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10 Things About Europe I Find Strange (Page 2)
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This does not bode well for me. I was born in Poland, but parents moved to "the west" in 1988 when I was 9 years old. Now, aged 40, I am trying to return to the country. I managed to legally organize a Polish passport for myself, to make stuff easier.
Trying to find an apartment to rent from abroad is a nightmare. They simply don't respond to your e-mails, based on a foreign telephone number that you have to supply. The website warns the advertisers to be careful of who ever speaks English or broken Polish.
I can't rely on the family, as I haven't spoken to them in 30 years. They got their own lives, and I'm not the one to interfere.
My adopted country's economy is going down and quicky, and its time to return. But, with difficulties like these, what am I to do?
Where are you now?
South Africa.
Do the opposite, ask them this question:
"Under which circumstances would you accept this?"
I guess that depends on which european country you go to. Most of these I do not relate to at all. For example both alcohol and cigarette laws are pretty strong here, they've just forbidden smoking in a lot of public places for example here in Sweden.
Also using the N-word if you're white will pretty much get you slayed here lol. Not literally but you know it's a huge no-no.
I know. Swedes are saying this doesn't apply to them
That's why I named specific countries where I've experienced these things
Well, I can relate to some of the things you mentioned, especially the rude customer service, public transportation and the use of the word "n***er". But, you already know where I live and this country is not a good place to live nor to be a tourist.
People from here also don't like foreigners, as I already told you.
I don't know if you're still interested in visiting other European countries, but if you are I hope you have better experiences.
I would like to visit the US someday.
I'm gonna visit anyways. lol
I know you will Lol
Things are easier for someone like you in Europe...
How the fuck does Lisbon cost $800 and the Azores cost $4000?
What are you talking about?
Hotel/Airfare package
In winter
From California
That's strange. It would make sense if Lisbon was more expensive. Maybe you should check other websites.
Plus, the Azores are 3 hours away from the US, so it should be cheaper.
Exactly
And there are a lot of Azores people here.
I know. And there some Americans who were born in Azores because their parents were serving in the military.
* there are
Formality is just being polite, in English you don't have something that you do in Latin countries, which is a way different manner to address someone, for example in potuguese, instead of saying "tu"(you) we say "você"(you) to people we don't know. That makes all the difference, and put extra enfassis on formality since u even start learning the language. It's polite to address someone you don't know, a superior or the authorities with formal speech. But I've never seen it go to those extremes. Maybe that's a Polish thing?
About the second point, true some people may cross the line in a ton of situations, but that's cuz they have a shit job and just don't feel like working it... Some other times, it's people who are just pissed cuz customers keep being rude to them. With self owned businesses like food truck that u mentioned, you can't really evaluate that. They are their own bosses, so they wtv the fuck they want. About the thing of the employee searching your mom's bag, you should have told him to go fuck himself and call the police if he wanted to, and after that, charge a complaint. Who does he think he is to go through someone else's bag.
#3 You seem to be doing a generalization in most of these. Maybe you should change the title to 10 things about Poland, cuz I've never seen an extra fee to take photos, neither have I ever been charged for a cup of water or ice. About the toilet thing, we see it as polite to pay for something if you want to use the toilet. Cuz the bathroom is for people who are at the restaurant. But if you ask politely I don't think they would tell you you can't go.
#4 it's not about discrimination on tourists or wtv. About the health thing, the government helps pay for medical things for it's people in Europe, so most of the times they pay waay less than they would have to. Tourists don't have this privelege cuz they are not citizens of the EU. Any other stuff I could only guess you have to pay extra cuz they need someone to translate or with more capabilities, which is definitely not cheaper.
#5 scams, true. Bribery, not everywhere it works like that. At least here there is no bribery and you may get a large fine if u try to do that. About corruption, definitively but not to gigantic criminal extent like u said on the framing thing. Are they useless, most cases yes. Corrupt, not really. The only corruption I've seen is a couple of policeman who "apprehended" weed from some teenagers and got caught smoking it themselves
#6 everywhere in Europe there is an age limit for buying alcohol, about seeling it in those to cases u mentioned, either they knew who the person buying, and their family, was so they knew it was cool, or they are just plain stupid and you should have called the police. But generally we are more lenient with alcohol, not cigarettes thought.
#7 true
#8 we do not refer to black people as n**. And will probably never do so, even if racist, cuz n** in Europe has no weight to it, we don't really give a shit about prejudiced crybaby's. If you call a black person by the words that were used in Europe they won't care as well. Cuz guess what, they would get nothing out of it playing the victim card cuz racist, racist, racist, cry, cry, cry. We just don't care, look at the disgrace Serena Williams went through at the finals at Wimbledon I believe. We just don't care, at that works best. When you don't care, no one is racist.
