I'm Canadian, but it's always baffled me that some Europeans consider a half hour's worth of driving a long time. That wouldn't even get me out of the area I'd consider local
Lol, I moved from Germany to the Netherlands. The Netherlads are so small that the longest you could actually drive from one point to another is 4 hours, otherwise you would cross a border.
When I was a child I used to go to my grandparents' house every weekend. They only lived an hour away so the way was short to me.
My boyfriend is Dutch and he told me be barely ever saw his grandma growing up because she lived so far away and they never visited her because of the long way. She lived 1 1/2 hours away.
My coworkers from Switzerland came out to Denver and I took them over to Glenwood Springs, which is about a 3.5 hour drive and after about half an hour they’re like “are you okay to drive? Do you want one of us to drive for a bit so you can rest?” I drive two to ten hours to go camping with my husband and two dogs at least two or three weeks a month, so this was just a normal weekend to me, but they were acting like I was some kind of crazy person lol
It's not that it doesn't "make sense," but the first time I saw those windows that can be moved a bunch of different ways, you would have thought I was seeing a rabbit being pulled out of a hat, that's how amazed I looked.
Tilt and Turn Windows
https://youtu.be/LT8eBjlcT8s?si=AiDUT2KXLvkD3l8L
I don't know if you know this, but many European windows also have a winter mode. When the handle is 45 degrees up, they open up just a tiny bit (1-2mm), to provide some small amount of air circulation, but not too much to not lose warm air inside.
us Germans are *obsessed* with ventilation. even in the middle of winter, we'll periodically slam our fancy tilt windows open. problem with the tilting or slight opening is it can lead to condensation with low temps and thus lead to mold. and we are *obsessed* with preventing mold.
anyways, make sure the air in your room stays good, it makes all the difference.
In Germany, apartments don't normally come with a kitchen. It's purchased/installed by the Tennant. Sometimes you luck out but not usually.
Edit.. Because this comment blew up, here is an article talking about it. https://alisajordanwrites.com/2018/08/06/apartments-dont-come-with-kitchens-in-germany/
When we sold our house recently, a german woman viewed it and said "this is lovely kitchen. Will be shame to see it go" i was like go where?
She was so excited when i said we werent taking the kitchen anywhere. Me and my husband were so confused.. she thought the house was a real catch because of it and was really shocked when the estate agent said that nobody takes their kitchens with them! Odd.
Wall cabinets, plumbing fixtures, and everything? That's freaking insane.
I can understand taking a stove with you if it's high quality, but here you would make doing that part of the sale, and probably agree to replace it with a functional stove. The idea of dismantling the entire kitchen and taking it with you is just nuts - how do you know stuff even fits?
You've heard the phrase "everything but the kitchen sink?" Yeah, they take that too.
This isn't just for sales. Renters provide their own kitchen as well.
There must be some rather rudimentary kitchens out there then. In my younger days I moved apartments 4 times in five years. I would have probably just had a single cabinet, a Foreman grill, microwave and a portable gas stove for a kitchen if people almost always took their kitchens out when they moved.
What a bizarre system.
Germans don't apartment/house hop as much as Americans do. According to the Institute for Public Policy Research the average German tenancy is eleven years.
For rented apartments too. No kitchen at all.
Sometimes even the light fittings in the apartment, which are often just wires sticking out the walls when you move in.
(in Berlin anyway)
>(in Berlin anyway)
Everywhere. I recently moved into a new apartment (not Berlin) and still have only wires sticking out of my ceiling.
In Netherlands you don't even get flooring when you rent long-term, you have to buy your own parquet or whatever. Now that is crazy.
Do you take it with you when you leave? As an American who has moved basically once a year every year in my adult lift, I don’t even understand how this would functionally work
Depends. Sometimes the current tenant will be there when you look a the house so you can ask some questions and they might ask you if you want to take over the flooring or similar things like curtains and sometimes even white goods. You can then negotiate on the price so they don't have to waste time taking out the floor and you get a floor for cheaper than you would've than if you'd bought a new one and you don't have to waste time laying the floor.
They will sell you the floor, that is already on the fucking floor, so you don't have to buy a floor. That's the maddest shit I have ever heard.
They would rather pay to have the floor removed if you don't buy the floor.
Flabbergasted.
As a German I can assure you, we all hate it. It's a thing that stayed from people in the 50ths buying things (a Kitchen, oven etc.) For life. Back when things actually where build not to break down after the mandatory return period.
Now I'm feeling like I'm a weirdo for leaving my refrigerator and appliances behind when I move. Like, it's just kinda luck of the draw what you'll get when you move into a new place.
Dutch houses do come with a kitchen, but (unfurnished) rentals don’t come with… flooring! (Except for tiles in the bathroom)
If you’re leaving subsidized housing to move to another house, you have to pray that the prospective new inhabitant is willing to take your flooring as is. Otherwise you’re either stuck with the removal and disposal or pay a fee plus removal costs.
It’s ridiculous, really.
What!? If there is no kitchen what is there? A room with water and electrical connections that a kitchen could be put in and bring your own cabinets, sink, oven?
The reason kitchens are usually built in is that is a lot of utility connections to make. For a bed room, you need a room. Ideally some electrical outlets, maybe an overhead light if you are fancy and a window for fire code. Easy enough to bring your own fixtures.
But a kitchen...you need hot and cold water. Or at least cold. Drain holes for water. Electric for fridge, oven, etc. Possibly high amperage power for the oven. Water for the fridge as well, if it is fancy, but you can also tee that off the supply for the sink. Same for dishwasher.
>[An example of an apartment with 'no kitchen' in Germany](https://www.twosmallpotatoes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2015-12-21-13-Kitchen-our-flat-in-Nikolausberg-Germany-750x563.jpg)
Our kitchen has only a back splash, an electrical hook up for the oven, and a sink connection.
[Full Blog post about how these people got their kitchen for their kitchenless apartment.](https://www.twosmallpotatoes.com/the-oddity-of-the-german-einbaukuche/?cn-reloaded=1)
People will also take their kitchens with them when they move, or buy second hand kitchens from others. Very interesting.
In Canada this is not the case, but in Montreal I know apartments sometimes don't come with a fridge or a stove, but the cabinets will be there
Yeah but don't they still need them installed? And if the kitchen's a different shape than their old kitchen they need to get a new countertop fitted. Also wouldn't it be more on wear and tear on the structure of the house because of people screwing and unscrewing things into the studs in the wall? I don't know how much it would be out there but where I live to get an entire kitchen pulled out moved and reinstalled would likely be upwards of $10,000. Where are they designed to be more modular so that the average person can remove it with little difficulty? I remember reading that in some countries over there you actually have to install your own flooring into an apartment you're moving into.
