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People Share The Worst Parts About Living In Europe

People Share The Worst Parts About Living In Europe
Photo by Nejc Soklič on Unsplash

This isn't as magical as I thought!

World travel is a must! We must all learn about other cultures and places and people.

Seeing the world is an awe inspiring experience... but living in a foreign place is a whole other story.

Europe is beautiful but it can be tricky to navigate.

Every place has a drawback to live in and that's just the truth.

RedditorBorn_Chuckerwanted to know why Europe might not be the greatest place on Earth by asking...

What's the worst part about living in Europe?

Perspectives....

Giphy

"It's cold and expensive. At least northern Europe."

Jauxerous

"It's too hot and necessarily cheap because we can't afford anything more expensive. In fact we can't afford it now, even though we still work 40+hour weeks and get paid in beans. At least in the South. Perspectives, my man... (or my lady)."

idistaken

Viva Italia!!

"I studied abroad in Italy a few years ago, while I loved it there I thought the lifestyle was a little bit inconvenient. Stores never follow a proper schedule (they open/close whenever), (I know this is a really dumb thing to complain about) but I really missed having a dryer, it was pretty hard to find wifi in public places, I also didn't like that nothing was open late or 24 hours."

halfpintlc

Malaga....

"The almost religious culture of English people ruining some of the most amazing places like Ibiza is beautiful but there are clubs and English bars in every corner, I lived in Malaga for 6 years and nearly every thing is catered towards the English, not saying all the English do this but it's mostly people in their early 20s and late 30s on hen and stag parties."

oisin-reynolds

Too Much Time. 

"Having friends from the US, With big time-Zone differences."

FemaleSecuritron

"So annoying. Wait 4hrs for them to wake up and reply to your text."

ChaChaMull

Damn Netflix. 

"I'm pretty happy here, so the only thing I can think of is that netflix has much more series and movies in the US. I used vpn before they blocked it and omg US netflix is so much better."

fantsukissa

Calculations....

Giphy

"When people in America say things cost X amount of $ i have to google how many £ that is."

YT_Mr-J

"But on the other hand, of you see something being sold for X amount of €, that's also what you'll end up paying. Not some completely unrelated higher amount."

Noughmad

Empty Cups.

"Unfree Refills."

Stev18FTW

"Burn the darn place to the ground!"

WhiskeyDickens

"In France there's a law that forbids free refills in restaurants to prevent obesity and diabetes in people, especially kids."

Maxime_____

In Germany..... 

"In Germany - people don't stand up against jerks in public. Everybody just either nopes out or plain pretends they don't see anything - which to me is often worse. One time on the Berlin U-Bahn - I told a junky who was openly harassing a woman to run right off, and he pulled an exacto knife as a response. Never in my life I saw a train cart getting so empty so fast, the woman included. They prefer to snitch after the fact than actually doing anything about it when it happens."

Sinusidal

Just Minors....

"I'm finding that I find it very difficult to answer this question. I'm pretty happy living in Europe. Most of my complaints are mere minor annoyances. Maybe an inflexible bureaucracy would perhaps be my answer."

mejok

"Bureaucracy wouldn't be bureaucracy without inconvenience."

M-Rich

Western Culture....

"US based artists are unreachable. So much of western culture comes from the US, but aside from the most famous ones that you can't approach for entirely different reasons, you'll never meet some of your favorite comedians/writers and other types of artists as a European."

WirinelDuSaule

Are you Open?

Giphy

"The working hours for most shops are very inconvenient. By the time you have finished work, they are all closed. I wonder how they still keep in business."

Lupus_Noir

Dominion. 

"Multiplayer servers are just groups of people who don't speak the same language."

untakenu

"Got a game of For Honor last night, a trend on this game is to reproduce your flag on your profile's emblem. It's not always the case sometime your emblem just represents something that don't mean anything but just look good, you really do whatever you want."

"A game of 'Dominion' is a 4v4. So you ended up with an Italian, a German, a French (me) and a Belgian fighting two Scotsmen, a Swiss and a Spanish guy. Looks like the beginning of a joke I know."

Abovearth31

Castles in the Sky...

"My castle sometimes gets drafty."

shaokim

"Just burn some peasants and justify yourself accusing them of witchery. It works for me."

Bored_npc

The Wild. 