#10 yes. Not even gonna try to argue xD, in my case, I hate heat so I just wear shorts and t-shirts the whole year
This might just be limited to Eastern Europe. In the UK, the stops are always announced on trains and buses, if you say the n-word in London you won't leave London alive, and some shops do have good customer service. It is true that we do not tend to engage in conversations with strangers but it's not because we are rude. It's just something that isn't done here.
Yeah, mostly Eastern and Southern Europe
Why isn't it done there?
With all due respect, to me it just sounds like a rant back to the EU because you did not like their rant about the US.
I hardly recognize any of your negative things about here being true or real.
Maybe the rude customer service, but frankly, I prefer that over the ass kickers that says always say you’re right because company policy forces them to say so.
No, that's not it at all.
I actually enjoy those MyTakes and find them entertaining and agree with a lot of the stuff they say.
I didn't say I have a problem with these things, I just said they are strange to me.
I actually agree with you on the customer service, but only if you're giving the cashier shit.
Could be they treat you differently 'cuz you're a European.
@ZeussLighningBolt could be true, that you don’t see it because they treat me as a local. But I did not hear about typical higher prices for non locals here in Europe, saw it with my own eyes in the Middle East though. What typical Dutch would be is simply laugh in the face of the person asking something overpriced and say that you’ll go to his competitor for a lower rate. It always strikes me on your side when getting in a store or restaurant, there should be somewhere a golden middle.
Maybe it's more of an issue in Eastern and Southern Europe, where the countries are much poorer.
But it annoys me when someone doesn't believe me, just because THEY haven't experienced it. Why would I make this stuff up?
@ZeussLightningBolt well, don’t take this personal but we have some experience with American nutters that make Europe look like a video game where death waits for you behind every corner. Lately we had Pete Hoekstra becoming the new US ambassador for the Netherlands, he invented that we had no go zones due to criminal Muslims and that police men and women were burned alive. So yes, we have some prejudice against such opinions. If you have been here yourself and you saw said situations with your own eyes I apologize.
The theory of the "No go zone" has been around for years.
But the bring burned alive comment is really outlandish.
Also Europeans get angry when films like "Hostel" or "The Shrine" come out. Because they make their country look bad, and they think stupid Americans will see those movies and think the country is actually like that.
Same reason Kazkhs were offended about Borat
I have traveled to a few European countries, and basically each country is quite different. Also speaking about the above points.
Some countries will charge you about everything, others will undercharge. Some will have the place full of scammers, others none at all. Some will have dirty streets, other immaculate streets.
Europe isn't like america, where the culture is somehow quite close. In Europe each country is quite different one from the other. Think that they don't even share language.
There are regional commonalities however
To me they look quite different, and I live in Europe.
I don't understand what's wrong with wearing jeans or a light jacket/hoodie in the summer.. It protects your arms and legs from the sun.
I do it (and I'm from Florida), to protect from the sun..
Also maybe these guys work in conformist office jobs and they're obliged to wear suits?
As for smiling, Americans really overdo it with smiles. I hate being told to smile (I used to work at McDonald's part-time, when I was 16). A waiter's job is to take payments from customers and serve them food not to entertain the customers. That's what comedians and clowns are for
*I do it too
#4 this one (in most cases at least) will be because the government subsidies cover part of the cost and you are charged the rest, tourists are paying tax and aren't citizens so the subsidy is not redeemable and therefore has to be charged for.
Sort of like how hospital fees cost you more if you don't have medical insurance.
That actually makes sense, though in Canada, I've seen private attractions do this
In Warrington is the worst place to be.. too much traffic. Public transport are poor. Most people in uk are all in cars. I prefer austilla & USA public transport.
I used to have to drive to Warrington on a fairly regular basis for work meetings (my boss's boss was based there, I'm near Birmingham myself). And I can 100% attest to this, the traffic was appalling there.
You live in the UK?
I thought you were Aussie
Nope, UK, why did you think I was Aussie? :P
Wait, my mistake, ignore me xD I'm guessing you were talking about CandacePerry instead!
I was born from Warrington hospital but on vacation/holiday to Austilla. I know but of slang from Australia and USA.
Where's Warrington?
I don't even know where that is?
In uk near Manchester & Liverpool. Birchwood is traffic town. All because stupid itdoit like to do stupid things.
Okay.
Lol
What stupid things?
Going over speed limit, think about women as trophies to be won. They all shallow. The guys that I did met. Didn't care about until I broke it off. Then every tried to get me back but was on some else.
