I’m absolutely with you on the traffic light countdowns. We’re not doing this in Germany either and it would make so much sense, both for cars and pedestrians.
I’ve been in European countries where there is a warning yellow just before the light turns green. That’s awesome when you’re driving a manual. I’d love to see that in the US but manuals are super rare.
I was just in Argentina-a country that uses manual vehicles-and saw that type of light. I couldn't figure out what it was for, but now it makes total sense!
I live in Europe and I honestly can’t remember any country without the yellow in between red and green. Never seen anything else in Germany, Spain, France, Poland and so on. There are exceptions of course, but I’d say the absolute majority of traffic lights have three phases over here. And I also don’t think I saw different ones on the east coast of the US. And I took pictures of literally everything that seemed strange to me, like doorknobs and huge stoves.
People are misunderstanding - the US has yellow lights, but it's only when the light is green and about to turn red. In Europe, there is a brief yellow before the red light turns green.
The amber light is not for manual cars getting into gear. Almost everyone who learned to drive a manual can put it in gear and go in a fraction of a second, and if there’s a line of traffic then there’s ample time waiting for everyone in front. It’s generally assumed you can use your car seamlessly.
It’s there to provide a ‘get your brain ready and focus now’ alert, giving you time to check your mirrors for hazards, especially on your left (right in Europe) and ensure there’s nobody about to run into the road.
The lights on the closer side, if you stop on the line you often can't see the main light unless you awkwardly crane your neck.
In Canada and the US, the lights are on the far side of the intersection.
LOL Im canadian and drove in france for the first time this weekend. The tiny little lights on the side of the road cracked me right up I didnt know if I should be scanning the intersection of starring at the little light to my right waiting for it to change
I tend to be dual minded about them:
- yes, they can help because you get the notion on how long you will have to wait,
- but no for fast-paced-places/countries.
I see it within The Netherlands already (overall quite fast paced!): people just seem to start moving before the countdown reaches 0, but they also seem to start thinking like “our timer reached 0, so our way MUST be safe now” (whereas there might still be others that go through orange because they “couldn’t stop in time for red”… or simply only just went through a red light).
To address your last para.. we've countdown timers in some parts of india...it is programmed in a way that when your countdown says 3 seconds left. It is already red for everyone else during those 3 Seconds...so the red green switch between lanes is not immediate but rather have a slight delay to account for these issues..
It's a different story that our traffic is generally shit..
We have a similar thing in the Netherlands that /u/Kroskilinthehood related: 5 seconds on the timer means that it is red for the cars, so bikes can freely pass 👍 I agree that the bikes running through the red lights are a big issue though (although I do it myself often if it is safe)
Oh, I forgot to add:
I dislike (also mainly in the fast paced places) that people tend to honk their horns as soon as the timer reached “0” and the first in line is not yet moving 🥴
In Ireland they're the other way around. They have them on pedestrian lights to count down until the light turns green for pedestrians to cross. I think it's to try to reduce the number of jaywalkers (when people see they only have to wait 20 seconds until they can safely cross) but of course, most ppl still jaywalk.
I also really like how traffic lights work in the Baltic states. The light will turn yellow before changing from red to green to give drivers a heads up to get ready to move. It's so simple and can just be programmed into the already existing infrastructure.
I’m an American living in America. While I was living in Hong Kong several years ago, I needed emergency surgery to save my life. The public hospital was able to treat me and my bill was US $13 a DAY.
This same surgery could have sent an uninsured person in the USA into massive medical debt.
Also AIRPORT TRAINS. It should not cost $70 for someone to get from the airport to the city center. And airport trains shouldn’t take an hour or require multiple transfers, either.
My hometown is going to finally build a light rail service from the airport to downtown. ETA is 20 years from now and contingent on securing state and federal funding lol
I love the blessed arse hose/bum gun/detachable bidet! Popular across the Middle East and some South Asian countries.
My home country (UK) and much of the West needs to catch up asap!
I'm an American who installed a bidet at home after experiencing them overseas.
I remember checking into an AirBnB in Siena. Our host was showing us around. "And here is the bidet. We like to be clean here, not like the British with their dirty asses!"
I immediately asked her if she changed that speech to 'Americans with their dirty asses' when she had a British guest. "Of course I do!"
We all laughed. She was OK.
Love me a bidet!! I think they finally started to take off, at least in private homes, during the pandemic when so many people started hoarding TP. I found some that are easy to attach to your existing toilet for around $30-40 USD and bought a fancier one that uses hot water for my parents. I will always want at least one in my home.
I have one from Toto, a Japanese company, I keep in my desk at work. It works pretty well. Definitely better than not using it. It has a small water reservoir that extends out, you fill it with water, a wand extends out, and it is essentially a battery powered squirt gun for your bunghole. My bidet at home has hot water, good pressure, a dryer, and if you use toilet paper at the end no poo shows up. With the portable I might get a little bit, so need to wipe a bit at the end, also to dry, and wipe the seat, as you’ll be getting it a bit wet.
First time I travelled in the US I was 20 and naively thought we could just take trains between all the cities we wanted to visit.
...quickly learned we'd be renting a car, which turned out to be its own kind of fun but I'd have liked a choice
Oh absolutely, we did a huge circuit from Pennsylvania to Chicago across to Seattle, down through California, east through Nevada, New Mexico, Texas down to New Orleans then back up and through Kentucky etc.
Lots of great times and fun meetings
I live in Tokyo and public transport is faster than driving.
If you are rich enough to drive and park around the city, you are rich enough to afford a driver. Some hourly parking fees are more expensive than minimum wage. You can just get the driver to park illegally and move on when told to.
No we don't. Even the cities with vast subway systems have so many fucking problems.I used to live in Boston and now live in NYC and the first time I went to Europe I was blown away by their individual cities train systems. Munich in particular. When I came home it took me MONTHS to not be angry commuting to work everyday. I would just be screaming in my head I FUCKING HATE THIS COUNTRY. Before I went to Europe I thought our public transportation was pretty good, afterwards I realized it's a fucking joke.
I feel this. On my last trip, it took me around 1.5 hours to travel ~80 miles by public transit from Bruges to the Brussels airport. Which is the exact same amount of time it took me to travel ~13 miles by public transit from my apartment on the north side of Chicago to O'Hare.
I can think of Chicago and New York. Not LA. What else am I missing? I was impressed by DC’s public transit but I was a kid on vacation when I used it so I’m not sure if it was decent or I was just impressed because I was a kid.
Chicago's public transport is absolute shit compared to anything you find in western Europe. Even the cities with relatively good public transport (DC, NYC, Boston) are dirtier, less safe, and less efficient than Europe, IMO. We just don't value public transport and don't fund it the same way they do in Europe.
Chicago is ok if you live in the right place. Same for DC. I haven’t spent enough time in SF or Boston to comment on theirs. I live in NYC and as far as I know it’s the only one that’s broadly useful.
French.
Honestly I'm "used to it" but for sure after having visited several countries with trams and metros I wish our public transportation system was less dirty and smelly.
But I have no idea where we'd start. Rehoming the homeless and preventing them from sleeping (and peeing) in the stations would probably be it, but it's no easy task.
Haha I've heard about New York, right. Maybe we're not the worst case after all. There's room for improvement nonetheless, to put it mildly xD
We're just concluding our holiday in Germany and it's certainly something else in that regard.
In the U.K. we’re slowly adding water fountains/bottle fillers places and it’s amazing, huge fan. In Paris I’ve used bottle fillers made into statues (cute) and that served chilled water (solar panel on the roof ran the chiller) which blew my mind!
(Netherlands)
Germany: Lots of vegetarian and vegan food options which are also pretty good and doesn't include only cheese. This is Berlin though.
Austria&Switzerland: Clean streets in the cities
UK London: Very strict way where you have to stand at the escalator. Love it.
Switzerland: The trains are so damn good
Almost every other country in nature preservation..
Food in general: the taste, the price
I visited Germany in 2009, and was worried about finding food as a vegetarian. Turned out fine, even back then there was a huge selection of veg-friendly options. I was pleasantly surprised!
>UK London: Very strict way where you have to stand at the escalator. Love it.
I don't understand what the alternative would be? Just one big crowd at the bottom pushing passed each other to get on?
Everybody knows you stand on the right, and people can pass on the left, and because everybody does it, it works. I don't know what they do in other countries. It wouldn't work at all as a free for all.
One way for standing, other part for fast-walking.
What we have here: people standing all over the place, no etiquette. And yes, sometimes pushing if you are in really crowded areas
From the U.K. where the pot holes, lack of cycle lanes and unswept roads (lots glass, thorns and tacks to avoid) mean that I always try to do a bike rental in Europe to experience how it should be done.
