An open mind is one of the most important things travelers need when jet setting around the world. You might not always know what you’re ordering off a menu or why the toilets look so different from back home, but that’s just part of the adventure!Every country has its quirks, so some people have beenopening upon Reddit about the things no one bats an eye at in their own nations. Below, you can learn all about these unique things that make nations special (while simultaneously confusing foreigners) and read conversations with travel experts Alyse ofThe Invisible Touristand Dave and Deb ofThe Planet D!This post may includeaffiliate links.
An open mind is one of the most important things travelers need when jet setting around the world. You might not always know what you’re ordering off a menu or why the toilets look so different from back home, but that’s just part of the adventure!
Every country has its quirks, so some people have beenopening upon Reddit about the things no one bats an eye at in their own nations. Below, you can learn all about these unique things that make nations special (while simultaneously confusing foreigners) and read conversations with travel experts Alyse ofThe Invisible Touristand Dave and Deb ofThe Planet D!
This post may includeaffiliate links.
In Canada, we put maple syrup on snow and wait for it to get all gooey then we eat it
In Denmark our way of caring for our children baffles a lot of foreginers.i.e. we find it natural to leave them unattended, they are left in their prams to nap basically everywhere, usually outside no matter what time of the year it is.
To learn more about the cultural differences visitors find when traveling internationally, we reached out to Australian travel expert Alyse, also known asThe Invisible Tourist. Alyse was kind enough to share a list of things that are perfectly normal in the Land Down Under that might be surprising or confusing for tourists.“There are quite a few!” she toldBored Panda. “Having Christmas in summer is awesome. We have our extended holiday period over Christmas and New Year’s to relax, enjoy beaches and to catch up with family and friends. School kids call erasers rubbers, thongs are what you would call flip-flops, and a slippery-dip is a slide at the local park.”“We always welcome visitors from abroad with a warning about our Drop Bears,” Alyse added. “These are vicious koalas that jump from trees onto unsuspecting tourists, and the only way to soothe them is with Vegemite (spoiler alert, only visitors believe Drop Bears are real).”
To learn more about the cultural differences visitors find when traveling internationally, we reached out to Australian travel expert Alyse, also known asThe Invisible Tourist. Alyse was kind enough to share a list of things that are perfectly normal in the Land Down Under that might be surprising or confusing for tourists.
“There are quite a few!” she toldBored Panda. “Having Christmas in summer is awesome. We have our extended holiday period over Christmas and New Year’s to relax, enjoy beaches and to catch up with family and friends. School kids call erasers rubbers, thongs are what you would call flip-flops, and a slippery-dip is a slide at the local park.”
“We always welcome visitors from abroad with a warning about our Drop Bears,” Alyse added. “These are vicious koalas that jump from trees onto unsuspecting tourists, and the only way to soothe them is with Vegemite (spoiler alert, only visitors believe Drop Bears are real).”
Throwing cheese down a hill then running after it
Thanking the bus driver.
“If you’re wanting to purchase alcohol for a party, you won’t find it in our supermarkets,” Alyse continued. “We have separate stores that sell alcohol only that we call Bottle-o’s."
You also probably don’t need to worry about snakes if you’re taking a trip to Australia. “Visitors are surprised that there aren’t snakes everywhere, like social media would otherwise have you believe,” Alyse says. “I’ve maybe seen a real snake in the wild once or twice in my entire life.”
In the UK, its definitely how we treat our friends. At uni quite a few people, especially Americans got pissed at me for insulting them. That’s just how we act. Only worry when we’re being polite
There are some food names that might confuse visitors in Australia as well. “Cilantro is called coriander here, peppers are called capsicums, aubergines are called eggplants and courgettes are called zucchinis,” Alyse explained. (As an American, I have to say that sounds like a hybrid of British and American terminology…)“All Aussie kids grow up eating Fairy Bread (bread with butter and sprinkles), Sausage Rolls (meaty pastry), mini Meat Pies and Tim Tams (choccie bikkies) for snacks at parties,” the Invisible Tourist shared.
There are some food names that might confuse visitors in Australia as well. “Cilantro is called coriander here, peppers are called capsicums, aubergines are called eggplants and courgettes are called zucchinis,” Alyse explained. (As an American, I have to say that sounds like a hybrid of British and American terminology…)
“All Aussie kids grow up eating Fairy Bread (bread with butter and sprinkles), Sausage Rolls (meaty pastry), mini Meat Pies and Tim Tams (choccie bikkies) for snacks at parties,” the Invisible Tourist shared.
We let cheese melt, throw some schnaps in there and eat it with bread cubes on a long fork.Oh and if your bread falls off the fork you’ll have to do some silly stuff like sing a song or jump naked in the snow…
The friendlier the language the closer you are to a beating, the dirtier the language the more we like you.