Damn
European more real Greeks they tend to speak their minds even when sometimes it don’t favor them. As for the alcohol what I notice Americans kids who parents aren’t from Greece can’t handle there alcohol. Lot of parents some of my American friends says lot of parent make alcohol seem evil or taboo make some when check it out.
Greeks were extremely friendly and hospitable though.
Plus in the villages lot of people know everyone who child/grandchild they are.
Greece rulez. Woho! Yeah!
I think you should visit some other european countries. About half of those things sound really really weird for me.
1,2,5,6 and 7 don't exist where I live in the form you tell it. Eastern Europe is quite poor and that comes with some problems of course, but western Europe is really different from how you tell things.
About the n-word: When there's about no black people, who's gonna send you to the hospital? The word is considered disrespectful, just the "rule" that only black people can say it (which is stupid cause if you use it yourself you shouldn't have a problem with someone else using it) doesn't exist. It's really ridiculous when white people cover a song of a black guy using the word and people in the comments freak out as if singing the correct lyrics would be bad?
Anyway, the rule that white people can't say nigga is a weird American thing so I, as a european, don't feel obliged to stick to that.
The fashion part is so true! My Italian cousins wear such tight clothes!
I joke and say they look like fags 😂
That's just how guys dress over there. Many men even have purses, it's lame as fuck
I totally forgot to mention the tight clothing.
My mom says the same thing, that they look like faggots! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
That picture is from Italy too. 🤣
Haha it gets me so pissed. Europeans need to start dressing like men. That's the first step to regaining their power 😂
I actually agree. lol
I’m not a fan of skin tight pants on men either but also not a fan of the baggy jeans Americans wear. Clothes should fit your body, but not restrain movement.
@Shutupman Americans dont wear baggy stuff anymore, the gayness infected us too.
That's actually true
They don’t? I live in America now and I only see baggy pants here lol
@Shutupman where do you live? I live In New York
Every guy on the street looks gay 😂
HAHAha okay I can believe that. Haven’t been there but I can imagine the sheer amount of hipsters. I’m in Cali now, but been to Ohio, Arizona and Nevada. And I’ve known quite some guys from other states too that always wore these wide ass pants, I even took them shopping to find some better fitting pants. Lol
@Shutupman haha, i think guys in the south and Midwest prefer looser stuff because they work doing physical labor.
City guys wear tight stuff
@Shutupman I'm in California too and tight pants and sweaters have become a trend. I don't live in a big city, but there are a lot of people from the Bay Area here, so that's probably why you see people dressing like this
Europeans are just assholes to Americans because they envy us. You saw what Europeans act like toward AMERICANS, but it is true that they're a crowd of morally impoverished first world brats with a bunch of sticks up their collective ass
I think so too.
My mom immigrated here from Poland. When she goes to Poland, Polish people call her a "Filthy American and a traitor." Even my grandma told her, "You filthy American! You swore off your citizenship? How dare you? Have you forgotten were you came from?"
A lot of this boils down to jealousy really. That my mom immigrated to the US and they're stuck in Poland. But then when you DO take them to the U. S., they criticize this country and talk about how much better things were in Poland.
Wow. Just let them have what they proclaim to want. It sounds childish, like a 4 year old wants the baseball until he sees another kid enjoying playing with trucks, then he wants that. So like, if you like Poland, stick with it. Let your preference of country be no more consequential than your preference of ice cream
This is pretty dumb, you use like a couple of Eastern european countries as a benchmark of what Europe is like when those are objectively speaking the worst parts of Europe in most ways.
I'm european living in Finland and been to Sweden, Norway, Greece and the UK. And I've never encountered 90% of these problems to any serious degree in any of the countries I went to.
Well, the people who wrote these kinds of MyTakes about the US and Canada did the same thing.
And I used more than a couple.
As estonian myself, neeger is in no way offensive. It comes from negriidne rass, which is our way of talking about black race. It is not disrespectful.
I know, but it's basically saying NlGGER with an Eastern European accent. And non Europeans are too stupid to know the difference. I told this Estonian girl in Barbados not to say that word so loud, because she's gonna get her ass beat.
If you said this in America, you would also get your ass beat.
That;s what I'm saying, it's not offensive THERE, but it is HERE
Yea i know. Its just that it annoys me when people are scared of a dimple word for its resemblance to another.
EXACTLY!
I had no idea about this!
This is really interesting... great to keep in mind since i'm going to Europe next year hopefully 😊👍
You read that awful quickly
Yeah i'm a fast reader when i'm interested 😅😂😂 hehe
Depends on where you go to Europe. What OP wrote doesn't even apply slightly to my country rather it doesn't apply to my country at all. This doesn't apply for the majority of Europe, not even a third. As someone who's Swedish and have visited several (around 10-15 countries) European countries I have not experienced or seen any of what OP said.
