A few months ago, we did a piece on a viral thread that had Europeans revealing their biggest WTF moments while traveling in the US. But since planes fly both ways across the Atlantic, let's turn the tables, shall we?
Turns out, Reddit user Cyber-Gon submitted a question to r/AskReddit, asking: "Americans who visited Europe, what was your biggest WTF moment?" and their answers are just as entertaining as the Europeans'.
From divine German tap water to the number of bicycles in the Netherlands, here are some of the most-upvoted replies!
#1
Y'all get how many days of paid vacation?! And sick leave? And public healthcare?! And you don't live in a socialist hellhole like I've been told? America, you lied to me!
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#2
In Toulouse, France, I went to a nice restaurant and ordered dinner. When it arrived, I was like, 'Where's the rest of it?' The waitress laughed, as she grew up there and in Canada. (I'm from Brooklyn, New York, where portions are huge.) She calmly told me to eat it and if I was still hungry to order another one. By the last bite, I was stuffed. That was my WTF moment: when I realized how rich and high quality the food was over there.
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#3
In Germany, they had the cleanest, safest, and best-tasting tap water, but nobody drank it and they called it toilet water.
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#4
Most stores are not open on Sundays. Not even grocery stores.
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#5
When I visited Prague, water cost two crowns and beer cost one.
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#6
How to party like a German: pre-party on Friday at 11 p.m., get into club at 2 a.m., leave club on Sunday at 6 a.m. Germans are nuts, in a good way.
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#7
In Europe, wait staff are paid a living wage so they do not need tips. The eating experience is much more laid-back and slower in Europe, relative to America. It also seems like [European] wait staff is never trying to force you out of the restaurant once you are done eating.
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#8
British food. I went there expecting chip shops and roast dinner, but instead was amazed by every variety of tikka sauce that could possibly exist.
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#9
I was 16 years old, ordering a beer at McDonald's.
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#10
It boggled my mind how old everything was and how it was still integrated into everyday life. Like in the UK, drinking in a pub that had been in the same spot since the 11th century or eating dinner at restaurant in an 18th-century cathedral. Or in Prague, staying in a hotel that had been operating since the 15th century
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#11
In Spain, everyone appears to be very thin yet I swear eats a loaf of bread a day.
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#12
In Italy, when buying a soccer ticket, they needed to know which team I was rooting for to determine where I could sit. Then, during the game, people were setting things on fire.
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#13
In Paris, every meal takes three hours. I loved the culture and I'm all about eating a relaxing meal; but sometimes it was just like "WTF??" when we were on a schedule and had to meet up with a tour group or had reservations for something.
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#14
I was in Greece and I didn't realize there were still places in the most developed parts of the world where you place your used toilet paper in the trash bin and not flush down the toilet.
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#15
When I️ visited the hospital and had X-rays done, spoke with two doctors, and was triaged by a nurse, all with no health insurance, and my total bill was 24 euros. Then I️ had to pay 10 additional euros for some painkillers, again with no insurance or anything.
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#16
Went to Denmark on a whim with some friends. The biggest surprise was when I realized that I had met a ton of strangers over the course of a week and I had no idea what they did for a living. Never once did we talk about work or school.
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#17
Paying to use a public restroom. I get why, though. But it's just a horrible feeling if you really had to go and you don't have any change.
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#18
Orange Fanta ACTUALLY tasted like oranges.
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#19
In Amsterdam, the number of bicycles outside the central station. How the F do people find their bikes once they park them?! Also, the Dutch are easily the most graceful cyclists. The way you guys can weave through dumb folks standing in the bike paths is outstanding.
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#20
In Spain, the siesta is real. I just thought that it was an archaic thing that some people did. Nope. Everything shuts down for an hour or two. Even in super-touristy places, 99% of shops and businesses shut down.
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#21
French butter made me stop and reflect on the beauty of being alive. I didn't think butter could be improved upon, but holy sh*t. So creamy."
