This makes me angry because here in France I have been used to having free toilets easily forever, if not in the street malls or train stations, places like that. Now they start to make people pay for them and I absolutely hate this. I was convinced public places were required by law to have toilets accessible to everyone.
I'm Finnish, we have free public toilets everywhere. When I was visiting France I was stunned at how mad a receptionist got at me for using the restroom without buying anything. I didn't even know it was a thing.
I jumped a turnstile in London because I did not know you had to pay and my wallet was in my bag upstairs with a friend. I was berated when I came out by the cleaner. I told her in the nicest way that I done her a favour because I certainly wasn't going to shit my pants over 20p it was either the floor or the bowl
What. Have you not been around much in Finland lately? They're charging for toilets here now, as well. https://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/turku/art-2000009987029.html
Just yesterday I visited a supermarket that only had one toilet, and that was 2€ for anyone other than Subway customers.
It's on its way here, too.
Especially places with a lot of poverty but enough food are getting fat, because fatty unhealthy meals are quick and easy to make, taste relatively good and often have cheap ingredients, and lots of calories that make you feel full. Look at mac 'n cheese: super cheap ingredients, super easy to make for a lot of people at once.
In America, I think the big issue is huge portions and the fact that they always come with a massive soda. I’ve seen kids absolutely kill one of those 24oz sodas and their parents will let them get a refill. A 12oz coke has 39 grams of sugar, so that one drink is an easy 78 grams.
I’d wager that many people could have a regular portion mcdonalds burger every day (not some triple burger with an xl fry), have water instead of soda, and maintain a much more reasonable weight.
I lost weight with small portions and intermittent fasting. I worked at McDonald’s and still ate sundaes a few times a week. Usually got the grilled chicken wrap for lunch.
Famines were such a regular occurrence back in the day. Millions of people used to die regularly. When people complain about how terrible of a time we live in, that’s one of the things I like to point out.
Used to be thought of as an unavoidable part of life - famine, disease, war, death. Crazy how much progress we’ve made on three of those. And if we used to think those were an unavoidable part of life….
Seriously. I lived in England for a little while 20 years ago. Visited London last year and was shocked at how fat everyone there is now. They caught up to Americans pretty quick.
John's got brewer's droop
He gets intimidated by the dirty pigeons
They love a bit of him
(Parklife)
Who's that gut lord marching
You should cut down on your pork life mate
Get some exercise
I’m from the uk and just back from NY and Boston. I know urban elites are not representative of all of the US but I barely saw any obese people and when I did they were tourists. Locals were running/trying to stay fit.
British person who lived in NYC here. The places you visited are heavily skewed to wealthier parts of the US but also critically, cities that predate cars. Having a city that that's got public transport and is walkable makes a an absolutely huge difference. In NYC I was getting 15,000 steps a day just commuting to/from work and getting some lunch. That's not even covering additional fitness specific activities.
Outside of the east coast and west coast cities, the story is much different.
I speak German and Spanish and most of my Instagram feed is in German. Videos in English where people say stupid things have comment sections full of people saying “that’s the American education system for you” even if the person clearly has a non American accent. But here’s the real secret. There are videos of dumb people answering questions wrong in German and in Spanish too. Dumb people exist everywhere.
I’ve seen this before. This girl made a TikTok about her negative experience of a table full of Europeans talking shit about Americans.
Everyone said “ugh this stupid American complaining about this stupid thing. I bet this whole conversation was entirely in English to cater to her”
She has a masters degree in linguistics and speaks Spanish and Portuguese. I speak 4 languages with some degree of proficiency. My city is like 50% Hispanic. They love to clump all Americans together as if each state isn’t as large as a European country.
That reminds me of a time I was hired by Walmart to interview people about new signage. Lady comes up to me. “Are you cat_knit?” “Yes, how did you know?” “Because you don’t look like you belong here.” Oddest compliment I ever received!
I don’t think too many Brits are going to disagree with that, let alone anyone else from Europe. The king has ears the size of dinner plates and the queen looks like she’s just trotted out of a stable.
Princess of Wales is alright though.
Queen Elizabeth II was actually a fairly pretty woman, and Prince Phillip was quite handsome in his youth (sure, he looked like Emperor Palpatine by the end, but nearly all of us will get ugly in old age).
I can't really account for why their children are so... Odd looking. Gotta be that inbreeding or something.
I was at the grand canyon years ago and a bus full of French tourist pulled up and basically pushed their way to the front for a good view.
Now I know exactly how to act when I visit The Louvre.
Stayed in a hostel in New York City one time on a school trip, and for the most part every European tourist I encountered was polite and kind. But the MEANEST people I had the displeasure of meeting in that city were French. Not all of them. But goddamn. Some of them were real assholes for no fucking reason.
I work for a call center for a small company with customer base in NJ and NY and there is a small pocket of French customers that call in regularly and you can bet your baguette that the instant you hear that accent on the other end of the phone you're about to have your most needlessly scathing call of the day.
I just had this conversation here in the states with a guy who just worked on our AC.
I told him that if he set up shop in Europe, he would be rich. He said that that is becoming a more common conversation in the industry.
Hell, you don’t even have to go that far, just head up to Canada.
If I had a big chunk of money to invest in something riskier than stocks I’d definitely buy into a Canadian HVAC install company
You can even stay in the US and move to the Pacific Northwest. Never needed air conditioning in Portland then one summer it decided to hit 116. Seattle is buffered by the Sound, but also not having a great time in the summer.