"It is not that bad or a flaw actually, but in western Europe I personally miss big wild areas inhabited. Population is very concentrated so wild inhabited areas are very small. USA, Canada, South América countries, China, Russia, Central Asia, Australia have that per example."

8HcT

I Love the Danes....

Giphy

"My language... Danish."

pigfoodisgood

"Danish is...weird to me as a Norwegian. Your written language are so easy to read, but for the life of me, I really have to struggle to understand when you talk. Swedes have a greater difference in written language, but are so much easier to understand verbally."

Lee1138

The Pooper...

"You have to pay to use a public pooper."

Iced-G

"Yes!!! I'm from the US and have been to a few countries in Europe. That was the most inconvenient thing... worst memory of it was waiting in a 15 minute line to use the bathroom and some lady comes and takes my stall right after I paid for it. Somebody's lucky they didn't get punched that day."

cjs293

The Bureaucracy....

"Depending on exactly where you live, the bureaucracy associated with daily life can be a source of incredible frustration."

irishamerican

"My SO spent a year in Italy and the bureaucracy there is just... wow. I thought we had it bad in Canada."

shabadabadabada

You got to have Friends! 

"When you get used to friendliness of Americans, Europeans as a rule strike you as standoffish. I was brought up in Europe so I understand this is not hostility, but my American husband is always unpleasantly surprised not everybody responds enthusiastically to his 'HI HOW ARE YOU!'"

fantazja1

(Switzerland here) 

"(Switzerland here) Every grocery store closing before I leave work for the day. That, the language barrier, relatively tame nightlife and high cost of any form of transportation all make life a little dull or frustrating from time to time."

"Oh, and every time a Swiss woman hits the age of 55, they join a secret cult intent on controlling the use of every washing machine in every apartment building throughout the country so that the gainfully employed struggle and suffer to do their basic cleaning needs."

qb89dragon

Dry the Food.

Giphy

"Good clothes dryers."

and

"The absence of good Mexican Food."

oldmannew

'whatever let's try it'

"The cultural conservatism. I don't mean that in a left vs. right political way, but the general old-fashionedness. Many people are stuck in their ways and resistant to cultural change. After having lived in Europe for many years it made the 'whatever let's try it' attitude of the United States refreshing to the point of being intoxicating."

topangacanyon

Slow Developments

"For me it would be the scarcity of wilderness and land. It's hard to find untouched vast places that haven't been urbanized. To mention some other things I think that most western Europe is a bit stagnant when it comes to development. It's such a developed continent already that most people have a bachelor's degree and many have a masters which makes every job super competitive and opportunities for people with a technical degree or no higher education much harder."

"Unemployment is high in many countries and it seems that it won't improve soon. Real estate is expensive in the biggest cities and if you live in the suburban areas you will spend much more on gas. Some countries like mine have super expensive utilities."

"Where I'm living now (Portugal) not so many people earn more than 1500 eur, since for a company to pay those wages they have to pay almost the same amount to the government which in change motivates many people to emigrate."

jabonkagigi

Over It

Fans Italy GIF by Manne NilssonGiphy

"As an American living in Italy, I would say the lack of diverse food options. In the states, we take for granted how many different cultures are represented, and being able to experience their food culture is such a gift. I am so over Italian food."

mrs-degree

Omapolizei...

"Living with a roommate cause housing prices are ridiculous. Giving almost half my salary to taxes. Paying to use public toilets. Paying for water at restaurants. Going to the grocery store and not knowing if they’re going to have what I want. Lack of parking space. Germany specific: Omapolizei."

MsAndie1

Closed Off

"Almost every country has small closed concept homes, very narrow roads, depending on where you live not much privacy, no matter where you go there will always be 2-3x more population dense than basically anywhere outside of Europe. More of the emphasis is on small. But it's personal preference."

I spent my childhood and young adult life in many countries of Europe and now live in America. It's all about personal preference, but day to day living and living situation i feel is better than Europe. However, I do miss being almost anywhere in Europe and having stunning views. America is 80% flat"

ObiWahnKenobi

No one cares...

"Customer service. It's not uncommon for your calls/emails to a business to just go completely unanswered because they're busy. In the US the place would take a hit to their reputation but in Europe (at least the countries I've been to) it seems people just tolerate it as normal."

spartanburt

Paying to use the toilet does seem like a crazy inconvenience. Not to mention a drafty castle.

What would you like to add to this list? Let us know in the comments below!

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