavian countries. This also means the sunrise is quite early, at around half past 4 in the morning. The other extreme in the winter - sunrise at 08:15 and sunset at 17:15 or so. This was extremely weird on those days when I had classes from the morning to the evening, so there were some days when I saw little or no daylight.

Sometimes, even now, I find it hard to get to grips with this; in the summer evenings, when I return from the supermarkets or a dinner out with friends, it’s still bright outside and it feels quite weird!

A few other culture shocks -

1. Early dinner. I guess this is more common in Western Europe. I have noticed the Dutch, and even some people in Germany, happen to eat dinner at around 17:00 or 18:00. As an Indian, this is quite early! We normally have some snacks at around that time, and eat our dinner at around 20:00 or so. So I was surprised when I visited some of my friends’ places and they had dinner quite early.
2. The Dutch drink milk during lunch as well. Yes, you read that right - during lunch! Now, I do not know how common this is among other cultures/countries, but in India it is most definitely not. Maybe this explains why they are the tallest people on the planet! Eat a sandwich with a glass of milk/karnemelk (this is actually buttermilk and it is quite delicious), and you’re having a very typical Dutch lunch!
3. Greeting new people, esp. the opposite sex - This is something I still find hard to get used to, because it is not really the same in different European countries! When I went to Switzerland, whenever I had to meet my Swiss friend’s girlfriend/mother/other female friends, I had to get used to a new greeting - three cheek kisses on alternate cheeks (either left-right-left or right-left-right). I found it rather hard to get used to at first! I think the three-kiss greeting exists here in Netherlands too, when you meet a woman, and I still don’t know how different the greetings are in other countries! Bottom line - very confusing for a foreigner!
4. Language proficiency - the Dutch have a reputation of being very fluent in English, and that is completely true. I had read about this before coming here, but I had not expected it to be such a massive percentage of the population. In my time here so far, I am yet to meet/speak to someone who does not know English. Not just English, they are very conversant in another European tongue (one of German, French, Spanish or another European language). I greatly admire the Dutch education system for this, however it also makes it harder for foreigners to learn the local language because it is easy to revert to English while facing difficulties!
5. A few folks have mentioned this - there is no such thing as Maximum Retail Price (For those who are unfamiliar with this, you can check this out - Maximum retail price) in any of the supermarkets here. The same item would be 20–50 cents cheaper (or even more) in one supermarket than another one.
6. Alcohol sold in supermarkets. You do not see this in India (Edit: It has been pointed out to me in the comments that there are a few supermarkets in Bangalore which have alcohol selling sections; very likely to be there in other cities too). Obviously, if they decide to, they check your ID at the billing counter. Plus, in Germany, drinking Alcohol in public is legal, in most places. So you see some people having a morning beer in the public transport!
7. Bikes, bikes and bikes! (Here, by bikes, I am referring to bicycles). Netherlands is known for its bicycle-friendliness, and there are bike lanes along the side of almost every major city road and the bike lanes have their own traffic signals. This is how it looks -

Bikes are given a lot of respect here. In cases when there are no signals, the cars are supposed to stop to let the bikes cross the road, and they almost always do. In fact, there was one funny occasion when even a tram stopped for us, waiting for me and my friends (on our bikes), to cross the road! We were quite surprised about that to say the least!

There are a few more minor ones, which I will add as I recall.

• Bus drivers:
• Waiting for the bus in Geneva, Switzerland. the bus arrived at the exact time the screen showed in the bus station then the doors opened and we entered. I was shocked once i found that it’s a female driver dressed in a uniform that looked like a pilot uniform. She looked at us and smiled and said Bonjour. That incident really made my day. That was pretty cool because from where i came, the bus drivers are not in the mood most of the time and sometimes they’re aggressive a little bit as it’s really hard to cope with the chaos in our crowded roads plus being a male is a must in order to be a bus driver.

How people smoke like chimneys! At least in western Europe!

Having been a voracious reader, TV series addict, and Hollywood aficionado, I wasn’t expecting anything to shock me in Europe per se.

I knew about toilets with no water, and I came prepared. I knew what the Europeans had for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and being a foodie, I was perfectly fine with it. Being summer in Europe, I expected the sun to stay up till 9–9:30 pm, and that’s what I got. It did feel weird going to bed with bright sunshine outside and a street cafe filled with bustling people right outside my Airbnb, but again, I came prepared.

But what books, TV series, and Hollywood movies do not tell you is how people smoke in Europe!

I was not prepared for was the smoking culture in France, Switzerland and Germany. To say Europeans can smoke would be an understatement!

I landed at the Charles de Gaulle, Paris, late at night and crashed at the airport itself before taking the next day early morning SNCF to Strasbourg.

The moment I climbed down the escalator on to the platform, I was overcome by the overwhelming amount of cigarette smoke in the air. I gasped and looked around.

