r/AskReddit • • 13h ago

"those little differences" Americans who visited Europe, what was surprisingly different for you?

410 Upvotes

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60

u/ElGringoConSabor 13h ago

The amount of smoking

17

u/Rugkrabber 9h ago

Very country dependent because of law differences. Some don’t allow smoking in public places while others do. It’s a night and day difference where you go.

8

u/Werliest 10h ago

Yea. My country has a large amount of chainsmokers. The second they step out of a door (building/bus/car), they light a cigarette. I can rarely enjoy a walk without a smoker giving me second hand smoke. I'm just glad the government banned smoking in public indoor places.

It varies from european countries, though. Haven't had too many smokers in Denmark or Italy.

2

u/asten77 10h ago

And at least in some places, they are much more acrid and pungent.

3

u/X0AN 10h ago

In 2026???

3

u/Late_Quail7194 8h ago

Yes. I just went to Portugal this month and Switzerland last month. The amount of smoking there is obscene

5

u/LongjumpingSurvey588 7h ago

Sit down at a café in Paris and you’ll more likely than not have cigarette smoke blowing at your face.

7

u/YakElectronic6713 10h ago

It depends on the bloody fucking country. Because Europe is a fucking continent with many many different countries with different cultures, customs, habits and laws.

13

u/nefariousnun 8h ago

Weirdly aggressive response

-53

u/OmniBeats 12h ago

Bro stop crying

3

u/JellyBellyBitches 10h ago

Crying? The question was what they noticed different, and they said smoking. What are you talking about, crying?

16

u/Complex_Dot_4754 12h ago

nah he s right, and i say this as a european. smoking is completely out if hand, uncivilised and ridiculous in Europe in almost all countries…

3

u/gahd95 11h ago

In Denmark there are very few smokers. Have not noticed a big difference in Sweden or Norway neither.

2

u/Complex_Dot_4754 11h ago

unfortunately denmark and sweden are a very small part of european population. try the netherlands, germany, france or italy. all full of smokers… 

3

u/vacuumdiagram 10h ago

I noticed it going from UK to France.

2

u/Rugkrabber 9h ago

The Netherlands is not bad at all. Unless you went to the Randstad but outside of it? I mean at my job alone already, only 1 smoker of 68 workers.

2

u/Complex_Dot_4754 8h ago

in my job i have around 20 direct and indirect reports in amsterdam and 7 or so smoke and many other colleagues from other departments. some of those colleagues are from noord-brabant and gelderland so not really the randstad. i studied there for some years and half of the class smoked of around 40 students and at that time you could still smoke inside the bars (uva), studied there spanish on the vu (evening course) around the quarter of the class smoked, and i work there on and off (benelux, west europe region functions, etc) for over a decade (rotterdam, zuidas, hoofddorp, bijlmer) etc. so maybe where you live and work this isn’t the case, but please don’t tell me that in the netherlands it is not that bad. it is as bad as my time when i worked in paris, lisbon, brussels or munich. really a terrible habit. instead of the cars they should tax more smoking…