The discussions in different other threads about typical things/minds/prejudices and so on indifferent countries give me the idea to open this thread.

It seems, that MBSL65fan is -hopefully happy and healthy- back from his europe-trip. I thought, perhaps we should have given him before a few tips about smaller or bigger national peculiarities in the countries, he had visited.
Surely, in the last decades a plenty of things were mixed or changed, and the "American way of life" was coming more and more over the world, but there are still some topics, which weren't known in other countries.

Perhaps let's start at food and behaviour: you can divide Europeans and Americans easily by their way of eating. Europeans are using fork and knive, Americans are cuting the food at first, then they put the knive besides and the arm on the leg (under the table) and continue only with the fork. For a plenty of Europeans with old-style education this is not good behaviour (like eating with laying the ellbows on the table).

To put a big can with ice-water and icecubes on the dinner-table is pure American style, unusual abroad (except in American-style-diner's).

Breakfast in Southern Europe, mainly Italy and France is not much and not nice. British breakfast is totally different (different from every other country), but bigger. "Continental breakfast" is a mixture between Germany (boiled eggs, bread-slices) and France (croissants).

In most European countries the big dinner with war food is served in the evening, but not in Germany. There the lunch at Noon is (was) the main meal, in the evening ust sandwiches were usual. But this is getting different in the last years.

Except breakfast, you have to be careful with other British food. O.k., since EU-times it's getting different, but there is still some strange stuff on their tables (porridge, marmite etc.). Be careful with fish'n chips - they're putitng vinegar or brown sauce over it! And it's getting popular in the UK to fry Mars- or Snickers-bars in oil!

The "chips" at Britsh fish'n chips-shops are mostly French fries (US-name) or pommes frites (European name), but sometimes it's really potato-chips. Be careful!
A propos French fries (which are at least coming from Belgium, not from France), a clear word to the Americans: yes, in Middle Europe it's very popular to put Mayonnaise ver them! In Holland roasted onions are usual, too, Germans put Mayonnaise together with ketchup over them.

Europeans are drinking white wine with cool temperature, red wine with room-temperature. Even it's cheap supermarket-wine, even out of a tetrapak-box, it's a definetely "No-No!" to put icecubes in it!

A lot of typical American food is available over here, but no always and everywhere. Yes, you can find peanut-butter, but except in Holland, it's not very popular. Marshmallows are harder to get.

Yes, in the Netherlands it's easy and not illegal to get Marihuana. Due the new EU-wide law, that smoking tobacco is forbidden nearly everywhere in the public, there is in NL the new situation, that you aren't allowed to smoke a cigarette in a pub, but a joint is no problem - except there's tobacco in it.

In the USA the rules about alcohol are very strict, in Europe it's much more relaxter. It's -mostly- not forbidden to drink alcohol i nthe public. Foreign guests of me were always totally shocked, that in Germany you can buy any kind of alcohol at the big 24-hours-gas-stations.

German beer is popular everywhere, but over here there are so many different sorts of them, that you cannot point out a "typical German" beer. Other beer is not bad either - I prefer the Czech Budweiser (nothing in common with the US-made stuff).
In Belgium you can find (for foreigners strange) beer-sort, so beer with cherry- or raspberry-taste. If you like it...
In Belgium once I've found the very strong "delirium tremens"-beer. The name was correct (13% alcohol)!

Don't buy bread in Holland. This is ugly. The best bread you can find in Germany, in Austria, too. Polish bread is good either.

Before I went to a school-exchange to Vancouver/Canada in 1988, our teachers have said: "Be careful with your clothes! Don't take good and sensitive clothes with you! Better wash them yourselves! Canadians and US-Americans cannot wash clothes. They have primitive washing-machines, which only can be switched to "hot" or "cold". Either it will not get clean or the colours will be destroyed."

No joke, I've heard that.

To talk not so bad about British food: yes, me as a Scotland-fan, I like Haggis!
And meat-pies with Worchester-sauce, too.

I'm confused on why this would be considered bad?



Are there really such places? Why would anyone go out of their way to imitate the eating of the perceived "fat American slobs"?





mmmmm... I love the British now!




That sounds quite good actually. I like to put barbeque sauce on them myself.



Among wine drinkers, that is true here also



Peanut butter and marshmallows are considered American?