Almost everybody was smoking, flicking cigarette ash on to the train tracks, and stubbing out butts on the platform with their shoes. The railway tracks looked like this

Pic: Cigarette butts. Pollution | Didier Ruef | Photography

The platforms had massive pits that, guessing from the amount of cigarette butts, were gigantic ashtrays that were almost full. People were smoking with not a care in the world!

Luckily, there was no smoking allowed inside the train compartments and the 2 hour trip to Strasbourg was a minute respite to my lungs that were being torn apart.

At Strasbourg, I saw 80 odd year olds sitting at tram stops and finishing cigarettes and pulling another one out from the box, lighting it, and carrying on their merry ways. I’ve never seen 80 year olds smoke the way these ladies were.

I saw couples, with kids in their prams, sitting on sidewalk benches and smoking, not caring that their smoke blew straight into their babies’ faces. That was not just horrifying, it was mortifying.

Roads, railway, and tram lines seemed to be universally accepted ashtrays!

Pic: Washington Post

You’re allowed to smoke in India, too.

However, you’d never find people smoking in public places like roads, railway stations, bus stations, or tram stops! Smoking, is banned in public places and you’d find people smoking only in specific places. Back in the day, before the ban was imposed, while you’d find people smoking in public, the level wasn’t as high as what I found in Europe.

I thought cigarettes were cheap, but at about € 15 a pack, which is expensive, people still went out and smoked their money away! Chain smoked, I must add!

This was a massive culture shock. Zurich, Stuttgart, Paris, they were all the same! The smoking culture in Europe was like nothing I’ve ever seen.

Kerala, the state in India I come from, was one of the first places to ban public smoking and cops are very, very serious about implementing the law. Back when I was a smoker, I remember being caught by the Kerala Police for smoking outside the railway station, and trust me, that did not go too well. I didn’t pay a fine, but I did hear some Malayalam I never knew existed!

I recently visited Germany. There were few things which astonished me.

I was sitting in the bus in the window seat, I saw an old man struggling to cross the road using a wheelchair as he is differently abled. Suddenly the passerby stopped his car in the middle of the road and helped the old man cross the road. Till he get backs to the car, every passerby was waiting behind his car without any urgency. Was really amazed to see that.

Added to the above incident , here are the few things which surprised me.

1. People greeting the strangers with smile
2. I could hardly see crowd anywhere, other than railway stations and airports. It is calm everywhere.
3. People are so kind that whenever I click a selfie, some or the other will run towards me and ask “do you want me to click a photo of you”. (So kind)
4. People are not in a rush. They follow the traffic rules regardless of whatever the situation is.

Drinking during work lunches.

I'm not old enough to have worked when "three-martini lunches" were a common business practice in the US. By the time I started working, alcohol consumption during work hours was banned.

When I went to Austria on a business trip, our hosts took us to lunch and they had beer and wine-but we had to abstain since our company didn't permit drinking on the job.

It was weird to see them drink, and then go back to work. I myself probably wouldn't have indulged even if permitted to since I have a tendency to get sleepy after a drink or two.

Seeing a teenager drink in a restaurant.

While having dinner with a colleague in Austria during a separate business trip, there was a family seated next to us. There was a teenager who looked to be about fifteen years old or so. He ordered a sherry. I was surprised when the waiter brought him the drink and he drank it. I was then told that Austria does permit teens 16 and older to drink if they are in the presence of an adult, and that the age determines what they can drink, with the final restrictions lifted at age 21.

McDonald's serves alcohol!

In Vienna, I passed a McDonald's while sightseeing and went in to get a cola. I noted that the McDonald's there sold beer. I know of no fast-food restaurant in America that serves alcohol of any kind.

Cokes are served without ice.

This didn't particularly bother me too much since I don't like a lot of ice in my cola and generally drink it out of the can or bottle anyway if it isn't a fountain drink-but if you want ice for your cola, you do have to ask for it.

Desserts aren't as sweet.

Here in America, I'm not a person that eats a lot of sweet stuff-I generally pass on desserts after a meal. But I found European desserts to be far more enjoyable since they weren't as sweet. In America, you can literally crunch on the sugar crystals in icings and fillings, it's so sweet. However, in Stockholm, they have salted licorice. Now that was just disgusting.

Television is a lot more sexually explicit.

If you stay up late enough and watch TV, you can run across some pretty explicit programming that isn't confined to the porn channels like here in the States. Here in the US the sexually explicit stuff is confined to a few channels, and you know what those channels are so that you can't accidentally stumble on it and if you wish, can take steps to block them-the more mainstream channels don't show that stuff and the language is generally tamer. But in Europe, that's not so-mainstream channels show this stuff. So, if sexually explicit material and/or cussing/f-bombs on TV bothers you (and yeah, you know what the dialogue is-they translate the shows for you), you're better off not watching TV late at night-just read or go to bed.