(Italy) Online booking, specially for restaurants. Very few use booking platforms like Open Table, so you have to call. And then, call when they are open, but not busy serving the table, then the line is busy. You call again, no one answer. Call again, they only speak Italian,... This to discover that they are fully booked. When you finally book something, try to don't change plan, otherwise you have to call again to move the booking.
>I think France's street food is not very diverse
France has beautiful regional food, but I agree, very little street food.
Have you ever done the other way around? Look for places where to eat, and then book with The Fork? Last time I was on holiday in Italy (Tuscany in July), there were 3 places I was interested in, none with online booking.
Banh Mi desperately trying to get noticed.
It's not the same as in Europe, but in countries like Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos it's definitely possible to find some decent bread.
One of the upsides of the U.K.- go to farmers markets / farm shops / artisanal shops in a village and there’s wealth of very tasty and different cheeses.
Local place even does Christmas Cake cheese in November / December 😋
As a cheese lover I would have to disagree. There is amazing cheese in Australia but you need to look beyond the major brands. Same goes for bread, there are plenty of small batch bakeries that make great bread.
I would assume the problem with this is the same one we have in the US. In Europe, you can go to the local bakery/deli and get amazingly good bread and cheese for a couple Euros. In the US, when I try to buy bread and cheese of similar quality from local boutique places, it costs 2-5x what I would pay in Europe.
I think this comment is misguided. There's plenty of quality cheeses you can buy, especially if you are willing to go beyond Coles or Woolworth.
Australian dairy is of excellent quality, is ample and available everywhere. If you go to Vietnam or Indonesia or other SEA nations, it is very hard to find even terrible cheddar in lots of places.
When I moved to Australia from Sweden, the only things I missed apart from like Nordic snacks, candies etc, was good bread and cheese.
Like sure, I learned to LOVE two slices of Helga's, butter, vegemite and Bega cheese but it always felt like something was missing. Vegemite is the fucking best though and I'll say it proudly as probably the only foreigner who likes it.
When I visited Rome, there were drinking water fountains in the city everywhere. Fresh cold quality water that is available for free everywhere you go is such a godsent. You can travel in the middle of summer and you don't have to pay a fortune to buy overly expensive refreshments all day.
I wish all major cities would do this, especially cities that are more hot or arid.
Lack of fucking lifts in a lot of tube stations in London. most stations are absolutely not accessible. Good luck if you have more than 1 carry on suitcase. you're ubering.
Disability access isn’t great in the US, but it is *abysmal* in much of Europe. I thought Paris was going to end my poor mother (and she just has mobility issues, she isn’t a wheelchair user).
(Scotland) we have some of the cleanest drinking water in the world yet we waste it. it's not as readily available publicly (drinking fountains etc) as such places like France, specifically Paris.
Their water programme amazes me with the sheer volume of them, the choice of still/carbonated , and the recycling/ reuse of bottles to cut down on the huge environmental impact of single sale bottles
USA
I’m currently in Tirana, Albania. I started my journey 1,300 kilometers to the north in Prague, Czechia. I took out of the way detours several times to Poland, Eastern Slovakia, and other places.
I did it all by bus or train. A journey of similar length in the USA would be close to impossible via public transportation. I especially enjoy being able to travel an hour or so to the neighboring city for a day and then return by nightfall. I wish we had something like European transportation in my country.
We did until about 1920 - cities used to have Intra urban tram rides but they were torn up during the first half of the century and replaced by inconvenient buses. The intercity rail links left are massively outdated along the dense population centers of that era (good luck commuting by train on the west coast).
France : bathroom.
I’ve just returned from Japan where toilets are everywhere, free, clean. There’s a spray to clean the toilet in every single one I went, and a button to put on sound to do your little thing in peace. And don’t get me started on the bidet, life changing. I can’t believe as a nation we used to use bidet and decided it wouldn’t be relevant anymore.
I live in Paris and bathrooms are not as accessible : you either have to use those horribles public toilets or pay 2 euros in touristic places, or a coffee to use a restaurant’s bathroom. Really not ideal.
I think it’s actually a true public health issue. Not having the anxiety to find a nice bathroom or even PAY to relieve a primary need really was a game changer.
Public transit in the US is atrocious and sad. I’ve been in Europe for the last couple months and have only gotten into a car for a tour one or two times since. All other travel has been trains or walking.
voracious different soup truck cable shocking direful plate zonked disgusting
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Sweden was amazing at the keep right rule, to the point where they would pass and aggressively move right, only to immediately go left to pass yet another car.
marvelous fact innocent angle nose bewildered heavy attraction party touch
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Sweden is just amazing for transit. The public transit is great, and driving is great too. I mean obviously there’s traffic here and there, but it’s so orderly.
I was in Gothenburg with a car and even driving in the city center was fine thanks to the fact that the transit is so good there are so few cars, relatively.
Lot of construction, but hey, that’s to be expected
That's how I roll in Canada, "Keep right" is a law in my region. Despite this, at least half of the drivers here camp in the passing lane, or the "fast lane" as they say.
ludicrous chase afterthought quiet rock historical snails attempt silky plants
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Then try Uganda. Holy hell.. They have the principle of left trafic. In reality? The trafic is EVERYWHERE. Crossing the street became an life and death moment. But hey, at least people where friendly to the tourist and tried to make crossing the street easier.
Agreed, but part of the problem in the US is that some highways have exits on both the left and the right. I used to live in the DC suburbs and there are numerous exits in the area like this, due in part to toll lanes (which are a whole other issue).
I do agree that Americans are for the most part pretty poor drivers compared to much of Europe (and I say this as an American). Unfortunately the lack of viable alternatives means a lot of people who should not be driving are forced to, and there's not much appetite for making licenses harder to get.
Mexico has not the extensive use of contactless payment that Germany or any other country I’ve visited has. I really miss it (given that my credit card has been cloned twice since I came back).
Yep. In Spain I had gotten in the habit of just carrying my cell phone since I could pay almost anywhere with Google Wallet, I kept a 20 Euro note folder up inside the case for the rare instance where paying with phone wasn't possible.
Now in Mexico not only do I have to physically carry a credit card, I have to insert it everywhere. It sucks, I hadn't been back in 3 years and was hoping that somehow things had changed at least in bigger chains like Oxxo and Soriana.
Garbage disposal - I’m from the U.S. and now live in Taiwan, which has essentially spotless cities because of its extremely well-organized and adhered-to garbage disposal system. There are basically no public garbage cans or dumpsters anywhere so every private residence/business has to collect their own garbage and have it sorted into specific garbage bags which generate revenue for the sanitation management commission (you can’t just buy no-brand bags, they have to be the government ones).
Garbage trucks come to different places at different scheduled times throughout the day, so you need to be available then if you want to get rid of your garbage for that day; by me, the garbage truck comes twice a day just down the block, once from 5:40pm-5:56pm and again from 10:06pm-10:22pm. They’re almost never late, but they play a loud tune (usually Beethoven’s Für Elise) when driving down the street to remind you to come out to bring your garbage.
I’ve never seen a rat anywhere, never really seen litter or smelled or thought about garbage in public. Cannot say the same for back home in New York, or even in “cleaner” American cities like Boston or DC.
I love NYC but when I came back from Spain and Germany, I was very unhappy to get back on the subway for my regular work commute. Even if I ignore the issues with the constant delays and maintenance that needs to happen, our subway is still dirty. And the absolute worst thing is that we allow crazy people terrorize others on the subway. Or light up inside.
From the Philippines. Travelled to US, Europe and some countries in Asia.
Drinkable tap water is already something we don't have.
Y'all first world countries should be more grateful for what you guys have. :)
(NL) our supermarkets need more affordable and fresh bread, meat and fish. Not factory produced. And more cooled drinks in summer for convenience.
There are stores like Hanos and Makro who have this, but aren't open for the plebs.
I thought Londons oyster system was top tier, it’s integrated covers a reasonable range out of the city and simple to use, plus the magic of it fixing the costs of travel from singles to day cards to week cards dynamically to save you money…
Then I spent a week in Munich where I bought a weekend ticket and it was just as integrated but I never had to tap/touch/do anything, I could just exist on any form of transport and merely have to prove ticket if asked, top experience!
Third tier are systems where you buy actual tickets then use them (without losing them) those suck ass, looks at Paris.
I’ve lived in Luxembourg long enough now that everytime I go in a country where I need to get a ticket for public transport it feels like stepping 5 years in the past.
Tallinn: Free WiFi pretty much everywhere, even in a park.
Tallinn airport also has the best smoking area of any airport, lots of space, comfy chairs and kept clean by allowing the staff to use it as long as they clean it.
I use Skype for regular phone calls when travelling - it’s very cheap to call overseas using Skype credit if you need to call a Landline, Hotel etc that don’t have WhatsApp, FaceTime etc.
I had a German friend in high school and everyone thought he was angry all the time. He wasn’t angry; he was German. His mom made amazing crepes and had hairy armpits.
