Americans - what was your impression after you've came to Europe
 

for the first time ?

Just wondering, there must be lots of guys who travelled to Europe for the first time recently - like to Amsterdam for the convention or even for vacation...
just wondering what differences did you see, was there anything that shocked or surprised you the most... oh yeah, and in which country was that?

I mean rather lifestyle or culture things etc... both negative and positive things, if you can call them like that... basically things that you observed that are different in the EU than in the US... (yeah, I know, the EU is 27 different countries nowadays)


discuss :costumed13

in england everyones more "proper" from govt slang to everyday conversation
and transportations a blast be it the london underground or paris metro

I was having a few beers at a pub in France. I needed to take a leak so I walked down some steps and bingo a urinal. I didn't realize you could see the urinal from a large area of the bar/restaurant. I've got a buzz , wasn't thinking too much about it until I heard "mommy mommy someones going pee" behind me. "That's how they do it here honey" ? ... whatever , I pretended I didn't speak english and stopped in mid stream and played it off

europe has around 50 countries:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_countries_in_Europe

just 20+ in the EU

Not very different really. Slower service in restaurants was about it.

IMO, Alaska is a bigger difference from continental 48 than Europe is.

Way more civilized, organized and safer than America. Also way more expensive. This was after visiting 11 countries over a period of a month's time.

Everything was much cleaner, eating was less of a meal and more of an event - and took forever.

TV was different. I remember seeing boobies on TV. I stayed with family in France. The kids were more grown up, drinking wine and beer and no one thought anything of it. All the kids smoked - fourteen year olds - then again, they also got up at 5am to milk the cows too. I think what I"m saying is kids had more freedoms but they also had more responsibility too.

The primary difference that I noticed right away is that everything moves slower and the service is awful.

I would imagine more "civilized" and less overall ignorance would be a way to describe it.

I live in New Orleans, and it's the dirty south.. the thing that gets me the most out of anything on this fucking planet is ignorance.

more people seemed to be aware and cared about what their politicians were doing.

As far as education, ... I took field trips to the Kellogs Corn Flakes plant in Battlecreek Michigan when I was 5. I got a free box of Jiffy Mix.

I couldn't count on my fingers how many field trips were going on in the Louvre for school kids that age. Better educated ... maybe ?

Not necessarily a matter of education, but manners.

Today I often find myself wanting to bash the heads in of MOST people in the service industry in the states.

Example,

walk into a burger joint go up to order.. some huge ignorant "unfortunately black" girl walks up with a name like joneshia smacks her lips, can i take your order?

You order a cheeseburger plan with just cheese only, and you get it with all of the shit on it, pickles, mayo, ketchup, etc.

It's ignorance, and over-population running wild and un-checked.

Again I live in New Orleans, LA so it's for sure worse for me, still makes you want to maul somebody.

People hate their jobs so bad over here they are of less than zero help when you need to get something done, and they certainly don't know shit about the product they are selling.

It's a shame, but any kind of service in this country is basically dead.

If you want something done right now a days, you really do have to do it yourself unfortunately.

The first time I went, a while back, I thought, "Wow, people sure don't like Americans here!"

I lived in London, and the first thing I noticed is that people genuinely hate Americans. As a cute girl, I managed fine, but some of the guys in my group had a very hard time.

I noticed lots of cultural differences, but the biggest one would be acceptance, less judgmental of other people (unless, of course, you are American).

A more international perception of the world...unlike the United States, where we focus on ourselves constantly. Could also be due to the fact that travel is simply easier somewhere as central as Europe.

You just described pretty much everywhere that isn't America.

low/cut wages
shit/deleted benefits
... from the person that flips your burgers to the guy directing air traffic.

Service... In America I can forget to ask for A1 and forget to ask for Tapetio and forget to ask for napkins and forget to ask for a refill on the water and the waitress retrieves each item as I remember it...

In Europe you ask for all of these things at once because if you don't you will not see her again until it is time to leave.

Don't know I have never been

50 euros for two double vodka cranberry drinks at the hotel bar!!!!!!!

Shocked that there was no real adult pay per view menu at the hotel, just two channels that appeared to be looping a selection of videos..

Your coffee houses are nothing like StarBucks......