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#22
We were driving through Spain, and to the side of one of the roads, we noticed these MASSIVE bird nests in the high power electrical towers. They were at least twice the size of eagles nests that I had seen. And there were so many of them!Then we saw these giant birds in them! We stopped by the side of the road and tried to take some pictures (didn’t have a great zoom lens, sadly). But no one else was stopping. It was so odd. We are accustomed to at least a few people stopping to watch the osprey, eagles, or other birds where I’m from.
So a few days later, we are chatting with a German tourist, and we bring up the birds...
I think she thought we were joking until we pulled out the pictures. Then she started laughing.
Storks. Those are storks. Of course, don’t you know that? They are everywhere and such a nuisance. Don’t you have storks in America?
Well...no?
Then she looked confused. Well, if you don’t have storks, who brings the babies in kids stories?
Storks.
Um...how does that work?
And that was when we realized that the story of the storks makes a whole lot more sense when storks are nesting on every chimney, tree, or tall place...
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#23
In Lisbon, feeling proud of myself for eating late like a local at 9 p.m....only to walk into an empty restaurant. By the time I’d finished eating at 10 p.m., the place was full.
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#24
My biggest WTF was coming back to the States. Seemed like such a downgrade.
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#25
I’ve never gotten stranger looks than when I would ask for a drink with some ice. One person had to confirm she understood my request.
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#26
In Italy, there is virtually no threshold for how much distance should be left between a speeding car and any obstacles (including pedestrians) it is zooming past. A bus driver will rush down a narrow cobblestone street with about a centimeter to spare between the sides of the bus and any parked cars, walls, ancient monuments, or playing children.
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#27
All the Stop signs say "STOP"#28
Blatant nudity everywhere. Porn mags just sitting at the front of newsstands in the middle of the city. A giant graffiti penis and nobody cared. Made me realize how prudish we are in the US
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#29
Every night in Spain, around 3 a.m. this MASSIVE fleet of street scrubbers, vacuum-mobiles, and water hoses appeared and cleaned the entire city for about an hour. It was like ~100 people every night just cleaning the city. The following morning, all of Salamanca was spotless. That sh*t was magical.
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#30
Tripped on an escalator in England. Got stitches. Was laughed at when I offered to pay the bill. "What bill? This is the civilized world."#31
One time in Rome, it started pouring. As I sought shelter, I saw an older man selling one single umbrella. Strange as it was, I needed that umbrella, so I haggled with him and settled on 3 Euro (he had the upper hand in that transaction).I wander over to a coffee shop to dry out for a little bit. When I go to leave, the umbrella is no longer in the bucket by the door. Upset at myself for being so trusting, I head into the rain again. Guess who I see? The same old man selling the same umbrella. I try to confront him about stealing back my umbrella, but he claims not to remember our interaction at all. It's pouring and I have a number of miles to walk, so I go through the same charade with him again to re-procure the umbrella.
At least this time he took 2 Euro...
#32
Not paying for a gynecological exam. I developed an ovarian cyst while in England that was causing some pain. I made an appointment at a health clinic and was examined. Afterwards, I expected to pay because A) that's always the first thing that happens in US healthcare and B) I was a foreigner who had never paid into the UK National Health Service. They just laughed and said, "We don't take money for services and we'd have no idea what to charge you".Mind blown. God save the NHS.
#33
Not really a WTF moment but seeing women in Rome navigating ancient stone roads and walkways wearing stiletto heels with no broken ankles impressed me quite a bit.#34
My American friends who visited The Netherlands: Completely surprised by our bicycle 'things':a) so many bicycles -everywhere-
b) everybody riding without a helmet
c) so many different bicycles
#35
My biggest WTF moment was when I visited England and people respected me a lot more when I told them I was canadian and not american (I'm actually canadian)#36
That their standard of living was just as high as ours, but everything was smaller. Smaller apartments, smaller cars, smaller grocery stores, and fewer jars of peanut butter in the smaller grocery stores.
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#37
The quality of the fast food surprised me. Everything from the street vendors to chains like McDonald's was better quality then anything I'd gotten at home.
