Intense local village rivalries developed from a young age in an amateur sport that nots played outside Ireland except in Irish migrant communities. In my local case its the sport of hurling that can’t really be learnt as an adult.
The Netherlands are so flat they literally have no mountains except for one tiny one on the border with Germany and Belgium.
I don’t think even Denmark is that flat.
EDIT: Also, like half the country is technically underwater.
here you go. mangalica, a hungarian pig with thick fur.
has relatively low fat cause of the fur, and people sometimes eat its bacon with chocolate.
Capital city whose suburbs extend into two other different countries. When you go shopping in Austrian town Kittsee, you can speak to cashier in Slovak, and Rajka in Hungary is so popular that one real estate agency called it “the 6th district of Bratislava” in marketing materials.
Probably the amount of different dialects and accents that we have in such a small area. Since we are mostly a hilly/mountanous country at a crossroads between Slavic, Romance, Germanic and Hungarian languages, the variety is huge. It’s sometimes unbelievable how accurately you can pinpoint where a person is from if you know what to listen for.
Free museums. I know it’s a small thing, but being able to come and go from museums without having to worry about money is something I miss whenever I travel abroad.
Proper high quality bread and meat isn’t easy to find abroad. I’ve bought some Jamón ibérico in Spain, in a very busy store where lots of locals were buying it.
It was quite disappointing, very fatty and extremely chewy, like lard-flavored bubble gum.
Rye bread is quite rare in most of Europe too.
The borders being more or less fixed since the first dynasty, at least as far as continental Portugal is concerned. Take a look at the borders in Europe throughout the centuries and notice how little Portugal’s have changed.
Decent cider. I generally believe that England and Wales are the only countries that do it right.
And yes, I’ve tried a lot of cider from other places, Ireland, France, the USA etc. (Breton cider in particular I just cannot stand; I’ve had multiple different brands and they all taste like leather)
I’m certain they exist but I’ve yet to find one – ” a deli”. It’s basically a hot food counter *within* a store (very rare to see them operate independently) where the server will put various toppings (sausage, egg, rasher, hash browns, etc.) in a bread roll/baguette/wrap. They’ll often have a cold food counter with a little salad bar maybe, as well as other stuff like little pies/meat pastries. It’s basically Subway’s business model, and I cannot figure out why it hasn’t been adopted elsewhere!
^(Possibly because it’s not exactly “healthy food”, but when has that stopped us? lol)
We put our family names first and given names second. For example, instead of John Smith, we have Smith John.
Because of this, we don’t have “middle names”, we have “third names”. The idea is the same, your first given name is your primary name and your second is your secondary. But our second given name is at the end, not in the middle.
Another thing regarding names, which probably isn’t unique to us, is that we have name days. Each given name has one or more days assigned to it as its name day. Some people don’t care about them at all, others celebrate them like birthdays. Most people just wish a happy nameday and maybe give a small gift if they’re close.
When I lived abroad I had cravings for a pint of bitter. I was in a country with a lot of excellent beer, but sometimes you just want a pint of Pedigree from cask in a proper boozer with a pack of pork scratchings as the Lord himself intended.
Food and drink is probably the easy one for a lot of people because every country has its unique products and ways of doing things. Another one that jumps to mind would be lamb/sheep meat which is far rarer in most of the continent than here, a shame as done right I think lamb is a more interesting meat than beef on the whole if somewhat less versatile.
The chaos. Queueing is exactly the opposite way of how the British do it, traffic rules might as well be non-existent, in general the way cities and infrastructure are built. If you were to tell me it was a country in Africa, I would believe you.
Friteries. They’re a thing in Northern France, Southern Netherlands and (I THINK) Luxembourg as well, but Friteries are a unique regional thing that you wont find anywhere else in it’s typical western european form.
The cleanest, smoothest, creamiest pints of Guinness you’ve ever tasted.
It’s an incredible candy yet I can’t find it anywhere else and apparently they don’t export well.
Studying at a (Public) University is “free” because of the ÖH (Österreichische Hochschüler*innenschaft), who manages to keep studying affordable even for a lower class first generation student like me. I only have to pay about 24€ a semester (just for uni, I still have to pay for public transportation extra).
The [*чушкопек* (*choushkopèk*)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chushkopek), aka pepper roaster, comes to mind. It’s a electric appliance created in Bulgaria for the sole purpose of roasting peppers.
The smell of roasted peppers, especially in warm summer evenings, is among the most Bulgarian smells in existence.
A proper pub. People set up British-style pubs all over the place, but they just never quite get it right.
There’s this one brewery in Bavaria that makes smoked beer that I love, haven’t seen that anywhere else yet.
24 comments
In France we have L’Académie française, a group of old fogies who think they can decide what language have to be used by people.
Edit: wow I thought only the French were capable of that but that’s pretty common
I’ll give you a couple examples: a thousand lakes, as many saunas, nearly as many types of rye bread and then we have mämmi.
