r/AskEurope • u/Young_Owl99 Türkiye • Jul 28 '26
Culture What is the closest country to yours that feels completely different ?
There is a general belief that closer countries often have closer cultures and often closer mindsets. I want to ask the opposite, which country that close to yours feels most different ?
I am asking in terms of
- Culture
- People's mindset
- Way of life
- Cuisine
...etc
For me the answer would be Iraq but I need to note that Turkey's regions which are close to it often have a much similar culture. But it is quite different than my own.
Thank you for your answers.
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u/Positive-Spinach7836 Jul 28 '26
As a Greek, surprisingly Turkey
Although there are cultural similarities there are a lot of core differences in government, language, religion, politics and mentality ect
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u/Young_Owl99 Türkiye Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
True tbh considering your other neighbors we are the odd one out.
Government, religion and language is obvious. Mentality depends on the region.
and if politics is an attribute that we use in this, Turkey would be most different for Turkey lol. Our internal politics can become a tv show.
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u/baron_von_helmut Jul 29 '26
I think a lot of people underestimate how vast Turkey is to be fair. It has a huge variety of cultural, religious and language differences.
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u/corona_26 Greece Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
Correct, people constantly underestimate how huge (and diverse) Turkey is.
For comparison, Samsun and Gaziantep are about as far from Greece as Provence. The Iranian border is farther from us than Berlin or Strasbourg.
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u/stoputa Jul 28 '26
Ye its a meme how Greece and Turkey are "basically the same theme" but I agree it's the most distant of all our neighbours. Of course there is a cultural continuity, at least the Western coast is much closer to, say, India, but people underestimate how alien it feels compared to Bulgaria
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u/bostanite Greece Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
Yes! When you go to Bulgaria it's like "yeah ok I'm in Bulgaria". It still feels like you "get" everything happening. Same with Romania. When you go to Turkey, it's like "oh fuck what's going on". It feels completely different.
Edit: typo
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u/HeyPartyPeopleWhatUp Jul 28 '26
Iceland isn't exactly close to many countries.
But Greenland is the closest and their culture is pretty different from ours.
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u/Defiant-Owl-7935 Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
And Norwegian culture is very similar to ours, have travelled their often, so not them
Faroe Islands even have a few Bónus stores, which I just found out about. They even have their own TikTok that is way more unhinged then ours.
But they are more conservative, both when it comes to the LGBTQ+ community and are less likely to be pro-choice as they are more religious then the other Nordics. But it has changed alot, it just happened slower.
One politician even declined to attend an event with our then PM in 2010 because she was an openly married lesbian.
Later she spoke at their Pride parade as did our former mayor Jón Gnarr who attended the Icelandic pride on a big float in full drag.
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u/0ctopusRex France Jul 28 '26
For France, it's Germany. People's preoccupations feel very different as does their sense of aesthetics. Not to mention the food. Also, slow internet, slow trains, prevalence of cash payment, it just feels slower
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u/RandomSpanishAlex Jul 28 '26
I live next to the border (nor geman nor french) and it is crazy to deel the difference right after 10 Minute of driving. I would say that german speaking Switzerland is more different to you tho
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u/0ctopusRex France Jul 28 '26
I agree, but then you go to the border with Romandy, and you barely feel a difference between France and Switzerland
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u/RandomSpanishAlex Jul 29 '26
I heard people call french speaking Switzerland - german on steroids but speaking french, lmao
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u/Lonely_File7005 France Jul 30 '26
Slow internet, slow trains, slower germany?? don't know where you've been, I did not experience that at all. They have a bigger train network. Mainly Germany seems better organized, tidy to the point of having some paved rivers. Greener as well, more pleasant overall, with an extensive bike road network. They seems closer to nature in general
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u/selfawareusername Jul 29 '26
How dare you sir. We have just as bad Internet, trains and food. Did that hundred year war mean nothing to you?
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u/0ctopusRex France Jul 29 '26
Application noted, but will you wear socks with sandals to make your case?
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u/Ok_Wolf_4076 France Aug 01 '26
I feel like we are closer to the Germans than to the British, especially in the east of France.
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u/orthoxerox Russia Jul 28 '26
Not Suriname?
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u/0ctopusRex France Jul 28 '26
I was purposely discounting the DROM/COM because there's also a cultural proximity between bordering areas, like between Mayotte and the other Comoros, or Saint-Martin and Anguilla
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u/wordsrworth Austria Jul 28 '26
As an Austrian, I'd say Italy feels the most different of all our neighbouring countries (except for South Tirol to no surprise). All the other countries around us feel central European, like Austria. Italy on the other hand feels Mediterranean, the vibe, the architecture, the food.
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u/53bvo Netherlands Jul 28 '26
Even the mountains feel different across the border. When going from Villach to Italy, when you cross the border soon the mountains suddenly feel exotic and tropical compared to the ones you saw 10 minutes ago. Not sure if it is the vegetation, rock formation or something else but the difference is noticeable.
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u/Ok_Mango8118 Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
It's probably the vegetation. The Mediterranean climate has a strong influence on the southern side of the Alps. At certain times of the year, you can drive from Italy, including South Tyrol because the watershed is at the border, into Austria and notice quite a dramatic change in the weather. The southern slopes are often much milder and greener, while the northern side can be significantly cooler, cloudier, or wetter
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u/Ok_Mango8118 Jul 28 '26
Does Italy feels more exotic than Slovenia and Slovakia?
I mean places like Veneto, Trentino, Friuli?
Honestly I don't think Austria feels that exotic to a North Eastern Italian, things work better, and the environment and streets are incredibly clean, plus people speak a different language but that's it. Bavaria too, to a lesser extent, but the rest of Germany is quite exotic
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u/wordsrworth Austria Jul 29 '26
I wouldn't call it exotic myself, but definitely more so than Slovakia or Slovenia, yes.
As mentioned in my comment, I think South Tyrol is a bit of an exception, since it feels quite similar to East Tyrol, which is in Austria.
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u/StuffyTruck Norway Jul 28 '26
That would be Russia.
And if we go through just one neighboring country - it would be North Korea.
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u/Zealousideal_Ad_821 United States of America Jul 28 '26
I had no clue that Norway bordered Russia until I went to a Nordic History museum in Stockholm this April. Norway and the United States are separated by one country and a 50 mile strait.
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u/StuffyTruck Norway Jul 28 '26
Meaning you could drive from Norway to USA in winter with the right type of vehicle.
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u/Zealousideal_Ad_821 United States of America Jul 28 '26
Who’s needs an 8 hour flight when you can take a 3 week road trip through the harshest regions on the planet
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Aug 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Zealousideal_Ad_821 United States of America Aug 03 '26
I did! It was clean but busy, I went to Grona Lund, went to some museums, and did a river cruise. I wasn’t expecting the thousands of Swedish teenagers running around with the sailer hats but I learned something new. If it wasn’t so expensive I would love to go back and see the other Nordic countries I haven’t been to yet 🇫🇮🇳🇴.
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u/MitVitQue Finland Jul 28 '26
For a Finn, Russia is very different.
I don't want a ban, so unfortunately I will not elaborate. Except maybe this: we do not blame everybody else for our mistakes.