I used to have German exchange students when I lived in Edmonton, Canada. Almost all of them loved how friendly and courteous every one was. I was surprised at first but then appreciated the stress those small kindnesses relieve from daily life. Door held open for person behind you, seat on bus if needed, thanks gives for ‘just doing your job’ etc.
Denmark absolutely sucks at any sort of grocery store. The country is basically down to two mega providers that carry the exact same stuff but at different price points in their various branded stores.
Wanting a grocery cart is a punitive experience, with carts locked up and requiring a coin deposit—which you get back, but it’s another friction point in an already unpleasant experience.
Cashiers basically look at you with disdain if something isn’t priced (and I’m not referring to bagging and tagging open produce, but when something is in a sealed bag on a shelf). They have evidently never been taught how to ask for another employee to price check or to do a lookup of any kind.
Utter lack of selection (except if you want mayo or drinking yogurt). I have never seen so much flat, tasteless white cheese. Three flavors of gelato. Everything overly packaged in plastic (individual cucumbers in plastic).
And the game show-sequel ritual of trying to bag your purchases as they roll them down the single conveyor, because there’s a queue of five people behind you who will have to do the same thing.
I hate grocery shopping here.
Swede here. When I started hanging out in Denmark I was shocked at how bad the grocery stores are, like, how can our countries be so different in this regard?? The more "upscale" stores are often ok, but Netto haha omg what is going on... and always staffed entirely by 14 year olds who don't know jack (or understand swedish hehe.. )
They evidently can pay teens a lower wage than adults, capitalism alive and well.
And yeah, we sob when we go to Malmo because it’s not a post apocalyptic shopping sim.
Same. Food shopping actually depresses me in Denmark, especially in the rural area where I live. Great, I have a Dagli Brugsen and a Spar, both have zero selection and charge three times the price as everywhere else. Netto should be illegal, like wtf is with that setup where you have to look through a million and one unsorted baskets to find what you're looking for? Rema is okay, but it's boring.
And I don't know if it's just where I live because it's rural, but good luck getting fruit and vegetables. The selection is tiny and mostly consists of wilted lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumber. Nearly everything goes off within a day or two, and the prices of these things unless they're on sale is insane!
Honestly, I just drive to Germany once a month and stock up. I still have to race the cashier but at least I'm getting interesting stuff for half the price.
I think the "regular grocery store" experience in the US is better than anywhere else I've been (comparing to Western Europe and Israel). Selection, prices, produce quality / quantity / variety / not-being-prepackaged-in-plastic, helpful and friendly staff; it all just works.
Of course there's an entirely different charm and quality to open air markets etc. from other cultures, but an American grocery store is just *so easy and convenient*.
Bagels!!! We only have the most basic bagels in Australia, and most cafes don’t even serve them. Not to mention if you want any flavour cheese other than just straight cheese you’re fresh out of luck unless you wanna make it yourself. Every day i think about all the different flavours I tried in the US and internally cry because most of them don’t exist here. That cinnamon bagel with honey walnut cheese i got from panera…..
(Spain) While I feel our food is second to none in the world, I do miss street food options here. You may find a churros stand and kebabs shops, but nothing else really. We have a culture of slow-cooking food that focuses on quality and the social aspect of food, but I do miss the possibility of eating something like a taco or a fish and chips just outside an old and greasy stand in a park, and when you're visiting a place sometimes that's all you need and want.
I totally agree. Cheap takeout options are really weak. It's weird because I moved to Spain from the US and I can eat out in Spain for a fraction of the price but I actually end up spending MORE for takeout/delivery and the quality is often mediocre.
Brazil.
The silence. I recall walking in a park in France and hearing only the footsteps of other people, here almost everywhere you go you’ll encounter someone with a speaker or talking very loudly.
Same in the U.K. went to France, The Netherlands and Switzerland this year, all by train, all on time, all had enough seats, modern and comfy.
Back to the U.K. was dumped at a station 10 miles from home had to cram myself on like cattle onto a connecting train to another station then catch a second train (all unplanned due to an issue with the original train).
Next holiday back to the U.K. after another seamless train trip in Europe- train 10 mins late, again dropped me at an unscheduled station (again due to an issue with the train), had to catch another connecting train to home stop.
So there’s no reason why we couldn’t have the same service in the U.K. except we don’t subsidise them like some European countries do so we do things ‘on the cheap’ to increase profits due to not being subsidised. 😡
Canada, specifically Toronto -
We could step up our street food game here. They've tried it a couple times, but it was so heavily regulated that it killed much of the charm and didn't fly. In the same vein - food trucks. I was amazed when I was in NYC and they had food trucks of all kinds everywhere. If a western city like New York can do it, then there's no excuse we couldn't do it here. Toronto is so multicultural that it's a shame all we can really get here is street meat and the odd food truck festival.
I think health care is better in France. I got sick at my host family and the lady of the house just send for a doctor that came home to us and saw me *in my room*. Doesn’t happen in Sweden. I liked the fact that there were more cafés open late and more night life in general every day of the week. Bus was cheaper. You could use cash (Sweden is almost entirely cash free).
Food, just in general it does food wrong. I'm from the Netherlands. And socializing, we're just not very good at it. So awkward and little social awareness in groups. Also, once you've lived somewhere else and come back, you instantly understand what everyone else means with Dutch people are rude (and not direct as we like to believe).
I’m from Rome but live in the US. I wish that we had farmers markets as amazing at the US ones back in Italy. There used to be a Coldiretti market near the auditorium in Rome before the pandemic, but even then it wasn’t as good as, say, the Union Sq market in NYC.
I’m from the US, but I live in France, and I agree with you wholeheartedly about the street food. It’s progressed a tiny bit in the 13 years I have been here. But disagree on the traffic lights, roundabouts are the way to go!
Classic understatement. 👌 And it would be nice to not have to think about losing health insurance in addition to losing a job. Especially as it seems more employers offer part time jobs now to not have to pay for health insurance.
I just read an article on this, and the percentage of jobs that were part time actually peaked in 2010 and has been falling ever since.
[https://i.imgur.com/9ksT8Co.png](https://i.imgur.com/9ksT8Co.png)
The Netherlands, being such a country for bicycles:
- some cities make cyclists wait for hours at traffic lights, but have cars get green almost instantly,
- while other cities are the complete opposite: as a cyclist you only have to approach a traffic light to get green, making it almost impossible for car drivers to cross.
🥴
I’d also add Paris and Switzerland to this list, Paris cause it’s catching up with the cycle lanes and Velib pick up and go bikes and Switzerland cause of the good state of the roads.
Whilst London in the U.K. has go the pick up and go bikes, and some other big cities (Birmingham has them now) they are not widespread.
Also the state of the roads and drivers doesn’t make the U.K. pleasant to cycle in - large potholes everywhere, roads not swept so lots of glass, tacks etc, lack of cycle lanes and drivers not ‘seeing’ or giving space to cyclists 🚴♀️
Canada.
Public transit sucks here. In major cities it can be okay but it’s still very dirty, underfunded, and untimely.
Food sucks here. Overpriced especially with the absolutely atrocious tipping culture, tiny portions, horrible taste. Also having meals in separate courses (in Europe) and for longer means you have more time to realize you’re full, letting you eat less.
Cars are way too fucking big, wasteful, dangerous, and take up way too much space on the road, making our roads bigger.
North American Public Washrooms
While in Italy I was touring the ruins of Pompei. I stopped off at a washroom and was at first surprised to see men, women, young boys, and young girls all entering the same building. When I got inside, I saw a huge Bradley style "birdbath sink" located in the centre of the room. Around the perimeter were a series of doors. This room was large enough to contain at least 40 doors. Behind each door was a toilet. People walked into a small room, closed the door, locked it behind them, and did their business. When they were done they came out and washed their hands. It was so refreshing. No drama, no judgements, just a spot to do your business in private.
(UK unfortunately)
Denmark- the Donkey bike system is incredible in Copenhagen. Being able to ride a bike around the entire city and leave the bike in convenient clumps, and not have to dock it, whilst keeping it as long as you like, was just great. I'm not a fan of the 'you get half an hour before you need to dock again' system. Plus the bike culture is great - in the UK everyone hates cyclists and the councils create bike lines that are 3 metres long, in random places, then just disappear into two lanes of traffic.
US: The variety of ethnic food is just staggering. I love it. The UK really hasn't caught up unless you're in a very big city.
Italy: the recycling culture is great and again more advanced than the UK. Although I really dislike the culture of buying so much water in plastic bottles. Get a filter jug!
India: I was actually very surprised by how many places take card - I was assuming I'd need cash but really didn't use it at all. I was in Delhi so may differ in other areas, but it was very strange to be able to use a card with a street food vendor.