Ohh okay thank youu!! Yeah, i have a pretty open mind so I take this into mind but don't think it applies to the majority of people (: i have a French friend & he is nothing like this mytake 😅😅 & i'm planning on visiting Germany orrr France most likely
Yeah Germany and France are nothing alike what Op described Estonia and Poland to be. Totally different culture and society
I too have a French friend and she isn't like that either.
I thought French people were wonderful actually. Though most would disagree, but I wanted to include experiences from various countries, so people don't say I am only focusing on Poland.
French dress well especially women and young people...
The posh ones do yes , but be honest the rest really do let France down
Oh hi. I was waiting for you to comment. I don't know how I missed your comment.
Yes, French fashion is arguably the best on the planet.
But what I meant by that post is not that European clothing is strange or backwards, but that Europeans wear long pants and shirt even when its 40 Celcius outside.
Anyways, I'm curious what you thought about this take in general?
They do this cause most men don't like to show their legs there (at least where I live can't say for all country).
Maybe it's cause of the culture too, before children only had the right to wear shorts (even when it was freezing outside) pants were considered as a man / adult things and shorts were considered as a boys / child things so it might be why so many men won't wear shorts.
Women wear pants in summer cause it's fashion. That's the only reasons. I do it too like all I had worn for this summer was long skirt with jeans jacket or jeans and long sleeve shirt with sneakers or large pants and jeans jacket / hoodie. It's fashion and cute and the heat is supportable so
If women wear shorts skirts or shorts they can harassed in the street and public transport so it might also be why they prefer wearing pants. I think European are much more conservative in terms of clothing than American.
I think it's a good take and the only things that I thought was weird was the fact you said European dressed bad while they're know worldwide to be best dressed *-*
As for being rude it's mostly in the city, in the village id they only speak French they would just ignore you.
And all those stuff you find strange are things that are so basic to me XD (though some are very annoying).
Exactly paris milan and London all the top fashion cities in the world
Thank you. That was really interesting about thr children and shorts.
I think the harassment part is true, especially by Muslim men, but sometimes locals too I guess. But it's the same in the Caribbean, at least on some islands, it's not common for locals to wear shorts. My grandma gave me and my uncle a hard time saying, "No one wears shorts in Poland." :p
But even here I had friends and classmates who never wore shorts.
I didn't mean backwards as in "strange or stupid" but in the sense that they don't fit the weather. I wish I'd worded that one differently. Though I'm not a fan of tight pants/shirt on men, I think it looks gay, but this trend has caught on in the US too, and my mom wants me to start dressing like this, but I prefer lose close. They're more comfortable and look less weird to me.
I think skirt and genes on girl looks cute though. I've seen your fashion posts, and your fashion looks nice. :)
Well, a few people only spoke French and were super nice
But it's like this everywhere, once you get outside of the big cities, the people see much friendlier.
Anyways, thanks again for reading and commenting and not getting offended. :)
That's just it, you live there so to you they are normal.
When Europeans write these kinds of articles about US, I laugh so much, because it's so funny that things that are so normal to me, are so strange to them :p
Well in my country these aren't true except the rudeness (it's Finland);D
Rudeness I believe.
But is it rudeness, or more like, "I'm not gonna have a conversation with some I don't know."
All I know is there is one Finnish girl on this site, who openly admitted that she is rude. LOL
It's sometimes that but if you're not a Finn then you don't know how rude we can be XD
And I didn't say 1 exact person lol.
Poles are pretty much like your Southerners, I guess.
No. Southerners are much friendlier.
Yeah, America is greater.
Sure.
Could it be that you are an asshole, and that is only tolerated in your country? Cause everyone is so ass there that the average person no longer really cares?
TBH, you get nutters and arseholes everywhere. How much can you say it's representative of a whole country though? and maybe you were noticing it more because you were in a foreign country.
Poland has a bit of a stereotype for being quite socially conservative and intolerant. I do think there is more than a grain of truth to this.
I can get behind the idea that Americans are on the face of it, far friendlier though. This is just part of their culture. Again, it must depend on where you are there. Again, too many variables. Things are too complex to make blanket statements. One must be moderate, cautious and responsible in these things. Indeed, one should adopt a British approach!
I hear a lot of American tourists say Europeans are "rude", because in America we're used to engaging in random conversations with complete strangers, while Europeans are not like this. Well, Poles are actually pretty social, which is one thing I give them credit on, and Greeks too, but most Europeans do not like to engage in conversations with people they do not know. To Americans this is very strange and considered rude, because Americans are so open.
One Dutch girl said she found it strange and uncomfortable that a random Canadian guy started talking to her in the store, because in HER country only people on drugs talk to random stranger.