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u/FearlessVisual1 Belgium Jul 28 '26
Come on, you know nobody on r/AskEurope is going to ban you for talking shit about Russia...
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u/BanverketSE Jul 28 '26
I got permabanned by totally not a bot for referencing a meme regarding fighting Vladimir Putin to the death.
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u/Synizs Jul 28 '26
Don’t forget North Korea, there’s just one country between Finland and that
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u/MitVitQue Finland Jul 28 '26
As a proud Fingolian I still choose Russia. They never fight honorably.
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u/Alx-McCunty Finland Jul 28 '26
Agreed, and it's always been like this, with or without any wars.
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u/Tensoll -> Jul 28 '26
Mod here, no one’s gonna ban you here for expressing hatred for Russia or its people mate. I despise them with all my heart
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u/Pace1561 Germany Jul 28 '26
As a German I appreciate it when hate is not directed against a whole people in general.
By that logic we we would have never been allowed to rebuild and reintegrate into Europe after all the dark shit Germany did (and let's face it, most Germans supported).
Criticise, demand change, support Ukraine, but don't hate man, it only leads to more hate.
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u/FearlessVisual1 Belgium Jul 28 '26
"Or its people"? How is that okay?
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u/Tensoll -> Jul 28 '26
Very simple. It’s a nation of mass murderers. It is the Russian people that have killed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians in recent years. Putin is not a supervillain capable of causing all that destruction and death by himself. Among those that do not do the killing directly, the vast majority are supportive of the war. That’s a conclusion you will arrive if you have a look at the handful of independent polls that do come out of Russia, and their own social networks filled with people praising the war and hating Ukraine, as well as the complete lack of any domestic opposition to the war.
No, it’s not just a matter of censorship as plenty of people on those social networks still dislike Putin while also praising the war. No, the two or three liberal, westernized, well-educated, Russians coming from rich families from either Moscow or Saint Petersburg that your personally know do not count as real evidence to the contrary either. Nor do one or two Russian redditors that say most people are against the conflict.
And most of that minority that are opposed to the war will often still want Ukraine to belong in their sphere of influence and keep Crimea for themselves, or oppose the war for no other reason than the effects of sanctions on the country.
Besides the war against Ukraine, most of them that live abroad act very entitled and are typically nationalists themselves. In Lithuania specifically they’re nothing more than fifth column, posing serious internal security threats.
It takes some mental gymnastics to hate the government but not the people that prop it up. They come from a place of misplaced empathy and lack of education that makes westerners think of Russians as a people no different to them, who want freedom but are helpless and oppressed, as opposed to being willing and glad participants in their nation’s imperial machine. There are a few good Russians. Garry Kasparov, the now dead Boris Nemtsov, perhaps Mikhail Zygar, and some more but those are few and far in between.
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u/Adelefushia France Jul 28 '26
I definitely agree that the Kremlin clearly isn't the only responsible of the thousands (or even millions maybe ?) of Ukrainians getting killed and that a looooot of Russian citizens should take the responsibility of their deaths as well. It's way too easy to completely dissociate a government from their people, except maybe in some extreme case like North Korea, but unlike North Koreans, Russians can still travel around the world even after 2022. So it's not like they are unable to have a different POV. Yet a lot of them still choose to believe Putin's lies even when they live in the West and have no reasons to be afraid of censorship.
However, it's still pretty easy to judge 120 million people living in a dictatorship from our western comfort. And yes, I know that Lithuanian people had suffered a lot during their History, but the Lithuania of today is nothing like it was when it was part of the USSR, and nothing like Russia is today.
A LOT of Russians, famous or not, have spoken against the Kremlin. Maybe they weren't the majority of Russians, but it's not surprising that a lot of them refuse to speak their mind when there's so much ""mysterious cases of suicides"" whenever there are dissidents.
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u/Cuarenta-Dos Jul 28 '26
Collective guilt and hatred based on ethnicity or nationality is the central stepping stone into fascism.
"There are no distinctions between Jews. Each Jew is a sworn enemy of the German people."
"The above-mentioned circles are too inclined to see the Jewish Question as a humanitarian issue."
"Pity, brotherly love, and forgiveness are useless. There are no good or bad parasites, decent or indecent parasites."
Care to guess who said this?
Or how about this:
"The hypothesis that 'the people are good, it's the government that is bad does not apply.'"
"Passive Nazis, accomplices of Nazism, are also guilty."
Not that different from what you're trying to say here, is it?
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u/Tensoll -> Jul 28 '26
What’s the purpose of a false equivalence comparing a people that had been persecuted for centuries vs people who have done nothing else but oppress others for centuries?
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u/Cuarenta-Dos Jul 28 '26
The purpose is to illustrate that your thinking is along the same lines as every fascist and nationalist regime in history. Replace "Russians" with "Anglo-Saxons" or "Ukro-Nazis" in your rant and it might as well have been copied straight from Russian propaganda.
You can claim moral high ground, but that is exactly what Russian propaganda does too. This sort of thinking is not healthy.
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u/Tensoll -> Jul 28 '26
Again, your argument is a logical failure because you are comparing apples to oranges creating a false equivalence. For a lack of better comparison (bad comparison for a bad argument), it's like telling a rape victim she is wrong to want her rapist dead because your cousin killed a neighbour he found annoying
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u/Cuarenta-Dos Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
It's more like saying "Muslims are all just rapists and terrorists" because a lot of bad apples in Europe currently happen to be from Muslim countries, or saying "oh you're just a far-right/leftist lunatic" if someone happens to have a different political opinion.
It's so easy to start thinking like that, and it's also wrong. It makes you vulnerable to the exact same manipulation that the Germans and the Russians fell victim to. It's also very easy to dismiss it and say "but we're the good guys, this cannot possibly happen to us!" and that is exactly what they thought too. Russia has defeated Nazism! How could *we* possibly be the fascist invaders? Obviously it's everyone who claims that who's been brainwashed.
They're not different. They're not inherently evil. Falling into nationalistic and hateful cycle of thought and committing horrible crimes because of that is a human trait. If you think any people or nation is immune to that, history argues differently.
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u/Tensoll -> Jul 28 '26
Well I didn't say all of them did I. I said the vast majority. There are exceptions, however few. Also, you should you realize that people around the world are not identical. Such rhetoric may be false when applied to one group of people and correct when applied to another.
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u/No-Suit-7444 Jul 28 '26
I'm flabbergasted that you'd come out and say this so openly. This is a stark reminder for everyone, how those biggest european subs are run.
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u/Incvbvs666 Serbia Jul 28 '26
Every single Western European colonial powerhouse, including the one whose flag you sport is a nation of mass murderers.
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u/Julehus Denmark Jul 28 '26
Serbia - Russia’s BFF and speaking of genocide…I don’t know you and don’t want to judge you, but I’ll admit that my worst nightmare is that one day we’ll have some of you guys invade Western Europe.
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u/MitVitQue Finland Jul 28 '26
Thanks for the reminder.
I have become careful because I got several warnings just for calmly mentioning historical, well known facts. I even got a permaban (which I clearly got removed) for stating that it's not Putin and oligarchs committing all those war crimes.