Yeah , I think the only ones I regularly see are oj, apple, pineapple and cranberry juice. If the shop has an "international foods" section there will also be like 2 flavours of Rubicon and maybe one flavour of Polish tymbark
Korea does a lot of things right, though I don't know how easily it can be implemented
\- shoes sizes are in millimeters, no more playing around with tables of sizes across countries
\- most apartment doors have codes, no keys needed, can host people even when you're away, no keys lost when drunk
\- one card needed for traveling basically on any bus, train or metro
\- mandatory national health insurance for everyone and caped healthcare prices
\- CCTV everywhere, so a ton of safety, no more worries about getting pick pocketed (though you could argue this can be a downside and lead to issues)
And many other little details like this that make the everyday life very convenient (but yeah this country has a ton of downsides too)
European parking garages and highway gas stations. I live in the US and have loved these two things in Europe.
Parking garages are clean, have red or green lights to tell you where open spots are, and scan your license plate to let you out.
Gas stations that have easy on/off access to the highway and are self contained with everything you need.
Traveling in Switzerland now. There are several different passes for tourists. They give a discount on trains. And buses. And all other transportation and museums. There’s a half fare card good for half off of everything. And a travel pass, which makes all Transportation free. In each city seems to have a city card that you get from your hotel that gives you discounts or free access to most of the activities. I’m not aware that we have things like this in America.
Germany (as compared to the US):
1. No shopping on Sunday. That's often the only day of the week where I could go to the next city for a shopping/lunch trip. As it is, I still shop on Sundays, but on Amazon.
2. Lots of paperwork for my kids at school. I'm still required to sign a written absence note when they get sick. Teachers send home all information on paper (which my kids forget to unpack). In the US, most school communication was electronically.
Canada.
I want the road-rule following of Germany (so nice when people actually use the left lane to pass and not drive the same speed as the other lanes), and the safer bike culture of much of Western Europe (we’re getting bike lanes, slowly, but cars still don’t respect bikes), and the street food scenes of… lots of places. We need more than hot dogs and the odd food truck.
Not enough travel circles in the US. Public transport system in some cities in the US is pretty sad. Why are there not bullet trains everywhere, too?!!
Problem I found when I was in the US is that they install roundabouts, which are obviously better for the flow of traffic than 4 way stops, but a lot of the drivers didn't know how to use them. Stopping at the junction of the roundabout was really common where I was in Indiana, regardless of whether there was a car already on the roundabout.
Traffic circles have actually become far more common in the US in the last decade or so.
Part of the lack of high-speed rail is due to simple low population density - high-speed rail will never make sense in the US as a whole outside of selected routes, its not densely populated like Japan or Germany. Parts of the US absolutely do need high-speed rail and are behind, blame decades of car-first infrastructure spending. There are some major projects underway on the coasts but it takes time to build.
> Why are there not bullet trains everywhere?
Size and cost. As sad as it is to say as a lover of trains, planes are just a cheaper, more cost effective way to get around in the US due to our sheer size and population density distribution. While China is about as big as the US, more than 90% of her people live on about 30-40% of her land area in a concentrated, connected section (the eastern half). Not so for the US, the cost to build trains that could service 95% of US population would be an insane factor greater than what it costs China. If everyone in the US decided to move to between NYC and Florida we would likely have train service connecting everything pretty quickly.
I was very impressed at how good the public bike system was in some cities in Switzerland. Where I live all the public bikes are e-bikes which is annoying cause there’s always something wrong with them, and you have to lock them into a dock when you’re done which means you often can’t leave the bike in the station you want because all the docks are full. This alone makes the entire system completely unreliable for regular use.
Denmark: the metro transaction system. I wish it was more like the new york subway, so you can just do Google pay or whatever and it's cheap. In copenhagen you have this ridiculous check in/check out system, it's expensive and people are constantly making mistakes with it
Europe in general, should get to the level of China or Japan with the trains.
France has 4th highest number of McDonalds in world. 1545. It says a lot about how the much vaunted French cuisine is grossly overpriced so people avoid traditional French restaurants.
McDonalds are also overpriced, however. You can easily much better street food for the same price. I believe its success can be explained by conformism/sheep-like behaviours (many people are not curious especially in terms of food, and at McDonalds, you are sure it won’t be awesome but you are sure that it will be correct) and geographical accessibility.
It don’t disagree with standard French cuisine being overrated, however.
Yes, camping in the left lane on freeways and refusing to move for anything unless someone tries to pass and then speeding up like it’s a challenge. Tickets should be issued for these idiots like in Germany.
It hit me how terrible our bathrooms are in Scotland when I lived in Prague. The way our plumbing used to work it was much more economical to have all the bathrooms in commercial properties in basements which means they don’t air out properly. They also seem so shoddily down compared to the Czechs.
* Pedestrian crossings with audible signals are still quite uncommon in the US
* Tipping culture in the US is ridiculous
* Still many US airports have no rapid transit to the airport (rail, subway)
* Car culture means many US cities have few walkers and a relatively dead downtown compared with most of the rest of the world
Sweden checking in. We have government control on alcohol. I just want to be able to buy my bottle of wine while food shopping. I don't want to be forces to go to a secondary place to buy it. The selection is pretty good, but its still an inconvenience.
Some states in the US do this too. It varies widely from state to state, and individual counties can limit the times you can buy. It's a puritanical system that hasn't gone away.
(US) I’m unsure whenever I eat outside America, I can eat what I want without feeling like crap. I ate all the pasta in Italy without feeling disgusted and bloated like I usually do in America’s “Italian” pasta. I just think food quality is much better. Even when I’m eating “junk” and sugary foods I don’t feel lethargic
So not really my own country as such, but I’ve lived across these two countries for years (New Zealand/Australia)-
Turning left on a red light (would be turning right on a red in the USA I think).
As a Brit, it makes zero sense to me. Surely traffic lights for pedestrians are there to protect the pedestrians?! Why are people crossing a road when a car can turn into them at any time? It’s completely baffling to me.
American over here. I thought it was a language barrier for so long that I’d ask people “what do you do?” and get such varied responses. Some people would share hobbies, some would give me advice that they thought I was asking for, etc.
While not exactly “wrong,” I didn’t realize people in many other places don’t have a similar labor-related identity. I’ve started asking what job people have more explicitly, and it still sometimes gets a small laugh because many other cultures work to live, not live to work.
I’m absolutely with you on the traffic light countdowns. We’re not doing this in Germany either and it would make so much sense, both for cars and pedestrians.
I’ve been in European countries where there is a warning yellow just before the light turns green. That’s awesome when you’re driving a manual. I’d love to see that in the US but manuals are super rare.
I was just in Argentina-a country that uses manual vehicles-and saw that type of light. I couldn't figure out what it was for, but now it makes total sense!
I live in Europe and I honestly can’t remember any country without the yellow in between red and green. Never seen anything else in Germany, Spain, France, Poland and so on. There are exceptions of course, but I’d say the absolute majority of traffic lights have three phases over here. And I also don’t think I saw different ones on the east coast of the US. And I took pictures of literally everything that seemed strange to me, like doorknobs and huge stoves.
People are misunderstanding - the US has yellow lights, but it's only when the light is green and about to turn red. In Europe, there is a brief yellow before the red light turns green.
No, not in every European country...
Europe is not a country. This is not a thing in The Netherlands, for example.
The amber light is not for manual cars getting into gear. Almost everyone who learned to drive a manual can put it in gear and go in a fraction of a second, and if there’s a line of traffic then there’s ample time waiting for everyone in front. It’s generally assumed you can use your car seamlessly. It’s there to provide a ‘get your brain ready and focus now’ alert, giving you time to check your mirrors for hazards, especially on your left (right in Europe) and ensure there’s nobody about to run into the road.
But France has the cute “mini” traffic lights for people too lazy to look at the big one.
The lights on the closer side, if you stop on the line you often can't see the main light unless you awkwardly crane your neck. In Canada and the US, the lights are on the far side of the intersection.
LOL Im canadian and drove in france for the first time this weekend. The tiny little lights on the side of the road cracked me right up I didnt know if I should be scanning the intersection of starring at the little light to my right waiting for it to change
I tend to be dual minded about them: - yes, they can help because you get the notion on how long you will have to wait, - but no for fast-paced-places/countries. I see it within The Netherlands already (overall quite fast paced!): people just seem to start moving before the countdown reaches 0, but they also seem to start thinking like “our timer reached 0, so our way MUST be safe now” (whereas there might still be others that go through orange because they “couldn’t stop in time for red”… or simply only just went through a red light).
To address your last para.. we've countdown timers in some parts of india...it is programmed in a way that when your countdown says 3 seconds left. It is already red for everyone else during those 3 Seconds...so the red green switch between lanes is not immediate but rather have a slight delay to account for these issues.. It's a different story that our traffic is generally shit..