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#38
If something costs five euros, it's exactly that. Tax is included.
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#39
I was in Spain and I saw a group of American tourists wearing sombreros.#40
Rented a car and drove around Ireland for a week. One late evening another driver started flashing his lights at me and waving. I realized I had my brights on for awhile while I was behind him and was expecting to get b*tched out for it. I stopped to apologize but instead of getting b*tched out for it the other driver was incredibly polite, and just wanted to make sure I knew to turn them off.In the states you expect road rage for any minor infraction.
#41
Traveling to London - genuinely struck by how hard it is to understand people speaking English.It's not really the accents, but rather the phrases used to describe something that differ from how we hear it at home. For instance - I bought a croissant at a Costa near the train station and the cashier asked me "Take Away?". I had to ask him to repeat it 2 or 3 times before my friends clarified "he's asking if you want to take it out". Situations like this make you feel like a moron.
#42
I've lived in Asia for 10 years, so my opinion on things is a little different than your average 'murican, but I am an American who visited the EU a few years ago. I live in Japan actually and the biggest thing I noticed, in Italy is, DAMN, people here actually use their bumpers for bumping. Cars are ALL dinged and dented up. Compared to Japan and the US, it's crazy.#43
In Germany, nudity on broadcast TV was very surprising. It wasn't even a 'necessary for the story' situation, just a margarine commercial with a naked woman swimming in a lake and stepping out of the water to eat some bread. During prime time. I know American TV is kind of prudish that way, but it was pretty shocking.
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#44
In the UK, light switches are often outside the entrance to the bathroom. So you are constantly walking in and then walking back out once you remember that the switch isn’t actually inside the room.It also makes it easy for people to turn the light off on you. This seems like a nightmare for anyone with children.
#45
We went to Rome, Florence, and Paris after my first year in college as a French major. I think I was just amazed the whole time like, “wow, this building is hundreds of years older than the country I live in.” The architecture of everything was stunning. My favorites were the duomo in Florence and Notre Dame de Paris.#46
I was doing a study abroad program in the UK but also had to take monthly blood tests for a medication I had been put on before I flew over. I was fully prepared for a laundry list of paperwork and fees to deal with the tests as well as getting these results to my doctor back in the states.After the first blood test I went up to the receptionist and asked what I owed. She looked at me with a bit of confusion and said, "Oh, no, you're fine you can just go." My doctor doctor also got my blood results in less time than they did when I got them in the states. F*ck our broken healthcare system.
#47
How easy and unencumbered by useless bullsh*t most things are.Getting on a 5:30 train from Burssels to Berlin? Show up at 5:20. And get laughed at by the Germans who will finish their beer at exactly 5:28 because they know the walk from the bar to the platform is 1 minute and 57 seconds.
In the states that would require showing up at 3:15 because of at least 4 security checkpoints and 8 lines of people who can't figure out how an escalator works.
#48
"This is the best bratwurst I've ever had.And this is an airport!"
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#49
I didn’t know Parisians were actually going to be rude.#50
I went to Italy and France about 10 years ago. One thing that really stood out was I never saw ANY obese people. Quite a stark contrast from America.#51
In Amsterdam I saw a guy get jacked in the head with a bottle, take two steps back and then pass out. All his friends scattered. Then the two old men shop owners were like, “lol, kids, amiright?”#52
I lived in Germany for 8 years from 1992-2000 (Ages 4-12). I didn't realize it until I moved back to the states but there were recycling bins on EVERY street corner. It wasn't just a green bin then a trash can, it was a giant blue bin. One section for green glass, one for brown glass, one for clear glass, one for plastic, and one for paper.Oh and going to a German school, students took public transit. There wasn't such a thing as a school bus.
#53
People walking around drunk and nobody doing anything. Like we're just going to leave this person black out drunk on the side of the walkway?#54
At a lake retreat in Germany, kids playing in/around the lake naked.#55
I lived in Spain for 9 months at one point and was trying to get to the supermarket in the middle of a weekday and the entire city center was blocked off. I had to park and walk a ways and discovered that they were having a giant block party. Kegs and all. Around noon. Celebrating the towns new garbage trucks.I love Spain.
