Our oldest J, came back from a 3 month long trip to see their friend in Switzerland. Why did it have to be during a pandemic and why now? Those questions crossed my mind over and over again. In the end, it was a huge experience and they learned a lot. They compared the USA with Europe with almost EVERYTHING. Ahhh, now there is a question: What do Americans think of Europe? Are there many differences? What is weird and would never happen in the USA or vice versa?

A trip to the Netherlands and Switzerland.

J planned their trip to Switzerland in the summer of 2020. In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. They (pronoun for non-binary) worked 2 different jobs to pay for the ticket. We were careful and watched the news daily to see if anything changed such as COVID test and other travel requirements. There were several times, I thought the trip was not going to happen, but somehow without pushing things (I like to call it “support of nature”), J left on December 15 from Chicago to Switzerland, via Amsterdam. Almost all by themselves, at only 14 years old.

Yes, I thought we were crazy of letting them do this. But some teens can do this, fighting hard for it, learn a lot from it and are happier. I know our son, who is only 16 months younger, would NOT do this. During the trip J was more aware of their surroundings and figured out things that were more European customs, than American.

J was born in the Netherlands and only 3 months old when we moved to the US, but we all traveled a few times after that to Europe to visit family and friends. While watching photo’s and listened to stories we came up with a few things we now, living in the USA, think are weird or different in Europe.

Things that are different in Europe.

Transportation

Trains and Railroad Crossings

The other day I was waiting at a railroad crossing. I was listening to the Dutch radio (through my Radio Garden app) and I was thinking at the times I was also listening to Dutch radio, but waiting in front of a railroad crossing in the Netherlands. Suddenly, in a flash, I saw the yellow and blue train passing by. It would normally take a few seconds before the train passes and the red light stops flashing. THEN you’re allowed to cross the train tracks. (See the sign above: “WAIT until the red light stops flashing. Another train can pass.)

I snapped back from my thoughts. In the USA the train can be super long. I started to count this freight train with coals: 128 train cars. The gates opened slowly after they passed and immediately people started to cross the railroad tracks. This is not allowed in the Netherlands. Sometimes I still wait till the red lights are off and people started to honk behind me!

Driving a car

Going back to the Netherlands, means driving in gear shift cars again. This is one of the things I got so used to in the US. Most of the cars in the USA are automatic and a lot easier to drive in. Which results in younger kids driving a car (14 years of age) and less strict rules. When I came to the US, I could NOT get a driver’s license, because I had already a Dutch license. I had to pass an eye test, a theory test and a practical driver’s test. It took me a week and the cost was $25.

In the Netherlands it took me several weeks of theory lessons and a test at the end, 26 practical lessons and a test which included an eye test. Cost: a little under $5,000. They take it a little more seriously! And they should! The Netherlands is a dense country. A lot of narrow streets, so many bicycles, cars, signs and traffic lights.

Shopping

Pricing of Products

It took me a few months to realize that I had to add a few extra cents to my budget while buying groceries. In Europe you pay the price on the tag. Taxes are included.

I really thought they made a mistake at the grocery store. My English was not good in the first few years of me being in the US, so my husband was mainly buying our groceries. I never paid attention to it, even tough I was standing next to him trying to bag our groceries. And that brings me to my next point:

Bagging groceries

In the Netherlands you put your items on a belt, cashier takes it to scan it and passes it to the next area. You put the products in a bag or create you brought from home.

In the US people are hired to bag your items and put them in a ridiculous amount of plastic bags. I felt bad to bring these bags home. I reused them mainly for trash bags in our home. One time I made “Plarn” (Plastic Yarn) to make sturdy shopping bags out of them, but jeezzz, what a waste! Now we are going to Aldi and we bring our own bags.

Opening Hours

What a convenient idea it was to know that there was actually NO opening hours for stores. Or, I should say, the closing time for many stores are way past my bed time. I think you can count on one hand when I went to a store after 10 PM (probably a last minute gift hunt for Christmas).

And then you see people wearing PJ’s while shopping! Okay, sounds comfortable. In most of Europe people actually dress up when they go to a store….just in case they have to socialize.

Shopping in Malls

Growing up in the Netherlands, we never knew what malls were. In the last few years they’ve been building some shopping centers here and there, but not in almost every town, like here in the US. Each store is huge! In Europe I love walking through the cozy streets of a city or town, walking in and out of all the cute little stores with hand made items. A lot of stores, and especially grocery stores in the US, are huge!