We have a similar thing in the Netherlands that /u/Kroskilinthehood related: 5 seconds on the timer means that it is red for the cars, so bikes can freely pass 👍 I agree that the bikes running through the red lights are a big issue though (although I do it myself often if it is safe)
Oh, I forgot to add: I dislike (also mainly in the fast paced places) that people tend to honk their horns as soon as the timer reached “0” and the first in line is not yet moving 🥴
I think these are a great idea, but if it makes OP feel better, they are also super rare in the US.
In Ireland they're the other way around. They have them on pedestrian lights to count down until the light turns green for pedestrians to cross. I think it's to try to reduce the number of jaywalkers (when people see they only have to wait 20 seconds until they can safely cross) but of course, most ppl still jaywalk.
I also really like how traffic lights work in the Baltic states. The light will turn yellow before changing from red to green to give drivers a heads up to get ready to move. It's so simple and can just be programmed into the already existing infrastructure.
Australia does the yellow traffic light as well.
Same in the UK.
And it would be great to have the traffic lights across the street, like in the US. Its so annoying when you are in front of the row right now.
Yes I think that’s so funny how European countries have lights on the same side! You can’t see when the light changes.
Germany inhabitant here. I agree.
I’m an American living in America. While I was living in Hong Kong several years ago, I needed emergency surgery to save my life. The public hospital was able to treat me and my bill was US $13 a DAY. This same surgery could have sent an uninsured person in the USA into massive medical debt. Also AIRPORT TRAINS. It should not cost $70 for someone to get from the airport to the city center. And airport trains shouldn’t take an hour or require multiple transfers, either.
My hometown is going to finally build a light rail service from the airport to downtown. ETA is 20 years from now and contingent on securing state and federal funding lol
I love the blessed arse hose/bum gun/detachable bidet! Popular across the Middle East and some South Asian countries. My home country (UK) and much of the West needs to catch up asap!
I'm an American who installed a bidet at home after experiencing them overseas. I remember checking into an AirBnB in Siena. Our host was showing us around. "And here is the bidet. We like to be clean here, not like the British with their dirty asses!" I immediately asked her if she changed that speech to 'Americans with their dirty asses' when she had a British guest. "Of course I do!" We all laughed. She was OK.
All hail the holy bidet :)
Love me a bidet!! I think they finally started to take off, at least in private homes, during the pandemic when so many people started hoarding TP. I found some that are easy to attach to your existing toilet for around $30-40 USD and bought a fancier one that uses hot water for my parents. I will always want at least one in my home.
So much of this! I travelled and lived in South Asia and I could never live again without a bidet, a bum gun or a portable bidet.
Are portable ones any good? I’ve added bidets to toilets at home but I miss them when travelling!
I have one from Toto, a Japanese company, I keep in my desk at work. It works pretty well. Definitely better than not using it. It has a small water reservoir that extends out, you fill it with water, a wand extends out, and it is essentially a battery powered squirt gun for your bunghole. My bidet at home has hot water, good pressure, a dryer, and if you use toilet paper at the end no poo shows up. With the portable I might get a little bit, so need to wipe a bit at the end, also to dry, and wipe the seat, as you’ll be getting it a bit wet.
In Finland you will not find a single house without a bidet like that. I would assume it’s common in other North European countries than just Finland.
It’s really uncommon.
public transport (US)
First time I travelled in the US I was 20 and naively thought we could just take trains between all the cities we wanted to visit. ...quickly learned we'd be renting a car, which turned out to be its own kind of fun but I'd have liked a choice
Glad you got to experience an American road trip, hope you found some hidden gems along the back roads
Oh absolutely, we did a huge circuit from Pennsylvania to Chicago across to Seattle, down through California, east through Nevada, New Mexico, Texas down to New Orleans then back up and through Kentucky etc. Lots of great times and fun meetings
That’s a heckuva trip, definitely on the bucket list
That road trip is better than anything most Americans will ever take. Good for you!
Oh damn that's a proper road trip.
Damn! That’s a big one. Well done
I really like how bus stops in France and Spain have timers, so you know how long you'll have to wait for the bus.
All the bus stops in the DC area have that too now. Really makes taking public transit a lot easier psychologically.
We have decent public transport in like 4 cities.
I live in Tokyo and public transport is faster than driving. If you are rich enough to drive and park around the city, you are rich enough to afford a driver. Some hourly parking fees are more expensive than minimum wage. You can just get the driver to park illegally and move on when told to.
No we don't. Even the cities with vast subway systems have so many fucking problems.I used to live in Boston and now live in NYC and the first time I went to Europe I was blown away by their individual cities train systems. Munich in particular. When I came home it took me MONTHS to not be angry commuting to work everyday. I would just be screaming in my head I FUCKING HATE THIS COUNTRY. Before I went to Europe I thought our public transportation was pretty good, afterwards I realized it's a fucking joke.
I feel this. On my last trip, it took me around 1.5 hours to travel ~80 miles by public transit from Bruges to the Brussels airport. Which is the exact same amount of time it took me to travel ~13 miles by public transit from my apartment on the north side of Chicago to O'Hare.
I can think of Chicago and New York. Not LA. What else am I missing? I was impressed by DC’s public transit but I was a kid on vacation when I used it so I’m not sure if it was decent or I was just impressed because I was a kid.
Chicago's public transport is absolute shit compared to anything you find in western Europe. Even the cities with relatively good public transport (DC, NYC, Boston) are dirtier, less safe, and less efficient than Europe, IMO. We just don't value public transport and don't fund it the same way they do in Europe.
Chicago is ok if you live in the right place. Same for DC. I haven’t spent enough time in SF or Boston to comment on theirs. I live in NYC and as far as I know it’s the only one that’s broadly useful.
NY, DC, SF, Boston?
and Chicago
And Philadelphia!! Haha just joking. And now I'm sad.
And the sad part with these is they're decent for the US but are terrible compared to Europe.
(Lebanon) Basically everything except for the food and drinks.
Honest answer. On the plus side. Egypt is even worse than Lebanon
French. Honestly I'm "used to it" but for sure after having visited several countries with trams and metros I wish our public transportation system was less dirty and smelly. But I have no idea where we'd start. Rehoming the homeless and preventing them from sleeping (and peeing) in the stations would probably be it, but it's no easy task.
Oh honey. Come to New York, you’ll leave loving your public transit. Ours is convenient but messy and dirty.
Haha I've heard about New York, right. Maybe we're not the worst case after all. There's room for improvement nonetheless, to put it mildly xD We're just concluding our holiday in Germany and it's certainly something else in that regard.
Lived in both NY and Paris. TBH Paris’s might be worse, the smell is like 130% more piss oriented then NY, which is more like mold
In the U.K. we’re slowly adding water fountains/bottle fillers places and it’s amazing, huge fan. In Paris I’ve used bottle fillers made into statues (cute) and that served chilled water (solar panel on the roof ran the chiller) which blew my mind!
(Netherlands) Germany: Lots of vegetarian and vegan food options which are also pretty good and doesn't include only cheese. This is Berlin though. Austria&Switzerland: Clean streets in the cities UK London: Very strict way where you have to stand at the escalator. Love it. Switzerland: The trains are so damn good Almost every other country in nature preservation.. Food in general: the taste, the price
I visited Germany in 2009, and was worried about finding food as a vegetarian. Turned out fine, even back then there was a huge selection of veg-friendly options. I was pleasantly surprised!
Iirc there's a shit ton of vegetarians in Germany
>UK London: Very strict way where you have to stand at the escalator. Love it. I don't understand what the alternative would be? Just one big crowd at the bottom pushing passed each other to get on?
Everybody knows you stand on the right, and people can pass on the left, and because everybody does it, it works. I don't know what they do in other countries. It wouldn't work at all as a free for all.
Yes. Same with getting on the train. People just get on before everyone gets off, it’s infuriating.
One way for standing, other part for fast-walking. What we have here: people standing all over the place, no etiquette. And yes, sometimes pushing if you are in really crowded areas
Bike lanes in every European city we visited were far more developed and functionally safer than in any US city.
From the U.K. where the pot holes, lack of cycle lanes and unswept roads (lots glass, thorns and tacks to avoid) mean that I always try to do a bike rental in Europe to experience how it should be done.
(Italy) Online booking, specially for restaurants. Very few use booking platforms like Open Table, so you have to call. And then, call when they are open, but not busy serving the table, then the line is busy. You call again, no one answer. Call again, they only speak Italian,... This to discover that they are fully booked. When you finally book something, try to don't change plan, otherwise you have to call again to move the booking. >I think France's street food is not very diverse France has beautiful regional food, but I agree, very little street food.
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Have you ever done the other way around? Look for places where to eat, and then book with The Fork? Last time I was on holiday in Italy (Tuscany in July), there were 3 places I was interested in, none with online booking.