News programming doesn't have commentary.

The news in Europe is what the US news used to be about 30 or 40 years ago-free of talking heads giving their own opinions. CNN Europe and Sky TV don't have any shows with anchors à la MSNBC or FOX or CNN even-it's just news and sports and weather updates with nothing else. An anchor might give a throwaway opinion on something in between news stories, but it's not an hour of discussion and analysis with a particular political bent like the US.

Europeans follow US events VERY closely and are quite informed about them.

The average European to me was very well versed in US issues as well as how our government works-something that isn't true in reverse.

Not needing a car.

If you stay in the city in Europe, you don't need a car. You can take public transportation, walk, taxi. A car simply isn't necessary, everything is located in such a manner that one can get around without a car. When I travel in the States, there are very few places where at some point, a car isn't needed.

I've had the pleasure of going to many European countries but would like to dedicate one shocker per country:

1. Italy: This was the first time I went out of India and expected people to be really different in other parts of the world.. but found Italians to be the closest to how we behaved. Also, I went to Naples.. and there was litter all around..not so much.. but enough.. felt like Bangalore with white people. Awesome food, awesome people, lots of history. Hard to find people who talk english in Naples though.
2. Germany: This is where I've been staying for a while and decided to join a gym. No big deal.. pay the money.. get your clothes.. go to the dressing room. and voila.. Naked men.. Naked men talking around.. walking around.. and taking a shower in a big open room like it's no big deal in no hurry to put their clothes back on. This was the biggest shocker of all. But this is a great thing that people aren't ashamed of their naked bodies. Love the social values here. Everyone who makes eye contact with you will say hello and everyone who walks in front of you through a door will hold the door for you. German guys are really serious at the workplace and although they have fun at times but they will put work at priority for the 8 hours. They may not appear as the best hosts and may not make you feel warm and welcome.. but that's how it appears at first.. They will go to everything to make sure that you feel accepted.
3. Portugal: Was just here for 6 days for work so didn't get the time to wander around. I was in Lisbon and the place is beautiful. I love it how all of these countries have public transport so well executed that it's the preferred mode of transport. The only shock I had here was the amount of olives and olive oil used in some of their dishes.. I love olives but some of their dishes have too much of it. I asked for the most Portuguese dish and they gave me Bacalhau (Salted Cod fish that may be cooked in one of the 1000 ways apparently) it was just the smell of too much strong olive oil.. couldn't get it down. But then the next morning I had another version of it without olives and fried into a ball and it was amazing. Had the most amazing waffles also in Lisbon. The people are amazing and super friendly and always smiling and having fun in office. I regret not having time to do much though.
4. Switzerland: Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful, EXPENSIVE. I have gone to Switzerland and its amazing to wake up and look out of your window and see mountains covered in Ice. Shocker for me was crossing roads here. The other European countries have some sort of traffic lights for pedestrians .. the Swiss have them too but at most places, you can cross when you want to.. the drivers have to stop ..they are low on priority. Amazing food and place.. but really damn expensive.

These are the places I lived in for between 6 days to 6 months and there are others that I visited but for now this list is fair enough...

Go see Europe.. it's an amazing experience

Children in public places.

I come from India where parents have to constantly watch over their children in public places. Most parents just clutch their kids’ hands and do not let go until they are home. They never let the kids go more than few feet away from them. Even when they do, they are alarmed, at least a bit. I also do this when I take my 2 nephews out for a walk or something. Maybe this is due to the fear of the child getting hurt or somebody stealing something from the child or the child itself! (horrible and shameful but happens). This is rather a generalization. Does not happen everywhere. Nonetheless, the kids are always under parents’ control in public.

When I moved to Germany a couple of years ago, I started noticing that this is not the case here. The children are more independent. Of course, even here the parents are watching over the kids constantly in public places. But sometimes, when a kid wanders aimlessly leaving the parent behind into the crowd or in an escalator for example, they are not immediately alarmed. They just calmly go over to the kid later. In my opinion, this approach nurtures independence, confidence and curiosity in children. But, the social element is also involved.

To people here, maybe this would be more like:“Yeah what’s the big deal here?”. But for someone like me who has been used to the constant worry of parents, this came rather as a shock. Even now when I go in the U-Bahn (train stations), if I see a kid go before the parent into the escalator, my immediate instinct is “Wait, your parent is behind”. But then I realize where I am and just continue humming to the song I am listening to. Hopefully, I can just hum to the same song during a similar situation in my home soon enough!