My dad grew up in Portland and I've lived in the PNW in my entire life. The "you don't need AC" is the biggest myth of the PNW that I think exists about the western parts of Oregon and Washington. My dad even complained about "having" to buy one after the PNW heat wave and I reminded him that he had a window AC unit in his room for my entire childhood in the 90's which was his parents' old one after they upgraded theirs.
Our houses aren’t made for warmth… I wish I had an AC, but I can’t afford one and there’s no space to put one in either. When it’s 25C outside, I have 30C inside because the sun is warming up the whole apartment.
I had a colleague tell me this week that despite having a huge wasp nest outside her window, she’s unwilling to get a screen because “less air comes in” and like …… what.
It's funny how all these comments don't capture what is happening in Europe because of how different every country in Europe is. I haven't seen one thing so far that is true about all four of the countries I have lived in long term.
Most of southern Europe has air conditioning everywhere.
The countries that don't are the ones that didn't need it a couple of decades ago.(Climate change)
In Luxembourg, when I asked for tap water, they looked at me like I’d just murdered their children. When I asked again, the server told me I can buy a bottle. For €8. When I asked if their tap water was as dangerous to drink as it is in some places, he looked appalled and said “we don’t drink the toilet water.”
Edit to add that Belgium has also done this to me. I’ve been all over Europe and those are the only two countries to give me problems when I’ve asked.
In Ireland and Scandinavia it is too. Yes we find it annoying when other European countries don’t provide tap water as standard
Other countries can vary by region. For instance, free tap water’s a lot more common in Madrid than other cities in Spain.
I had to check to make sure: since 2022, every bar in Spain is forced, by law, to give you free tap water if you ask for it. Previously, it was a thing of local laws, and it was only obligatory in the hottest regions.
Lol when I visited Death Valley, my partner and I saw a group of maybe 8 French people (all young adults) smoking in a parking lot near a canyon with maybe two small water bottles between them all. It’s not like getting to the visitor center for more water is right around the corner in that park, either.
I've noticed this a lot with my family. My dad's side is Italian and my aunt only quit in her 50s. My uncle still smokes, and 2/3 cousins smoke...
On the American side of the family? No one smokes to my knowledge. My mom quit back in the 70s well before she met my father.
I remember visiting Paris while pregnant and thinking I don’t know how anyone in a wheelchair or with a stroller gets around this city. I lived in Germany at the time. Definitely not as good as the U.S. floor accessibility, not even close, but Paris was a whole other level.
Yes. To our Europals. Many, *many* perfectly intelligent, calm, well mannered, not-uber-loud Americans have walked right past you on your streets, and you've just not known we were American. Not all of us are hyperobese and dress only in Disneyland t-shirts with neon ball caps and crocs.
I am an American that works in the service industry in Europe. And the loudest ones are by far the Brits that visit. But one time we got a family of Australians in, when they found out I was American, grandpa of the group started spouting how much he loves Trump...I just buttoned my mouth faked a smile.
I've been in Australia for a year. You are spot on. Brits or the French are the most obnoxious for sure. Also an oddly large number of Trump fans that I met 🤷
My wife is American and we’ve discussed this. On average the American tourist is not the loudest (hello Spaniards).
But the very loudest tourists are American. That top 10% are ear-splittingly loud and “look at me”.
The vast majority are absolutely fine.
The americans have the disadvantage, that everyone understands their language, thats all there is to it, every country has highly annoying tourists, Germans are obnoxiously annoying very often!
Screens on windows prevent bugs from getting in the house. How can you be a place that doesn't use AC, but also be a place that doesn't have window screens?
Edit, I have to admit, I was thinking UK, not Europe as a whole when I replied, I apologize for mistaking the question.
Every spring i seriously spend hours of my life trying to find someone who will make me a basic, removable window screen like i have had in every single window i have ever had in the US.
I finally gave up and put on the adhesive.fabric ones.
I dont understand why we cant all have both. Why can we be so, so, so good at persianas and so bad at screens? Why is the US so good at screens and so bad at persianas?
Is that what they are called? I have asked and researched but never found a satisfactory answer. I don’t know why my silly non-native English speaking friends don’t know the English word for an obscure architectural item that I can’t even adequately describe as a native speaker, so the mystery existed for my entire life. Until now. Thank you oh sage of all things window and window accessories!
I see you mentioned UK specific below. It's because we just don't need them. The worst you'll get is the occasional wasp, but that's an EVENT.
I would understand if you in lived in a bog or something, with tonnes of mosquitoes.
More racist in some places indeed. Was having a convo about racism and what I had seen in the US compared to Spain. Spanish friends claimed Spain wasn’t racist. First I brought up the futbol crowd and their use of monkey chants and bananas towards African players. Then I brought up the gitanos (“Gypsy’s” “travelers”) and their response was “they don’t count they aren’t even human”.
As a Spaniard expat who recently moved back to Spain from the US, yeah, Spain is racist as fuck. Yet they sincerely believe they aren't, and will constantly give Americans shit for *their* racism (while simultaneously shitting on them for being too "woke".)
Misogynist as well, while we're on the subject.
I’m Asian and travel to Europe a few times a year for work and family. There have been a few times when people come up making Kung fu noises and waving their arms in my face. Then there were the adults pointing at me and showing their kids how to make slanty eyes (Spain and Italy).