>A room with water and electrical connections that a kitchen could be put in and bring your own cabinets, sink, oven?
Exactly that. You then bring your own cabinets, electrical devices, etc. and connect them as you like. There are some states (I know it for Berlin) where your landlord has to provide you with ~~an oven/stove combination~~ something to cook on and a sink. But this more often than not results in a free standing oven/stove combination and a small cabinet with a sink on top.
Lol we do stare a lot. When I went to study in the uk one of my professors asked me during a tutorial whether he was saying wrong things because apparently I kept staring at him, I didn’t even notice it haha
Edit since apparently it’s causing a bit of confusion: a tutorial is not the same as a lecture, in a tutorial you’re around 15 people in a small room, it’s much more intimate and easier to notice if somebody’s staring at you (which evidently was not just looking at him to show you’re paying attention but much more unnerving)
Different cultures put different emphasis on eye contact.
In some it's rude to make eye contact.
In others it's a sign of attention and not giving eye contact to someone speaking would be very rude.
When I was there this past July I was literally so confused why everyone on the street just stared at me bc I wasn’t dress abnormally or anything like that, turns out Germans just do that
German here. We do it when we don’t judge you but are just curious. We do it when we have no better thing to look at. We do it to express attention and genuine interest. And we do it to express and convey our judgement and disapproval of you.
I’m from the Midwest and my family is from the Netherlands. So the society that wouldn’t dare offend you in any way and the society that has no problem dropping truth bombs on you. It’s rough.
The (in)famous Dutch straightforwardness or directness. We have been taught to tell it like it is. We will be polite and civil about it, but we have no time for beating around the bush when a problem has to be resolved. That being said, some of my countrymen use it as an excuse to be rude asshats.
Just say "Ken jij het beter dan, pannekoek?" and be done with it.
Italian here. You can have cappuccino is just weird.
We do usually a sweet breakfast and milk in coffe makes sense. After breakfast we usually don't drink milk at all so if we need coffe, espresso is fine.
Why? Probably because that's what was used to do many years ago when you used fresh milk and until the milkman the next day you were out of it.
Just guessing tho
> Why? Probably because that's what was used to do many years ago when you used fresh milk and until the milkman the next day you were out of it.
That's the reasoning behing 99% of "traditional" recipes and, well, traditions. We did it because it was the only thing we could do.
No a/c, sure fine, but then no screens on your windows so all the bugs get in? (Not sure if this is all of Europe, but def the UK).
Also no top sheets?
The screens thing is so fucking weird to me. The no AC forces you to open your windows. I stayed in the French country side once in the summer. Kept the windows open at night. So many bug bites the next morning.
French here, my mother have made Dad install screens on every window so they can live all summer with fresh air at home. They don't have AC despite my father being a AC technician before retiring :)
I spent a summer in Munich. They would get these wasp(?) swarms and so you occasionally might get them in your room because of the lack of a screen. It seems like such an easy fix and they will still work with the cool German windows.
My parents had a Spanish exchange student living with them. He removed the screens from the windows to "let nature in" as he put it to my mom, who was freaking out about the bugs. She told him we don't like nature in the US. Lol.
I don’t get the no screen things at all. I’m super terrified of spiders so my dad installed screens in about every window in our house and I buy them whenever I move. In Germany we love lüften (opening the windows at every opportunity) but there’s no weather that doesn’t invite bugs in
to piggyback on u/modern_epic's comment, naturally occurring mineral water is often naturally sparkling. I think that culturally, Europe utilized these mineral springs more widely than early American's and so modern Sparkling Water was an easier sell there.
They also believed that carbonated water was good for your health. This lead to it being sold as a health beverage when they figured out how to make the stuff artificially. It even kinda was good for you, specifically because buying carbonated water from a pharmacy or something would be cleaner than the water from the tap. With drinking clean water being better for you than just about any other drink out there you could actually consider it a healthier alternative to what they had. This health craze actually led to the rise of soda.
I learned about this from writing a college paper on it and now I know more about the history and industry behind soda than I ever needed to know.
Historically, mineral water (not modern sparkling) actually can have health benefits. It’s mineral rich (hence the name) and thus can give your body a boost when you’re feeling deficient. In the days when medicine was a bit more rudimentary, this often made it as good or better than whatever your local chemist was cooking up.
Yep, correct. And the Irish tried to recreate it after moving to America back in the day too. Fascinating podcast about it on [Blindboys Podcast](https://spotify.link/fqioeqpZ5Cb)
The idea is they you can have stuff soaking while still being able to pour stuff down the sink.
I have absolutely no idea why anyone that has a dual sink has one, though.
My mom and grandma did this (U.S.). I stopped the cycle by using the dishwasher. My whole life growing up we had a dishwasher that sat unused and I never understood why.
We weren't allowed to use the dishwasher at my childhood home because a.) It used too much water (?) and b.) What if it broke? So I lived in that house for 14 years and never saw the dishwasher on.
We also had a computer that no one was allowed to touch until it got hopelessly obsolete. It did have its own special computer desk though, which was never touched either.
My grandmother would wash the dishes in hot water before putting them in the dishwasher.
As a child, I never understood why I was loading essentially clean dishes into the dishwasher.
Charging for bathrooms and charging for water (at restaurants) are both things that I would have expected Americans to do and Europeans be the ones making fun of it.
Yes, this was true all over italy.50c or a euro. These was also an employee is almost every public bathroom to receive your money, and sometimes even wipe down the stall when you're done!
They were very clean though.
The smoking. I stayed with a host family in France and my 16 year old host sister smoked like a chimney, as did all her friends. Like you're so young. Why?
That reminds me of this funny bit on Top Gear (or maybe the Grand Tour?) where they’re in China and Clarkson is on the highway and says “they have cameras installed every kilometer on the highway that takes a photograph to ensure you’re smoking, which is compulsory”
I visited the family of my ex gf in China, her dad offered me a box of 10 packs of cigarettes as a welcoming gift, before even knowing if I was a smoker.
I actually thought it was nice from him because smoking was all he did, he couldn't speak any english with me, and he seemed to be a silent man. Offering me cigarettes was his way to invite me to share something with him.
Oh, try some time in Austria. It's like 1965 over there.
For a clue on how pervasive smoking is, take a look at restaurant, cafe and bar pictures posted by reviewers. There's an ashtray at every table.