In the Czech Republic, we have a gorgeous [spa & sauna resort](https://images.app.goo.gl/vwxyytEE7UkqzcUM9) that looks like Hobbitown.
Also, we have the mighty Ř/ř.
Intense local village rivalries developed from a young age in an amateur sport that nots played outside Ireland except in Irish migrant communities. In my local case its the sport of hurling that can’t really be learnt as an adult.
The Netherlands are so flat they literally have no mountains except for one tiny one on the border with Germany and Belgium.
I don’t think even Denmark is that flat.
EDIT: Also, like half the country is technically underwater.
here you go. mangalica, a hungarian pig with thick fur.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangalica
has relatively low fat cause of the fur, and people sometimes eat its bacon with chocolate.
Capital city whose suburbs extend into two other different countries. When you go shopping in Austrian town Kittsee, you can speak to cashier in Slovak, and Rajka in Hungary is so popular that one real estate agency called it “the 6th district of Bratislava” in marketing materials.
Probably the amount of different dialects and accents that we have in such a small area. Since we are mostly a hilly/mountanous country at a crossroads between Slavic, Romance, Germanic and Hungarian languages, the variety is huge. It’s sometimes unbelievable how accurately you can pinpoint where a person is from if you know what to listen for.
Free museums. I know it’s a small thing, but being able to come and go from museums without having to worry about money is something I miss whenever I travel abroad.
[Munchy boxes.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munchy_box) Explains a lot about our generally poorer health.
Proper high quality bread and meat isn’t easy to find abroad. I’ve bought some Jamón ibérico in Spain, in a very busy store where lots of locals were buying it.
It was quite disappointing, very fatty and extremely chewy, like lard-flavored bubble gum.
Rye bread is quite rare in most of Europe too.
The borders being more or less fixed since the first dynasty, at least as far as continental Portugal is concerned. Take a look at the borders in Europe throughout the centuries and notice how little Portugal’s have changed.
Decent cider. I generally believe that England and Wales are the only countries that do it right.
And yes, I’ve tried a lot of cider from other places, Ireland, France, the USA etc. (Breton cider in particular I just cannot stand; I’ve had multiple different brands and they all taste like leather)
I’m certain they exist but I’ve yet to find one – ” a deli”. It’s basically a hot food counter *within* a store (very rare to see them operate independently) where the server will put various toppings (sausage, egg, rasher, hash browns, etc.) in a bread roll/baguette/wrap. They’ll often have a cold food counter with a little salad bar maybe, as well as other stuff like little pies/meat pastries. It’s basically Subway’s business model, and I cannot figure out why it hasn’t been adopted elsewhere!
^(Possibly because it’s not exactly “healthy food”, but when has that stopped us? lol)
We put our family names first and given names second. For example, instead of John Smith, we have Smith John.
Because of this, we don’t have “middle names”, we have “third names”. The idea is the same, your first given name is your primary name and your second is your secondary. But our second given name is at the end, not in the middle.
Another thing regarding names, which probably isn’t unique to us, is that we have name days. Each given name has one or more days assigned to it as its name day. Some people don’t care about them at all, others celebrate them like birthdays. Most people just wish a happy nameday and maybe give a small gift if they’re close.
When I lived abroad I had cravings for a pint of bitter. I was in a country with a lot of excellent beer, but sometimes you just want a pint of Pedigree from cask in a proper boozer with a pack of pork scratchings as the Lord himself intended.
Food and drink is probably the easy one for a lot of people because every country has its unique products and ways of doing things. Another one that jumps to mind would be lamb/sheep meat which is far rarer in most of the continent than here, a shame as done right I think lamb is a more interesting meat than beef on the whole if somewhat less versatile.
The chaos. Queueing is exactly the opposite way of how the British do it, traffic rules might as well be non-existent, in general the way cities and infrastructure are built. If you were to tell me it was a country in Africa, I would believe you.
Friteries. They’re a thing in Northern France, Southern Netherlands and (I THINK) Luxembourg as well, but Friteries are a unique regional thing that you wont find anywhere else in it’s typical western european form.
The cleanest, smoothest, creamiest pints of Guinness you’ve ever tasted.
That and [spice bags](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spice_bag)
Cuberdons.
It’s an incredible candy yet I can’t find it anywhere else and apparently they don’t export well.
Studying at a (Public) University is “free” because of the ÖH (Österreichische Hochschüler*innenschaft), who manages to keep studying affordable even for a lower class first generation student like me. I only have to pay about 24€ a semester (just for uni, I still have to pay for public transportation extra).
The [*чушкопек* (*choushkopèk*)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chushkopek), aka pepper roaster, comes to mind. It’s a electric appliance created in Bulgaria for the sole purpose of roasting peppers.
The smell of roasted peppers, especially in warm summer evenings, is among the most Bulgarian smells in existence.
A proper pub. People set up British-style pubs all over the place, but they just never quite get it right.
There’s this one brewery in Bavaria that makes smoked beer that I love, haven’t seen that anywhere else yet.