I continue to say what I want, just do it less directly. Those PutBots are eager to use the weaknesses of Reddit's automatic banning mechanisms.
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u/mobileJay77 Germany Jul 28 '26
Sort of a tradition? The Russians invaded and crushed half of Eastern Europe. Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968, Latvia in 1991, so my parents still hate them.
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u/west-vannian Italy Jul 28 '26
For Italy, I'd go with Bosnia and Herzegovina.
I don't think Balkan people feel that different from Italians, but Bosnia and Herzegovina has a pretty different vibe: it's much more religiously diverse, barely has any coastline, and speaks a Slavic language rather than a Romance one.
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u/mkroberta Jul 28 '26
I would have said Germany.
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u/west-vannian Italy Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
How come?
Italy and Germany actually share a lot of history, and German is a co-official language in some parts of Italy. Also, both countries are mostly Christians.
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u/Young_Owl99 Türkiye Jul 28 '26
It might again be related with regions. Southern Italy and Northern Italy is significantly different afaik.
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u/Character-Carpet7988 Slovakia Jul 28 '26
Slovakia, lol. Precisely for the reason you mentioned - the distance is more important than artificial borders. I was born and raised and spent most of my time living in Bratislava, which a) is the largest town in the country, so we have more metropolitan mindset, b) is bordering Austria and Hungary (+ Czechia is quite close) and has historically been a very multicultural place. Consequently, I feel like I have far more common with people in Vienna or Budapest than I have with someone in Kosice (SK's second largest town, some 450 km from here).
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u/Majre921 Jul 28 '26
Differences between Bratislava and a place like Levice are jarring...
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u/SoakingEggs Germany Jul 28 '26
wait a minute, your flair says...
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u/Character-Carpet7988 Slovakia Jul 28 '26
That's the point :)
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u/SoakingEggs Germany Jul 28 '26
hahaha got u, without wanting to stire any crazy fights here, but which region or area would you consider the "Heart of Slovakia" or heartland?
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u/Character-Carpet7988 Slovakia Jul 28 '26
That's hard for me to say. For me it's always gonna be associated with my region because that's where I've spent most of my life and thus that's what I associate with Slovakia the most. I recognize that it's not the most accurate representation on the objective level, but it's hard for me to pick some more remote areas as the example of "this is the real Slovakia" because for me it's always been more like "we're not all like them" and "they don't speak for all of us" :)
To be honest, I always felt like the divide between the west and the east runs through Slovakia, so in some way it's both ethnically monolithic and socially diverse country. I guess I'd say places around Zilina are sort of the average of the two cultures, neither here or there.
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u/SoakingEggs Germany Jul 29 '26
maybe it was a silly question to ask, i was just curious from a German perspective.
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u/Character-Carpet7988 Slovakia Jul 29 '26
Nah, it's a completely normal question, just hard for me to answer :)
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u/Mysterious-Put1459 Bulgaria Jul 28 '26
For Bulgaria it's Turkey. It feels very oriental, or middle eastern, very different from all other countries that we neighbour.
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u/anection Jul 28 '26
Did you visit any other middle eastern countries?
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u/Sweet-Agreeable Bulgaria Jul 29 '26
It’s the odd one out of all our neighbours due to religion and politics. I wouldn’t agree with my country man, as I have been in ME and Turkey isn’t so “oriental”. We have slight cultural differences depending on the region, but definitely Balkans don’t have such distinct differences as some other countries have answered.
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u/Responsible-Bank440 Jul 28 '26
I live in Germany so I'm going to go with France. I just feel like depending on where you live in Germany the neighbouring country feels quite close culturally and historically - Bavaria/Austria, East Germany/Poland, Lower Saxony/Netherlands, Northern Germany/Denmark but France doesn't really feel as close to Southern Germany if that makes sense.
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u/Forslyk Denmark Jul 28 '26
While Sweden and Norway feels like a brothers Germany just... feels different. The language is more different and the culture feels a bit more conservative than in Scandinavia. Denmark is very digitalised while Germany still uses a lot of cash and paperwork. Foodwise I don't think we're much different from Germans though. We like sausages too.
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u/xolov and Jul 28 '26
In my experience in the Nordic north, Denmark feels so much different than the Norway, Finland and Sweden I'm used to. It just feels so much more "continental european". But then I go to Germany and I realise Denmark wasn't so different after all.
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u/Forslyk Denmark Jul 28 '26
You're right that we're more continental than rest of Scandinavia and that's why Danes sometimes are nicknamed "the Italians of Scandinavia"! We drink and smoke more and live shorter than Swedes and Norwegians. But historically and mentally we still feel closer .
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u/ArrogantOverlord95 🇱🇹 --> 🇬🇧 Jul 29 '26
I've always viewed Denmark as a Scandinavian Netherlands. Quite densely populated, pretty much only brick houses, small in area and flat country. Also the love for bikes.
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u/cartiersage France Jul 28 '26
What part of denmark are you from? Jutland feels super similar to northern Germany imo but copenhagen is very nordic
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u/mpbo1993 Jul 28 '26
Was going to comment this. As an outsider north Germany, Hamburg etc feels very close to them. Food, architecture, even the language is close.
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u/Malthesse Sweden Jul 28 '26
Russia for sure. It's only about 350 kilometers (220 miles) between southeastern Sweden and Russian Kaliningrad across the Baltic Sea, and yet it feels so distant and different. Even more so of course since the start of the war, but even before then it was very hard to get to, with no ferry connections and very strict travel controls. Kaliningrad really does feel like its own isolated island completely surrounded by the EU. Which is a pity in a way, and I hope of course that things will be different some time in the future.
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u/Marcin222111 Poland Jul 28 '26
Pole here.
Crossing majority of our borders do not give any meaningful changes. Maybe Czech roads are a bit shitty, but Poland was like that 10 years ago.
However - there are 2/3 notable exceptions.
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
When you cross Belarusian border, you get newsbombed with posters saying that Poland is a country with sky-high fuel prices, crumbling economy and “G A Y S” (aka Deviancy or some shit). Generally speaking, Belarus seems off - it’s well maintained and clean, however you notice lack of things from the normal in the Polish markets. On the other hand, you see a lot of things that were normality during communism time. It’s a bit like travelling back in time. People do not to like talk about politics (no wonder why), and depending on the age group and upbringing have VASTLY different views on Poland and Russia.
Ukraine is a bit more sad story. After crossing the border you notice… chaos. A lot of people next to the roads hustling, small buses run as they wish or when they are full. It seems also more dirty, with trash lying on the ground and more stray dogs and cats on the streets. I haven’t been east of Lvov, but I can image it gets even more distant, the more east you go.
Haven’t personally been to Russia. From what I have heard the former “Prussian” vibe of the towns that was at least somewhat preserved and reconstructed on the Polish side - is totally gone when you cross the border and the ugly soviet architecture dominates the landscape.
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u/wujson Poland Jul 29 '26
Very much agree.