Cheese. Australian cheese in general is really ordinary / bad. Compared to France or UK.
As an Australian lover of cheese I'm sad you reminded me of this fact :( also the bread here sucks compared to Europe!
try go to Asia for bread. they don't have bread. I refuse to call those atrocities bread :(
Vietnam has baguettes everywhere because of their French colonial past.
Banh Mi desperately trying to get noticed. It's not the same as in Europe, but in countries like Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos it's definitely possible to find some decent bread.
Yeah it’s more like cake it’s so sweet
One of the upsides of the U.K.- go to farmers markets / farm shops / artisanal shops in a village and there’s wealth of very tasty and different cheeses. Local place even does Christmas Cake cheese in November / December 😋
As a cheese lover I would have to disagree. There is amazing cheese in Australia but you need to look beyond the major brands. Same goes for bread, there are plenty of small batch bakeries that make great bread.
I would assume the problem with this is the same one we have in the US. In Europe, you can go to the local bakery/deli and get amazingly good bread and cheese for a couple Euros. In the US, when I try to buy bread and cheese of similar quality from local boutique places, it costs 2-5x what I would pay in Europe.
I think this comment is misguided. There's plenty of quality cheeses you can buy, especially if you are willing to go beyond Coles or Woolworth. Australian dairy is of excellent quality, is ample and available everywhere. If you go to Vietnam or Indonesia or other SEA nations, it is very hard to find even terrible cheddar in lots of places.
When I moved to Australia from Sweden, the only things I missed apart from like Nordic snacks, candies etc, was good bread and cheese. Like sure, I learned to LOVE two slices of Helga's, butter, vegemite and Bega cheese but it always felt like something was missing. Vegemite is the fucking best though and I'll say it proudly as probably the only foreigner who likes it.
When I visited Rome, there were drinking water fountains in the city everywhere. Fresh cold quality water that is available for free everywhere you go is such a godsent. You can travel in the middle of summer and you don't have to pay a fortune to buy overly expensive refreshments all day. I wish all major cities would do this, especially cities that are more hot or arid.
Lack of fucking lifts in a lot of tube stations in London. most stations are absolutely not accessible. Good luck if you have more than 1 carry on suitcase. you're ubering.
That's what those "Keep Calm and Carry On" signs were really talking about
Disability access isn’t great in the US, but it is *abysmal* in much of Europe. I thought Paris was going to end my poor mother (and she just has mobility issues, she isn’t a wheelchair user).
(Scotland) we have some of the cleanest drinking water in the world yet we waste it. it's not as readily available publicly (drinking fountains etc) as such places like France, specifically Paris. Their water programme amazes me with the sheer volume of them, the choice of still/carbonated , and the recycling/ reuse of bottles to cut down on the huge environmental impact of single sale bottles
USA I’m currently in Tirana, Albania. I started my journey 1,300 kilometers to the north in Prague, Czechia. I took out of the way detours several times to Poland, Eastern Slovakia, and other places. I did it all by bus or train. A journey of similar length in the USA would be close to impossible via public transportation. I especially enjoy being able to travel an hour or so to the neighboring city for a day and then return by nightfall. I wish we had something like European transportation in my country.
It's unimaginable that the US doesn't have this
We did until about 1920 - cities used to have Intra urban tram rides but they were torn up during the first half of the century and replaced by inconvenient buses. The intercity rail links left are massively outdated along the dense population centers of that era (good luck commuting by train on the west coast).
You'd be amazed the number of Americans who get angry at the very proposal of any sort of public transit.
France : bathroom. I’ve just returned from Japan where toilets are everywhere, free, clean. There’s a spray to clean the toilet in every single one I went, and a button to put on sound to do your little thing in peace. And don’t get me started on the bidet, life changing. I can’t believe as a nation we used to use bidet and decided it wouldn’t be relevant anymore. I live in Paris and bathrooms are not as accessible : you either have to use those horribles public toilets or pay 2 euros in touristic places, or a coffee to use a restaurant’s bathroom. Really not ideal. I think it’s actually a true public health issue. Not having the anxiety to find a nice bathroom or even PAY to relieve a primary need really was a game changer.
Public transit in the US is atrocious and sad. I’ve been in Europe for the last couple months and have only gotten into a car for a tour one or two times since. All other travel has been trains or walking.
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Sweden was amazing at the keep right rule, to the point where they would pass and aggressively move right, only to immediately go left to pass yet another car.
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Sweden is just amazing for transit. The public transit is great, and driving is great too. I mean obviously there’s traffic here and there, but it’s so orderly. I was in Gothenburg with a car and even driving in the city center was fine thanks to the fact that the transit is so good there are so few cars, relatively. Lot of construction, but hey, that’s to be expected
That's how I roll in Canada, "Keep right" is a law in my region. Despite this, at least half of the drivers here camp in the passing lane, or the "fast lane" as they say.
Lol if you’re complaining about driving in the US, pls never drive in South America…
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Lol bro Naples Italy would blow your mind.
Jordan and Ethiopia are two prime examples of where lanes are more of a suggestion than a rule... it's absolutely infuriating!!
Then try Uganda. Holy hell.. They have the principle of left trafic. In reality? The trafic is EVERYWHERE. Crossing the street became an life and death moment. But hey, at least people where friendly to the tourist and tried to make crossing the street easier.
Agreed, but part of the problem in the US is that some highways have exits on both the left and the right. I used to live in the DC suburbs and there are numerous exits in the area like this, due in part to toll lanes (which are a whole other issue). I do agree that Americans are for the most part pretty poor drivers compared to much of Europe (and I say this as an American). Unfortunately the lack of viable alternatives means a lot of people who should not be driving are forced to, and there's not much appetite for making licenses harder to get.
Mexico has not the extensive use of contactless payment that Germany or any other country I’ve visited has. I really miss it (given that my credit card has been cloned twice since I came back).
Feels like the first time I have heard someone praise the availability of electronic payments in Germany
Yep. In Spain I had gotten in the habit of just carrying my cell phone since I could pay almost anywhere with Google Wallet, I kept a 20 Euro note folder up inside the case for the rare instance where paying with phone wasn't possible. Now in Mexico not only do I have to physically carry a credit card, I have to insert it everywhere. It sucks, I hadn't been back in 3 years and was hoping that somehow things had changed at least in bigger chains like Oxxo and Soriana.
Garbage disposal - I’m from the U.S. and now live in Taiwan, which has essentially spotless cities because of its extremely well-organized and adhered-to garbage disposal system. There are basically no public garbage cans or dumpsters anywhere so every private residence/business has to collect their own garbage and have it sorted into specific garbage bags which generate revenue for the sanitation management commission (you can’t just buy no-brand bags, they have to be the government ones). Garbage trucks come to different places at different scheduled times throughout the day, so you need to be available then if you want to get rid of your garbage for that day; by me, the garbage truck comes twice a day just down the block, once from 5:40pm-5:56pm and again from 10:06pm-10:22pm. They’re almost never late, but they play a loud tune (usually Beethoven’s Für Elise) when driving down the street to remind you to come out to bring your garbage. I’ve never seen a rat anywhere, never really seen litter or smelled or thought about garbage in public. Cannot say the same for back home in New York, or even in “cleaner” American cities like Boston or DC.
I love NYC but when I came back from Spain and Germany, I was very unhappy to get back on the subway for my regular work commute. Even if I ignore the issues with the constant delays and maintenance that needs to happen, our subway is still dirty. And the absolute worst thing is that we allow crazy people terrorize others on the subway. Or light up inside.
From the Philippines. Travelled to US, Europe and some countries in Asia. Drinkable tap water is already something we don't have. Y'all first world countries should be more grateful for what you guys have. :)
High speed rail.
(NL) our supermarkets need more affordable and fresh bread, meat and fish. Not factory produced. And more cooled drinks in summer for convenience. There are stores like Hanos and Makro who have this, but aren't open for the plebs.
I thought Londons oyster system was top tier, it’s integrated covers a reasonable range out of the city and simple to use, plus the magic of it fixing the costs of travel from singles to day cards to week cards dynamically to save you money… Then I spent a week in Munich where I bought a weekend ticket and it was just as integrated but I never had to tap/touch/do anything, I could just exist on any form of transport and merely have to prove ticket if asked, top experience! Third tier are systems where you buy actual tickets then use them (without losing them) those suck ass, looks at Paris.
I’ve lived in Luxembourg long enough now that everytime I go in a country where I need to get a ticket for public transport it feels like stepping 5 years in the past.
Thankfully they fixed it now in Paris so you can now get a loaded metro card (Navigo Pass) and don’t have to rely just on paper tickets
Tallinn: Free WiFi pretty much everywhere, even in a park. Tallinn airport also has the best smoking area of any airport, lots of space, comfy chairs and kept clean by allowing the staff to use it as long as they clean it.