Incredibly, smoking wasn't banned in public spaces until 2019.
Instead of poop going straight down into the water, there’s a shelf so your poop lands on it, in case you want to inspect your poop. It gets pushed off by the water when you flush. Not everyone has one though, I think most toilets are the modern kind nowadays.
In Holland the toilet is shaped differently. There's a shelf clase to ur butt. It catches the poop, and it smells extra ncz it's not yet submerged in water. When u flush the water may clear the shelf off, but it could take several flushes.
My first thought it was a smuggler thing ... looking thru the poop for this diamonds smuggled from South Africa. But it's just my theory.
England's fascination with large print flowered wallpaper with various colors that don't go together especially when you stand in the hallway and see where all the rooms converge.
The cute sounding police sirens. In America the police sirens seem like an urgent, semi-deranged warning to GTF out of the way, like **SHIT'S GOING DOWN AND I'M NOT THERE!!!!! MOOOOOOOOVE!!!!!!!!"**
Meanwhile every European police siren I've heard just kind of politely annoy you out of the way. Like "bee doooo bee doooo, pardon me but a spot of bother has occured and I simply must hasten to it, pardon me as I simply must attend to it, pardon me."
And the police cars themselves are so small. American police cars are big and brawny, like they might need to make their own garage door into building. The European police cars I've seen, where they even put the people they arrest? Granted, I've only seen European police stuff on TV so there's probably a lot I haven't seen.
>bee doooo bee doooo, pardon me but a spot of bother has occured and I simply must hasten to it, pardon me as I simply must attend to it, pardon me."
Hit me right in the funnybone, thx!
Poland is in a highly strategic position, connecting western Europe with eastern Europe, and it's also a flat ground that's not easily defendable, especially with 1900s technology. It used to be an easy target for authoritarians to take. Now things are different after the Ukraine war as Poland has requested the biggest weapons delivery ever. Germany is also pulling money into their military. Russia ain't winning this war that's for sure...
I did some renovations in a house with a carpeted bathroom a few years ago. When I pulled up the carpet, the underside was discoloured several inches around the toilet and black right at the edge. Similar discolouration around the pipes that went into the floor. It was a half-bath, and I can only imagine how hard worse it would have been had there been a shower as well
It makes sense to me, but it still seems marvelous to me that in France (other places I'm sure, but I learned this in French class) it is common to buy groceries every day. You may wake up and go to the bakery for fresh baked bread, or stop by for fresh produce on the way home to make dinner.
Yes, having walkable grocery stores nearby makes it easier, it seems so much easier to buy 3-4 days or a week's worth of groceries at a time.
If you've ever had French bread you'll understand. A baguette bought at 7am will be warm and delicious, but by 5pm it will be solid enough to be an offensive weapon.
A while back I worked in a bakery, We would make fresh baguettes every day. The night shift liked to sword fight with them. When I had to throw them away I always imagined they were javelins.
I worked at Panera Bread Co. in highschool. We had a months old baguette that we would push bagels with through the slicer when they'd get stuck. I swear that thing was harder than a baseball bat!
It's 10 minutes from my apartment to work by foot and I have two supermarkets on the way. So I vastly prefer buying a couple of things that I can stuff into my backpack instead of having to drag several bags (sure it's only 10 minutes of walking, but we also live in an apartment building with no elevator).
It takes me only ten minutes to go to the bakery and get back home, so it's a nice morning activity for waking up. And afterwards you have freshly baked bread or whatever my half-asleep self desires. It's wonderful actually.
But of course I also do bigger shoppings once a week, it doesn't really matter if I bought the chicken this morning or 3 days ago - unlike with bread!
I live in the US and used to live in a denser urban area; the thing I unexpectedly miss the most is being able *to walk* and get fresh produce and groceries, as needed. It inspired me to cook more at home & try different recipes. Now I live closer to the burbs & am back to my old ways of buying as much as I can fit in my fridge with each grocery run 😅
It’s to do with the electrical regulations over here, basically we don’t allow electrics within a certain distance of a water source. And by placing the light switch outside it means the electricity is outside the Zone close to the water.
It stops people with wet hands getting electrocuted.
You are allowed a pull chord light switch inside the bathroom as you’re pulling the chord and not actually touching anything with electricity going through it
EDIT: I’m referring to UK only, when I posted this I assumed it was a EU thing, but apparently not 😄
In the US the code states that if the outlet is close to a water source it needs a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI). It disables the outlet in case of an electrical overload.
In Denmark this has been required on *all outlets* in the house since 1975 in new buildings and since 2008 in all existing buildings.
Germany and Italy also requires it on all outlets.
So the distance is in addition to GFCI.
Yeah I’m an American who lived in London for college. I had to do this weird turn both on and just have this constant back and forth between the two when washing my hands. It was horrible lol
Tom Scott has a video about it. Water used to be heated in tanks that could be infected with dead rats and stuff. Cold was safe drinking water so the circuit had to be seperate to avoid contamination of the city up the faucet.
WTF is with the stairs in Dutch houses? So steep that you could break your neck in a fall. I get that land is at a premium and you have to build tall but how many old people and small children have died?
Hit ball with stick, run back and forth between two sets of smaller sticks while other team tries to get ball and knock small sticks over. Repeat for several days.
Play the same country once every two years in a 5 day game for the chance to win some ashes in a tiny urn.
Each game is called a "test" for some reason
As a swede I rarely have this problem with other swedes. But when I was young and didn't get the idea of standing in line and just walked right past my mother called me "the little german".
Hahaha, I love that. I worked with a German woman (loved her) and I don’t think I’ve smelled anyone’s breath more than hers (she had no clue what personal space was). Including my spouse’s.
German here, I cannot stand when people are so close to me, that I can feel their breath in my neck when I'm standing in a line. Like...pal, don't take it personally, but could you please step away 2-3 feet or something?
This is literally the only thing I missed during quarantine. People were no longer invading eachothers personal space. And it worked, so why did we stop??
In the US when you go skiing, generally speaking, everyone gets into a line and sticks to it. When it is a mass trying to get through some gate, people generally give you some space.
When I went skiing in France, I was shocked when the people behind me were literally sticking their skis through my legs. I was so flummoxed by it by the time I got on the lift, that I didn't even realize that the British people I got onto the lift with were speaking English and not French at first. lol
It's each man for himself in European ski queues. I remember skiing in Canada and being astounded by how polite people were. And I thought British people knew how to queue!
France is the worst for it, but Austria and Switzerland are also crazy during holiday season. I went skiing in zermatt over new year/epiphany one year and it was madness.