Public restrooms

At these malls and places like a train station or gas station there are free restrooms. That must be shocking for Americans to come to the Netherlands, where they have to pay (I think nowadays even with credit card) to enter a restroom. In the USA I never have to pay for restrooms and I have to say, most of the times they are cleaner than most of the public restrooms in Europe.

Water fountains and water in general

A typical American movie scene: watching people drink from water fountains. You see them here in most public places, like the mall, in schools, in recreation centers, swimming pools and libraries. The water is often very gross and tastes like chlorine. If you ask for a glass of water at someone’s house, they might walk to a water dispenser on a wooden stand or on the counter or a build-in dispenser in the refrigerator.

We recently put a water filter in our house. Now we can drink from the faucet, just like we always did in the Netherlands.

Or what about asking for water at a restaurant? In the USA you don’t ask, you just get a big glass with water and ice. Lately I’ve noticed that the water is often filtered, so that is great! In Europe you have to pay for a small glass of water. It usually comes out of a bottle and you can ask for bubbly water or no bubbles. Coming to our next point:

Restaurants

You can read more about restaurants in this blog post, but here are some differences too.

Portions

Bringing home doggie bags with left over food from your romantic late night dinner, is not a thing Europe. Especially in the Netherlands the portions are small, but the over all quality is better than here in the USA. There are so many fast food chains everywhere. Even in our small town we have McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Taco Johns etc. We like to support small local businesses. They often use local produce and it just tastes way better!

Staff

In general I think that the Dutch are less friendly than the American waiters and waitresses (or staff at a normal retail store for that matter). I always thought that it seemed fake and over the top, but somehow I do like it. Maybe it is different now, but I’ve never heard a waiter or waitress in Europe introduce themselves when they come to your table. In the US a lot of these staff members get mainly paid by tips, not so much in the Netherlands.

Utensils

Americans only eat hamburgers and fries with their hands. Just kidding! But I’m not kidding about the fact that I haven’t seen many Americans eat with a knife and a fork. Americans love finger food!

Drive Thru

There may be more drive thru places in Europe by now, but I personally have never seen one. A lot of restaurants, especially food-chains have Drive-Thru’s in the USA. Even banks have them! In some cases you can even put money or check in a cylinder, push a button and WHOOSH, the tube goes through a tunnel to the bank where a bank employee receives it and asks you through an intercom what to do with it. In the meantime you sit conveniently in your car and sip your Starbucks coffee:)

People are quiet

One of the first times I took my husband, then boy friend, to a square in the Netherlands, which was turned into a busy outdoor sitting area in front of a dozen small pubs and cafe’s. He was surprised how quiet it was compared to a place like this in the US.

Later I experienced it several times as well, while sitting in a restaurant enjoying a romantic dinner with my husband talking about all kinds of things in a normal voice. We got interrupted numerous times by other guests who were talking and laughing so loud, we could barely hear each other.

Home

Garbage disposal

So, we talked about the water out of the faucet, but there is something that the US has, but Europe doesn’t: a garbage disposal. My mom likes it very much.

You can put small amounts of fruit and vegetable scraps down the drain where the disposal is, push a button and the machine grinds it up. You have to be careful of course not to use it as a trash can. Sometimes spoons or other metal or plastic slip into this big hole in the sink….and then it’s a messy job to get the things out which are not suppose to be in there.

Air conditioning

Here in Iowa every house or building has air conditioning. It can be a window unit or a central cooling system (cool air will come through vents in the floor or the wall). In the Netherlands some stores might have air conditioning, but normal homes do not. I wonder what’s going to happen in the future, because it seems that the summers are getting hotter.

In the Mediterranean countries air conditioners are not a common thing either, even though the temperatures can get very high. People just have siesta’s and move their schedule to later at night when it cools down a bit. That would be one solution, right?

Temperatures and measurements

Talking about temperatures, I am slowly getting used to Fahrenheit, even though I still have Celsius on my weather channel app on my phone. I do use inches more than centimeters and cups more than grams.

I read somewhere the other day, some people who probably have never been outside of the US, suddenly read something with Celsius, grams, centimeter or whatever and asked on social media, who in the world is using Celsius and grams?

I think that was about it for our family! What about your experiences? Please let me know in the comments below.

Danielle

Hello everyone,

Welcome to my Crafty Dutch Girl blog! Grab a cup of “koffie” and browse through fun blog posts about our Dutch family expat life in the USA, Dutch history, Dutch recipes, Dutch things to do in the USA and all kinds of crafts and activities. Don’t forget to connect with me for new ideas! “Groetjes en tot ziens”.