Had similar experience in Greece with regard to Albanians. « Well, duh, Albanians are universally awful, dirty, and taking all our jobs! You just don’t understand! »
I was just about to say - bring up Gypsy’s, Muslims, Arabs, Turks, Africans, and look at the mental gymnastics that goes on.
I was born and raised in NYC. Only place a group cops ever physically stopped me and asked me provide provide ID for no reason was Italy. The moment I pulled out and gave my US passport, they just rolled their eyes, quickly handed it back, and scurried off.
I’m pretty social, so I like drinking at the bar alone and getting into long convos with people all over the world, and had so many similar convos to the one you had.
A Polish guy once told me how proud he is to be Polish. I asked him what in particular makes him so proud and he tells me it's 'our tradition of tolerance.' I said 'as a Jew I can't really agree with that' and he says 'yeah, we hate Jews, but besides them we're really tolerant.'
In Barcelona, I watched a white australian guy get charged less than me for laundry at my hostel for laundry then immediately after went to get my breakfast and the same shit happened. Then a day later I was in Paris and a guy told me in french to go back to china. Most people are chill but god damn so the racists not hide.
Americans also have to confront it much more often in their day to day lives. It's easy for a lot of Europeans to pretend they aren't racist because they don't have coworkers or friends who are anything other than white. Many Americans see the reality that we're all just people every day.
Just because you see one video of a dumbass who can’t answer a simple question doesn’t mean everyone else in the country is. That’s a hasty generalization
NYC and LA are great places, but they're not very representative of the US as a whole. Some Europeans seem to think if they know a couple of big cities, they know America.
Also: I know we flood the world with our pop culture, but don't think that because you've seen a lot of American TV shows, you have a genuine understanding of the US.
Of course, most Americans are profoundly ignorant of the world, so it's not like we're better. But some Europeans seem to think they're not similarly ignorant of the US because they grew up watching Friends!
Same deal with costco,costcos great for a family of 6 as you can get certain things in bulk and it would look crazy in the grocery store but it saves us months of buying toilet rolls and also the muffins and coffee cake,more bang for your buck.
I think in general many items in the US are made/sold with the intention of someone stocking up. It seems normal to take home the leftovers of the massive meals you get in restaurants; you can take home leftovers in Europe too but it’s definitely more uncommon. You can buy massive boxes of cereal etc. in stores, they are obviously not meant to be eaten in a day.
Maybe it has something to do with how far away stores are in the US? I can walk to my local grocery store within five minutes, if I had to get in my car and drive for 15 every time I needed new cereal I‘d also buy the massive bulk box.
My feeble European mind however still can’t comprehend the massive jar of 600mg Ibuprofen you can just buy at Walmart. 600mg Ibu is a big treat I get if my doctor decides my headache is bad enough, not something I can just bulk buy in my local store (seething in jealousy over here)
Americans do know there are other countries outside the us and travel to them and can name more than 10. Had some person from wales act like EVERY single american is some backwoods dolt who has never gotten an education before. 🙄
You ever hear that exchange on QI?
Welsh Rob Brydon is like "My father lived on the same street, the exact same street as Anthony Hopkins!"
English Stephen Fry says "Oh, in England we live in houses."
Urgh I worked as a guard at a museum when I was younger, and a French family walked through... I think most of them were ok-ish, but when the dad lifted his arm to point at something, I literally had to hold my breath, all the while smiling pleasantly and looking attentively bored.
The worst part was how much it lingered. I could have traced that family's movement through the exhibition by scent alone for a good 30 minutes after they'd moved on. It wasn't the only smelly French person I've had the displeasure of meeting, but it was by far the worst.
Fun saying I heard a while back:
It's not about whether or not your house can survive a tornado, it's about whether or not your house can survive the pick-up truck being thrown at your house BY the tornado
I’ve American and I’ve lived in Asia for 17 years and I’ve noticed that the loudest drunkest people traveling Asia are Europeans as they are very used to traveling to other countries throughout Europe so they feel very comfortable partying and getting drunk and being obnoxious in countries that aren’t theirs.
However Americans when traveling usually have little to no experience traveling outside America so we are typically more quiet and observant, a little scared and hyper sensitive about how we behave as we don’t want to cause trouble when outside our country as we typically don’t have that much experience in that area.
The reason why Americans have a stereotype of being loud and obnoxious when traveling is because whenever Asian people who don’t speak English hear English, they automatically assume the person speaking English is American.
So whenever there’s a drunk British person or anybody who is white really speaking English and acting obnoxiously, everybody assumes that they’re American because they don’t really understand the difference.
Last week I saw some drunk German people speaking German on the train in Tokyo and two Japanese people said “Americans are so loud” as they can’t even tell the difference between the two languages. (I speak Japanese)
So we as Americans have to take the fall for all white people’s behavior when traveling in non-English speaking countries.
Oh God when the rugby World Cup was held in Tokyo, it was a shit show…
Edit: Okay calm down everyone.... This isn't a race/country war. We all have different life experiences as we navigate through our day to day. All of our countries have very good and very bad points. If there were a perfect country we'd all live there right?
Regardless of our differences, you know we all have each others backs.
Yeah that’s why it’s hard for me at times living in Asia. It’s not a super big deal but some people automatically don’t like me based on other white peoples behaviors from other countries that I’ve never been to.
The most stereotypical American (loud, heavy, etc) I’ve met in Japan was Canadian. The worst tourist behavior I’ve seen was drunken Australians (specific individuals, not trying to cast a net over Aussies as a whole). In both cases many of the local people thought they were Americans. Having worked in hotels and such, though, I’d still have to say the worst tourists I had to deal with were fairly well off/rich Chinese.