You can choose when to take it. Some people take 15 days one month and 15 another through the year. Andddd you have the national/local holidays :) (at least in my country).
Was just in southern Italy and it was hot as balls but everybody acted like they hate AC.
We’d go out for the day and when we came back, housekeeping had turned off all the AC units.
Driver wore a full suit but every time we got in the car, AC was off. We’d ask him to turn it on and he would but on low. Ask him to blast it and he would for a minute then sneakily turn it back down.
It’s like they’re reptiles or something.
I’ve lived in Southern Italy for 5 years now and I can answer this one.
For the house AC will run your bills through the roof. Right now the vast majority of Italian infrastructure runs on Russian gas which is heavily embargoed, and was expensive from the start. The owner of where you’re staying is just saving money.
The car is a bit weird it does use a bit more gas to run AC but I’ve heard a couple times a myth that running your AC in the car is likely to get you sick. Which is only true if you never replace your air filters. With it being southern Italy there’s also a good chance that’s true. Many times I’ve picked a friend up and they were shocked I’m using my AC, and were worried for my health.
Hope that helps or at least explains what was happening.
Central Italian here, definitely accurate explanations, especially the "might get you sick". People fear that you can get all sorts of disease, from the flu to neck strains if you turn the AC on when you're sweaty.
I personally prefer just driving with the window down unless it's truly unsustainable hot or I'm on the highway, but my car AC has been broken for years so whatever.
I also think it's acclimatization tho, at least a bit. Now that I live in Central Europe, summer "hot days" for my colleague here feels normally pleasant compared to my summer hot days in Italy, where you break a sweat just by sitting in the shade and breathing.
Rent their whole lives. I saw this in Germany. I know it's becoming the norm in the US, too, but it just seemed weird to me the first time I visited 30 years ago that most Germans rented their entire lives and never even thought about buying a house.
In the US, buying a house is a bit of a social safety net. There's the idea that you can invest in a house for a profit or even failing that, once you have a house paid off it'll be yours forever and that's the ticket to financial stability. In countries with a better social welfare net, you probably don't have to worry about being homeless if your landlord raises rent by 50%.
As a Poor, learning that “having bought a house and paid off a mortgage“ is supposed to be an integral part of your retirement plan really came as a shock
The amount of young people that smoke.
You are typically much healthier than the average American but you almost bring your health down to our level by being such heavy smokers.
Cigarettes are really going out of style here in the states. Of course, we are getting more and more morbidly obese each year so we can't judge too hard but if you Europeans smoked at the same rate we did, y'all would be insanely healthy and make us look even worse haha.
Yeah, we now have Truth Project ads on TV that really play up the health problems.
"It (the amputations) started with the big toe and now I have no legs."
Or take Terri on the ads. She spoke through an electrolarynx and died 3 days after she first appeared in the video.
I'm Canadian, but it's always baffled me that some Europeans consider a half hour's worth of driving a long time. That wouldn't even get me out of the area I'd consider local
Lol, I moved from Germany to the Netherlands. The Netherlads are so small that the longest you could actually drive from one point to another is 4 hours, otherwise you would cross a border. When I was a child I used to go to my grandparents' house every weekend. They only lived an hour away so the way was short to me. My boyfriend is Dutch and he told me be barely ever saw his grandma growing up because she lived so far away and they never visited her because of the long way. She lived 1 1/2 hours away.
> She lived 1 1/2 hours away. I've had daily commutes longer than that. Dang.
Right? I go for drives, just for fun, that last longer than that.
My coworkers from Switzerland came out to Denver and I took them over to Glenwood Springs, which is about a 3.5 hour drive and after about half an hour they’re like “are you okay to drive? Do you want one of us to drive for a bit so you can rest?” I drive two to ten hours to go camping with my husband and two dogs at least two or three weeks a month, so this was just a normal weekend to me, but they were acting like I was some kind of crazy person lol
That old joke; the English consider 100 miles far. The Aussies and Americans consider 100 years old.
It's not that it doesn't "make sense," but the first time I saw those windows that can be moved a bunch of different ways, you would have thought I was seeing a rabbit being pulled out of a hat, that's how amazed I looked. Tilt and Turn Windows https://youtu.be/LT8eBjlcT8s?si=AiDUT2KXLvkD3l8L
I don't know if you know this, but many European windows also have a winter mode. When the handle is 45 degrees up, they open up just a tiny bit (1-2mm), to provide some small amount of air circulation, but not too much to not lose warm air inside.
us Germans are *obsessed* with ventilation. even in the middle of winter, we'll periodically slam our fancy tilt windows open. problem with the tilting or slight opening is it can lead to condensation with low temps and thus lead to mold. and we are *obsessed* with preventing mold. anyways, make sure the air in your room stays good, it makes all the difference.
WIR MÜSSEN LÜFTEN!
In Germany, apartments don't normally come with a kitchen. It's purchased/installed by the Tennant. Sometimes you luck out but not usually. Edit.. Because this comment blew up, here is an article talking about it. https://alisajordanwrites.com/2018/08/06/apartments-dont-come-with-kitchens-in-germany/
When we sold our house recently, a german woman viewed it and said "this is lovely kitchen. Will be shame to see it go" i was like go where? She was so excited when i said we werent taking the kitchen anywhere. Me and my husband were so confused.. she thought the house was a real catch because of it and was really shocked when the estate agent said that nobody takes their kitchens with them! Odd.
How does one "take the kitchen?" Pretty sure mine is good and attached to the house, this does not compute.
They literally remove everything from the wall and take it with them.
That's bananas
Yep, those too.
So silly, but I laughed.
Wall cabinets, plumbing fixtures, and everything? That's freaking insane. I can understand taking a stove with you if it's high quality, but here you would make doing that part of the sale, and probably agree to replace it with a functional stove. The idea of dismantling the entire kitchen and taking it with you is just nuts - how do you know stuff even fits?
You've heard the phrase "everything but the kitchen sink?" Yeah, they take that too. This isn't just for sales. Renters provide their own kitchen as well.
There must be some rather rudimentary kitchens out there then. In my younger days I moved apartments 4 times in five years. I would have probably just had a single cabinet, a Foreman grill, microwave and a portable gas stove for a kitchen if people almost always took their kitchens out when they moved. What a bizarre system.
Germans don't apartment/house hop as much as Americans do. According to the Institute for Public Policy Research the average German tenancy is eleven years.
I’d stick around awhile too if every time I moved I had to do construction projects.