#56
Germany: Went on a road trip to Hamburg with my friend and her parents in their tiny little car. Dad drove us to the Red Light district and insisted that we go check it out. Left his wife and 25 y/o daughter in the backseat to ogle hookers through the glass.WTF, Hans?
#57
This was a few years ago before "chip" credit/bank cards were like "a thing" in the States. But when I stopped in Amsterdam, and hoped over to Latvia, I discovered that in both countries, my DEBIT card that needed to be swiped to buy anything, was like a weird old relic. Every cashier everywhere gave me a confused look when I handed them my card and they saw it didn't have a chip. They would, after I politely mentioned it had to be swiped, question whether or not that was even possible with their register. They always looked shocked to discover that the little slat along the side of their credit card thing was to be used to slide a card through. And when it actually worked, they always looked even MORE shocked. That's the first time I learned "Oh damn. Maybe America is behind in a lot of ways." Because everyone looked at my card as if it were carved out of stone and would pay them in some Flinstones-style currency that they were convinced they couldn't actually accept. By Day 2 of the trip, even I was like... "You f*cking American assh*le with your ancient technology."#58
The urinal type things in Amsterdam were interesting.Also the way English people say urinal.
#59
Years ago my wife and I were in Amsterdam. We were strolling around the opera house at night and unexpectedly came across an outdoor art exhibit. It was photographs by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. The pictures were absolutely amazing and we spent what felt like hours looking at them. Suddenly out of nowhere a group of scantily dressed men on roller blades, decorated with lights and blaring disco music, came roller-blading by in a train and sped off into the night. It was mind blowing at the time. Definitely WTF, but in a good way.#60
The Vatican: You can't wear shorts. Luckily there are street vendors that'll sell you a pair of paper pants that cost about the same as a brand new pair of real pants.#61
Seeing an elderly Chinese tourist pull down her grandkid's pants so he can take a poop on the sidewalk. It was in the entrance of Disneyland in Paris.#62
For me it was a lack of insects in England. Not that they don't exist but I'm from Michigan with lots of swampy land around me. When I showed up at my dorm and saw there was no screen on my window I was just thinking about all of the bugs that are gonna get in my room. I got one fly the entire month stay there.#63
I was in Norway in early October. I got off a flight and was chatting up a local when they asked "Do you know about Las Vegas"me: "Yes, of course, I suspect everyone from America does"
them: "It's terrible"
me: "yeah, but there is very American about the excess and indigence. Want to ruin your life? Come to Las Vegas!"
them: "oh ... have you heard about Las Vegas today?"
me"... wait, what happened in Las Vegas?"
#64
In Scotland there was a bomb threat at a local gas station. The news anchor that was covering it interviewed locals about how they felt about this terrifying event. EVERY response fell along the lines of "I don't know much about that, but I'm sure the government is taking care of it...back to my day," The faith in the government and not wanting to butt in blew my mind.#65
Gypsy children on the train in Rome. They tried to forcibly take my pizza out of my hands. When I refused I was called a stupid American. ¯_(ツ)_/¯#66
I was in italy and wanted to grab a bite and a beer for some lunch. I left the flat and I was flabbergasted to find the entire town was empty. Everything was closed, not even the neighborhood dogs were around!#67
Not American, but Canadian.First time I went to Ireland, I go through customs and the agent says to me...
"business or personal"
"personal"
"oh yeah, what's up?"
"Visiting the Inlaws."
"first time in Ireland?"
"Yes sir"
"feckin eh... Well, why ya standin around. go get pissed.