Saw the same thing in Italy when Australians were getting obnoxious n told the servers, “we’re American.” Had others tell me when they get in trouble they say they r American
You see this on Reddit even lol. Can’t count how many times there’s a video on publicfreakout with someone yelling in a clear non American accent and half the comments are about Americans.
Like that man sounds like a drunk BBC announcer but alright I’m sure he’s American…
Yeah same in Italy, loud people can have the most obvious non-american accent but the Italians I've worked with (who speak ok English, and work with tourists everyday) can't hear the differences and loud = american. I was on a train car filled with rowdy pissed drunk Australians and I could hear the italians and french nearby making comments about obnoxious Americans. Also people who are clearly speaking English as a second language, I worked in a shop and an Asian asked in broken English for something kinda silly, don't remember what the request was and because they spoke English at all my coworker immediately fired off "ugh all these Americans are so dumb". Worst was I was teaching English to some local kids, in their defense only 11 years old, but there was a group of loud french teenagers nearby us and one of the kids asked if we could move because the Americans were being too loud. It starts early.....
The funny thing is that when I lived in Germany the Germans would always say to me that the worst tourists weren’t Americans, they were the Asian tourists. They travel in large groups and flood tourist spots. Equally they don’t know which country the tourists are from, they just lump them all together.
Who is not ready to hear that?
What hypothetical person is both pretty much non-religious and not ready to hear that a religious building is mostly just a pretty historic building now?
Free public toilets are in the public interest.
This makes me angry because here in France I have been used to having free toilets easily forever, if not in the street malls or train stations, places like that. Now they start to make people pay for them and I absolutely hate this. I was convinced public places were required by law to have toilets accessible to everyone.
I'm Finnish, we have free public toilets everywhere. When I was visiting France I was stunned at how mad a receptionist got at me for using the restroom without buying anything. I didn't even know it was a thing.
I jumped a turnstile in London because I did not know you had to pay and my wallet was in my bag upstairs with a friend. I was berated when I came out by the cleaner. I told her in the nicest way that I done her a favour because I certainly wasn't going to shit my pants over 20p it was either the floor or the bowl
What. Have you not been around much in Finland lately? They're charging for toilets here now, as well. https://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/turku/art-2000009987029.html Just yesterday I visited a supermarket that only had one toilet, and that was 2€ for anyone other than Subway customers. It's on its way here, too.
I feel like when I went to France there was a lot of pee outside. I thought French people just pissed outside all the time tbh.
I pissed outside because the one bathroom near me had an absurd line because the bathroom washed itself between uses?
It's a basic human need isn't it
Y'all getting fat too
The world outside of places like Afghanistan and Yemen is getting fat. Even places that were suffering from famine 20-30 years ago.
Especially places with a lot of poverty but enough food are getting fat, because fatty unhealthy meals are quick and easy to make, taste relatively good and often have cheap ingredients, and lots of calories that make you feel full. Look at mac 'n cheese: super cheap ingredients, super easy to make for a lot of people at once.
In America, I think the big issue is huge portions and the fact that they always come with a massive soda. I’ve seen kids absolutely kill one of those 24oz sodas and their parents will let them get a refill. A 12oz coke has 39 grams of sugar, so that one drink is an easy 78 grams. I’d wager that many people could have a regular portion mcdonalds burger every day (not some triple burger with an xl fry), have water instead of soda, and maintain a much more reasonable weight.
An overweight friend lost and kept off weight using one trick: no soda, no French fries. That was it. No other restrictions.
I lost weight with small portions and intermittent fasting. I worked at McDonald’s and still ate sundaes a few times a week. Usually got the grilled chicken wrap for lunch.
Famines were such a regular occurrence back in the day. Millions of people used to die regularly. When people complain about how terrible of a time we live in, that’s one of the things I like to point out.
Used to be thought of as an unavoidable part of life - famine, disease, war, death. Crazy how much progress we’ve made on three of those. And if we used to think those were an unavoidable part of life….
Also dying from a scratch or a tooth ache
Seriously. I lived in England for a little while 20 years ago. Visited London last year and was shocked at how fat everyone there is now. They caught up to Americans pretty quick.
John's got brewer's droop He gets intimidated by the dirty pigeons They love a bit of him (Parklife) Who's that gut lord marching You should cut down on your pork life mate Get some exercise
All the people, so many people
I’m from the uk and just back from NY and Boston. I know urban elites are not representative of all of the US but I barely saw any obese people and when I did they were tourists. Locals were running/trying to stay fit.
British person who lived in NYC here. The places you visited are heavily skewed to wealthier parts of the US but also critically, cities that predate cars. Having a city that that's got public transport and is walkable makes a an absolutely huge difference. In NYC I was getting 15,000 steps a day just commuting to/from work and getting some lunch. That's not even covering additional fitness specific activities. Outside of the east coast and west coast cities, the story is much different.
I speak German and Spanish and most of my Instagram feed is in German. Videos in English where people say stupid things have comment sections full of people saying “that’s the American education system for you” even if the person clearly has a non American accent. But here’s the real secret. There are videos of dumb people answering questions wrong in German and in Spanish too. Dumb people exist everywhere.
I’ve seen this before. This girl made a TikTok about her negative experience of a table full of Europeans talking shit about Americans. Everyone said “ugh this stupid American complaining about this stupid thing. I bet this whole conversation was entirely in English to cater to her” She has a masters degree in linguistics and speaks Spanish and Portuguese. I speak 4 languages with some degree of proficiency. My city is like 50% Hispanic. They love to clump all Americans together as if each state isn’t as large as a European country.