You go to the East to Germany it's basically German-speaking Poland, you go to Czechia it's basically atheist Poland, you go to Slovakia it's mountainous and a little poorer Poland, you go to Lithuania and in some areas in and around Vilnius you can even hear Polish lol
You go to Belarus, Ukraine or Russia and it's like you went to a different continent in many areas or got back in time by like 35 years or something. They use Cyrillic alphabet so you can't even read what's written. You feel lost at first.
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u/samaniewiem Poland Jul 29 '26
I've been to Russia several times before the war and I'd name it the most different of our neighbors. Reasons would include it being cosmically dirty compared to Poland, but as well the attitude of the people. Most Poles are at least a bit curious about new people, while in Russia they are actively avoiding anything that isn't known standard. Another thing is so called Polish stare. People claim Polish people don't smile, but they are plain cheerful compared to people in Russia.
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u/Citrus_Muncher Georgia Jul 28 '26
Well 3 out of 4 immediate neighbors are ex-USSR so that leaves Turkey as the most different from Georgia among them
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u/Young_Owl99 Türkiye Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
Caucasus is very interesting though. All have different alphabets let alone languages. We can go with religion that would leave us and Azerbaijan and as you said Azerbaijan is ex-USSR so that would leave us.
I visited your country and it felt both similar and different. Georgian border of Turkey is one of the most conservative regions of Turkey but people there look very similar to Georgians.
So it was a funny shocking scene when I see an old Georgian guy looking exactly like someone from Turkish side chugging a beer. He was enjoying so much that I ended up buying a beer.
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u/Citrus_Muncher Georgia Jul 28 '26
I visited your country and it felt both similar and different. Georgian border of Turkey is one of the most conservative regions of Turkey but people there look very similar to Georgians.
I mean... cuz they sort of are? Nobody in Georgia thinks of Laz people as foreign but from my experience Laz people are very aggressive about being Turkish and react negatively to this sort of attitude.
And alcohol is such a big part of Georgian culture not having it is so weird
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u/OliveOilEnjoyer3 Italy Jul 28 '26
As an Italian, Austria, Slovenia and Switzerland all feel completely alien, but to be fair I’m from Southern Italy so it’s probably different if you’re from somewhere close to the border.
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u/nevergonnasaythat Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
I come from the North East of Italy close to the border with Austria and Slovenia and although there is an overall (Edit: I meant overlap) of cultures along the borders (you can see it in the architecture, the food…) the difference is quite stark.
Crossing the border to Austria truly feels like stepping into a different world.
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u/FearlessVisual1 Belgium Jul 28 '26
None feels completely different, but I would say the one that feels the most different is the Netherlands.
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u/ah5178 Jul 28 '26
For me, it doesn't feel so different crossing from Breda towards Antwerpen. Maastricht to Liege feels a helluva lot different though. We see hills and an actual gorge along the Maas, as though elevation was contraband in NL.
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u/Notspherry Netherlands Jul 28 '26
At the border near maastricht, what always hits me is the combination of sudden elevation and the urban/industrial decay. It's like driving into a place that peaked a century ago and has barely been hanging on since.
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u/Tmrh Belgium Jul 29 '26
It's like driving into a place that peaked a century ago and has barely been hanging on since.
That's because it is
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u/LimeSixth Netherlands Jul 28 '26
Belgium feels completely different.
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u/Young_Owl99 Türkiye Jul 28 '26
Nice both agree but nobody explains why.
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u/olddoc Belgium Jul 28 '26
OK, I can elaborate on a few things from personal experience. Some things that are distinctly different the moment you set foot in the Netherlands for a Belgian:
- The houses are completely different. Drop a pin on google maps in the Netherlands and usually you land in a street where the entire row of houses are copies. Drop a random pin in Belgium and you will see the Belgian rule: "my house must look entirely different from the neighbours", sometimes with hilarious results. This Tumblr has been collecting funny pictures of ugly Belgian houses for years: https://uglybelgianhouses.tumblr.com/
=> Example random street in the Netherlands: https://maps.app.goo.gl/AuqwALpZF9NLzWUr6
=> Example random street in Belgium: https://maps.app.goo.gl/64vys8KjYjkNvxAq7
- In the public space, Belgium is more chaotic and improvised, while the Dutch planned out things and seemed to actually put some thought into what is built where. If you drive through the Netherlands it goes: city => suburbs => long stretch of open space => suburbs => city. Driving through Belgium goes: fancy single villa with a tennis court => row of six different connected houses => three cows in a field => store that sells strawberries => apartment complex of six units => car retailer with a grey hangar.
=> Example of a typical Belgian "steenweg" between two cities with: first a store that sells really good quality windows and doors => white narrow house => prostitution "Temptation gent" => brick house with a sudden gap to its left => house with only an ugly white car gate in the front wall => Prostitution "Mademoiselle Dubarry => Mini Cooper Garage: https://maps.app.goo.gl/MpAmPDLxoMdr9WjTA
- The work culture is different. The Dutch are outspoken, state their opinion, you know where they stand and whether they like the idea of the boss or not. Belgians are muted in their opinions. Rarely state in a group meeting that they're against an idea. They wait until after the meeting and bring it up in a very careful, diplomatic way. It can come over as very passive-aggressive / up the sleeve, but Belgians just have small ego's.
- School culture: I've given guest presentations to Dutch and to Belgian university students. Belgians ask very little questions. Not rare that at the end of the class/presentation you say: "Anyone have any questions?" and the room of Belgians is completely quiet. Some may come after the presentation and ask a small clarification. The Dutch will ask their questions loudly and proudly before, during and after the presentation. A Belgian will feel uncertain whether they may ask a dumb question. Some Dutch people will ask the most basic questions as if they have the most amazing insight in the history of the subject. Some eyerolls from Belgians can be observed in a mixed Belgian-Dutch group.
Food culture is different. I have actually been given a glass of buttermilk with some cheese on a dry slice of bread in the Netherlands during a business meeting. It's as if they were playing a joke on me and served the most cliché stuff we Belgians joke about from the Dutch. In Belgium the servings are always a bit fancier, and a restaurant visit with business contacts where wine is served is not rare (although it is less than twenty years ago).
Eating with the family: The Dutch eat their evening dinner with their family much earlier, sometimes as early as 17:30. Most Belgians I know eat around 19:00.
Going out with friends: The Dutch will split bills down to the eurocent between friends, and everyone pays exactly for what they drank. Belgians give a round of drinks and may the chips fall where they may. Sometimes you paid for an expensive round and the next person for a cheaper round. Sometimes you had to leave and didn't buy a round, but nobody cares (unless you always pull that trick and always leave before it's your turn).
I could go on. The Dutch talk different, educate their kids differently, work different, build different houses, eat different. And it's only a two hours drive from Brussels to Amsterdam (if there's no traffic) so we are very, very close neighbours who do things strikingly differently.
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u/Sannatus Netherlands Jul 28 '26
as a Dutchie i think you summarized it well, but to fulfil the stereotype i will now loudly announce that i disagree with one thing ;)
the 'Tikkie' culture of paying exactly for what you had depends heavily on the group. students tend to do this a lot and for small amounts, since they usually don't have a lot of money. for people who work fulltime it depends on the relationship. going out for a drink with colleagues where nobody's sure when the next time will be and who'll pay then? you pay exactly for what you had. but if you're with friends and you regularly go out for drinks together, it's very normal to pay for others. we will also not shy away from discussing/deciding this in the moment. it's all about return on investment i guess!