I am an American from California, and moved to Lisbon, Portugal a few months ago. The continent of Europe is very diverse so I can only speak on what I've noticed here. Things that have definitely stood out in my time living here:

• Big breakfasts are not a thing here! This one makes me a little sad, I must admit. I looove traditional American and Mexican breakfast foods (which are both common in US), and those aren't here :( Toast or pastry with coffee is what they have. I've even seen toast and coffee as advertisement on McDonald's ads:

• Virtually every restaurant is only open between 11am-3pm and 7-10pm. Really frustrating when you're hungry outside of those times and aren't at home.
• Cobblestone sidewalks everywhere. Pretty dangerous to walk in stilletos or heels that aren't wide.
• Streets are narrow. The Old World wasn't built with cars in mind!
• Lots of political parties, that are all given media airtime. I think this is a great thing. In the US of course its only between two parties, but here there are many more categories to choose from with significant differences.
• Less compulsory smiling at people you don't know. I took it as rudeness when I'd greet a store clerk with a smile, and they did not reciprocate. But I discovered its just not a social norm to smile just because you're interacting with a new person. There may be a greeting, but it needn't come with a smile. There are many interpretations possible for this; I think in the US its a way of showing you're not a threat to people and higher expectations of service workers.
• Washing machine in the kitchen. Kind of weird to me, and dryers are less common.
• No big coffees. Except for at American chains. When you order coffee here, it comes in this kind of espresso size mini mug:

• No complimentary water at restaurants. I suppose you could ask for tap water but you'd look very cheap and they'd probably wonder if you had enough money to pay the bill. They bring water bottles when you ask for water, and you have the choice of refrigerated or room temperature.
• People rarely eat with their hands. It may actually be more of a culture shock in reverse, as I wasn't aware it was a thing! But "finger foods" seems to be very American and was shocking to my Portuguese boyfriend (ex: pizza, tacos, chicken tenders, burgers, etc.)
• Alcohol served all kinds of places. Hard liquor too, not just beer and wine. I've seen it at cafés, bakeries, train stops, food carts, etc.
• Fresh-squeezed orange juice is super common. It's available at most restaurants and cafes, and is usually around €2. I haven't seen it many places in the US (especially not the fresh squeezed for your order), and when I do it's more like $5. This wasn't exactly a “shock” but a very pleasant surprise and a heads up to you future travelers to Portugal!
• Lack of street signs. The signs are mostly general directions and since they use round abouts instead of intersections, I'm not sure how it could be any more confusing for someone that doesn't know the lay of the land. GPS is the only way. But don't count on seeing the name of the street anywhere.
• Tips and sales taxes are not hidden costs. Service workers are paid normally here, so customers are not expected to subsidize their paycheck via tips. Giving 10% will often be met with elation as it shows you really appreciated their work and it’s not necessarily expected. The last time I went to California I noticed they added an “18%, 20%, 25%” calculation at the bottom of the receipt to show you what you “should” be leaving them, plus the hefty sales tax. It’s amazing how the hidden charges are not there in Europe and I must say I hardly questioned it before. Now, it’s hard to believe what a massive scam the restaurant/bar etc. industry lobbied for by getting customers to pay their employees for them. The price on the tag/menu is what you will be charged for in Europe, and it’s the one point here I will rant about. Note that this feeling does not mean I won’t be tipping adequately when in the US.

That's all I have for now! I'll add more if I think of any that'll be useful and not already stated by everyone :)

Coming from a city like Chennai and not a very conservative family to be frank, i still had my own experiences when it comes to culture shock.

As I live in the Netherlands, i will share my experiences from that.

• Coffee and Tea, well after moving here i had to accept the hard fact that coffee and tea is always without milk in here. And people drink coffee like water. Here Are the Countries That Drink the Most Coffee—the U.S. Isn't in the Top 10.
• Bicycle: Netherlands is basically a very small country if we compare it to India. But even then it’s pretty shocking for me, that bicyclists are being given importance, they are given priority most of the places. And literally having dedicated Paths.