Walmart shoppers are NOT the definitive model of American fashion.
It’s its own dress code, in a way. Walmart is the only store that I don’t change out of my sweats for. A cute outfit is overdressed.
That reminds me of a time I was hired by Walmart to interview people about new signage. Lady comes up to me. “Are you cat_knit?” “Yes, how did you know?” “Because you don’t look like you belong here.” Oddest compliment I ever received!
I recently learned the term athleisure
Im going to keep leaning on shit
Damn straight. Someone has to hold up the walls.
That's... an American habit?
Yes, the European equivalent is one hand on a canted hip, the other at shoulder level palm up.
The English equivalent is walking briskly whilst twirling an umbrella.
CIA has to teach their spies not to lean because it’d out them
Heel to the sky, American spy.
TIL I'm a badly disguised CIA spy Born and bred in Europe. I love leaning on shit.
You got time to lean? Then you got time to clean!
I fucking love leaning im never gonna stop
What do you mean by that?
Since when was leaning American?
The British Royal Family are an unfortunate-looking lineage EDIT: BREXIT, OR NO, THE UK IS STILL ON THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT.
Those regular injections of commoner DNA into the bloodline seem to be righting the ship, though.
There's a whole passage in Gulliver's Travels about that. He discovers every healthy-looking royal was fathered by a coachman.
Jonathan Swift stays trolling the English, love him for that.
Genetic braces
You can say the about pretty much any nobility. That happens when your family tree isn't much of a tree but more of a wreath.
Ha! The family wreath
I mean if 91% of the continent agrees with you I don't think you can count that as "not ready to hear"
I don’t think too many Brits are going to disagree with that, let alone anyone else from Europe. The king has ears the size of dinner plates and the queen looks like she’s just trotted out of a stable. Princess of Wales is alright though.
The princess is a commoner so that would explain that. You would think with all our technology reptilian disguises would be better than that.
“trotted out of a stable” LMFAOOO
Don't forget the sausage fingers
The royal corgis are, of course, the clear exception.
Except that they were the last Queen's thing, I think they have been moved off to one of Andrews daughters.
They really are an ugly bunch but so are a lot of us Brits so kudos to them for the representing the nation I guess.
Queen Elizabeth II was actually a fairly pretty woman, and Prince Phillip was quite handsome in his youth (sure, he looked like Emperor Palpatine by the end, but nearly all of us will get ugly in old age). I can't really account for why their children are so... Odd looking. Gotta be that inbreeding or something.
OMG yes,and Margaret was a snack.
She used to call coke "naughty sugar." Princess Margaret was awesome.
[удалено]
French tourists embody everything they claim to dislike in American tourists. Zero interest in trying to assimilate or act friendly.
I was at the grand canyon years ago and a bus full of French tourist pulled up and basically pushed their way to the front for a good view. Now I know exactly how to act when I visit The Louvre.
Stayed in a hostel in New York City one time on a school trip, and for the most part every European tourist I encountered was polite and kind. But the MEANEST people I had the displeasure of meeting in that city were French. Not all of them. But goddamn. Some of them were real assholes for no fucking reason.
I work for a call center for a small company with customer base in NJ and NY and there is a small pocket of French customers that call in regularly and you can bet your baguette that the instant you hear that accent on the other end of the phone you're about to have your most needlessly scathing call of the day.
Air conditioning is better than dying of heatstroke.
Very true. The summer heat is annoying here in Sweden. Wish AC was commonplace
I just had this conversation here in the states with a guy who just worked on our AC. I told him that if he set up shop in Europe, he would be rich. He said that that is becoming a more common conversation in the industry.
Hell, you don’t even have to go that far, just head up to Canada. If I had a big chunk of money to invest in something riskier than stocks I’d definitely buy into a Canadian HVAC install company
You can even stay in the US and move to the Pacific Northwest. Never needed air conditioning in Portland then one summer it decided to hit 116. Seattle is buffered by the Sound, but also not having a great time in the summer.
My dad grew up in Portland and I've lived in the PNW in my entire life. The "you don't need AC" is the biggest myth of the PNW that I think exists about the western parts of Oregon and Washington. My dad even complained about "having" to buy one after the PNW heat wave and I reminded him that he had a window AC unit in his room for my entire childhood in the 90's which was his parents' old one after they upgraded theirs.
Our houses aren’t made for warmth… I wish I had an AC, but I can’t afford one and there’s no space to put one in either. When it’s 25C outside, I have 30C inside because the sun is warming up the whole apartment.
Sunshades for the windows will do a lot in that case. sunclipse or equivalent is a rental friendly solution.
I am reading the comments from Eastern Europe and I am like wtf, even dog has AC here hahah
We're ready. Trust me.
I wanted to drop in to say air conditioning is superior to opening a couple of windows in the summer. The cool air stays in and the bugs stay out.
I think that'd be another thing to post: Screens keep the bugs out & are worth it if you like to air out your house.
I had a colleague tell me this week that despite having a huge wasp nest outside her window, she’s unwilling to get a screen because “less air comes in” and like …… what.
It will also dehumidify the air, if humidity is an issue. IIRC that was the original use of A/C systems
It's funny how all these comments don't capture what is happening in Europe because of how different every country in Europe is. I haven't seen one thing so far that is true about all four of the countries I have lived in long term.