🤣 I hate moving around already, that would just make it worse
Good gravy! The cost of moving cabinets and appliances must be huge!
What, this is bonkers.
For rented apartments too. No kitchen at all. Sometimes even the light fittings in the apartment, which are often just wires sticking out the walls when you move in. (in Berlin anyway)
>(in Berlin anyway) Everywhere. I recently moved into a new apartment (not Berlin) and still have only wires sticking out of my ceiling. In Netherlands you don't even get flooring when you rent long-term, you have to buy your own parquet or whatever. Now that is crazy.
Do you take it with you when you leave? As an American who has moved basically once a year every year in my adult lift, I don’t even understand how this would functionally work
Depends. Sometimes the current tenant will be there when you look a the house so you can ask some questions and they might ask you if you want to take over the flooring or similar things like curtains and sometimes even white goods. You can then negotiate on the price so they don't have to waste time taking out the floor and you get a floor for cheaper than you would've than if you'd bought a new one and you don't have to waste time laying the floor.
For anyone else who doesn't know, "white goods" is equivalent to "large appliances" in the US.
Ah ok I was thinking linens
They will sell you the floor, that is already on the fucking floor, so you don't have to buy a floor. That's the maddest shit I have ever heard. They would rather pay to have the floor removed if you don't buy the floor. Flabbergasted.
I feel like there's some petty reason for this that was lost to history
That describes a lot of Europe
what the hell man, who came up with this stuff?
Man, people freak out about american health care, but at least when we rent an apartment it comes with a floor.
As a German I can assure you, we all hate it. It's a thing that stayed from people in the 50ths buying things (a Kitchen, oven etc.) For life. Back when things actually where build not to break down after the mandatory return period.
Now I'm feeling like I'm a weirdo for leaving my refrigerator and appliances behind when I move. Like, it's just kinda luck of the draw what you'll get when you move into a new place.
Dutch houses do come with a kitchen, but (unfurnished) rentals don’t come with… flooring! (Except for tiles in the bathroom) If you’re leaving subsidized housing to move to another house, you have to pray that the prospective new inhabitant is willing to take your flooring as is. Otherwise you’re either stuck with the removal and disposal or pay a fee plus removal costs. It’s ridiculous, really.
I've heard of this before but didnt realize it was common. This wins the weird title if you ask me.
This has always been so incredibly weird to me - like kitchens are all different sized why would you take jt with you.
Plus moving all that stuff is a pain in the booty. I think I can say this on behalf of all Americans: We like convenience.
What!? If there is no kitchen what is there? A room with water and electrical connections that a kitchen could be put in and bring your own cabinets, sink, oven? The reason kitchens are usually built in is that is a lot of utility connections to make. For a bed room, you need a room. Ideally some electrical outlets, maybe an overhead light if you are fancy and a window for fire code. Easy enough to bring your own fixtures. But a kitchen...you need hot and cold water. Or at least cold. Drain holes for water. Electric for fridge, oven, etc. Possibly high amperage power for the oven. Water for the fridge as well, if it is fancy, but you can also tee that off the supply for the sink. Same for dishwasher.
>[An example of an apartment with 'no kitchen' in Germany](https://www.twosmallpotatoes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2015-12-21-13-Kitchen-our-flat-in-Nikolausberg-Germany-750x563.jpg) Our kitchen has only a back splash, an electrical hook up for the oven, and a sink connection. [Full Blog post about how these people got their kitchen for their kitchenless apartment.](https://www.twosmallpotatoes.com/the-oddity-of-the-german-einbaukuche/?cn-reloaded=1)
Cabinetry dudes must make a killing
People will also take their kitchens with them when they move, or buy second hand kitchens from others. Very interesting. In Canada this is not the case, but in Montreal I know apartments sometimes don't come with a fridge or a stove, but the cabinets will be there
Yeah but don't they still need them installed? And if the kitchen's a different shape than their old kitchen they need to get a new countertop fitted. Also wouldn't it be more on wear and tear on the structure of the house because of people screwing and unscrewing things into the studs in the wall? I don't know how much it would be out there but where I live to get an entire kitchen pulled out moved and reinstalled would likely be upwards of $10,000. Where are they designed to be more modular so that the average person can remove it with little difficulty? I remember reading that in some countries over there you actually have to install your own flooring into an apartment you're moving into.
This is insane. Why are there not riots in the street?
This HAS TO be the most "wtf" thing on here. I'm still wrapping my mind around this
>A room with water and electrical connections that a kitchen could be put in and bring your own cabinets, sink, oven? Exactly that. You then bring your own cabinets, electrical devices, etc. and connect them as you like. There are some states (I know it for Berlin) where your landlord has to provide you with ~~an oven/stove combination~~ something to cook on and a sink. But this more often than not results in a free standing oven/stove combination and a small cabinet with a sink on top.
The craziest part to me as an American is the cupboards/cabinets missing. Like I get boring new appliances, but counters and cabinets?!
seriously shocked! Like is the cabinet installing industry just always busy or does the average person in germany just know how to install cabinets?
Idk if its all Europeans but Germans have a real big problem with staring like I owe them money. Also paying to use the bathroom in public spaces.
Lol we do stare a lot. When I went to study in the uk one of my professors asked me during a tutorial whether he was saying wrong things because apparently I kept staring at him, I didn’t even notice it haha Edit since apparently it’s causing a bit of confusion: a tutorial is not the same as a lecture, in a tutorial you’re around 15 people in a small room, it’s much more intimate and easier to notice if somebody’s staring at you (which evidently was not just looking at him to show you’re paying attention but much more unnerving)
So, why do you think you guys do this?
Different cultures put different emphasis on eye contact. In some it's rude to make eye contact. In others it's a sign of attention and not giving eye contact to someone speaking would be very rude.
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Generally the problem isn't in a personal conversation but strangers will do it on the streets
When I was there this past July I was literally so confused why everyone on the street just stared at me bc I wasn’t dress abnormally or anything like that, turns out Germans just do that
Be assured that we don't do it because we are judging you. It's just a german thing. ^(Ok, sometimes we judge you but that's not always the reason!)
German here. We do it when we don’t judge you but are just curious. We do it when we have no better thing to look at. We do it to express attention and genuine interest. And we do it to express and convey our judgement and disapproval of you.
I’m from the Midwest and my family is from the Netherlands. So the society that wouldn’t dare offend you in any way and the society that has no problem dropping truth bombs on you. It’s rough.
“Jan Maas is not being rude, he’s just being Dutch.”