• Doing a part-time job when you are studying is something not at all common in India, it’s kinda prestigious for our parents to let us work in a super market, or work in the kitchen cleaning utensils. But this is something which i really as i can always have my pocket filled for my daily expenses , so that i don’t need to pester my parents.
• From my experience, people here are so scheduled, like they always check their calendar and tell you if they are available for dinner or any other activity. In India i just ping my friend like one hour before and we meet, and i started to follow which works quite good for me here. But when i went back for vacation in India it failed terribly.
• If i’m having a bad flu or something, in india i just go to the pharmacy and get the medicine, like it’s not a big thing. But here without a prescription noway i could any medicine, which i find it very difficult.
• When i meet people here from different countries, they have so many different way of greeting. The most embarrassing thing for me , i always mix up the greeting and make a mess out of it.
• Greeting people, whether i know him/her doesn’t matter, but i really like it when i look into someone and wish them with a smile. I really get the satisfaction when i get a smile back from them.
• People here like to have houses with big opening (windows i mean ). And from my experience they are not at all shy.
• Work-Life balance is very good here, they always take regular breaks or like going on a vacation or finishing the work by 1700 (exceptions excluded).
• The power gap between the employees in a company like fresher or CEO is nothing, everyone’s view is taken into account during a group discussion. People or the higher authorities have the patience to listen to their co-workers.
• Dutch people are very direct, they tell you what they feel; many of us take it as harsh but that’s how they are. I didn’t find this as shocking because i’m pretty direct when it come to my views or opinions.
• In India if you are having a birthday and you live in hostel, basically you are not going to be happy about it as you are going to get kicked in your ass so badly that you can’t even sit normally the next day, and when i said this tradition to few of my friends here, they were looking at me as if i’m a serial killer and this what i had to hear from them “don’t worry i’m not inviting you for my birthday celebration”.
• When i find people with crazy tattoos all over them walking on the road, i always look puzzled because this is not something i have ever seen in India.
• And when it comes to buying groceries for example there is nothing called Maximum Retail Price (Maximum retail price)concept here in Europe and i’m like holy-moly you guys are crazy.

Edit: i will keep updating this, as i come across more stuffs.

EDIT 1: Wow 53k views and 211 up-votes, i didn’t expect that. But thanks to everyone, who had the patience to read ;)

• When it comes to eating, from my childhood i’m always used to eating with just bare hands, but when i came here; people are very curious about how can i eat for example rice or roti with hands. Adding to this i cooked Indian food for my housemates, friends etc. and i should really appreciate that everyone wanted to try eating in hands, but the change from hands to spoon was pretty quick i would say.
• Drinking water from the tap, even though it’s a hard fact to digest. In India (atleast in my family) we always boil the water before we drink it.
• From my experience I would say a typical dutch person always have sandwiches in his/her bag. It is kinda very easy, as it saves you a lot of time. But i’m used to warm meal like three times a day, but after being here for 2 years; i’m used to one warm meal (usually dinner).
• Driving in Europe is so much fun, but if i miss one right/left turn in a highway then getting back to my planned route takes a while i would say. In India, most of the highways you have U-Turns on regular intervals, so it was quite easy to get back on to track.
• Opening/Closing of shops is quite different from how it is in India, like many shops are open from 0730–2300 but here shops close quite early, and even earlier during Sundays.

Even though there was a slight nervous tension in my stomach, like a hollowness tinged with apprehension, I didn’t think it would happen; at least not so soon.

Everything seemed to be going perfectly well as I was waiting at the terminal in Tel-Aviv with my wife and small kids for our flight to Berlin. They were tottering on the carpeted floor, poking each other and laughing, the people around us watching and smiling approval.

We got off the flight at the Schönefeld Airport and walked outside. It was April, but the cold still bit at whatever skin was not layered.

And that’s when I saw him: a ghoulish skull tattoo on his exposed, fleshy arm; a black leather jacket; heavy black boots; a shaven head, the almost-white skin glinting in the sun; a cigarette hanging from his lips.

He was with several friends, the rest sitting on the bench, all of them dressed in the same way, all sharing the lightest complexion.

And then it entered my body. Fear, like a net tightening around my heart, my breath quickening. Despite my mind knowing that I was safe — I had been in unsafe situations in my life and this did not feel like one of them, not in that direct way — my gut would not accept.

“This is dangerous,” it seemed to say.

I am a descendant of Holocaust survivors, some of whom had lived in Germany. From them I inherited a German passport. This was my first time there as an adult, though.

Before I left for Berlin, my grandmother, who had lost most of her family, said to me: “Why are you going there?! They are dangerous! They have killed our people!”

I nodded sympathetically, wanting to tell her that a lot of time has passed, that things are immensely different now.

Knowing she would never change her mind — the scars run too deep — I maintained a respectful silence.

I have never had anything against Germans. I had great German friends while traveling in India. And although I have studied the Holocaust, I never blamed Germany or felt anger towards Germans — to me, it was another genocide, indicative of the deep discord that can consume the human heart.

Gypsies and other ethnicities had also been persecuted; other genocides have taken place since then, not directed at Jews.

But there I was, watching this skull-tattooed man, feeling fear, despite knowing how unfounded it was.

I swallowed, my throat dry. We got on a taxi to the apartment we would rent. On the way, I shared what I was going through with my wife — who is not Jewish — and asked her how she felt.

“Perfectly safe,” she answered.

Outside our apartment building a woman asked us in English if we were new and helped us carry our luggage. In the days that followed another neighbor helped us fill some forms in German. Yet another neighbor invited my son to play with her kids.

Everyone was nice and courteous and respectful.