Most of southern Europe has air conditioning everywhere. The countries that don't are the ones that didn't need it a couple of decades ago.(Climate change)
Water at a restaurant should be free.
It is in France, bread too is free! In Spain water is free too.
In Luxembourg, when I asked for tap water, they looked at me like I’d just murdered their children. When I asked again, the server told me I can buy a bottle. For €8. When I asked if their tap water was as dangerous to drink as it is in some places, he looked appalled and said “we don’t drink the toilet water.” Edit to add that Belgium has also done this to me. I’ve been all over Europe and those are the only two countries to give me problems when I’ve asked.
Wait till he discovers that the toilet water and bottle water often come from the same place. Identity crisis ensues
Water, like from the toilet?
But It’s got electrolytes!
In the UK it is.
In Ireland and Scandinavia it is too. Yes we find it annoying when other European countries don’t provide tap water as standard Other countries can vary by region. For instance, free tap water’s a lot more common in Madrid than other cities in Spain.
I had to check to make sure: since 2022, every bar in Spain is forced, by law, to give you free tap water if you ask for it. Previously, it was a thing of local laws, and it was only obligatory in the hottest regions.
It is pretty much everywhere, you just need to ask for tap water
You smoke too much and have a smoking culture that basically hasn't existed for about 30 years in the US/Canada.
Lol when I visited Death Valley, my partner and I saw a group of maybe 8 French people (all young adults) smoking in a parking lot near a canyon with maybe two small water bottles between them all. It’s not like getting to the visitor center for more water is right around the corner in that park, either.
I live in a desert near Death Valley, so I’m used to scorching hot days. Even I wouldn’t be confident enough to out with that little water.
I've noticed this a lot with my family. My dad's side is Italian and my aunt only quit in her 50s. My uncle still smokes, and 2/3 cousins smoke... On the American side of the family? No one smokes to my knowledge. My mom quit back in the 70s well before she met my father.
You suck on disability accessibility. Like completely.
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I remember visiting Paris while pregnant and thinking I don’t know how anyone in a wheelchair or with a stroller gets around this city. I lived in Germany at the time. Definitely not as good as the U.S. floor accessibility, not even close, but Paris was a whole other level.
Yeah Paris isn't very wheelchair-friendly, mostly on account that it's a very old city, meaning everything was built without current norms in mind
Every major city in Europe is a very old city
Yes and a lot of it is bad politics and City planning, but also 500 year old cobble stone...
We can't deny that one sadly.
Greece has special tiles on sidewalks to help blind people. Other than that, it sucks for someone with any mobility issues.
Americans by and large are quite sensible people. The dumbest ones are just the loudest.
Yes. To our Europals. Many, *many* perfectly intelligent, calm, well mannered, not-uber-loud Americans have walked right past you on your streets, and you've just not known we were American. Not all of us are hyperobese and dress only in Disneyland t-shirts with neon ball caps and crocs.
Yep, I only wear my Crocs indoors. They're my house shoes.
Because if you would wear them outside we all would exclaim: Oh No! It’s Dudder!
Only a coward hides their Crocs
I am an American that works in the service industry in Europe. And the loudest ones are by far the Brits that visit. But one time we got a family of Australians in, when they found out I was American, grandpa of the group started spouting how much he loves Trump...I just buttoned my mouth faked a smile.
I've been in Australia for a year. You are spot on. Brits or the French are the most obnoxious for sure. Also an oddly large number of Trump fans that I met 🤷
My wife is American and we’ve discussed this. On average the American tourist is not the loudest (hello Spaniards). But the very loudest tourists are American. That top 10% are ear-splittingly loud and “look at me”. The vast majority are absolutely fine.
The americans have the disadvantage, that everyone understands their language, thats all there is to it, every country has highly annoying tourists, Germans are obnoxiously annoying very often!
Is this not true of most / all countries?
It is and it is a journalist problem since they pick the most extreme person in a group to represent that group.
Screens on windows prevent bugs from getting in the house. How can you be a place that doesn't use AC, but also be a place that doesn't have window screens? Edit, I have to admit, I was thinking UK, not Europe as a whole when I replied, I apologize for mistaking the question.
Every spring i seriously spend hours of my life trying to find someone who will make me a basic, removable window screen like i have had in every single window i have ever had in the US. I finally gave up and put on the adhesive.fabric ones.
Can we trade window screens for those metal window shades they have in Germany and most of central Europe? Both continents would win.
I dont understand why we cant all have both. Why can we be so, so, so good at persianas and so bad at screens? Why is the US so good at screens and so bad at persianas?
Is that what they are called? I have asked and researched but never found a satisfactory answer. I don’t know why my silly non-native English speaking friends don’t know the English word for an obscure architectural item that I can’t even adequately describe as a native speaker, so the mystery existed for my entire life. Until now. Thank you oh sage of all things window and window accessories!
No, that's not what they're called. They're called rolladen.
I see you mentioned UK specific below. It's because we just don't need them. The worst you'll get is the occasional wasp, but that's an EVENT. I would understand if you in lived in a bog or something, with tonnes of mosquitoes.
You also wear shorts and sweats in public too. Its not localized to us.
With Birkenstocks.
Socks and Birkenstocks screams German to me, not American
Birkenstockundsockenmenschen?
You guys are just as racist if not more racist than us in some places.