Alyse also shared some of her most memorable moments from traveling abroad when she noticed local customs that were different from what she’s used to. “Ordering food from a vending machine rather than a waiter in Japan, then sitting down inside and having it brought to the table,” she noted. “Paying for a chair on the beach is weird for us in Europe. We just throw a towel down anywhere on the sand at home.”“Getting drinks/food from a waiter rather than the bar in continental Europe (ordering it all from a bar must come from our British ancestors),” the travel expert continued. “Having to tip for everything in the USA. We understand why now, but it adds so much extra on top. Not having the taxes included on price tickets in the USA, and having to fumble for change at the register to pay the difference. Paying to use the toilet in the UK and Europe, as we don’t need to do that.”
Alyse also shared some of her most memorable moments from traveling abroad when she noticed local customs that were different from what she’s used to. “Ordering food from a vending machine rather than a waiter in Japan, then sitting down inside and having it brought to the table,” she noted. “Paying for a chair on the beach is weird for us in Europe. We just throw a towel down anywhere on the sand at home.”
“Getting drinks/food from a waiter rather than the bar in continental Europe (ordering it all from a bar must come from our British ancestors),” the travel expert continued. “Having to tip for everything in the USA. We understand why now, but it adds so much extra on top. Not having the taxes included on price tickets in the USA, and having to fumble for change at the register to pay the difference. Paying to use the toilet in the UK and Europe, as we don’t need to do that.”
Apparently white gravy is a thing that’s not very common outside of southern America…
The fact gum is illegal here in Singapore may be odd to foreigners, but there’s a reason for that. The reason being people constantly spitting gum onto the ground, sticking it on cars and elevator buttons, making everywhere you went covered in gum. And when the gum dried up, it would become very hard to remove.
We were also curious if there were any customs from other nations that Alyse wished Australians would adopt. “Australiacan be a great place to live, but being an island continent has its challenges,” she noted. “Many of us would love to adopt European high-speed or Japanese-style bullet trains to travel between our capital cities. Most visitors don’t realize how far away everything is here, for example Sydney to Melbourne is 9 hours drive (870kms), and Melbourne to Brisbane is 18 hours drive (1776km). Heck, even flying from Sydney to Perth or Darwin is 5 hours.”“The other would be not tolerating drugs and other crimes,” the traveler added. “Countries in Asia have very strict consequences for such things, and therefore crime and delinquency is much lower than major cities in Australia. We tend to go a bit easy here, in my opinion.”If you’d like to learn more about Alyse’s travels, get some tips for your upcoming trips or learn more about Australia, be sure to visitThe Invisible Tourist!
We were also curious if there were any customs from other nations that Alyse wished Australians would adopt. “Australiacan be a great place to live, but being an island continent has its challenges,” she noted. “Many of us would love to adopt European high-speed or Japanese-style bullet trains to travel between our capital cities. Most visitors don’t realize how far away everything is here, for example Sydney to Melbourne is 9 hours drive (870kms), and Melbourne to Brisbane is 18 hours drive (1776km). Heck, even flying from Sydney to Perth or Darwin is 5 hours.”
“The other would be not tolerating drugs and other crimes,” the traveler added. “Countries in Asia have very strict consequences for such things, and therefore crime and delinquency is much lower than major cities in Australia. We tend to go a bit easy here, in my opinion.”
If you’d like to learn more about Alyse’s travels, get some tips for your upcoming trips or learn more about Australia, be sure to visitThe Invisible Tourist!
We have like a whole years worth of child leave here in Sweden and are encouraged to split between the parents, so there is lots of dads at the park with their kids.Heard an American ask what was up with all the ‘mannys’? -_-
In Bulgaria we nod for No and shake for Yes. This doesn’t make us an impression but foreigners get really, really confused.Tip: Listen to what we say, not how we move our head. :)
We also reached out to travel experts Dave and Deb ofThe Planet Dto hear a Canadian perspective on this topic. “There are so many things that Canadians find perfectly normal that may seem strange to foreigners,” the travelers shared.“The first thought that comes to our head is that we call our one-dollar coins a Loonie. When Canada changed from dollar bills to coins, the new coin had an engraving of a loon on it. A loon is an aquatic bird that is very common in Canada. So instead of calling it a dollar, Canadians called it a Loonie,” Dave and Deb explained.“When the two-dollar coin came out a few years later, it had a polar bear on it. Instead of making a nickname to do with the polar bear, Canadians ended up calling it a Toonie. It rhymes with Loonie and totally makes sense to us.”
We also reached out to travel experts Dave and Deb ofThe Planet Dto hear a Canadian perspective on this topic. “There are so many things that Canadians find perfectly normal that may seem strange to foreigners,” the travelers shared.