But then came another shock as we were walking around the streets. I stumbled upon a Stolperstein, which literally — and befittingly — means “stumbling stone.”

[Photo taken from Google Images]

These are brass plates inlaid in the street with the names of [Jewish] individuals, the dates when they were forced to leave, and then when they were slain.

The stumbling stones are meant to remind — lest we forget.

A chill passed through my spine and I stood there, watching them for a long time, realizing that a number of these will feature the names of relatives of mine.

It is difficult for me to explain this experience. I have never been someone to take the events of the Holocaust personally, despite being Jewish. I saw it more as one of the gruesome upheavals of history, to be learned from, to never be repeated.

In Dresden, not too far from Berlin, outside of my grandfather’s childhood home, are two plates with the names of my great-grandparents.

I didn’t go there. I did not want to become obsessed with the Holocaust; I did not want to develop the identity of a victim.

I left Germany some months later — we had only come for a short period — wondering whether there was some kind of deeper, generational imprint that I carried — irrespective of how I choose to interpret the world.

Some kind of ancestral wounding that will take generations to heal.

• When I have moved to Europe, I was shocked to see bidet showers for anus cleaning in every single public toilet. A Finnish bidet shower is a hand-held triggered nozzle that is placed near the toilet and delivers a spray of water used for anal cleansing and cleaning of the genitals after using the toilet for defecation and urination. In several European countries, a bidet is today required by law to be present in every bathroom containing a toilet bowl. This a bidet shower in the public washroom at Helsinki Airport:

• The obsession with nudity is everywhere. Mixed genders saunas and mixed showers in the public pool were shocking. But more shocking is that the nudity is also propagated to children by educational institutions. This is the page from children book “MAMUMUKSUT - SUOMEA LEIKKI-IKÄISILLE”:

• No-shoe policy in the office. When I had a meeting for a job interview at the employment agency, I was asked to take my shoes off at the entrance. That was a shocking life experience. I wasn't prepared for this. I felt half naked without my shoes. So I took off my shoes and went bare foot on the public carpet for a job interview. The undressing and showing off my feet during the official event felt too intimate for me. In Israel, where I am from, people will never take off their shoes at the office of the recruitment agency and will never expect visitors to do so. In Israel is also normal to enter a home with shoes on which is absolutely unacceptable in Finland.

• The architecture . Modern black and dark-colored buildings are practically everywhere. The modern northern architecture is soulless, tastless and cheap. It’s kind of IKEA style in architecture - practical, but ugly. The most interesting thing that last decade this kind of architectural style became fashionable:

• Europeans prefer small cars with the manual transmission.
• Half of the urban population doesn't have cars at all, they use public transport.
• Motorways in Finland are curved, they are so much winding, that you can get a carsick during the driving.
• Finns love red cars. Photo below is the random parking in Finland. I have never seen such amount of red car anywhere else in the world:

• The building maintenance. Finns really love to replace all water pipes in their condominiums every 20 years that usually cost 20,000 euros to each flat owner. If some flat owners are unwilling to participate in the maintenance, they will be demanded to pay anyway by force via court. It's kind of community living, no privacy and not really the private ownership here. It seems to me that the maintenance is the national Finnish entertainment
• You also must pay for a doctor, manicurist, pedicurist a full price for a service you had never get (for example, you canceled the appointment . If you are reluctant to pay, they easily take your money straight from your bank. So everyone here can put their hands into your bank account. I have lived in many countries, but I have never met such blatant institutionalised rip off by government institutions.
• The installation style. Water pipes are usually built outside of the walls.

• The infrastructure. Many rural households don't have a connection to municipal water pipes, neither to the sewer. Local Europeans gather the water from wells. I was shocked to see that many places in Europe are far behind the civilization. According to the statistic about 20% of Finnish citizens don't have a sewage, they live in year-round homes not connected to the municipal sewage.
• The well water. Many households don't have water connection to the municipal pipes, so they gather the water from the well.
• Fireplace and woods are common for heating in rural Finland:

• It's not customary to invite frends at home. People prefer to socialise in the bars, pubs, restaurants or simply outside in the parks, they don't like to invite anyone at their home which I find quite strange considering that the temperature outside is very cold during 8 months per year.
• Alcohol. How all Europeans drink much more alcohol than Israelis do! I noticed many drunk people walking outside. On this subject Israelis has a healthier way of life.
• Young men play board games in the bars and pubs. It was pretty shocking, but I enjoyed it.

My information concerns Finland, so it is more applicable to Northern European modern culture than Western Europe or the Anglo-sphere. It's important to note that these were things which surprised me when I moved to Europe 3 years ago. However, slowly, I have gotten used to many of these things.

When I first went to UK couple of years back, the below are the first things I noticed different.

#1 People On Roads

There were no people or very few people walking on the roadside.