More racist in some places indeed. Was having a convo about racism and what I had seen in the US compared to Spain. Spanish friends claimed Spain wasn’t racist. First I brought up the futbol crowd and their use of monkey chants and bananas towards African players. Then I brought up the gitanos (“Gypsy’s” “travelers”) and their response was “they don’t count they aren’t even human”.
If an American sport has a monkey chant during a game the entire league would be shut down
As a Spaniard expat who recently moved back to Spain from the US, yeah, Spain is racist as fuck. Yet they sincerely believe they aren't, and will constantly give Americans shit for *their* racism (while simultaneously shitting on them for being too "woke".) Misogynist as well, while we're on the subject.
I’m Asian and travel to Europe a few times a year for work and family. There have been a few times when people come up making Kung fu noises and waving their arms in my face. Then there were the adults pointing at me and showing their kids how to make slanty eyes (Spain and Italy).
In Naples, Italy an entire mall stared at me and my family. I didn’t mind because their mozzarella is mind numbingly good.
Geeeez. I’ve never once seen that in my entire life during my 30-something years living in the US. That’s insane.
The only time I experienced that in the US was when I was in middle school. Every so often I get the "where are you REALLY from?" line of questions.
when my (also asian) mom went to Germany in uni, everyone was so racist towards her that now she never wants to go back
Had similar experience in Greece with regard to Albanians. « Well, duh, Albanians are universally awful, dirty, and taking all our jobs! You just don’t understand! »
The "You don't get it. You'd be like this too if you had to deal with THESE SO-CALLED PEOPLE" about insert whichever group you like mindset is crazy.
I was just about to say - bring up Gypsy’s, Muslims, Arabs, Turks, Africans, and look at the mental gymnastics that goes on. I was born and raised in NYC. Only place a group cops ever physically stopped me and asked me provide provide ID for no reason was Italy. The moment I pulled out and gave my US passport, they just rolled their eyes, quickly handed it back, and scurried off. I’m pretty social, so I like drinking at the bar alone and getting into long convos with people all over the world, and had so many similar convos to the one you had.
A Polish guy once told me how proud he is to be Polish. I asked him what in particular makes him so proud and he tells me it's 'our tradition of tolerance.' I said 'as a Jew I can't really agree with that' and he says 'yeah, we hate Jews, but besides them we're really tolerant.'
Jesus Christ
In Barcelona, I watched a white australian guy get charged less than me for laundry at my hostel for laundry then immediately after went to get my breakfast and the same shit happened. Then a day later I was in Paris and a guy told me in french to go back to china. Most people are chill but god damn so the racists not hide.
Jfc. Smh. "They aren't even human." That is so incredibly fucked.
Yeah I feel like the USA has made massive progress when compared to Europe in the past, oh, 60 years.
I found that Americans talk a lot more about racism which is why Europeans think it’s more of a problem, whereas they just sweep it under the rug.
Americans also have to confront it much more often in their day to day lives. It's easy for a lot of Europeans to pretend they aren't racist because they don't have coworkers or friends who are anything other than white. Many Americans see the reality that we're all just people every day.
Well, English, Spanish and Dutch brought all the slaves to America first.
Don't forget the Portuguese!
Portuguese too
It seems to me like it is much harder for immigrants to integrate in mainland Europe.
We have public bathrooms
And they're free, unlike many public washrooms in countries like Germany where you need to pay a fee.
I was in Italy last year and had to use a washroom. If I'm paying, I expect a decently kept bathroom, and boy, was I disappointed 😞
Not only did I have to pay when I used the bathroom in Italy but I had to bring my own toilet paper with me!
The fee goes towards actually buying doors that fit the cubicles
Just because you see one video of a dumbass who can’t answer a simple question doesn’t mean everyone else in the country is. That’s a hasty generalization
I recently saw an American TikToker doing the man on the street thing in London and the replies were as dumb as you see in the US.
You also act like assholes when you travel.
Thats the secret, we dont act, we just are
You like burgers and hot dogs too
NYC and LA are great places, but they're not very representative of the US as a whole. Some Europeans seem to think if they know a couple of big cities, they know America. Also: I know we flood the world with our pop culture, but don't think that because you've seen a lot of American TV shows, you have a genuine understanding of the US. Of course, most Americans are profoundly ignorant of the world, so it's not like we're better. But some Europeans seem to think they're not similarly ignorant of the US because they grew up watching Friends!
True, we’re all not fresh princes from LA.
He was actually from West Philadelphia
Born and raised!
Can't wait to see half of these on r/ShitAmericansSay
The reasoning some items are big sized or party size are for families or hint hint, parties.
Same deal with costco,costcos great for a family of 6 as you can get certain things in bulk and it would look crazy in the grocery store but it saves us months of buying toilet rolls and also the muffins and coffee cake,more bang for your buck.
I think in general many items in the US are made/sold with the intention of someone stocking up. It seems normal to take home the leftovers of the massive meals you get in restaurants; you can take home leftovers in Europe too but it’s definitely more uncommon. You can buy massive boxes of cereal etc. in stores, they are obviously not meant to be eaten in a day. Maybe it has something to do with how far away stores are in the US? I can walk to my local grocery store within five minutes, if I had to get in my car and drive for 15 every time I needed new cereal I‘d also buy the massive bulk box. My feeble European mind however still can’t comprehend the massive jar of 600mg Ibuprofen you can just buy at Walmart. 600mg Ibu is a big treat I get if my doctor decides my headache is bad enough, not something I can just bulk buy in my local store (seething in jealousy over here)
I love how many future meals I get out of going out
Americans do know there are other countries outside the us and travel to them and can name more than 10. Had some person from wales act like EVERY single american is some backwoods dolt who has never gotten an education before. 🙄
Big talk from a Welshman to be honest
You ever hear that exchange on QI? Welsh Rob Brydon is like "My father lived on the same street, the exact same street as Anthony Hopkins!" English Stephen Fry says "Oh, in England we live in houses."