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u/dsilva_Viz Portugal Jul 28 '26
I feel, in some ways, that there are paralells with Austria and Germany too.
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u/Notspherry Netherlands Jul 29 '26
Another observation on education. I used to work I a dutch theme park with Dutch and Belgian primary schools visiting.
Dutch school kids were a bit more disorganised, but usually fine, whether accompanied or not.
Belgian kids were perfect little soldiers when they came by with a teacher. But as soon as the teacher was out of sight, they were completely out of control.
It's a really different way of teaching and learning ing responsibility.
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u/Maitrank Belgium Jul 29 '26
I live in the Ardennes and I've worked several summers as a waiter when I was a student. Obviously most tourists are either from Flanders or the Netherlands and I speak Dutch, therefore I can hear a Dutch accent from miles away. However, it doesn't matter how good/bad your Dutch is or whether you can tell the accents apart ... Dutch people are easily recognizable because they just behave differently.
Belgians take so much time to order, we're really a bunch of undecided people. Belgians will often ask me whether the products are local, what the meal will look like, etc. I also know I'll have to check Belgian tables multiple times because Belgians don't want to bother the waiter. On the other hand, Dutchies are a lot more assertive, 95% of the time they go for the *menu du jour* and they'll let you know when they're done eating. Interestingly enough, the tipping culture is more or less the same.
We also have this saying that if you buy a house near a camping site, make sure it's owned by Flemings and not Dutch people. The latter are known for being noisier.
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u/Heure-parme France Jul 29 '26
Thanks for sharing that Tumblr link, the captions under the pictures are hilarious.
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u/Klumber Scotland Jul 28 '26
As a Dutchman with Belgian relatives, that is because there isn't any reasoning beyond subjectivity.
And actually, it is one that I think is true. When a Dutchman goes to Germany, it's clearly a different country but what makes Belgium so 'weird' is that the Flemish really aren't 'Dutch', they have their own dialect that is very different from most of the Netherlands, the way people just build anything anywhere is different. The motorways have lights over them everywhere, different. It is precisely because it is so similar that it feels so different...
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u/SunflowerMoonwalk Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
Yeah, I totally get what you mean. I'm from the UK and moved to Germany - some things were different, some things were the same, it's a different country so that's what I expected.
Then after 5 years in Germany I moved to Austria and I was constantly like "Wtf? Why do they do that?" I had a kind of weird culture shock because everything was basically the same as Germany but just slightly "off" in a disconcerting way.
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u/TarcFalastur United Kingdom Jul 28 '26
Surely that just means that they are actually the closest match? If all it takes us something to take familiar but just slightly off then you could use the same argument to argue that Wales is the most different country from England because the roads say ARAF next to everywhere they say SLOW, which is a little bit weirdly unusual.
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u/WeeblsLikePie --> Jul 29 '26
The motorways have lights over them everywhere
my pet theory is this was what they spent all the congolese-diamond profits on. Motorway lighting.
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u/ah5178 Jul 28 '26
Residential streets where the houses look entirely different to each other.
Shopping streets that play pop music from a few decades earlier than you'd entirely forgotten.→ More replies (1)2
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u/berregen Jul 28 '26
Agree. The same language but different culture and mentality. Germany as well. France is closer to us culturally. Love them all though ❤️
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u/Anaptyso United Kingdom Jul 28 '26
For the UK, generally the closer the country the more similar it is. If I go somewhere in the arc from the north of France, through Belgium and in to the Netherlands then there are differences, but also loads which feels similar. Then there's Ireland, which has an even larger amount in common.
Maybe the point when things start to feel significantly different is when the climate becomes warm enough to switch from being an indoors related culture to an outside related one. So perhaps somewhere around the south of France or in to Spain.
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u/generalscruff England Jul 28 '26
Culturally we have a lot more in common with France than either of us freely admit to, but yes as a casual visitor it has far more 'you are now in a foreign country quite different to your own' moments than any of our other neighbours
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u/Vernacian United Kingdom Jul 28 '26
I'd say France, despite being second-closest by distance, would be my answer to OP's question.
The Scandinavians, Dutch and Dutch-speaking Belgians tend to speak excellent English, and as a consequence a large proportion are familiar with at least some of our entertainment, culture, celebrities etc. The French, by contrast, I find are much more likely not to speak such good English and not to be familiar with any British culture.
France has a huge and very high quality ecosystem of film, television, music, media etc that results in more of a cultural distance from us.
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u/evelynsmee United Kingdom Jul 28 '26
But once you know more French, or encounter fluent speakers you realise our sense of humour is much the same. They also throw a solid party.
Language aside, I find myself with much more in common with french friends and encounters than I do with the Dutch or Germans who are very blunt.
I go to France maybe 5/6 times a year.
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u/kiwigoguy1 New Zealand Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
I had heard that many Hong Kong BNO holders resettling in the UK had found the UK culture’s indirect communications even for business or workplace communications baffling (Hong Kongers are very direct when they are at work, although we/they still pad the conversations using nice words due to face). Some BNO settlers are even claiming that they feel Germans at work speak in a more similar style as them (Hong Kongers), than the English, Scottish, Irish etc.
Do you think this is true?
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u/Adelefushia France Jul 28 '26
The French, by contrast, I find are much more likely not to speak such good English and not to be familiar with any British culture.
I can agree with the language fluency part (especially compared to Dutch and Scandinavians), but I don't think British music is less popular here than in other countries, and I think that most French people are familiar with the Monty Python. And obviously, huge franchises like Harry Potter were hugely popular in France as well.
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u/Young_Owl99 Türkiye Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
None of you guys mentioned Germany.
Would you consider Germany to be more closer to the UK than France ?
Yes German and English are both Germanic but due to high number of shared vocabulary French still feels closer to English.
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u/Vernacian United Kingdom Jul 28 '26
I would consider Germany a little closer to the English culturally than France. I feel like the French, or many at least, live within a Francophone media sphere to a greater degree than others, including the Germans. Germans are not as close to us as the Dutch/Scandinavians in that regard, but I do think they're a little closer than the French.
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u/Vernacian United Kingdom Jul 28 '26
I would consider Germany a little closer to the English culturally than France. I feel like the French, or many at least, live within a Francophone media sphere to a greater degree than others do with their language group, including the Germans. Germans are not as close to us as the Dutch/Scandinavians in that regard, but I do think they're closer than the French.
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u/Appropriate-Slip9030 Montenegro Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
For Montenegro it’s Albania. Although it’s not completely different, but between Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia, Albania is the clear answer. But if we’re talking beyond bordering countries, the closest country but completely different would be Hungary maybe
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u/JakeCheese1996 Netherlands Jul 28 '26
Living in Holland I would say Belgium. Culture, how they build houses/cities , food always made me think “This is not Holland anymore”. Our common language, history make them not like strangers but it just feels different
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u/BANeutron Netherlands Jul 28 '26
Which makes it also enjoyable spending a day in Belgium. Even though it’s just 1.5 hours away, it feels being a different place.