#68
A Parisian fare collector was very upset with me when I caught him over charging me. He eventually gave me my money back but with a ton of attitude and profanity.#69
How nice everyone in France was to me, was told by everybody to expect the worst. Ended up meeting the nicest of people and honestly have only nice things to say about the people in Avignon, Tours, and Paris. Best was Tours by far. Ran into some snowboarders and bonded over that for a bit, bought rounds for each other, talked about Chicago (apparently one of the few cities they happen to have visited and I live in) given free drinks at a bar for drinking giardiniera laced rum (spiciest shot ever!) that they kept on a little pedestal. Hell, even the police and I had a great chat about MMA and Brazilian jiu-jitsu randomly on a local bus. Nothing but praise for the French, honestly that is my dream to go back one day. Sorry if that's not a typically WTF moment but I kept thinking every day "this is it, i'm going to run into the jerks today. Never happened though.#70
Went to France, spoke French, people were super nice to me.Mom went to France, didn't speak French, not so much.
#71
Beer tap in the uni cafeteria.#72
In Venice wanting a coffee. The local café had a menu by the entrance with two prices for take out and seat in. Seat in is more expensive as you pay for the service charges. We were in the mood to continue with roaming around with a coffee, so asked for a coffee to go.The owner said,
"If you aren't going to drink the coffee in my café, no coffee for you. Ciao."
#73
Went to Dover England and saw a mother f*cking castle. The newest section was built like 300-400 years before my country was founded. Turned a corner and the next part was 200 years older than that. Ten minutes later walk up to a Roman light house built 2000 years ago. DaaaammmnnnEdit: The best part was we arrived the night before we went to the castle. I didnt see it on the ride to the hotel. (We get inside and our room is the largest room we had seen at any of our hotels apparently the hotel was built by an American company so the rooms were built like they would be In the US.) I open the curtains to see what is out my window, usually a parking lot, another random building or something boring. Not today Yank, not today. CASTLE.
#74
Basically how I drank everyday over there while studying abroad and actually lost weight between the walking everywhere and eating somewhat healthy food besides the processed stuff we have here.#75
Public Urination is not uncommon#76
The country of Hungary. I became fascinated with their history because they seemed so unlike any other European country. While the country is pretty modern and Budapest is very modern, they seem......ancient. It's hard to explain. The language seems ancient as well....You know how when you go to a new country, and there are basically the same 10 faces repeated over and over? I've never seen the standard Hungarian look before. That was the one place I'd say the people looked "exotic." More so than people from places further east.#77
The sheer amount of alcohol that some people drink. Went out with some women in Portsmouth, England and each ordered a couple bottles of wine to themselves. At first I was impressed, but then they got pretty sloppy as the night goes on.#78
Went to Spain, they weren’t speaking Spanish. I learned that Catalan existed (this was years ago).#79
The 14 year old Itialian boys trying to get with the 24 year old chicks I was with was pretty funny.Also, the fact that they don't chill shots of Jaeger was fairly unsettling.
#80
Had a positive what the f*ck moment in Greece in the eastern Peloponnese where I saw a guy walk down to the end of a pier and throw an actual f*cking trident into the Aegean and pull out a wriggling octopus. Dude walked up the beach and handed it over the deck railing to a chef.#81
I was in Spain as an exchange student, I had bronchitis after the flight, my host family took me to the ER which gave me a pill that eliminated the illness entirely under 2 days. I slept, woke up 100% better. It was banned in the USA, I wish I could recall its name.#82
At pubs in England, younger/youngish guys drinking bottles of Budweiser.#83
In Venice I saw someone's dog poop in front of two 900 year old churches and then they didn't even bother to pick it up.#84
In my early twenties, on my first trip to Europe, I took an Italian ocean liner, New York to Genoa. My WTF moment was going out on the deck on morning six for the foggy passage through the Straits of Gibraltar. Europe emerging through the mist on my left and North Africa on my right, coupled with the awareness of how many voyagers throughout history had sailed through that passage (including my Italian grandparents traveling in the other direction), gave me chills.#85
I had this really naive idea that everyone in England would be polite and charming. So when the lady checking our Passports in the airport made my 15 year old son cry I was surprised. And pissed. I didn’t know we were supposed to approach the person together since he was underage. He certainly didn’t know. I still don’t understand why she yelled at him.#86
I was a military brat living in Belgium when I saw a commercial on AFN (Armed Forces Network) that gave new arrivals to Europe a quick run-down of things. The one thing I learned and that has stuck with me isNO RIGHT TURN ON RED
#87
Funny enough, my biggest WTF moment came from an American. We were at a restaurant in Cinque Terre, Italy called Trattoria Dal Billy. About halfway through our meal, I overheard a guy with a Tennessee/Arkansas accent say, verbatim, in a frustrated tone "you need to speak more American!" to his waiter. This isn't Rome. This isn't Venice. It's a small town called Manarola. The odds of finding someone fluent in your language are drastically lowered; however, this guy was pompous enough to not only continue to berate his waiter, but then tell the manager who came around that he needs to hire someone who can speak American...in a foreign country...of which he obviously speaks ZERO of their language. Seriously, WTF!#88
I am from the NY/NJ area, and have seen first hand how out of control sporting events can get. Guys, mostly, getting drunk, vandalizing property, throwing cans and bottles, fighting, etc.So when a group of friends went to Germany for Oktoberfest some years ago, we also wanted to see a football (soccer) game. So we got tickets to see Bayern Munich vs. some other German team in what, I think, was a meaningful game (we went more for the experience vs. being huge fans).