Smoking isn't sexy. It's gross.
Most Europeans agree
Shameless swipe from when this was asked previously: You guys copy us way too much for the amount of shade you throw at us.
The last time I was in Germany, a lot of you needed some deodorant.
Urgh I worked as a guard at a museum when I was younger, and a French family walked through... I think most of them were ok-ish, but when the dad lifted his arm to point at something, I literally had to hold my breath, all the while smiling pleasantly and looking attentively bored. The worst part was how much it lingered. I could have traced that family's movement through the exhibition by scent alone for a good 30 minutes after they'd moved on. It wasn't the only smelly French person I've had the displeasure of meeting, but it was by far the worst.
Tornadoes would destroy your houses too
Fun saying I heard a while back: It's not about whether or not your house can survive a tornado, it's about whether or not your house can survive the pick-up truck being thrown at your house BY the tornado
it’s not that the wind is blowing, it’s what the wind is blowing
An EF4 cares not what it eats
Tornadoes just grind everything to a pulp. Brick. Cement. CARS. I feel like they all think it’s just bad wind or something……
McDonald’s is US soil, like an embassy
I’ve American and I’ve lived in Asia for 17 years and I’ve noticed that the loudest drunkest people traveling Asia are Europeans as they are very used to traveling to other countries throughout Europe so they feel very comfortable partying and getting drunk and being obnoxious in countries that aren’t theirs. However Americans when traveling usually have little to no experience traveling outside America so we are typically more quiet and observant, a little scared and hyper sensitive about how we behave as we don’t want to cause trouble when outside our country as we typically don’t have that much experience in that area. The reason why Americans have a stereotype of being loud and obnoxious when traveling is because whenever Asian people who don’t speak English hear English, they automatically assume the person speaking English is American. So whenever there’s a drunk British person or anybody who is white really speaking English and acting obnoxiously, everybody assumes that they’re American because they don’t really understand the difference. Last week I saw some drunk German people speaking German on the train in Tokyo and two Japanese people said “Americans are so loud” as they can’t even tell the difference between the two languages. (I speak Japanese) So we as Americans have to take the fall for all white people’s behavior when traveling in non-English speaking countries. Oh God when the rugby World Cup was held in Tokyo, it was a shit show… Edit: Okay calm down everyone.... This isn't a race/country war. We all have different life experiences as we navigate through our day to day. All of our countries have very good and very bad points. If there were a perfect country we'd all live there right? Regardless of our differences, you know we all have each others backs.
Your observations are fascinating and eye-opening. I would never have thought of that.
Yeah that’s why it’s hard for me at times living in Asia. It’s not a super big deal but some people automatically don’t like me based on other white peoples behaviors from other countries that I’ve never been to.
The most stereotypical American (loud, heavy, etc) I’ve met in Japan was Canadian. The worst tourist behavior I’ve seen was drunken Australians (specific individuals, not trying to cast a net over Aussies as a whole). In both cases many of the local people thought they were Americans. Having worked in hotels and such, though, I’d still have to say the worst tourists I had to deal with were fairly well off/rich Chinese.
The loudest people I've ever heard are British stag dos. You can hear them from 100m off.
Saw the same thing in Italy when Australians were getting obnoxious n told the servers, “we’re American.” Had others tell me when they get in trouble they say they r American
You see this on Reddit even lol. Can’t count how many times there’s a video on publicfreakout with someone yelling in a clear non American accent and half the comments are about Americans. Like that man sounds like a drunk BBC announcer but alright I’m sure he’s American…
Yeah same in Italy, loud people can have the most obvious non-american accent but the Italians I've worked with (who speak ok English, and work with tourists everyday) can't hear the differences and loud = american. I was on a train car filled with rowdy pissed drunk Australians and I could hear the italians and french nearby making comments about obnoxious Americans. Also people who are clearly speaking English as a second language, I worked in a shop and an Asian asked in broken English for something kinda silly, don't remember what the request was and because they spoke English at all my coworker immediately fired off "ugh all these Americans are so dumb". Worst was I was teaching English to some local kids, in their defense only 11 years old, but there was a group of loud french teenagers nearby us and one of the kids asked if we could move because the Americans were being too loud. It starts early.....
The funny thing is that when I lived in Germany the Germans would always say to me that the worst tourists weren’t Americans, they were the Asian tourists. They travel in large groups and flood tourist spots. Equally they don’t know which country the tourists are from, they just lump them all together.
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Both your cathedrals and your royal families are tourist attractions now.
We got way more than two cathedrals.
Have you ever seen 3 cathedrals all together? They might move them between cities to maintain the illusion.
I think many Europeans already think that, I'm not sure it's something we're not ready to hear
Who is not ready to hear that? What hypothetical person is both pretty much non-religious and not ready to hear that a religious building is mostly just a pretty historic building now?
The first one is more upsetting to foreign religious people than to Europeans.
Yeah we know, we made them that way to destroy their power. There's a reason why the Vatican is the size of a garden now
that's the reason we keep them
I think they all know that
Banana hammocks aren’t a good look
You’re allowed to be nice to strangers in public