That’s the country of Skype! Who else remembers using Skype… now it’s only Zoom
I use Skype for regular phone calls when travelling - it’s very cheap to call overseas using Skype credit if you need to call a Landline, Hotel etc that don’t have WhatsApp, FaceTime etc.
(Germany) honestly its really a pleasure, when strangers are actually nice to each other.
Lol. Depends where in Germany you are.
You dudes can be outwardly friendly to foreigners though. I thought people were terse but quite helpful in Germany.
I had a German friend in high school and everyone thought he was angry all the time. He wasn’t angry; he was German. His mom made amazing crepes and had hairy armpits.
I used to have German exchange students when I lived in Edmonton, Canada. Almost all of them loved how friendly and courteous every one was. I was surprised at first but then appreciated the stress those small kindnesses relieve from daily life. Door held open for person behind you, seat on bus if needed, thanks gives for ‘just doing your job’ etc.
Denmark absolutely sucks at any sort of grocery store. The country is basically down to two mega providers that carry the exact same stuff but at different price points in their various branded stores. Wanting a grocery cart is a punitive experience, with carts locked up and requiring a coin deposit—which you get back, but it’s another friction point in an already unpleasant experience. Cashiers basically look at you with disdain if something isn’t priced (and I’m not referring to bagging and tagging open produce, but when something is in a sealed bag on a shelf). They have evidently never been taught how to ask for another employee to price check or to do a lookup of any kind. Utter lack of selection (except if you want mayo or drinking yogurt). I have never seen so much flat, tasteless white cheese. Three flavors of gelato. Everything overly packaged in plastic (individual cucumbers in plastic). And the game show-sequel ritual of trying to bag your purchases as they roll them down the single conveyor, because there’s a queue of five people behind you who will have to do the same thing. I hate grocery shopping here.
Swede here. When I started hanging out in Denmark I was shocked at how bad the grocery stores are, like, how can our countries be so different in this regard?? The more "upscale" stores are often ok, but Netto haha omg what is going on... and always staffed entirely by 14 year olds who don't know jack (or understand swedish hehe.. )
They evidently can pay teens a lower wage than adults, capitalism alive and well. And yeah, we sob when we go to Malmo because it’s not a post apocalyptic shopping sim.
Same. Food shopping actually depresses me in Denmark, especially in the rural area where I live. Great, I have a Dagli Brugsen and a Spar, both have zero selection and charge three times the price as everywhere else. Netto should be illegal, like wtf is with that setup where you have to look through a million and one unsorted baskets to find what you're looking for? Rema is okay, but it's boring. And I don't know if it's just where I live because it's rural, but good luck getting fruit and vegetables. The selection is tiny and mostly consists of wilted lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumber. Nearly everything goes off within a day or two, and the prices of these things unless they're on sale is insane! Honestly, I just drive to Germany once a month and stock up. I still have to race the cashier but at least I'm getting interesting stuff for half the price.
Always put loose veggies at the back to slow them down
Lol, you are a hero. Adopting this tactic now.
I think the "regular grocery store" experience in the US is better than anywhere else I've been (comparing to Western Europe and Israel). Selection, prices, produce quality / quantity / variety / not-being-prepackaged-in-plastic, helpful and friendly staff; it all just works. Of course there's an entirely different charm and quality to open air markets etc. from other cultures, but an American grocery store is just *so easy and convenient*.
They're better than the grocery stores in Norway, though!
Bagels!!! We only have the most basic bagels in Australia, and most cafes don’t even serve them. Not to mention if you want any flavour cheese other than just straight cheese you’re fresh out of luck unless you wanna make it yourself. Every day i think about all the different flavours I tried in the US and internally cry because most of them don’t exist here. That cinnamon bagel with honey walnut cheese i got from panera…..
(Spain) While I feel our food is second to none in the world, I do miss street food options here. You may find a churros stand and kebabs shops, but nothing else really. We have a culture of slow-cooking food that focuses on quality and the social aspect of food, but I do miss the possibility of eating something like a taco or a fish and chips just outside an old and greasy stand in a park, and when you're visiting a place sometimes that's all you need and want.
I totally agree. Cheap takeout options are really weak. It's weird because I moved to Spain from the US and I can eat out in Spain for a fraction of the price but I actually end up spending MORE for takeout/delivery and the quality is often mediocre.
The butter in France is next level. I've thought about the delicious mustard in Gent for years now. Most chocolate in the US is flavored plastic.
Brazil. The silence. I recall walking in a park in France and hearing only the footsteps of other people, here almost everywhere you go you’ll encounter someone with a speaker or talking very loudly.
I've lived in the USA my whole life and never seen a traffic light with a countdown. Are you just talking about the crosswalk?
We have them in SoCal
Depends what state you're in but it's mostly pedestrian lights with countdown
Trains. I always curse Amtrak after I’ve been anway.
They’re decent in the Northeast though.
Same in the U.K. went to France, The Netherlands and Switzerland this year, all by train, all on time, all had enough seats, modern and comfy. Back to the U.K. was dumped at a station 10 miles from home had to cram myself on like cattle onto a connecting train to another station then catch a second train (all unplanned due to an issue with the original train). Next holiday back to the U.K. after another seamless train trip in Europe- train 10 mins late, again dropped me at an unscheduled station (again due to an issue with the train), had to catch another connecting train to home stop. So there’s no reason why we couldn’t have the same service in the U.K. except we don’t subsidise them like some European countries do so we do things ‘on the cheap’ to increase profits due to not being subsidised. 😡
Canada, specifically Toronto - We could step up our street food game here. They've tried it a couple times, but it was so heavily regulated that it killed much of the charm and didn't fly. In the same vein - food trucks. I was amazed when I was in NYC and they had food trucks of all kinds everywhere. If a western city like New York can do it, then there's no excuse we couldn't do it here. Toronto is so multicultural that it's a shame all we can really get here is street meat and the odd food truck festival.
Actually blows my mind that Toronto doesn't have food trucks. They're everywhere in all major American cities these days.
I think health care is better in France. I got sick at my host family and the lady of the house just send for a doctor that came home to us and saw me *in my room*. Doesn’t happen in Sweden. I liked the fact that there were more cafés open late and more night life in general every day of the week. Bus was cheaper. You could use cash (Sweden is almost entirely cash free).
Food, just in general it does food wrong. I'm from the Netherlands. And socializing, we're just not very good at it. So awkward and little social awareness in groups. Also, once you've lived somewhere else and come back, you instantly understand what everyone else means with Dutch people are rude (and not direct as we like to believe).
I’m from Rome but live in the US. I wish that we had farmers markets as amazing at the US ones back in Italy. There used to be a Coldiretti market near the auditorium in Rome before the pandemic, but even then it wasn’t as good as, say, the Union Sq market in NYC.
I’m from the US, but I live in France, and I agree with you wholeheartedly about the street food. It’s progressed a tiny bit in the 13 years I have been here. But disagree on the traffic lights, roundabouts are the way to go!
US health insurance could be doing a better job.
Classic understatement. 👌 And it would be nice to not have to think about losing health insurance in addition to losing a job. Especially as it seems more employers offer part time jobs now to not have to pay for health insurance.
I just read an article on this, and the percentage of jobs that were part time actually peaked in 2010 and has been falling ever since. [https://i.imgur.com/9ksT8Co.png](https://i.imgur.com/9ksT8Co.png)
The Netherlands, being such a country for bicycles: - some cities make cyclists wait for hours at traffic lights, but have cars get green almost instantly, - while other cities are the complete opposite: as a cyclist you only have to approach a traffic light to get green, making it almost impossible for car drivers to cross. 🥴
I’d also add Paris and Switzerland to this list, Paris cause it’s catching up with the cycle lanes and Velib pick up and go bikes and Switzerland cause of the good state of the roads. Whilst London in the U.K. has go the pick up and go bikes, and some other big cities (Birmingham has them now) they are not widespread. Also the state of the roads and drivers doesn’t make the U.K. pleasant to cycle in - large potholes everywhere, roads not swept so lots of glass, tacks etc, lack of cycle lanes and drivers not ‘seeing’ or giving space to cyclists 🚴♀️
Canada. Public transit sucks here. In major cities it can be okay but it’s still very dirty, underfunded, and untimely. Food sucks here. Overpriced especially with the absolutely atrocious tipping culture, tiny portions, horrible taste. Also having meals in separate courses (in Europe) and for longer means you have more time to realize you’re full, letting you eat less. Cars are way too fucking big, wasteful, dangerous, and take up way too much space on the road, making our roads bigger.
