What surprisingly WASN'T free in a country that shocked you?
In my first trip to Germany, I was genuinely shocked that I had to pay to use toilets in gas stations, restaurants, and even bakeries! Coming from a place where public restrooms are typically free, I found myself frantically searching for coins just to use the bathroom.
What's something in Europe you were surprised wasn't free that you expected would be?
23 comments
I’m the biggest “pay for bathroom” hater around but I’ve never seen a restaurant or bakery that charged to use a toilet. Where in the Germany were you?
Definitely toilets in Germany, but I don’t think anyone argues it’s a good policy.
In ireland, you don’t have glass disposal/recycling in the apartment buildings in Dublin. You have to either pay a company to pick it up and recycle it for you, taxi to a disposal site to drop it off, or drive a car there yourself.
Paying to use a banks ATM, free in England but everywhere else in the world seems to charge, in Malta it was €5 😭
Speaking of Germany – the bottle recycling fee (Pfand) being charged up front is always a weird hassle for me.
Sauces in McDonald’s. In the UK they’re free with the meal but everywhere else I’ve been seems to charge you extra.
It was up until we started adopting it widely here, but I was surprised that places in Europe charged for paper bags, when we usually had them for free. Now we charge them and I always hear complaints from old customers
Tap water in restaurants in Denmark.
I was astonished when I went out for a meal and got charged for the tap water, and thought at first that it was an attempt to scam me! Every other country I’ve been to will offer it for free.
Paris had the same issue, typically toilets are free where I come from, but in Paris I remember it being kind of expensive and multiple streets smelling like piss because of it.
I live in Northern Ireland so we don’t pay for this individually but in some counties in the Republic of Ireland (Donegal for example which is about a mile from me) they charge a call out fee if you need the fire brigade.
Usually the householder is sent a bill to cover the cost of the services. Often home insurance can cover the fee. There have been reports anecdotally that people have been hesitant to call the fire brigade for their neighbours burning house because they thought they would get hit with the bill.
Edit: the fire service in Northern Ireland is publicly funded via taxation so it’s technically still paid for but we don’t get billed for it.
School lunch in Norway and Denmark. Do they even have school lunch? Who knows, but it’s not free in any case. It’s such a basic part of the welfare system in Finland and Sweden that it’s almost unimaginable not to have it. School lunch is the one area even the most cold-hearted politicians don’t dare touch. A warm meal for schoolchildren is often seen as a fundamental right. I was very surprised when I learned that our Nordic neighbours don’t provide it.
I recently visited Edinburgh and they added a service charge automatically to all bills. That included walking up to a bar and ordering drinks – the barman automatically charged 12.5% tip which I paid before I realised.
Sitting in a restaurant in Italy. Like, not only I’m paying for food, I’m also paying for every person served like what? Your waiter salary should be in the food cost
I was visiting my sister in Ireland and they had some setup in the shower where they’d turn on the hot water (not just turn the knob, but turn on the hot water to the aparment), and they paid for the water directly that way.
I have only ever experienced that at camping sites in other countries.
Toll roads always seem like a pointless hassle. The whole concept of a fee for using a public road feels absolutely alien. We should keep our ancient right to travel in the realm.
Then again, in Finland, petrol and cars are heavily taxed.
I grew up in the wild capitalist era of the 1990’s in Eastern Europe when nothing was for free.
So, I’d reverse it and say, I’m still shocked when somewhere something is free, like water in a café, even. After hell, I’m living in a dream in a way. 🙂
Water and bread in a restaurant, it’s always free in France but not in lots of european and non european countries
In the UK, ambulances are free for medical emergencies thanks to the NHS.
So it surprised me when I discovered that ambulances are **not** necessarily free in countries like Australia and Canada, or European countries like Belgium and Switzerland.
Australia ([ABC news](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-20/ambulance-fees-around-australia/10015172))
> In states other than Queensland and Tasmania, ambulance services are covered either by private health insurance or are out of pocket.
> The out-of-pocket costs also vary from state to state, with some charging a fee per kilometre and other states charging a single set fee depending on the type of call-out.
> Victoria, New South Wales, the NT and the ACT provide free ambulance cover for pensioners and low-income earners, but most Australians will be stung with a large call-out fee and a per kilometre charge if they don’t have health insurance or ambulance cover.
> In Victoria, people can choose to apply for Ambulance Victoria membership, paying a fee to receive emergency transport. The annual membership fee in Victoria for a family is A$92.05 and A$46 for a single person.
Belgium ([EU citizens with European Health Insurance Card](https://employment-social-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies-and-activities/moving-working-europe/eu-social-security-coordination/european-health-insurance-card/how-use-card/belgium-european-health-insurance-card_en))
> From 1 January 2019, urgent medical transportation (except by air) is no longer reimbursed by the Belgian public health insurance. You must pay a lump sum of €70,92 regardless of the distance travelled.
Canada ([CBC News](https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/ambulance-fees-a-roadblock-for-many-who-need-care-1.2946576))
> in most of the country, if you call an ambulance, you will get a bill. And if you don’t have supplemental insurance that covers the cost or qualify for provincial exemptions, you are responsible for paying the fees.
> Ambulance fees range from C$45 in Ontario to more than C$500 in parts of Manitoba.
Switzerland ([Swissinfo](https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/health-care-access_in-switzerland-who-should-foot-the-bill-for-pricey-ambulance-rides/44041260))
> Swiss patients pay for most emergency transport out of pocket, and costs can add up. Rescue professionals are now seeking changes so their life-saving interventions can be billed to basic health insurance.
> For amateur diver Alfred Suter, who was rushed to hospital following a lake dive in canton St. Gallen, the ambulance bill came out to more than CHF2400 (US$2490) or half of his monthly salary, as he told Swiss German-language television. Suter is making the payments in instalments.
UK ([National Health Service – NHS](https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/hospitals/going-into-hospital/how-to-organise-transport-to-and-from-hospital/))
> In a medical emergency, call 999 and ask for an ambulance. You will not have to pay to be taken to hospital in an emergency.
As someone who has genuinely called an ambulance, it made me appreciate the UK’s NHS.
I was surprised that regular dental checkups and eyeglasses/contacts aren’t covered by standard insurance in Germany
The costs of those things are reasonable enough so I have found I don’t really need an insurance, but at first it was surprising and I was really anxious about losing/breaking my glasses lol
Outdoor tennis courts in Denmark are expensive.
In Canada, there are empty courts in every town and every neighborhood in major cities. You just go over and play.
Trash bags in the Netherlands.
While paid trash bags are common in other countries as a sort of tax for waste management, in our province in the Netherlands we had to pay for the roll of bags AND an approximate 300€ yearly tax for waste management AND a one-off fee for the biowaste and recycling bins.
And to top it all off the fuckers would only collect it once a month.
Health care in America. Didn’t shock me as I was born here and am a dual citizen. However it shocks a lot of my European friends who visit me when I am in the states.
I have a few examples that annoy me at max, one being the usage of toilet in gas stations, both in Hungary, Germany and Greece. Usually you can use a QR code if you made some purchases, but not everywhere.
The second is the COPERTO tax in Italy, ranging from €1 to €5, depending on the restaurant and location. It is meant to cover the cost of table service, bread, and tableware.
Not quite an issue of free or not free but cafes having different prices for whether you stand at the counter or sit down at a table (even if you order the exact same thing), seems to take tourists by surprise the first time. It certainly did for me the first time when I saw my bill!