In India we can see many walking in the roadside in most of the places.

#2 Kissing in Public Places

It was quite common to see people kissing in public places. Nobody bothers them.

#3 Discipline

They adhere to rules very well. For example when I visited a restaurant and I crossed a small part of lawn which was not supposed to be walk way (I didn’t know this). But it shortened the distance and was quite easy to reach. Suddenly I heard a loud voice from a UK person scolding me for that. In India nobody bothers this. We are very adjustable and flexible people :)

#4 Food

The taste of most western foods did not suit me. It all looked very plain. And surprised to see the food items rate compared to India. We had one plate curd rice in an Indian Restaurant there, which was around Rs.600 :)

And surprised to see people eating meat almost everyday/every meal!

Thanks!

1. People actually queue. Yep. Queue. As an Indonesian, cutting the queue is not a big deal for most people, but for me it is. I felt at peace not surrounded by savages who don’t know how to queue.
2. Everyone use public transportation. From homeless people to skinheads to transvestite to frat boys to lawyers and bankers, I’ve seen them all in the Dutch train. Oh, and some places got passed by the 24-hour nacht trein, including Leiden~
3. The quality of the park. Great for chilling out in the summer, yoga, or even just a run.
4. Cheap wine and alcohol in general. Cigarettes also not as expensive as Australia.
5. The quality of street performer. One day I was in Geneva taking a walk with my then-girlfriend and we met a street performer who played violin (it was Bach if I’m not mistaken) at a very high level. By a very high level, I really mean it. I frequently watch classical concerts whenever I can, so at least I know what’s good and what’s not.
6. Free entry to Louvre (and other museums) as an EU university student under 26 years old and 9 euros tickets to Rotterdam Philharmonic concerts.
7. CHEAP MEAT! For the same quality, the meat is cheaper than Jakarta. I compared their absolute price, and meat in The Netherlands is cheaper by quite a wide margin.
8. Nobody asked about your religion and marital status, unlike here in Indonesia. No intended invasion of privacy whatsoever. I was at peace.
9. Most of all, I am surprised by how open and accepting people are. Much less prejudiced and sexist compared to my fellow countrymen, but perhaps this also due to the fact that I was also in the university bubble there.
10. The only thing I hate about The Netherlands is their cold lunch. Not the weather, not their straightforwardness, and not their bureaucracy.

I hardly notice anything now, but these were some things that stood out on my first few trips. Don't take any of these as one is better than another, it's different and these should be seen more as my experience and things that stood out at first glance.

1. Language - words like boot, chips, shag (a type of carpet in the US), nappy, napkin. Even though in the US we may take a year or two in high school of French, German, or Spanish we really don't learn the language because we don't get a chance to use it. Great to find out most people spoke better English than anything we know.
2. Lack of selection on drinks. Coke, coffee or tea?
3. Finding budget food was a challenge at first. We live in a fast food culture here in the US focused on cheap and easy access.
4. What is old in the US and Australia is still considered relatively new in Western Europe. Most historic areas in old towns in the US are focused on preserving houses and buildings from the 19th century. These may not even be considered very old in much of Western Europe.
5. Less accommodating for large families and kids. I found it very challenging to travel with 3 young children. Finding a Hotel rooms with 2 queen beds can cost you a lot more and I ultimately got in trouble and was told we needed to purchase 2 rooms due to a supposed fire hazard. They saw it as safer to have our 10 and 12 year old in another room. I couldn't convince them otherwise.
6. Cars stood out as much much smaller. Many smart cars and tiny vehicles on tiny roads. I was driving in England which was already a shocker being on the other side of the road, but had to drive through narrow metal posts going through an old village. The car barely squeezed through. In Amsterdam one of the vehicles looked like a toy. This vehicle pictured can even drive in the bike lane. (It is for handicapped people. Thanks for clarifying.)

7. So many countries and fascinating cities! Everything seems so close. Country's are smaller than most states especially in the western US. We are used to driving long distances.

8. Pizza isn't always the pizza we might expect. After a week of eating French baguettes and finger foods, my American colleagues just wanted a “normal” pepperoni pizza. We found a pizza place and ended up with pepperoncinis and a raw egg freshly dropped in the middle. They were horrified.

9. Chocolate - Love European chocolate. There is a difference between quality European chocolate and your everyday American chocolate bar, but this gaps narrows with selection. I bought lots of chocolate to bring home.

10. Nudity - in much of Europe it's not as much of a big deal to use boobs in advertising especially on TV. In the US it would be much more restricted, not nearly as much as Japan.