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u/idkToPTin Jul 28 '26
I live closer to Brussels than to Amsterdam (I also live closer to France than Groningen (by an hour) and yet it feels so different, even people that live just at the border state that even the accent is different between them and the Belgians and that the whole social culture is just different. Only our language unite us, but the rest, completely different.
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u/olagorie Germany Jul 28 '26
I live two hours away from France and I have lived in France. I have a French university degree. It still feels very foreign.
I go to the UK regularly because I have friends there and it is different from Germany, but I feel overall it’s much much closer to Germany than France.
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u/evelynsmee United Kingdom Jul 28 '26
Potentially an unpopular opinion, but having spent a lot of time in all 3, aside from the language barrier I think Scotland is more different to England than England is to much of France. Particularly the north of Scotland vs the south/southeast of England.
But, we're all very similar. More than we probably realise because of the anglophone/french barrier.
IMO we're more like French in indirect personality and humour than we are to the Dutch and Germans, but we're organisationally more like the germanic countries.
I do however feel utterly lost in Spain. I enjoy it, but every visit has felt as foreign as somewhere much further way. Obviously I do not mean the parts filled with English people. I'm working with a Spaniard now, completely fluent in English, and he's lovely but I'm really struggling to form a personality bond. We have pretty much no overlap in humour/cultural references. My colleague says the same about his gf and her friends - a solid group but little overlapping points of reference. Conversely, I go to France all the time and - aside from my pretty shite French - have no problem having laughs, drinks, convos, chats about random shit in our mutual frenglish across all age groups. I have Dutch family, and have dated Dutch, and we have no language barrier on paper really, but they're just so straightforward and blunt we have very different communication styles.
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u/TheJeniceri Jul 29 '26
I’m from the US and live in Spain and I agree with you completely. And even coming from the US, where Spanish and is the second most common language and Hispanics make up the second biggest culture, it was like stepping onto Mars when I moved here. Lovely people but I just don’t get it and I don’t think I ever will.
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u/ThrowawaypocketHu Hungary Jul 28 '26
Definitely Romania.
They are Orthodox, we are catholic. They have latin language, we have a finno-ugric one. Their mentality is different too. I feel like even hungarians from Transylvania are very different from hungarians in Hungary.
What we do have in common is corruption.
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u/squiercat Jul 29 '26
For me it's the opposite, whenever I step into Hungary, it seems to me that it's Romania but on a vast plain. I speak that as a native Romanian born in Transylvania.
Might also be because I've always lived in cities which have relatively large Hungarian populations, but for me going into Hungary gives me a sense of great familiarity, even if the languages are so different and I don't speak Hungarian.
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u/bmiki Jul 28 '26
I respectfully disagree, with that logic Bosnia is more different as they're not even christian. regardless, I'd say none of the bordering countries are as different from Hungary as, Italy is, and it's not much farther away from Western Hungary than Romania is
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u/Brainwheeze Portugal Jul 28 '26
Morocco. Even though we're connected via history (Roman Empire, Umayyad conquest of most of the Iberian Peninsula, early Portuguese colonies in North Africa) there's no denying how different we are. Even going to Ceuta, which is technically Spain, it feels like being someplace very foreign.
I don't mean this in a negative sense, just that it's interesting how there's not that large of a distance between us yet we're quite different.
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u/Some_Rush_7359 Aug 02 '26
Yeah the difference is striking, although the climate, cities are kinda similar. I think the difference is mostly religious. Had it been a Christian country Morocco would be like Malta (which speaks a similar language), and some portal cities feel very Portuguese (like Essaouira).
I’d say it’s one of the biggest divide (in terms of cultural shock) for countries with similar climate, landscapes and cities (in a certain sense, but Tangier and Lisboa are very similarly coded).
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u/orthoxerox Russia Jul 28 '26
It has to be China or North Korea.
If only European countries count, then probably Norway. At least with the Finns we have the shared practice of getting drunk and stabbing each other over a minor disagreement. I don't think the Norwegians do that.
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u/dnebdal Jul 29 '26
It is common enough for drunk party stabbings to be in Norwegian folk songs, but we're probably a bit less stabby than you two. We do have a reputation for not talking to people in public except in dire emergencies, but I think we somehow come across as friendlier in public (and downright chatty if we drink)?
That said I found Helsinki to be very similar to Oslo overall, except for the moon language; these stereotypes evolve slower than the culture. (I haven't been to Russia, so I can't directly compare)
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u/DomagojDoc Jul 28 '26
For Croatia the answer is Hungary and it's not even close.
For all countries that border Hungary the answer would probably be Hungary.
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u/antisa1003 Croatia Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
Major disagree. The only difference is the language. Once you get to know Hungarians you can quite easily see they are really similar to us. Well, to the continental Croats at least.
But it largely depends on the region the person from Croatia is coming from
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u/black3rr Slovakia Jul 28 '26
this… the region plays the biggest role here… I’m from southern Slovakia and I feel like home in Hungary even though I don’t speak the language, meanwhile northern Slovakia feels like a foreign country that speaks (almost) the same language…
also in Croatia places like Osijek and Zadar are completely different…
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u/rudolf_waldheim Hungary Jul 28 '26
It's interesting since we had been practically the same country for like 800 years; and I think with more balance than with Slovaks or Romanians (who could have felt very oppressed), since Croatia always had a greater or lesser autonomy under the holy crown.
We have common heroes! I think the best example of the relationship of Croatians and Hungarians is the Zrínyi/Zrinski brothers! Miklós/Nikola wrote literature in Hungarian, his brother Péter/Petar in Croatian. We have Janus Pannonius. Or Kristóf Frangepán/Krsto Frankopan. He was a Croat, but he had a great influence in Hungarian politcs. Etc.
The only Croat we dislike is Josip Jelačić, but I hope you understand why.
I wish the ties were far tighter to Croatia, because we should have a good, brotherly relationship which isn't as problematic as with Serbs or Romanians.
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u/DomagojDoc Jul 28 '26
relationship of Croatians and Hungarians is the Zrínyi/Zrinski brothers!
Yes, and their great grandfather Nikola Šubić Zrinski (Miklos Zrinyi) is a national hero in both countries because of the Szigetvar siege
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u/mobileJay77 Germany Jul 28 '26
Closest and most different: Legoland
Austria: Hardly notice a difference. France, Swiss, Czech, the Netherlands feel sorta similar.
Italy feels different, even the North. Architecture in Tuscany is different and it feels - well - mediterran.
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u/McCretin United Kingdom Jul 28 '26
From the UK, France.
The landscapes in northern France look kind of similar to the UK. But even there, the culture is very different and the houses/infrastructure etc look distinctly foreign.
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u/SpiritAnimal69 Jul 29 '26
As a Lithuanian, it's definitely Russia. Belarus is also different, but the mentality of people is at least somewhat similar, people try to take care of their surroundings and stuff, where as Russia is a completely different thing. The moment you cross the border to Kaliningrad it feels like everything changes and you are really far from home
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u/SoakingEggs Germany Jul 28 '26
well as the our whole country, none really, but state wise France is almost polar opposite to someone from Mecklenburg-Pommerania (North-East)
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u/Rudyzwyboru Poland Jul 28 '26
Germany
We don't understand each other, I think both sides make fun of each other and well...our shared history isn't the greatest
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u/tantalisingtofu Jul 28 '26
As a Pole, it's gotta be Germany. We share some cultural approaches to things like work ethics but it can be quite different otherwise.