“The first thought that comes to our head is that we call our one-dollar coins a Loonie. When Canada changed from dollar bills to coins, the new coin had an engraving of a loon on it. A loon is an aquatic bird that is very common in Canada. So instead of calling it a dollar, Canadians called it a Loonie,” Dave and Deb explained.
“When the two-dollar coin came out a few years later, it had a polar bear on it. Instead of making a nickname to do with the polar bear, Canadians ended up calling it a Toonie. It rhymes with Loonie and totally makes sense to us.”
We call flip-flops ‘thongs’ and erasers ‘rubbers’.
In the U.S. we have dry counties where stores cannot sell alcohol, but if you drive 4 miles up the road you can buy all the booze you want. Like just sell me my damn booze.
Dave and Deb also shared their thoughts on customs they’ve observed in other countries. “Something I find really weird about our neighbors to the south is that they wear their shoes indoors,” they told Bored Panda. “Most Canadians don’t walk into their houses with shoes on, and when we visit our friends and neighbors, we always take our shoes off. In America, it is common to leave their shoes on. To us it is weird. There is a lot of gross stuff on the streets and sidewalks, why would we want to bring that into our house?”
We burn a Viking galley in January with a +-1000 men with burning torches walking around town all dressed up in anything you can imagine with one main squad dressed up in handmade Viking armour with weapons (diffrent each year), then we burn the boat in the town centre. Then we go to lots of town halls drink and dance for the whole night only to get home in the early hours usually worse for wear.
Dave and Deb also admitted that they wish Canada would get on board with the heated toilets you can find in Japan. “We loved the Toto toilets that washed and dried our private parts, and that warm seat was so welcoming. They even had Toto toilets in the park’s pavilion at Nikko National Park during our hike,” they noted. “It was heavenly. Canada should adopt that, and we’d also never have to deal with the ‘Great Toilet Paper Shortage’ again.”
Eating fries covered with cheese curd and gravy.
Colombia: Putting cheese in our hot chocolate. You put in a bit of cheese in the cup, it melts and you take it out with a spoon and eat it with bread. No, it doesn’t make your chocolate taste cheesy, it just melts in a nice way.The first time I did this with foreigners they were completely beside themselves.
“Canada has a lot of quirkiness,” the travelers shared. “I sometimes think we are quirkier than other countries, and we all seem to like it that way. It is a huge country, and there are many quirks in different regions. For example, when visiting Dawson City, Yukon, it is customary to drink the Sour Toe Cocktail that contains an actual dead human toe. When visiting Newfoundland, visitors (Come from Aways) can become honorary Newfoundlanders when they drink Screech rum and kiss a cod fish.“If you’d like to hear more about Dave and Deb’s travels or learn fun facts about the great nation of Canada, be sure to visit their blogThe Planet D!
“Canada has a lot of quirkiness,” the travelers shared. “I sometimes think we are quirkier than other countries, and we all seem to like it that way. It is a huge country, and there are many quirks in different regions. For example, when visiting Dawson City, Yukon, it is customary to drink the Sour Toe Cocktail that contains an actual dead human toe. When visiting Newfoundland, visitors (Come from Aways) can become honorary Newfoundlanders when they drink Screech rum and kiss a cod fish.”
If you’d like to hear more about Dave and Deb’s travels or learn fun facts about the great nation of Canada, be sure to visit their blogThe Planet D!
In the UK we don’t have one tap spout in a sink that you control the temperature of. We have two separate spouts: one hot that strips the flesh from your bones and one cold that gives you frost bite.
Sitting naked and silently in a hot and sweaty room with other people
- Need some groceries? Get on your bike and stuff everything in your fietstas.* Kids need to go to school? Bring them in your *bakfiets* (freight bicycle).* Trying your best to talk Dutch to someone? Get an answer in English.
Saying sorry to random people if they bump into you, even if it wasn’t your fault.
Shabbat elevator service. In Israel, in a lot of places, the elevators are programmed to stop at every floor going up and down, so that the religious people don’t have to push buttons and therefore “operate machinery” on Shabbat. So, if you wanna get to your floor on time, just take the stairs.
Here in England we get totally drunk because the sun is shining. It’s reason enough to finish work and go straight to the nearest pub with a beer garden then drink until closing.I imagine in some countries you’d never be sober if that happened.
Groundhogs Day must seem incredibly strange to non-Americans.
In Belgium we have neighborhoods where 90% of the people living there speak French yet they are forced to speak Dutch in all official capacities unless they specifically ask for French after the fact. Call the police, they speak Dutch first, then you have to ask them to speak French to you. Receive official documents from the community? In Dutch first, then you have to ask for them in French.And that’s really just the tip of the iceberg.