• How amazingly rich the butter is, just as a matter of course (I no longer buy domestic butter to bake with)
• How personally small shopkeepers take it when you go in to browse and then don't buy anything (one woman chased my brother into the street, shouting)
• The fact that most of the cathedrals I went to had gift shops in the vestibules
• This didn't particularly shock me, but many tourists I saw were surprised to find bouncers at the doors of churches and cathedrals requesting respectful dress (no pants on women, heads uncovered, etc)
• How well-versed and well-informed Europeans are on US politics, much moreso than vice-versa in my experience
• The presence of well-maintained public toilets in large cities (in the US, if you need to use the restroom in a large downtown area, it usually involves going into a shop or restaurant that has one, and then you're obligated to buy something)
• Many more panhandlers, pickpockets, counterfeit-purse vendors on the streets...but many more street artists and performers, too
• A broader classical-education base for the average citizen than one normally sees in the US (Ancient Languages, history, music, art, etc), and more emphasis...out of necessity...on language learning
• In regard to sourcing food, less regard overall for animal rights (again, in my experience)

Those are just a few, off the top of my head.

There I was, in Crystal Palace, in a line to check into the hotel with my sister. It was July 2012

I dont remember why, but I tapped the shoulder of the kid in front of me to ask him a question

When he turned around, he told me, in a thick French accent, that he didnt know English

This was my first time abroad and the first time I had met someone who didnt know English (I'm from a small town in the north part of the US where we dont get many people from other countries)

I was so shocked that I didnt even know what to say 😂🤦🏻‍♀️

The food quality in Europe is far superior to that of the United States

My grandmother lives in Poland. As a child, I spent many summers visiting her.

One day, I was climbing the apple tree in her yard picking fruit. I came across an apple that had a worm hole in it. I threw the apple down in disgust. My grandmother picked it up and encouraged me to bite into it. “A worm chose this apple because it is the best one.” I didn't want to admit it but it was the best apple I had ever tasted!

I had foolishly been led to believe that the prettiest apples were the best ones. This experience showed me that beliefs about food in Europe were quite different from those in the United States.

Now, as an adult, I continue to visit Europe frequently for both business and pleasure.

And every time I come home I am always, without fail, thinner and generally feeling better physically,

Food regulation in the European Union is far more stringent than in the United States. Food free from growth hormones, artificial dyes, and GMOs - which is considered a luxury in the USA - is standard fare in the EU.

I am answering as someone who has lived in north India for the majority of his life. So here goes:

Language: except for the recent graduates, nobody speaks or cares to speak english in mainland europe. This might be hard to digest for someone brought up on a generation of american TV shows where europe equals english plus fake accents.

Public transport: Not only is it reliable, cheap and highly punctual but clean and probably preferable to private transport (depending on where you are in europe).

Day/night ratio: For me growing up sunlight equated to start of business and sunset equated to end of business. Not here though, days are depressingly short in winter while being pleasantly long in summer.

Social interaction: It would suffice to say that in India I was considered an introvert, but here I am considered socially active ;). I fit right in.

Honesty: My first time through in europe was in Lausanne. Having collected the groceries I needed I asked a gentlemen for the exit ‘Sortie’ and was accidentally let out of the place without having paid. Needless to say I was shocked and went back to pay for it. The same goes for purchasing a ‘fahrkarte’. Even though nobody ever bothers to check, everybody still buys it religiously.

Gender discrimination: In short none exists. Except for when you have to travel by train and opt for a sleeper class. LOL. I guess India has Europe beat in atleast one category.

Pedestrian rights: In north India, lack of a fuel guzzling fourwheeler automatically equates to a person being a nobody and chances are you will be runover without concern. The case is even worse for people on cycle. However, in europe and especially here in Cambridge people are respectful of pedestrians and cyclists. You never know if one might be a world famous Prof. beneath all that swanky, reflective neon cladding.

Free healthcare and education: I could never thank my parents enough for the fortune they spent on my tuition fees alone. Though I would have preferred if we had a system similar to most european countries, where world class education and healthcare is provided to everyone, virtually for free.

Growing sentiments for vegetarianism: Back in India any outing with my friend would have atleast one instance where they try forcefeeding me some non-vegetarian dish; and comparing me to cattle for munching on ‘grass’. Not here though. Most people I have met never questioned my dietary choices and a majority of those actually have a lot of respect for vegetarians. However, this might probably stem from the fact that being a vegetarian in europe means having limited choices for eating out.

Freedom of mobility: A whole continent for you to go exploring; a world without borders. Enough said.

Hospitality: I have been fortunate enough to not encounter any narrow-minded racists; and from my experience I have a strong feeling that I will not be crossing paths with any in the near future. People travelling to europe or essentially anywhere abroad need to do their homework about the culture of that place. If you show respect you will receive nothing but warm hospitality in return. Despite the language barrier, people will make an earnest effort to help you if you just know how and when to ask.

Yup, my tryst with europe has swept me off my feet.

Dear Europeans, please never change.