Actually they're not. At almost every convienence store or gas station you can get some kind of liquor. Of course you have to be 21 or older. I get the impression that the age for liquor drinking in EU countries, such as Italy, is something like 8 years old, which seems quite irresponsible in my opinion.

Ingo i find it so entertaining to read you, when you start its like you cant stop! dont take this the wrong way, i ay it honestly that it is quite entertaining, about ostumes, i guess that Spain could be the most different in costummes inside of Europe, while almost the rest of Europe eats dinner for example arround 7:30 or 8 in the morning wi do it at 9:00 9:30, and this in winter, (by winter i mean not being in summmer) if we are on summer there are many Saturdays that ive had dinner with my family at midnight, i think our mood and life is quite different from other European countries definetly, i think i could say other things different from the rest of Europe.

Yeas peanut butter will always be american and the same for marshmallows.

And how the hell can you say that 8 is the age for someone to drink that's so funny, why did you think that? in Spain there's no rule exactly about who can drink alcohol, i guess, many people under 18 drink on Saturdays and they are never arrested or anything for that, its each of us responsability to do it or not, but you wont ever see an 8 year old on the street on a Saturday night drinking Alcohol

@CCF: I haven't written about Spain, because I haven't been there too much. Just 2 weeks at Playa del Ingles (GC) in 1996, 3 days Mallorca in 1997 and two times one hour at the airport of Madrid in 2006 (on the way to Chile and back).

But I've read that in a book for good behaviour: "Never ever take a look on a Spanish girl! This will cause big trouble and bad injuries! Spanish guys will always get totally mad for jealousy, if annother man looks to his wife/girlfriend/sister!"

O.k., this book was printed in 1953.

makes sense then

@Max: yes, you can find American Diner's over her. They are rare, but sometimes, somewhere they are existing.

Sure. not to compare with the amount of Chinese, Italian, Greek or Croations restaurants. Mainly in big towns you can find all kind of nationality-resataurants, even Aserbaidchanian or Creolian.

In Britain I've seen Polish pubs, but not here. Polish deli-shops, yes (where a lot of Polish immigrants are living), but not a real pub.

We do have Irish pubs, too. But an Irish friend has told me, that outside of Ireland they were organized in the franchise-system, like McDonalds- or KFC-restaurants. He told me, that nothing there is authentic, every decoration is fixed by the main-office in Ireland.

O.k., this is usual somewhere else, too. If you see a Bavarian -not German!- "Paulaner"-beer-hall somewhere in the world, it's the same.

What do you call an American Dinner?

An important tip to Europe-travellers:

Never ever do this http://www.apex-wetlook.com/page303.html in Italy!!! Let it! It's strictly forbidden, and the Policia Municipale will arest you.

In 1989, at a school-trip to Rome some of my class-mate have done it with drunken heads. The Italians around were getting mad and the police have arrested them. To release the guys and pay the penalty, we've collected our last pocket-money (hard, if you are jsut a school-kid)

That ones:
http://www.american-style.de/pages/diner.htm

So just Fast Food restaurants like McDonal, Burguer King etc?

Nonono! These diner's are made in the older US-style, like they had in the 50ies or at the legendary "Route 66".
The owners want to be seperate from fast-food-chains like McDonalds, BurgerKing, KFC and so on.

These diner's want to offer freshly made food, not machine-made stuff like the Mc's.
O.k., the main food today is machine-made, so this ambiente is often just an illusion - but even for that illusion the people are going there.

Oh, well, im not sure for bigger regions but at least i dont have nay of those near my home.

What foreign restaurants do you have in your town?

in my town there is just one McDonald's that opened last year, but in Santander, which is the capital of my region there is another McDonald's, and in a mall there is a BurgerKing as well, then in another mall there is a Pans & Company, i dont know where is this franchise from, there's also in the city and in another mall another one simlar to Pans & Company called Bocatta, im sure that this is Spanish judging by the name, and that's all i'd say, i dont recall any others, well you have Telepizza then which is quite typical in Spain.

He aksed what forgein resturants are in your town and you say McDonalds! That sounds so funny!

And about the liquor age, I mainly meant for Italy. I guess it's just a stereotype that they let kids drink there, I don't know
8 is exaggeration, I meant more like 14 and 15, people my age

Yes probabaly you are right and he meant in general, then i guess that there are many, Italians, Chinese, etc, sorry