......more to come later

from a europeans point of view i would agree mostly on the service. in czech rep. a while ago we went to a restaurant with a group of 15 people, at about 10 pm. it was still about half full, but they refused to serve us. they would have made more money with us than usually in a week, but if its 10 pm the kitchen will be closed - no matter what happens

on the other hand - when i first came to Miami and arrived at the hotel at around midnight i was hungry and checked the hotel restaurant. although they were clearly already closing they invited me to sit down and order whatever i wanted. never had that happening in europe

I've been to the states a few times now and I must say that the average american is much more pleasant that the average European..

Europeans are arrogant and stupid as fuck for letting their countries get invaded by muslims..

The biggest difference has to be the nude bodies everywhere, on advertising, newspapers, etc...You can see a nude girl in daily newspapers.

i love american service. best in the world.

thats a coincidence - i had that in the czech republic! We arrived really late at a hotel, kitchen was already closed and the cook was prepping to go home, they opened up the kitchen for us and went out of their way to cook us a nice meal, really great service.

I must say though (although ive never been to the US) that the overall service here is pretty shitty. Especially here in holland on a terrace when the weathers good - it has taken too many times too long for waiters to come and take orders, or ask for another order when youve finished drinks. That's probably the most annoying thing, you gotta wave and shout like a mad man if you wanna order something or they just ignore you all night.

inferiority complex...maybe?

Go stand in front of the Smithsonian and you'll run out of fingers too.
Just as our country bumpkins go to the Corn Flakes plant, their country bumpkins go somewhere less glamourous than the Louvre.

I find the Louvre too big to see in a day plus too many tourists... :)

I liked the Musee D'Orsay quite a bit.

Invaded? What about the 20,000 each year that convert? https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rfx4glTU5JQ

Going to kick them out too??

Dumb fuck :1orglaugh

I like Scandinavia.

yeah, we do.

you won't have that happening in europe purely because you're a yank... no one outside the US is going to go out of their way to help an american. it's not necessarily a reflection on european service, more on the general dislike that the world's population has for americans.

I found food service in Europe fine. No complaints. Never saw what the big deal is about it.

Cars, different story. I've always heard from Europeans how they love cars more than Americans and how their cars are so much better, didn't see them and couldn't find them. All I saw were compact and sub-compact miniature cars. Here in the US just go to any street corner and you'll see high end luxuries, exotics and massive SUV's all day long. A lot of them are from Europe but we have them and use them.

On the ride home from the Amsterdam 2007 show, the guy sitting next to me on the plane was heading to the US for the sole purpose of seeing everyday muscle cars in the US. No Joke. He was from England, outside of Newcastle, and wanted to enjoy fast cars with lots of horsepower.

Old buildings and structures in Europe were nice to see. In the US once a building gets old then they knock it down and build something new.

I would recommend going if you've never been.

That's not just Europe, NZ and Australia are about as geographically isolated as you can
get from the northern hemisphere, yet aussies and kiwis know their politics, are aware of
world events, and generally know what's going on around them.

We sit here watching your elections in disbelief that you actually fall for it.

It's a US thing, you've been told for so long that you're the most important ppl in the
world, and then the entertainment on TV reinforces that nightly. It's become the culture,
and has already shown it's potential to bring down the US in flames.

-Ben

huh? i am german

and i stand by my point that service quality in the US is usually (not always and everywhere) better than in Europe - although that certainly also varies between the different countries over here

we ARE the most important people in the world.
Don't hate the player, hate the game

Service in America is excellent I find. Any time I'm in the US I can't really complain about anything. Sometimes you get really annoying American people. For instance in Florida when I went to the theme parks you find the Americans expect to be treated better than us Europeans. They expect that coz they are American they should be served first even tho I'm in the line ahead of them. Had a few altercations with some American families over this. 95% of the time I love America more than Europe tho.

in europe you get real food and time for a desert without the bill beeing slapped on the table after ordering.

Sorry that statement is just ignorant and one of many reasons why the world hates us so much. Our PEOPLE are no more or less important than any other country.

Not really.

Original European country bumpkin here, we went to the Vatican Museums, Pompeii, etc.

"Bad" fieldtrips were to places like the Van Gogh museum.

So the main gripe is the service?

Think about why. It's REALLY not rocket science. In the states, wait staff WORK for their tips. That is why the service is better. It is because IF they go the extra mile they know they will be rewarded financially.

In Europe, for some reason, we don't tip anything LIKE they do in the states.

So, because they wait staff know there is nothing in it for them if they do work your table hard, they don't.

That reason being relatively high minimum wages.

European people are way more laid back!

we r the shizznit. we rule the world. and nobody is more important than us! :thumbsup
GO AMERICA!:pimp

Fucking funny how people are speaking of Europe as one country