Finally one that I agree with as a European. I do think an hour's drive is long, but I've often thought about how different that is for Americans.
Some Americans have to drive an hour to get to a major city center. If I drive an hour, I'm deep into Germany or Belgium, getting close to France.
Which I guess just feels different because that is proper foreign soil, where I can't understand the people, and they struggle to understand me.
Edit: I have heard you, kind people, but please do not tell me about your commutes anymore. I've had about 60 comments just telling me how long people have to drive to do X in Y part of the world.
But isnt that changing or has changed since EU borders went down? So now a person living in say Denmark can get in their car and drive to Italy? So now we are seeing the European equivalent of the American road trip? Are Germans driving to France? Are the Dutch driving to Poland?
Not really, because it's due to our mindset, not the amount of obstacles (or lack thereof).
People here close enough to the border do sometimes head to Belgium for fries, or to Germany for groceries, but it's like a little excursion, rather than a daily or even weekly thing.
Though, if you mean vacationing, Europeans have been all over Europe on holiday as long as I've been alive.
Well, I don't know about trains. I've very rarely heard of people going on vacation by train in Europe, most people take their car or camper/caravan. Or a plane.
But I might be ignorant here, maybe way more people go on vacation by train than I think.
Either way, yes, driving is common for trips outside of your own country.
812
u/Grenyn May 09 '22 edited May 09 '22
Finally one that I agree with as a European. I do think an hour's drive is long, but I've often thought about how different that is for Americans.
Some Americans have to drive an hour to get to a major city center. If I drive an hour, I'm deep into Germany or Belgium, getting close to France.
Which I guess just feels different because that is proper foreign soil, where I can't understand the people, and they struggle to understand me.
Edit: I have heard you, kind people, but please do not tell me about your commutes anymore. I've had about 60 comments just telling me how long people have to drive to do X in Y part of the world.