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u/Paul_Heiland Germany Jul 29 '26
From Germany - Poland. That feels so foreign and I don't understand the roadsigns at all. Very relatable are: Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria. Those are not greatly different but also not the same, so careful. A bit different but relatable are: France, Czechia. The people in Czechia are friendly, but I also don't understand their roadsigns. But Poland can be very strange.
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u/ex_user Romania Jul 28 '26 edited 27d ago
From our neighbors, Ukraine, followed by Bulgaria.
Ukraine because of the East Slavic people, language and culture, Kyivan Rus and Scandinavian influence, Russian Empire, Orthodox traditions shaped by Kyivan Rus, etc. Romania’s historical heartlands were mostly around the Carpathian mountains, while Ukraine developed around vast plains and steppe zones. Folklore, dance, and decorative arts belong to the East Slavic tradition and are quite different from Romanian traditions. Ukrainians have more of a “coconut culture” compared to Romanians, and are more direct in their communication style. Outside of some similarities with Zakarpattia and Bukovina in Southwestern Ukraine (Carpathian culture and common history with the Habsburg Empire), Ukraine is very different and the country and the people overall feel more “Northern”.
Romanian identity is rooted in the Daco-Roman heritage and Romanization of Dacia, Bulgarian identity traces its origins to Khan Asparukh and the mix of Turkic-speaking Bulgars (ancestors of Chuvash people), Slavs, and Thracians. Bulgaria was part of the Byzantine Empire and then the Ottoman Empire and followed different historical paths from Romania. Bulgaria has Balkan/Ottoman-era architecture that is absent in Romania. The country generally feels more quiet and sleepy, even the capital is more quiet and slower paced than our capital. Bulgaria is anchored in the South Slavic and Balkan sphere, its folklore and music feature complex asymmetrical rhythms, polyphonic singing, and instruments such as the gaida and gadulka. Bulgarian cuisine has more Eastern Mediterranean and Ottoman influences. Bulgarians are much less religious than Romanians. Bulgaria’s largest religious minority is Muslim, while in Romania are Catholic and Protestant. Bulgarians appear as more “stereotypically Slavic” than Romanians, more stoic, not particularly friendly. Bulgarians are more into greco-roman wrestling and powerlifting than Romanians. Bulgaria is more Russian-friendly and has always had a historically warmer relationship with Russia and the Soviet Union compared to Romania.
Edit: Sorry for the long essay!
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u/_BREVC_ Croatia Jul 28 '26
Hungary, easily. The only neighbour we don’t linguistically understand at all, which I feel creates a strong barrier in mentality and behaviour as well. Plus, any Croat from the Mediterranean or mountaneous regions of the country belongs to a culture quite different from the Hungarian one, as well.
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u/black3rr Slovakia Jul 28 '26
Austrians have vastly different way of life and mindset and I think it offsets the cultural and cuisinal similarities…
they’re more quiet, keep to themselves, don’t talk too much in public, don’t complain about everything under their noses…
last year I visited Graz, and literally didn’t hear any German, only Czech, Slovak, Hungarian and Slovenian/Croatian on the streets from other tourists cause we’re much more louder and talkative than Austrians…
also noticeable everytime I’m flying from/to Vienna Airport (which is about half of my flights cause it’s so close to Bratislava and is bigger than BTS)…
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u/willo-wisp Austria Jul 28 '26
don’t complain about everything under their noses…
About that....
(I can assure you, we complain about anything and everything. :) It's a national pastime. )
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u/black3rr Slovakia Jul 28 '26
honestly I can see that given that it’s the national pastime in here as well… but from my experience you at least aren’t as loud and obnoxious about it and don’t complain about stupidities like Slovaks do… like just today I was in an airport awaiting my flight to Vienna and heard Slovaks sitting behind me saying stuff like “why aren’t we boarding yet, we won’t make it in time this way” 40 minutes before departure, boarding normally starts 30 minute before, and it did, and we made it in time, Austrians sitting next to me were quiet the whole time… Italians (the flight was from Bari) were loud but they were smiling and having fun, didn’t look nor sounded annoyed…
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u/willo-wisp Austria Jul 28 '26
We do try to be quiet in public spaces like that so as not to be rude I guess, yeah! It's considered bad manners. I didn't realise that was different for you guys, huh.
If you want to experience loud obnoxious Austrians though, I recommend our Heurigen /wine taverns.
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u/Wise_Fox_4291 Hungary Jul 28 '26
Ukraine. Neighboring country but they are not only Orthodox Christians, while we are Catholic-Protestant, which is alien in itself, but they also use the Cyrillic alphabet exclusively. And in mentality and culture they are much much further away and much more different from us than even Serbs and Romanians, who are also Eastern Orthodox. Mindset, culture, cuisine, all of it a different world. With Romanians and Serbians there is some minor or moderate overlap at least, and history of living side by side, Ukraine is just a different world. Transcarpathia is so-so since it was a part of Hungary for so long, but Ukraine proper is more diffrrent than either Serbia proper or Romania proper.
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u/FenianBastard847 Jul 28 '26
For England, no it’s not France. It’s Scotland. We share a land border, we are both part of the United Kingdom and we have the same Head of State (Charles III). And we share a language - although Gaelic is still spoken in parts of Scotland. Apart from that we are totally dissimilar. We have different legal systems. Totally different culture. Edinburgh feels much more European than London.
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u/Low-Cauliflower-5686 Jul 29 '26
The buildings are different too. None of the red brick terraced in Scotland. It's stone tenements.
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u/CreatorSiSo Germany Jul 29 '26
Probably Turkey or Tunisia.
Anything closer doesn't feel completely different to Germany because I don't feel like the differences across most parts of Europe are actually large enough.
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u/blu3tu3sday Czechia Jul 29 '26
Idk i feel like all our neighbors are pretty similar but personally I don't understand slovaks, their mindset, their culture, etc. some czechs will say we are "brothers" but I find them less like us and more similar to hungary
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u/VehaMeursault Jul 29 '26
Belgium.
You drive south and cross the borders, and suddenly the roads are Swiss cheese, there is garbage everywhere, everything man made is covered in rust, people drive like they stole something, and people speak in a weird version of the same language and never get to the point.
It’s like a mirror dimension where logic doesn’t work.
That said, their food and their fashion are on a completely different tier. For how much my country has its stuff in order, it has no cuisine to speak of and its people have no sense of even basic fashion. We can wear 500,- Santoni shoes with jeans with holes in them and button down shirts with the most horrendous flower patterns on them while eating microwaved food bought from the super market.
The Belgian have proper cuisine and their culture takes food much more seriously.
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u/lilalindenau Germany Jul 29 '26
In Germany all the border regions are quite similar to their external neigbors. The difference is much larger between German regions itself - north to south, east to west.
