TwistedSifter

What’s Normal Where You Live but Crazy in Other Places? People Shared Their Thoughts.

One of the many joys of traveling is experiencing how other people live.

The small details, the little things that set them apart from folks in other countries.

And the crazy stuff, too!

Let’s hear from AskReddit users about what’s normal where they live but crazy in other places.

This is gonna be fun!

1. French and English.

“My city is EXTREMELY bilingual, everyone speaks both English and French. You’ll hear people speak both languages in conversations quite often, sometimes in the same sentence.

In stores, most of the time, people greet you with both languages and you reply in one of them, which tells them which language you prefer to talk in. They go “Bonjour, Hi!” And you say Bonjour back if you want to continue in French or Hi if you rather speak English. It’s kinda crazy.

I’m from Montréal, Canada.”

2. Try it!

“I live in Dublin and when we tell people who live in America that we put chips in sandwiches they laugh at us.

Just try it mate. It’s so good.”

3. Sounds great.

“In Germany.

Everything, literally everything is closed on Sundays which is amazing cuz everyone (except from the most essential like doctors, firefighters and the police) have a free day which is awesome!!”

4. Evil Christmas.

“In Austria around Christmas/St Nicholas time we have events called “Krampusläufe” where people, mostly young (drunk) men dress up as demonic devil-like creatures called Krampus with fur suits, creepy masks and cow bells and pull of shows that include lots of fire, smoke, witch burns etc while mainly Rammstein plays in the back.

They also like to whip people in the audience with cow tails. And hell yea we enjoy the show while getting drunk on hot punch. We even bring our kids along.”

5. Help yourself.

“In Australian rural towns we all had our back doors unlocked; and friends are allowed to go through the back door and make themselves a cup of tea/coffee while they wait for you to get back from whatever you were doing.”

6. That’s wild.

“Experiencing 4 seasons every day. Jacket on, jacket off, it’s sunny but it’s raining, freezing and windy, then it’s hot again…

I like to wear shorts and puffer jacket combos for both extremes. Tasmania.”

7. Scandalous!

“In the Eifel, Germany, on the night to 1st of May, people paint a long line from one house to another.

The line means that someone in these households is having an affair.

Every year several relationships break up because of this. I love it.”

8. That’s scary.

“Alligators. Just…everywhere.

I live in a swampy area of Florida, and it’s pretty normal to come across alligators in small ponds, ditches, around pools, or just chilling in a parking lot. I’ve nearly tripped on alligators more times than i’d like to admit.

Thankfully they’re pretty chill and won’t really bother you unless you mess with them or go near a nest. The police are even trained to deal with rogue alligator calls.”

9. Keep an eye out.

“I live next to a game reserve in South Africa. It’s not that surprising to hear baboons in your back yard, or spot a rhino 10 meters from your fence.

One time a whole troop of baboons ran over our roof. It’s only corrugated iron and we all s**t our pants.”

10. Wow.

“Madagascar.

Every now and then we dig up corpses of our loved ones, bring ’em through the village where they lived for a visit, change the tissues they where covered in (several layers) with new ones and put them back in the grave and all that while partying.”

11. A strange one.

“I live in New Jersey and it’s illegal here for you to pump your own gas/fuel.

All stations are full service by law.

I believe Oregon is the only other state in the USA that has this law.”

12. Up north.

“Where I used to live in Manitoba, nobody had fences, mainly because when the properties were divided up, the town planners left space that belonged to the town behind all of them, that was just a strip of forest and Canadian shield.

So almost nobody put up fences because it cut off their view & access to what was essentially a super cool nature trail network throughout the town. Everyone knew once you hit mowed grass, that belonged to someone. Us kids barely ever went anywhere on foot via roads or sidewalks, we always took the trails (we rode bikes on the roads though, there were too many rocks on the trails for a regular kid’s bike)

Of course, living in a forest had some unintended consequences. We frequently had bears, so I remember when I wasn’t even 5 yet being taught what to do if I saw a bear. And two separate years we had a mountain lion, which was a lot worse.

The town would hire someone to trap and relocate these animals but it always took a while. I remember watching a bear lying down under the crabapple tree in our front yard just eating all the windfall apples for ages, not a care in the world.”

13. Into the great wide open.

“Driving 3 hours at 100km/h and still being in the middle of nowhere (Australia).

In parts of Europe you’d have crossed 3 borders in that time.”

14. Take your time.

“Brazil: Apparently being in a restaurant for hours and hours and only eating in 1% of the time.

We talk for hours before and after eating here, so we don’t leave right after eating. Everyone I knew from other countries found it strange.”

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