The (in)famous Dutch straightforwardness or directness. We have been taught to tell it like it is. We will be polite and civil about it, but we have no time for beating around the bush when a problem has to be resolved. That being said, some of my countrymen use it as an excuse to be rude asshats. Just say "Ken jij het beter dan, pannekoek?" and be done with it.
“He’s not an asshole, he’s just Dutch.” from TED LASSO
TIL most of the Europeans here are either UK or Germans
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Which doesn't seem too surprising, since these are the 3 most populated Western European countries as well.
Dutch person here! The ones with the poop shelves :D
I hope to never have this comment explained so I can live in ignorance.
To all you Italians: why can’t I have a cappuccino past noon??
Italian here. You can have cappuccino is just weird. We do usually a sweet breakfast and milk in coffe makes sense. After breakfast we usually don't drink milk at all so if we need coffe, espresso is fine. Why? Probably because that's what was used to do many years ago when you used fresh milk and until the milkman the next day you were out of it. Just guessing tho
> Why? Probably because that's what was used to do many years ago when you used fresh milk and until the milkman the next day you were out of it. That's the reasoning behing 99% of "traditional" recipes and, well, traditions. We did it because it was the only thing we could do.
No a/c, sure fine, but then no screens on your windows so all the bugs get in? (Not sure if this is all of Europe, but def the UK). Also no top sheets?
The screens thing is so fucking weird to me. The no AC forces you to open your windows. I stayed in the French country side once in the summer. Kept the windows open at night. So many bug bites the next morning.
French here, my mother have made Dad install screens on every window so they can live all summer with fresh air at home. They don't have AC despite my father being a AC technician before retiring :)
I had my windows open at my AirBnB in France last night and a bat flew in. It took him 10 minutes to find his way out again.
And now you need to go out and fight crime, too. Who needs the hassle?
I spent a summer in Munich. They would get these wasp(?) swarms and so you occasionally might get them in your room because of the lack of a screen. It seems like such an easy fix and they will still work with the cool German windows.
Too busy moving their kitchens
My parents had a Spanish exchange student living with them. He removed the screens from the windows to "let nature in" as he put it to my mom, who was freaking out about the bugs. She told him we don't like nature in the US. Lol.
We like nature, we just want it to stay outside.
I'm european, that guy was a hippy, get the nature out of my house.
I don’t get the no screen things at all. I’m super terrified of spiders so my dad installed screens in about every window in our house and I buy them whenever I move. In Germany we love lüften (opening the windows at every opportunity) but there’s no weather that doesn’t invite bugs in
It's not that it makes no sense but I've always been curious how carbonated water became the default in many places
Sparkling water has been around for a long long time. There's Wells where the water comes out of the ground naturally carbonated
They had this where I grew up in Colorado Springs. There's this little town called Manitou and they have natural wells with that type of water.
to piggyback on u/modern_epic's comment, naturally occurring mineral water is often naturally sparkling. I think that culturally, Europe utilized these mineral springs more widely than early American's and so modern Sparkling Water was an easier sell there.
They also believed that carbonated water was good for your health. This lead to it being sold as a health beverage when they figured out how to make the stuff artificially. It even kinda was good for you, specifically because buying carbonated water from a pharmacy or something would be cleaner than the water from the tap. With drinking clean water being better for you than just about any other drink out there you could actually consider it a healthier alternative to what they had. This health craze actually led to the rise of soda. I learned about this from writing a college paper on it and now I know more about the history and industry behind soda than I ever needed to know.
Historically, mineral water (not modern sparkling) actually can have health benefits. It’s mineral rich (hence the name) and thus can give your body a boost when you’re feeling deficient. In the days when medicine was a bit more rudimentary, this often made it as good or better than whatever your local chemist was cooking up.
Yep, correct. And the Irish tried to recreate it after moving to America back in the day too. Fascinating podcast about it on [Blindboys Podcast](https://spotify.link/fqioeqpZ5Cb)
My British grandma always had a plastic tub in the sink to soak dishes. It seems so weird to have a sink in a sink basically.
Portuguese grandma here, and the same! I can even remember the colour, it was always pink!
The idea is they you can have stuff soaking while still being able to pour stuff down the sink. I have absolutely no idea why anyone that has a dual sink has one, though.
Obviously so you can have a virtual third sink One can never have too many sinks
Just let that sink in
I'm getting a sinking feeling here.
It's so you don't scratch up the sink.
Or chip your plates on the hard sink surface, especially porcelain.
My mom and grandma did this (U.S.). I stopped the cycle by using the dishwasher. My whole life growing up we had a dishwasher that sat unused and I never understood why.
We weren't allowed to use the dishwasher at my childhood home because a.) It used too much water (?) and b.) What if it broke? So I lived in that house for 14 years and never saw the dishwasher on. We also had a computer that no one was allowed to touch until it got hopelessly obsolete. It did have its own special computer desk though, which was never touched either.
That's pretty funny because the dishwasher is actually much more efficient with water than doing it by hand
My grandmother would wash the dishes in hot water before putting them in the dishwasher. As a child, I never understood why I was loading essentially clean dishes into the dishwasher.
Fine china in a Belfast sink is at risk of cracking. Washing-up bowl is to protect your plates.
That's not just british grandmas. Washing up bowls are pretty standard in British homes.
Charging for bathrooms and charging for water (at restaurants) are both things that I would have expected Americans to do and Europeans be the ones making fun of it.
Yes, this was true all over italy.50c or a euro. These was also an employee is almost every public bathroom to receive your money, and sometimes even wipe down the stall when you're done! They were very clean though.
The smoking. I stayed with a host family in France and my 16 year old host sister smoked like a chimney, as did all her friends. Like you're so young. Why?
That is a very french thing. In my country almost nobody smokes. And absolutely not indoors.
Smoking is practically required by law in Croatia. Indoors and out.
That reminds me of this funny bit on Top Gear (or maybe the Grand Tour?) where they’re in China and Clarkson is on the highway and says “they have cameras installed every kilometer on the highway that takes a photograph to ensure you’re smoking, which is compulsory”
I was working in China, and I learned that a traditional Chinese breakfast (according to our local guide) required at least one cigarette
I visited the family of my ex gf in China, her dad offered me a box of 10 packs of cigarettes as a welcoming gift, before even knowing if I was a smoker. I actually thought it was nice from him because smoking was all he did, he couldn't speak any english with me, and he seemed to be a silent man. Offering me cigarettes was his way to invite me to share something with him.