Game is great. I think the score was 5-1, so lots of action. The energy in the stadium was undeniable. Fans singing, jumping around, yelling for the entire game. Game ends. Munich wins. Begin the march to the subway station.
Virtually an entire stadium, it seemed, exited to go to this one nearest subway stop. There are 4, maybe 5 cops standing at the entrance steps. Uh oh. This is going to be a huge problem. THOUSANDS of people, lots of them intoxicated, heading toward these 5 cops at this one exit. It's going to be a disaster. Some guys start pissing on a fence within their view. WHAT ARE THEY DOING?! And then, as we watched nervously, the crowd reached the cops and .... just ... stopped.
Everyone stopped. No one fought. The guys pissing finished up their business, zipped up and joined the queue. Cops let enough people by to fill the first train, then the rest stopped, and so on and so forth until our group went.
It was incredible. That scene couldn't happen in America. Maybe this was an anomaly. But picturing an event at MSG, there's an army of State troopers to keep order, in addition to local cops, undercover cops, event security, etc. and brawls and things still erupt with regularity. This was amazing to us. We still talk about it years later..
#89
Late to the thread but here goes... Went to Sweden on a vacation package. Stayed at a wonderful historic hotel for part of the trip that had a restaurant inside of it. Part of our package called for a free dinner at the hotel and we had asked that it be the night we arrived.We arrived and got settled in our room and then went to check out the restaurant. As soon as we walked in, there was no one there, only a hostess. She immediately said they were expecting us and we could sit anywhere. There was no one else in this gorgeous, ornate restaurant. A waiter came out and said they had prepared a special meal for us. We asked why it was so empty and he said the restaurant was closed one day a week and today was that day.
We were shocked, we apologized profusely and told them that we had booked through another company and would have just scheduled it for another day. He said it was no problem and we had some free extras such as wine and dessert. The main course ended up being a huge piece of meat, which we jokingly said must have been because we were big fat Americans. No one rushed us, we had a great time, and after we left they closed the restaurant for the night.
It was a total WTF moment because if you booked something like this in America, they'd either force you to reschedule or just have the restaurant closed with no explanation.
#90
2000 year old Roman columns sitting half sunken in a dudes yard, and he was just mowing around it like it was an old stump.#91
I was in Scotland this summer and in Edinburgh I asked someone for directions, they told me "Just go past the tron" in a very thick accent. I though she was saying "train" except while walking to the train I saw earlier I noticed a bar called The Tron.#92
In Germany they have to give something like 60 days notice if they are planning to fire/planning to quite a job. For some reason that seemed so crazy but I realized being fired with no notice whatever is pretty f*cked and we should have a similar system honestly:/ and how great their recycling system was. And also I didn't realize the water closet was the bathroom until after my trip. I felt stupid, really stupid.from Bored Panda https://bit.ly/3dlR9pr
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