Geneo

How the dirty Italians pick your pockets and how we only shot you.

cmt

1. relatively less suburban sprawl<BR><BR>2. long lunch periods<BR><BR>3. speaking foreign languages

Jocelyn

Student discounts!<BR><BR>Wherever you go in Europe, you can always find a student discount. The Europeans encourage their young people to travel, go to museums, go to the movies, even eat out, by offering student discount prices everywhere. Its very inspiring and positive to see such an encouragement for young people!

xx

Europe hides behind the American flag and the military that it represents very, very effectively.

cdf

Ditto to the bathroom stalls, those private little rooms are great...public transportation that is safe and fast and so much cleaner than what I refuse to take here in NY.(the Metro/Tube vs NY subway).of course the food in Paris...all of it! One thing that stands out in my mind, is when shopping, you are not pounced on by anxious aggressive salespeople who say hello and tell you their names and follow you around, they leave you alone until you need them and then they actually are helpful! What a treat that is! This could be my excuse for shopping so much when in Europe also-I don't remember eating in any cafes or restaurants in Paris where they waiter told me his name~

Dan

Europeans don't seem to be as concerned about what others think. Our country seems pre-occupied with one upmanship and doing the "in" things. They just do their thing, regardless of what others think. For example i've seen many threads concerning the question "What do Europeans think of Americans?". I wince when I see this. I've never seen the question "What do Americans think of Europeans?" They don't really care.

Melissa

I was going to say the same thing!! Europeans don't have a fraction of the hang-ups Americans have. Actually, Americans seem to have more hang-ups than anyone else. My niece went to Japan this summer and was so impressed by the kids there and how animated they are. She said, wistfully, "Why can't kids in our country be like that?"

jw

In the places I've been, I have observed that Europeans make better use of their resources than we do in the United States. They don't seem to be as wasteful. They don't seem to take things for granted. Or could it be that what I've noticed is a generational thing?

minbrooklyn

cdf, I've ridden on the metros/subways in Washington, DC, San Francisco and New York. The NYC subway is a very efficient way to get around and very cheap. It's as clean as other cities and as long as you don't travel on it late at night is perfectly safe. I've lived here for over 10 years with only 1 incident where someone tried to pick my pocket in Times Square (that's riding the subway at least twice a day, just about every day).

pat

My family loved that every towel holder in scandinavia was heated (and many of the floors).

cdf

Thank you, min-I stand corrected.Although I think that the subways in DC are similar to Londons and I always take the trains in Paris-I am not tempted to take the trains in NYC..but obviously I am in the minority,considering tha amount of people on the NY trains every day.I just never feel like someone will push me onto the tracks or rob me when in the other countries.My son takes the trains in Japan all the time-now those are some trains! Safe,clean and on time..always-or else

K

Neighborhood planning. We have so many zoning restrictions. I love the community atmosphere in the European cities.

adoptionisfab

In many parts of Europe ie France Italy etc women look better in their clothes. I just love the sense of style!

SydneySteve

Individuality is encouraged in Europe. The herd mentality and instinct is not as present. The icons are not there to protect the individuals. The Icons are there to attract the herds.

Marianna

Several years ago, we were in Italy for several weeks in a villa so we did some of our own cooking. We found that the Italians have these great bags of frozen meals which were absolutely delicious. When we were out all day sightseeing, it was a quick and easy meal to come home to. All you had to do was heat a pan, add some olive oil and saute the dinner. They were seasoned just right and didn't taste like a frozen dinner at all. We had several seafood bags with pasta and a sauce and one eggplant one to which we added more sauce and pasta. I made this one for some relatives there and they loved it. When we returned, I began seeing similar items in the US, though not as good yet.

lyb

&gt;&gt; In the U.S., the restroom (for women) is often a frighteningly dirty place, often without toilet paper and frequently with urine right there on the toilet seat. In Europe, paying the equivalent of 25 cents got me a spotless facility to use. Even though lots of Americans in our group were complaining about paying to use a public bathroom, I think it is a fine idea&lt;&lt;

I most definitely second the original poster's view of the bathrooms. I traveled for 2 weeks in Italy, and found 1 dirty bathroom. I would gladly pay 25 cents or so in the States to have clean bathrooms all the time.

Second thing European do better, vacation times. It is traditional to have 5 - 6 weeks vacation in Europe, in the States, 2 weeks is more traditional. A man on the tour I met while in Italy said, &quot;but Americans are hard workers&quot;, my response, no, American business owners are greedy! Maybe he was simply trying to be nice by saying we were hard workers.

nytraveler

Europeans in general seem to drive better then we do - I believe that their driving tests are much more dificult than ours (pull out, turn a corner and parallel park in a couple of minutes without hitting anything and you get a license here).

lyb

nytraveler,

I have to agree about the drivers. I was simply amazed by the Italian drivers, they do drive fast, but they do get out of each other's ways! I just couldn't see many of my own city's drivers try to get around Italy, they'd be causing multiple accidents in one minute!

nina

Dress, eat and vacation. They do it all so much better..

bookchick

Enjoy &amp; appreciate life. Have a sense of value about things. Yes, you may pay to use a European rest room, but if you do, the chances of it being clean rise exponentially. Some things are more expensive, but I think because of this, they're appreciated more, and used more wisely.

And definitely, their approach to vacationing is much, much better than it is where I live!

BC