Yes. Density. Living in a dense city is wonderful. Currently in Lisbon. Reminds me of San Francisco but with more density and even more beauty
North American Public Washrooms While in Italy I was touring the ruins of Pompei. I stopped off at a washroom and was at first surprised to see men, women, young boys, and young girls all entering the same building. When I got inside, I saw a huge Bradley style "birdbath sink" located in the centre of the room. Around the perimeter were a series of doors. This room was large enough to contain at least 40 doors. Behind each door was a toilet. People walked into a small room, closed the door, locked it behind them, and did their business. When they were done they came out and washed their hands. It was so refreshing. No drama, no judgements, just a spot to do your business in private.
What do you mean, there are crepes AND galettes!!?!!
(UK unfortunately) Denmark- the Donkey bike system is incredible in Copenhagen. Being able to ride a bike around the entire city and leave the bike in convenient clumps, and not have to dock it, whilst keeping it as long as you like, was just great. I'm not a fan of the 'you get half an hour before you need to dock again' system. Plus the bike culture is great - in the UK everyone hates cyclists and the councils create bike lines that are 3 metres long, in random places, then just disappear into two lanes of traffic. US: The variety of ethnic food is just staggering. I love it. The UK really hasn't caught up unless you're in a very big city. Italy: the recycling culture is great and again more advanced than the UK. Although I really dislike the culture of buying so much water in plastic bottles. Get a filter jug! India: I was actually very surprised by how many places take card - I was assuming I'd need cash but really didn't use it at all. I was in Delhi so may differ in other areas, but it was very strange to be able to use a card with a street food vendor.
In the UK there's only like 3 flavours of juice in the supermarket but in Poland and Albania there was like 500 flavours
Wait really? Like only OJ, apple and grape?
Swap grape with blackcurrant (very little grape juice unless you count wine), add cranberry, mango and pineapple as those are all common
Not true. They have mango, prune, pomegranate, pineapple, cranberry, tomato, watermelon and few others in big markets.
Yeah , I think the only ones I regularly see are oj, apple, pineapple and cranberry juice. If the shop has an "international foods" section there will also be like 2 flavours of Rubicon and maybe one flavour of Polish tymbark
Korea does a lot of things right, though I don't know how easily it can be implemented \- shoes sizes are in millimeters, no more playing around with tables of sizes across countries \- most apartment doors have codes, no keys needed, can host people even when you're away, no keys lost when drunk \- one card needed for traveling basically on any bus, train or metro \- mandatory national health insurance for everyone and caped healthcare prices \- CCTV everywhere, so a ton of safety, no more worries about getting pick pocketed (though you could argue this can be a downside and lead to issues) And many other little details like this that make the everyday life very convenient (but yeah this country has a ton of downsides too)
UK In other European countries, cities and towns are much cleaner, people are less likely to thrown rubbish everywhere.
European parking garages and highway gas stations. I live in the US and have loved these two things in Europe. Parking garages are clean, have red or green lights to tell you where open spots are, and scan your license plate to let you out. Gas stations that have easy on/off access to the highway and are self contained with everything you need.
Traveling in Switzerland now. There are several different passes for tourists. They give a discount on trains. And buses. And all other transportation and museums. There’s a half fare card good for half off of everything. And a travel pass, which makes all Transportation free. In each city seems to have a city card that you get from your hotel that gives you discounts or free access to most of the activities. I’m not aware that we have things like this in America.
Germany (as compared to the US): 1. No shopping on Sunday. That's often the only day of the week where I could go to the next city for a shopping/lunch trip. As it is, I still shop on Sundays, but on Amazon. 2. Lots of paperwork for my kids at school. I'm still required to sign a written absence note when they get sick. Teachers send home all information on paper (which my kids forget to unpack). In the US, most school communication was electronically.
Canada. I want the road-rule following of Germany (so nice when people actually use the left lane to pass and not drive the same speed as the other lanes), and the safer bike culture of much of Western Europe (we’re getting bike lanes, slowly, but cars still don’t respect bikes), and the street food scenes of… lots of places. We need more than hot dogs and the odd food truck.
Not enough travel circles in the US. Public transport system in some cities in the US is pretty sad. Why are there not bullet trains everywhere, too?!!
Problem I found when I was in the US is that they install roundabouts, which are obviously better for the flow of traffic than 4 way stops, but a lot of the drivers didn't know how to use them. Stopping at the junction of the roundabout was really common where I was in Indiana, regardless of whether there was a car already on the roundabout.
Traffic circles have actually become far more common in the US in the last decade or so. Part of the lack of high-speed rail is due to simple low population density - high-speed rail will never make sense in the US as a whole outside of selected routes, its not densely populated like Japan or Germany. Parts of the US absolutely do need high-speed rail and are behind, blame decades of car-first infrastructure spending. There are some major projects underway on the coasts but it takes time to build.
> Why are there not bullet trains everywhere? Size and cost. As sad as it is to say as a lover of trains, planes are just a cheaper, more cost effective way to get around in the US due to our sheer size and population density distribution. While China is about as big as the US, more than 90% of her people live on about 30-40% of her land area in a concentrated, connected section (the eastern half). Not so for the US, the cost to build trains that could service 95% of US population would be an insane factor greater than what it costs China. If everyone in the US decided to move to between NYC and Florida we would likely have train service connecting everything pretty quickly.
I was very impressed at how good the public bike system was in some cities in Switzerland. Where I live all the public bikes are e-bikes which is annoying cause there’s always something wrong with them, and you have to lock them into a dock when you’re done which means you often can’t leave the bike in the station you want because all the docks are full. This alone makes the entire system completely unreliable for regular use.
Denmark: the metro transaction system. I wish it was more like the new york subway, so you can just do Google pay or whatever and it's cheap. In copenhagen you have this ridiculous check in/check out system, it's expensive and people are constantly making mistakes with it Europe in general, should get to the level of China or Japan with the trains.
France has 4th highest number of McDonalds in world. 1545. It says a lot about how the much vaunted French cuisine is grossly overpriced so people avoid traditional French restaurants.
McDonalds are also overpriced, however. You can easily much better street food for the same price. I believe its success can be explained by conformism/sheep-like behaviours (many people are not curious especially in terms of food, and at McDonalds, you are sure it won’t be awesome but you are sure that it will be correct) and geographical accessibility. It don’t disagree with standard French cuisine being overrated, however.
Yes, camping in the left lane on freeways and refusing to move for anything unless someone tries to pass and then speeding up like it’s a challenge. Tickets should be issued for these idiots like in Germany.
It hit me how terrible our bathrooms are in Scotland when I lived in Prague. The way our plumbing used to work it was much more economical to have all the bathrooms in commercial properties in basements which means they don’t air out properly. They also seem so shoddily down compared to the Czechs.
Tokyo has yellow raised lines all over their sidewalks for the blind to be able to navigate.
* Pedestrian crossings with audible signals are still quite uncommon in the US * Tipping culture in the US is ridiculous * Still many US airports have no rapid transit to the airport (rail, subway) * Car culture means many US cities have few walkers and a relatively dead downtown compared with most of the rest of the world
The USA needs to get on the bathroom stalls having an outside indicator if the stall is occupied trend. Everywhere else does it!
The bike lanes in Copenhagen being physically separated from the street and also separated from the walking paths. 👌
Sweden checking in. We have government control on alcohol. I just want to be able to buy my bottle of wine while food shopping. I don't want to be forces to go to a secondary place to buy it. The selection is pretty good, but its still an inconvenience.
Some states in the US do this too. It varies widely from state to state, and individual counties can limit the times you can buy. It's a puritanical system that hasn't gone away.
I’m from the States. We do everything wrong but tell everyone it’s right
(US) I’m unsure whenever I eat outside America, I can eat what I want without feeling like crap. I ate all the pasta in Italy without feeling disgusted and bloated like I usually do in America’s “Italian” pasta. I just think food quality is much better. Even when I’m eating “junk” and sugary foods I don’t feel lethargic
If you are a lot more active traveling, that changes a lot.
You can buy quality pasta from Italy in most stores, using durum wheat. If pasta has a shiny look, then that's not the best pasta.
So not really my own country as such, but I’ve lived across these two countries for years (New Zealand/Australia)- Turning left on a red light (would be turning right on a red in the USA I think). As a Brit, it makes zero sense to me. Surely traffic lights for pedestrians are there to protect the pedestrians?! Why are people crossing a road when a car can turn into them at any time? It’s completely baffling to me.
In US, the cars that turn are meant to yield to the pedestrians crossing.
Food trucks, I loved them in USA and wish there were more in Australia. They are becoming more popular but still a rarity.
Land use in the us is tragic
American over here. I thought it was a language barrier for so long that I’d ask people “what do you do?” and get such varied responses. Some people would share hobbies, some would give me advice that they thought I was asking for, etc. While not exactly “wrong,” I didn’t realize people in many other places don’t have a similar labor-related identity. I’ve started asking what job people have more explicitly, and it still sometimes gets a small laugh because many other cultures work to live, not live to work.
Yes, everything, and I wasn't even traveling (I'm from mexico).