At the longest day of the year, everyone has to gather in a large field and jam a large wooden p***s covered in flowers into the ground. Then we dance around it. Historically this was to ensure a plentiful harvest but nowadays it’s just an excuse to get drunk.
Calling your mates ct, and c*s mate.
Sitting in circles on birtdays and putting sprinkles on bread as breakfast or lunch.
Kissing people on the cheek (even the one you don’t know personally) to say hello.Welcome to France guys o/
Something I noticed is that students (perticulary Greek, Italian, French) that come to the UK find our drinking culture strange. As where maybe they would go out and have a few drinks then go home we will go home once we are dragged back vomiting at out door.P.s. not really something I’m proud of just something I noticed
We call the clear water as “sky juice”
Climbing up a super oily tree trunk along with a bunch of bare chested men with the goal of grabbing a bunch of s****y prizes tied at the top.EDIT: It’s called Panjat Pinang.
We eat the inwards of sheep and they are delicious! We call it “κοκορέτσι”. It’s the greatest greek dish. It’s like 4 x gyros!
Brunost (goat cheese)It’s pretty normal in Norway, Denmark & SwedenEdit: Should’ve said that it’s a type of brown colored goat cheese, which contains from whey as one of the main ingredients.
Calling some random dude “your man”. Equal in meaning to “that guy”.
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Car - guards.If you park in any public place, 9/10 times a homeless person will approach your car and it’s understood that they will “protect” it until you return. You’re automatically a d**k if you don’t pay them some change when you leave.
Sunday trading law. In the UK England, By law, all large shops close at 4pm earlier than they do most days
Legally walking around with a gun on your person. ( In Most States)
Here in Belgium, we don’t really have fraternities/sororities, but each field of study has it’s own student organisation. For example, Medicine, Linguistics, Engineering, Chemistry, etc. They organize a lot of events during the year, usually free or at least extremely cheap.One of the traditions we have is that you can let yourself be sold as a freshman to members of the organisation you’re with. Which kind of goes down like however slaves used to be sold, without the whips and chains though. The selling happens like an auction, and afterwards, depending on the rules of the organisation, you’ll be the property of the people that bought you for whatever time period they traditionally use (usually 1-3 weeks).Mostly it’s a nice way to learn a bit about student life and make some new friends along the way. The nasty bits are usually limited to cleaning some rooms and doing some dishes, along with drinking heavily. Some people are obviously d***s about it and can go on quite a powertrip, but they’re a minority, and obviously, you can refuse anything they make you do if you feel it’s unreasonable.TL;DR, we sell freshman university students in auctions as slaves
Three kiss greeting. Man this has made things akward over the years.
Milk in one-litre bags. If you don’t have a bag holder, that must be confounding.
On Sunday’s all shop’s are closed except for gas station’s. Switzerland.
Turning right on a redlight…
In places (some quite close to cities) sheep are free to go wherever they like - including roads.
Incurring thousands of dollars in debt as a result of illness or needing acute medical care.
Most drivers have a dashcam.
Women being second class citizens or not being allowed to drive.
Maple Syrup.On everything.
In our country all shops open at 7 am. And then closes 5 times everyday for 1 hour everytime and would close at 10pm. No shops or restaurants will be open after 10pm.TL;Dr: somebody save me!
People here in Brazil are very friendly.Kisses on the cheek first time we see you; Women calling you cute names within 5 minutes of conversation; We will hug you at the ends of conversation, even though it’s the first time we’ve met.
No one signs for their credit card here, we all use pin numbers.Also going to the counter to pay.
Clamato juice (clam juice and tomato juice) mixed into a beer. Not exactly super common, but enough that I’ve seen it a lot over the years
Saying the pledge everymorning
USA here, I think the obvious answer is using the Imperial system of measurement. Even I think it’s silly.
To do engineering (4 years), then PG Diploma in Management (2 years), sometimes even a global MBA with the end goal of becoming a civil servant that requires none of above qualifications. All that just for the social status it brings.
In the UK, people hold doors for each other and smile when you make eye contact with them. I never seen that in any other country I’ve been to.
Drinking a 12-32 oz soda (~1/3-1 L) with a meal and going back for a free refill.(Country: USA! USA! USA!)
Kids clasp their hands together with the index fingers pointing out like a gun and stab each other with that in their buttholes.
Ordering a Double-Double.
Twerking….. Also grinding. In the U.S. it’s pretty normal to dance like that. But i notice when i go to Europe, it’s generally not socially acceptable to dance up on a girl. In fact, they hate it :|
Getting all exited to play a game called “Cornhole”.
The off licence being shut at 10pm as we cannot ‘control’ ourselves
Drive through ATM(automated teller machines) machines machinimas are apparently the craziest things ever
Easy gun ownership. Especially in certain states.
Watching Fox News
Roundabouts
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