Culture in Europe

The time we’ve spent in Europe has been an eye opening experience. Though the intention here is to share the differences I’ve noted during our trip, I want to first mention how familiar at times life felt around me. There was (unfortunately perhaps?) very little culture shock, naturally due to the origins of American culture stemming out of a conglomeration of lifestyles which grew into what we find in europe today. When given the opportunity to view the tourist secluded burgs and city streets before work hours, life felt very natural as one might expect. People came and went about their business, waiting for a bus or stopping for a coffee and it was at those times that I, despite not knowing much of anything with regards to the local language could fly under the radar. Passing for a local amongst the crowd so much so that I was able to carry out basic transactions or even get solicited with sales and information for things not intended for non-locals. In that sense it all seemed very normal in a sense.

However, it is amongst those may normalicy that one could notice the subtle differences. For instance, despite being the height of rush hour the streets were not packed with cars. Sure it may be busy, but instead masses of people clambered for public transportation and more pedestrian friendly means of transportation. Not to say that public transport isn’t used in the US, but it’s almost more so a  standard of European city life to the point of which cars are reasonably irrelevant for a greater proportion of city dwellers as opposed to America. With respect to transportation, those who drive cars are known for traveling with smaller vehicles. This has less to do with preference and so much more to do with the lack of space. The old streets of towns raised hundreds of years prior to even popular knowledge of our continents existence are fortunate to even be accessible to the smallest of cars here. On many streets, the width of the lane is usable as a strictly one way road. If there’s a little extra room you may see cars utilizing half the sidewalk as a parking space. Said sidewalks are quite often no more than single file buffers from the walls of buildings in many cases.

Following the line of thought on space, the countryside itself is more noticeably densely populated. Flying above the land made it obvious just how regularly little villages dotted the landscape. Akon our train rides a town was always within view of another, visible by its steeple peaking over the next ridge or tree line. Just today, from atop the steeple of one such church in Delft, The Hague and Rotterdam, two major city centers for the Netherlands were visible on opposite sides of the cathedral simultaneously; clearly separate but as if we were in the far reaching suburbs of either had we been in the United States.

So many little mannerisms become apparent as well. Especially in the food services. Not only is water not complimentary, it is even occasionally more costly than soda which is still charged at rates upwards of double that in the states (and half the volume). They seem to prefer it when you are ready to order food at the same time as drinks, and prefer not to split checks. When it comes to handling money, they’d rather it not be handed directly if it can be helped and credit card transactions are almost exclusively brought to the customer to be completed at the table. Tips are often included as a service charge on the bill, though even that is at lower rates than common to us. These are just a few differences I’ve noted over our visit to Europe, though I’m sure to notice many more after I have time to more deeply analyze our own customs upon our return.