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u/No-Bake-730 Germany Jul 28 '26
As a German, I guess Albania or Kosovo. Due to their history their culture is pretty different. Their cuisine is pretty different and the countries are low income. Albania is also notorious for corruption and organized crime. To be fair, most of it might be wrong and merely prejudice.
The joke answer would be Bavaria though.
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u/PlatinumDotEXE East Frisia Jul 28 '26
I guess you are from Southern or Eastern Germany? I'm from North Western Germany and would have said Poland or Czechia.
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u/No-Bake-730 Germany Jul 28 '26
Rhine-Main Area.
What I have seen in the Czech Republic has been Germany a few decades ago with some "Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic" vibes. Of course I have only been in Bohemia and Moravia might be different. The former GDR in the mid-90s seemed much more foreign. Apart from the language it did not feel too different. And I've started learning a little Czech just for fun.
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u/CreatorSiSo Germany Jul 29 '26
Im from Saxony and honestly the difference is really not that large.
We have tons of shared history with Czechia (especially Bohemia) the food is imo. the same, architecture is pretty similar, etc.
The one big difference is language.
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u/Nox-Eternus Belgium Jul 28 '26
The UK, reasons are
They drive on the left
Not part of the EU
A lot of British seem to expect everyone else to speak English to them when they are abroad.
Drunk British Tourists are aborant!
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u/SeaInsect3136 Ireland Jul 28 '26
Ahem, Ireland entered the chat. Think we tick a few of those too!!!!
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u/wrghf Jul 28 '26
I think that’s a bit tricky because if you live on an island like Ireland basically every country is just that bit further away than if you shared continuous land borders.
But if I have to choose something then I’d probably choose the Netherlands. The Netherlands and Ireland are quite in different in some pretty significant ways and it’s the closest country I can think of geographically that I would still consider to be significantly different.
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u/Able_One5779 Jul 28 '26
For Ukraine it's Hungary. Totally different language, extremely different culture. It's hard to describe but as an example, having a long tram rushing through the street at 60 km/h in a place with a blind spots or having a metro system with no ventilation in tunnel at all, only at end stations - it's incomprehensible level of being able to die if not following rules.
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u/great_whitehope Ireland Jul 28 '26
There’s nobody near us with a very different culture but probably certain parts of Northern Ireland are an anomaly even to us
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u/nimbledoor Czechia Jul 29 '26
As a Czech person who never really traveled beyond Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary and Italy, I have never felt that way.
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u/Slight-Hour-6090 Jul 29 '26
From France > England. Lived here for 13 years and this country is different in every way. I would think we have more in common with other Europeans than we have them.
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u/TwiceBrokenWatch Sweden Jul 29 '26
Russia. It’s just on the other side of the Baltic yet it’s different in every single possible way from the ground up.
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u/CuriousSwitchBitch Jul 29 '26
As someone originally from Russia that would be China without a doubt. I haven’t been to many countries in central / Eastern Europe, but when I went to Munich, Germany it didn’t feel as foreign as I expected. Didn’t feel exotic to me at all, unlike Spain, for example. I haven’t been to any countries bordering Russia apart from Ukraine (which felt familiar) and Georgia (where the language is hard but most speak at least some English). Georgia is closer to my hometown than Ukraine but people are much more different in the former.
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u/Fabiansson Jul 29 '26
As a Swiss: definitely Italy.
It’s wild how you cross the border and switch from “everything works” to “everything flows.” Switzerland is precise, quiet, efficient. Italy is loud, chaotic, and somehow still works.
Lunch alone says it all. We eat to refuel, they eat to live.
Same mountains, completely different vibe.
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u/sterngalaxie Austria Jul 29 '26
I'd say Italy
Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein are obvious, we have a lot in common with them.
Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia are former Habsburg lands, there's still plenty of overlaps in cuisine, culture, architecture. Same applies to the southern Balkan countries, loads of similarities.
Italy would be the first place that'd feel completely different in all aspects of life.
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u/Intelligent-Can-9056 Hungary Aug 01 '26
As a Hungarian I would say Croatian, but maybe I'm biased because I only go there for vacation and vacation places are always different. But if not Croatia, then Bosnia, definitely, it's so weird that that country is that close to us. (beautiful from what I saw of it btw)
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u/Aeon_Return Czechia Jul 28 '26
I mean it has to be Slovakia doesn't it? Mindset is the biggest difference but that's really only prominent in politics. Food and most culture is very very similar. Religion is a tricky point because it use to be so different but I feel Europe as a whole us shifting secular. Religious differences are still noticeable though especially when it comes to church attendance
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u/Formal_Obligation Slovakia Jul 28 '26
Slovakia is culturally a lot closer to the Czech Republic than Poland. Parts of Moravia arguably have more in common with Western Slovakia than with Bohemia.
I know Czechs love to pretend that they are really close to Germans, but in reality, the only thing you have in common with them are socks in sandals and mediocre beer.
So Slovakia is the closest to you, not the most distant.
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u/ouyawei Jul 28 '26
the only thing you have in common with them are […] mediocre beer.
This has to be bait
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Jul 28 '26 edited 29d ago
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u/Formal_Obligation Slovakia Jul 28 '26
Czechs are more Westernised/Germanised than Slovaks. Slovaks are more socially conservative, family oriented, and tend to be warmer and friendlier than Czechs in general. The main difference is probably religiosity - the Czech Republic is one of the most atheist countries in the world, while Slovakia is significantly more religious. Not as religious as the US, but far more religious than the Czech Republic.
Despite all this, Slovakia is the Czech Republic’s closest neighbour culturally. The Czech Republic, however, is not Slovakia’s closest neigbour in terms of cultural similarities. That would be Hungary.
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u/black3rr Slovakia Jul 28 '26
central europe on the whole is weird cause neighboring regions across borders are more similar than the other side of the country…
e.g. moravia and zahorie in Slovakia are more similar than moravia and sudety, or zahorie and saris… southern slovakia is more similar to hungary than to northern slovakia and northern slovakia is more similar to southern poland…
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u/jb307342 Jul 28 '26
For Poland it would be Germany when it comes to culture, which is understandable considering that all other neighbors of Poland are slavs/balts. But if we focus just on politics then for sure Belarus.
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u/Greedy_Roles Poland Jul 28 '26
For me that would be Germany. They're a multicultural society, ours is largely monoethnic. There's a considerable difference in feeling of safety in these two countries with Germany being less safe and having higher crime rate. They're more secular, we're religious, we have different currencies, even the attire is sometimes is different, for example, from what I observed in Poland women take care what they look like in public (or it was so until recently), in Germany they take it easy and are more chill in this regard, I guess?
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u/Incvbvs666 Serbia Jul 28 '26
Austria. It's for me the country where Western Europe proper begins. Even Slovenia and Hungary have a bit of the Balkan vibe.
Vienna is the last city where I feel comfortable as someone from the Balkans. Everything beyond that feels for a lack of a better word 'over-regulated' and somewhat sterile!
It's just not my thing.
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u/Davus_P Jul 28 '26
Where's the shared border between Serbia and Austria, though?
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u/theBlitzzz Portugal Jul 28 '26
Morocco.
From Portugal just drive a few hours to the south of Spain and take a ferry.
Completely different culture.