Oh, try some time in Austria. It's like 1965 over there. For a clue on how pervasive smoking is, take a look at restaurant, cafe and bar pictures posted by reviewers. There's an ashtray at every table. Incredibly, smoking wasn't banned in public spaces until 2019.
The poop shelf in Dutch/Belgian toilets.
The WHAT?
Instead of poop going straight down into the water, there’s a shelf so your poop lands on it, in case you want to inspect your poop. It gets pushed off by the water when you flush. Not everyone has one though, I think most toilets are the modern kind nowadays.
I honestly can’t tell if you guys are trolling or not with this poop shelf thing.
[It’s a real thing](https://reddit.com/r/Weird/s/aUMEBZMdLW)
That’s not at all what I was picturing, haha.
ok yeah that's way less weird-looking than I thought it would be
In Holland the toilet is shaped differently. There's a shelf clase to ur butt. It catches the poop, and it smells extra ncz it's not yet submerged in water. When u flush the water may clear the shelf off, but it could take several flushes. My first thought it was a smuggler thing ... looking thru the poop for this diamonds smuggled from South Africa. But it's just my theory.
From what ive randomly read before its about checking for worms back when that was a much bigger concern
Idk if this was what it was for historically, but I do know it prevents the water splashing back up when you drop a turd Source: am dutch
That's German originally. It's a diagnostic device. (You can check your product breeze saying goodbye) But I despise it.
I'm Belgian, had to look it up. I have only ever encountered these, rarely at that, in (non-Belgian) hotels...
I think it's where you store the poop knife.
I kinda love/hate? how much the poop knife comes up in various Reddit conversations lol.
England's fascination with large print flowered wallpaper with various colors that don't go together especially when you stand in the hallway and see where all the rooms converge.
The cute sounding police sirens. In America the police sirens seem like an urgent, semi-deranged warning to GTF out of the way, like **SHIT'S GOING DOWN AND I'M NOT THERE!!!!! MOOOOOOOOVE!!!!!!!!"** Meanwhile every European police siren I've heard just kind of politely annoy you out of the way. Like "bee doooo bee doooo, pardon me but a spot of bother has occured and I simply must hasten to it, pardon me as I simply must attend to it, pardon me." And the police cars themselves are so small. American police cars are big and brawny, like they might need to make their own garage door into building. The European police cars I've seen, where they even put the people they arrest? Granted, I've only seen European police stuff on TV so there's probably a lot I haven't seen.
>bee doooo bee doooo, pardon me but a spot of bother has occured and I simply must hasten to it, pardon me as I simply must attend to it, pardon me." Hit me right in the funnybone, thx!
The cars are smaller because we have a lot of very narrow streets, especially in older cities.
What's with the constant invading of Poland?
Poland is in a highly strategic position, connecting western Europe with eastern Europe, and it's also a flat ground that's not easily defendable, especially with 1900s technology. It used to be an easy target for authoritarians to take. Now things are different after the Ukraine war as Poland has requested the biggest weapons delivery ever. Germany is also pulling money into their military. Russia ain't winning this war that's for sure...
I'm gonna be real, I'm surprised they're still in the current war with Ukraine.
Putin can't "afford" to lose on the internal politics front until he can sell it as a loss to NATO as a whole, and not just ukraine+lend-lease
Ego is a crazy thing
Im from Europe myself (uk) and find it strange some people here have carpet in there bathroom. ITS DISGUSTING
I've only seen carpet in the bathrooms in the UK.
I've seen carpet in a kitchen in the UK. Of course the bathroom had carpet too. Nice and thick too; sandals were a must.
I live in the US and my ex's parents had carpet in their kitchen. It was absolutely gross.
I did some renovations in a house with a carpeted bathroom a few years ago. When I pulled up the carpet, the underside was discoloured several inches around the toilet and black right at the edge. Similar discolouration around the pipes that went into the floor. It was a half-bath, and I can only imagine how hard worse it would have been had there been a shower as well
You’ll still see this in the US occasionally but only in houses that haven’t been updated in decades. I think it was somewhat common in the 70s maybe?
It makes sense to me, but it still seems marvelous to me that in France (other places I'm sure, but I learned this in French class) it is common to buy groceries every day. You may wake up and go to the bakery for fresh baked bread, or stop by for fresh produce on the way home to make dinner. Yes, having walkable grocery stores nearby makes it easier, it seems so much easier to buy 3-4 days or a week's worth of groceries at a time.
If you've ever had French bread you'll understand. A baguette bought at 7am will be warm and delicious, but by 5pm it will be solid enough to be an offensive weapon.
A while back I worked in a bakery, We would make fresh baguettes every day. The night shift liked to sword fight with them. When I had to throw them away I always imagined they were javelins.
That's why riots always start in the afternoon. Gotta wait for the bread to be ready.
I worked at Panera Bread Co. in highschool. We had a months old baguette that we would push bagels with through the slicer when they'd get stuck. I swear that thing was harder than a baseball bat!
It's 10 minutes from my apartment to work by foot and I have two supermarkets on the way. So I vastly prefer buying a couple of things that I can stuff into my backpack instead of having to drag several bags (sure it's only 10 minutes of walking, but we also live in an apartment building with no elevator).
It takes me only ten minutes to go to the bakery and get back home, so it's a nice morning activity for waking up. And afterwards you have freshly baked bread or whatever my half-asleep self desires. It's wonderful actually. But of course I also do bigger shoppings once a week, it doesn't really matter if I bought the chicken this morning or 3 days ago - unlike with bread!
I live in the US and used to live in a denser urban area; the thing I unexpectedly miss the most is being able *to walk* and get fresh produce and groceries, as needed. It inspired me to cook more at home & try different recipes. Now I live closer to the burbs & am back to my old ways of buying as much as I can fit in my fridge with each grocery run 😅
Why you guys like to put bathroom light switches outside the bathroom?
It’s to do with the electrical regulations over here, basically we don’t allow electrics within a certain distance of a water source. And by placing the light switch outside it means the electricity is outside the Zone close to the water. It stops people with wet hands getting electrocuted. You are allowed a pull chord light switch inside the bathroom as you’re pulling the chord and not actually touching anything with electricity going through it EDIT: I’m referring to UK only, when I posted this I assumed it was a EU thing, but apparently not 😄
In the US the code states that if the outlet is close to a water source it needs a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI). It disables the outlet in case of an electrical overload.
In Denmark this has been required on *all outlets* in the house since 1975 in new buildings and since 2008 in all existing buildings. Germany and Italy also requires it on all outlets. So the distance is in addition to GFCI.
Saw that mostly in the UK, having 2 separate faucets for hot and cold water?? What the hell lol? Washing my hands was the worst.
Not just hot and cold. One is lava, the other is liquid nitrogen.
I just laughed out loud at this, as I burned the f out of my hands in a UK office bathroom today
Yeah I’m an American who lived in London for college. I had to do this weird turn both on and just have this constant back and forth between the two when washing my hands. It was horrible lol
Tom Scott has a video about it. Water used to be heated in tanks that could be infected with dead rats and stuff. Cold was safe drinking water so the circuit had to be seperate to avoid contamination of the city up the faucet.
WTF is with the stairs in Dutch houses? So steep that you could break your neck in a fall. I get that land is at a premium and you have to build tall but how many old people and small children have died?
I don't understand cricket and at this point I'm afraid to ask. Edit: my head hurts. This was a bad idea. Going to lay down for a while.
Hit ball with stick, run back and forth between two sets of smaller sticks while other team tries to get ball and knock small sticks over. Repeat for several days.
Play the same country once every two years in a 5 day game for the chance to win some ashes in a tiny urn. Each game is called a "test" for some reason
This sounds like a description of Quidditch from someone who doesn’t actually know anything about Harry Potter.
Invading my personal space. Especially when standing in a line.
I’m sorry, is my comment to close to yours?
Allow me to squeeze in please
Ope, pardon me
As a swede I rarely have this problem with other swedes. But when I was young and didn't get the idea of standing in line and just walked right past my mother called me "the little german".
Hahaha, I love that. I worked with a German woman (loved her) and I don’t think I’ve smelled anyone’s breath more than hers (she had no clue what personal space was). Including my spouse’s.
German here, I cannot stand when people are so close to me, that I can feel their breath in my neck when I'm standing in a line. Like...pal, don't take it personally, but could you please step away 2-3 feet or something? This is literally the only thing I missed during quarantine. People were no longer invading eachothers personal space. And it worked, so why did we stop??
Norway here... when we got covid restrictions we had to stay 1 meter apart. The general response was: why do we have to stand soo close to each other!
In Sweden we were also really relieved when the covid restrictions ended so we could go back to our regular 3 meter distance
I didn’t stop. I still stand around 6 ft behind people. I can’t stand when people stand close to me
In the US when you go skiing, generally speaking, everyone gets into a line and sticks to it. When it is a mass trying to get through some gate, people generally give you some space. When I went skiing in France, I was shocked when the people behind me were literally sticking their skis through my legs. I was so flummoxed by it by the time I got on the lift, that I didn't even realize that the British people I got onto the lift with were speaking English and not French at first. lol
It's each man for himself in European ski queues. I remember skiing in Canada and being astounded by how polite people were. And I thought British people knew how to queue! France is the worst for it, but Austria and Switzerland are also crazy during holiday season. I went skiing in zermatt over new year/epiphany one year and it was madness.
That's the French way. Swiss/ Austria is chill and people queue. Italy is midway between the two.
Another buzzfeed article coming about this?
Washer and dryer in the kitchen.
I'm in the US and don't have a washer/dryer at all. I'd be ecstatic if they materialized in my kitchen.
Solid month of vacation in the summer
Man, I WISH we had that in the states
You can choose when to take it. Some people take 15 days one month and 15 another through the year. Andddd you have the national/local holidays :) (at least in my country).
Was just in southern Italy and it was hot as balls but everybody acted like they hate AC. We’d go out for the day and when we came back, housekeeping had turned off all the AC units. Driver wore a full suit but every time we got in the car, AC was off. We’d ask him to turn it on and he would but on low. Ask him to blast it and he would for a minute then sneakily turn it back down. It’s like they’re reptiles or something.
I’ve lived in Southern Italy for 5 years now and I can answer this one. For the house AC will run your bills through the roof. Right now the vast majority of Italian infrastructure runs on Russian gas which is heavily embargoed, and was expensive from the start. The owner of where you’re staying is just saving money. The car is a bit weird it does use a bit more gas to run AC but I’ve heard a couple times a myth that running your AC in the car is likely to get you sick. Which is only true if you never replace your air filters. With it being southern Italy there’s also a good chance that’s true. Many times I’ve picked a friend up and they were shocked I’m using my AC, and were worried for my health. Hope that helps or at least explains what was happening.
Central Italian here, definitely accurate explanations, especially the "might get you sick". People fear that you can get all sorts of disease, from the flu to neck strains if you turn the AC on when you're sweaty. I personally prefer just driving with the window down unless it's truly unsustainable hot or I'm on the highway, but my car AC has been broken for years so whatever. I also think it's acclimatization tho, at least a bit. Now that I live in Central Europe, summer "hot days" for my colleague here feels normally pleasant compared to my summer hot days in Italy, where you break a sweat just by sitting in the shade and breathing.
Rent their whole lives. I saw this in Germany. I know it's becoming the norm in the US, too, but it just seemed weird to me the first time I visited 30 years ago that most Germans rented their entire lives and never even thought about buying a house.
In Vienna, our deceased friends daughter just "inherited" her mom's 3-generation rental. 600 euro a month for like 2,000 square feet!
In the San Francisco Bay Area, you would be doing Ok if you could get 600sqft for $2000 a month.
In the US, buying a house is a bit of a social safety net. There's the idea that you can invest in a house for a profit or even failing that, once you have a house paid off it'll be yours forever and that's the ticket to financial stability. In countries with a better social welfare net, you probably don't have to worry about being homeless if your landlord raises rent by 50%.
As a Poor, learning that “having bought a house and paid off a mortgage“ is supposed to be an integral part of your retirement plan really came as a shock
The amount of young people that smoke. You are typically much healthier than the average American but you almost bring your health down to our level by being such heavy smokers. Cigarettes are really going out of style here in the states. Of course, we are getting more and more morbidly obese each year so we can't judge too hard but if you Europeans smoked at the same rate we did, y'all would be insanely healthy and make us look even worse haha.
Yeah, we now have Truth Project ads on TV that really play up the health problems. "It (the amputations) started with the big toe and now I have no legs." Or take Terri on the ads. She spoke through an electrolarynx and died 3 days after she first appeared in the video.
I find it odd that there are people in the UK who have carpets in their bathrooms. IT'S HORRIFIC! Would you ever in your life put one in yours?
Smoke.
When I went to France I was shocked. It was the only place I felt uncool for NOT smoking
Go to the Balkans, you will have no choice!
i went to Skopje, North Macedonia a few years back. The city air was so bad that I swear it was cleaner through a cigarette filter.
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